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Goldman Sachs: Crazy Eddie redux? (or, our CDO prices are IN

Published: Apr 21, 2010

 Law       

“I am a convicted felon and a former CPA. As the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie, I helped Eddie Antar and other family members mastermind one of the largest securities frauds uncovered during the 1980s. My responsibilities at Crazy Eddie included skimming, money laundering, insurance fraud, securities fraud, and a list of other criminal activities too long to list here.” So reads Sam Antar’s bio on Seeking Alpha. (For more background on the Crazy Eddie craziness see here.)

Antar’s take on the SEC v. Goldman imbroglio is entirely through the lens of his own experience as an SEC target in the ’80s. It makes for some fascinating reading, especially since the SEC’s lead counsel in the case against Goldman, Richard E. Simpson, also conducted the successful case against Crazy Eddie. Antar’s rueful respect for his old opponent is palpable:

Simpson is a twenty year veteran at the SEC Enforcement Division. He could have easily made much more money in the private sector, but instead stayed at the SEC. [...] In the Crazy Eddie days, Richard Simpson developed a reputation for turning pin stripe su its into orange prison jump suits. […] He works over 90 hours a week. He's focused, aggressive, and understands the way criminals operate, and he knows how to bring them down. He knows accounting backward and forward, which is rare for an attorney. Richard Simpson is what the SEC should be today, but unfortunately is not.

Antar also lays out a highly involved “bait and switch” theory. Antar posits that Simpson and the SEC lured Goldman into deeper trouble by prompting a public statement by the bank that itself was an additional violation of Rule 10b-5. Which is exactly, of course, what Simpson & Co. pulled off in the Crazy Eddie case back in the day.

-posted by brian

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