Indicted Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was bribed by Overstock.com too

My experience in dealing with former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff goes way back. On October 30, 2007, Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) paid him $5,000 purportedly as a "campaign contribution." Two weeks later, Overstock.com issued a press release together with a defamatory "open letter" written by Shurtleff making baseless allegations against me. It was no coincidence. Instead it was a blatant effort by its CEO Patrick Byrne to get me to back off from investigating securities law violations and other illegal conduct by him and his company.

It was only a matter of time before the law caught up with Mark Shurtleff's pattern of soliciting and receiving illegal bribes in return for favors. Yesterday, he was arrested by FBI agents and local law enforcement along with another former Utah Attorney General John Swallow. The charges yesterday concern other donors, not Byrne. He may be protected by the statute of limitations, or maybe not. His behavior needs to be examined by the prosecutors in the Shurtleff-Swallow case. What we do know is that Shurtleff, judging from the indictment, was a lot dirtier than even my experience with him indicates.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune:

Shurtleff, who served 12 years as attorney general before making Swallow his handpicked Republican successor, was charged with 10 felony counts, including receiving or soliciting bribes, accepting gifts, tampering with witnesses and evidence, and participating in a pattern of unlawful conduct.

The news was no surprise to me and other long-time critics of Overstock.com. Since 2006, my blog has exposed lies to investors by Patrick Byrne dating back to 1999 and a series of illegal accounting maneuvers used by Overstock.com to materially overstate its earnings and report phony profits when it was losing money. My accounting analysis was proven correct by the company's later revisions of accounting practices and restatements of financial reports. In many cases, those corrections were forced upon it by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Back in October 2007, Patrick Byrne was desperate to discredit me, hoping I would quit investigating his illegal actions. Byrne went as far as to bribing then serving Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to write a defamatory open letter about me that was republished by Overstock.com as part of a press release.

Patrick Byrne "tee'd off" about Utah Attorney General's Office invitation to me

In August 2007, the Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp invited me to appear at the Utah Attorney General’s 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference on October 31, 2007. I agreed to do the presentation for no compensation and paid all travel costs out of pocket. Weeks after the presentation, Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen, in a tape recorded telephone conversation, admitted to me that Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne was “tee’d off” about my scheduled appearance at the conference and wanted the Utah Attorney General’s office to cancel it. At the time, Hamp did not tell me that Byrne was upset, but he asked me not to mention Overstock.com during my presentation unless someone questioned me about it. I agreed. That was my only agreement with the Utah Attorney General's office.

On October 30, 2007, Overstock.com made a $5,000 “campaign contribution” to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. However, Overstock.com did not publicly report the contribution until months later. A day later, I spoke at the conference. No one asked me about Overstock.com and I did not mention the company.

Praised for teaching at conference

I thought everything had gone well. I received nothing but praise from the Utah Attorney General’s office. The next day, Deputy Attorney General John Kimble sent me an email saying:

Thank you for giving such a dynamic and thought-provoking talk. I've received nothing but positive feedback. I hope you enjoyed your brief stay in Salt Lake. Also feel free to contact me if there's anything I can do for you in the future.

Andrew Adams from KSL News Radio interviewed Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen and me. He reported:

There was a "rock star" in a room full of "good guys" downtown today. It was a bad guy at the "White Collar Crimes Conference. The women auditors were almost in a swoon.

Sam Antar just explained how his family had skimmed $20 million off the top, and then made another $75 million from pumping and dumping Crazy Eddie, Inc. stock in the 1980s.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgenson was a sponge. "When you hear it from somebody who did it, it gives you insights into how they think," Torgersen (sic) said.

"I'm no rock star, I'm a crook," Antar said. "White collar crime is just as brutal as violent crime."

That was Antar's message. He says the way to crack down is with better auditing and policing. He also says his CPA license was just revoked; that should have happened 15 years ago.

Overstock.com issues press release with open letter from Mark Shurtleff

To my surprise, on November 14, 2007 Overstock.com issued a press release together with an "open letter" from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. His letter claimed that I broke a purported agreement with his office. In the press release, Patrick Byrne ranted on about me somehow being involved in an illegal media conspiracy to take down his company:

"The letter from the Attorney General of Utah, which Sam has, for a week, ignored and refused to post to his blog as twice requested, speaks to Sam's perfidy," Byrne added. "The real investigative business journalists left in this country might explore whose interests are being served by the promotion of Sam Antar by CBS MarketWatch, Dow Jones, and Fortune."

Mark Shurtleff's open letter claimed:

As Utah Attorney General, I am writing this letter to rebut a blog Sam Antar posted on his website on November 1, 2007. I tried to post this letter as a comment on his blog but Mr. Antar apparently refused to post it….

I was warned that Mr. Antar might use this speaking engagement to suggest that my office or I personally, endorse or support his accusations against Overstock.com or some other public company. Based on that warning, officials in my office secured a promise from Mr. Antar that he would not use this invitation for that purpose. So much for the promises of a convicted felon! [Note: The open letter was erroneously dated a year later in 2008]

No one from the Utah Attorney General’s office tried to contact me about any complaints, not Shurtleff or anyone else. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff did not even consult with his own Deputy Attorney Generals Richard Hamp and John Kimble before making his reckless lies. They were my contacts at the Utah Attorney General’s office. Later, they confirmed to me that my only agreement was to refrain from mentioning Overstock.com during my presentation unless asked and that I abided by the agreement. In any case, I never suggested that anyone at the Utah Attorney General's Office endorsed my criticisms of Overstock.com, which turned out to be correct anyway.

Tape recorded conversations expose Mark Shurtleff's reckless lies

After Overstock.com published Mark Shurtleff's letter, I called Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen to demand an explanation and retraction of Shurtleff’s reckless lies. Since New York and Utah are "one-party consent" states, I secretly recorded the calls for my protection.

I told Richard Hamp:

I certainly never agreed with you to not post on my blog. The agreement that we had was, was that we would not discuss any matters relating to Overstock.com at the meeting [my presentation at the Utah Attorney General’s 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference], unless of course it was bought up and I complied with that agreement.

Richard Hamp’s reply:

I fully agree. You did everything I asked you to do, Sammy.

Later, Richard Hamp said:

It puts me in a bad spot as well because I disagree with him [Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff]…. What’s happening here has nothing to do with John [John Kimble, Deputy Attorney General] and I….

What is happening does not reflect my or John’s feelings, wishes, desires, or anything else. What you did is exactly what you promised to do for exactly the price you promised to do it at with no expense on our side and total expense on your side. You promised you would not open the Overstock door while you were here. You didn’t. I have absolutely no fault to you and I have nothing but praise from all the things I’ve read about your presentation….

No one consulted with me or John [Kimble]…. Here, I extend an invitation for you to come out here and do a presentation and you do exactly what it was I asked you to do. You do an excellent job of it and you know, and it makes me feel good, it makes the whole audience feel good, and then afterwards this whole thing happens and it kind of personally embarrasses me, too, at that stage because no one ever consulted with me or and John's, here saying….John here, agrees. To finish the thought, here we invite this poor guy to come out here. He comes out on his own dime and then we slap him in the face. Neither John nor I knew what was going on at the administrative level….

In a follow up phone conversation, Richard Hamp told me:

I am not going to argue any of the points Sammy. Sammy you did exactly what you said you would do for me. Kirk [Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen] even brought up the fact that Sammy agreed not to blog this. I said no, Kirk. We never had a discussion about blogs one way or the other. Sammy agreed he would not mention Overstock during...his presentations. He didn’t. You know. Just so Kirk was on the same page with me.

I am not going to misrepresent what our agreement was. Our agreement was that you wouldn’t mention Overstock while you were here. That was the end of the agreement. In all honesty, I didn’t even think about the blogs to even bring em up or mention em…. I've read it [your blog] and I don't have the same problem parts of my office do have with it....

I really feel bad about it, Sammy, because you did everything I asked you to do and I can’t fault you for any of this. Well there.

At Richard Hamp's suggestion, I called Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen to demand a complete retraction from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. At first, Torgensen said:

He [Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff] can apologize to you, but what kind of action do you want?

I demanded that Shurtleff's retraction to be “widely disseminated” in the same manner as Shurtleff's false allegations about me. However, in a follow up phone call, Kirk Torgensen backtracked and told me that Mark Shurtleff “may be stubborn on this thing” and offered an apology from the “Office” of the Utah Attorney General, rather than directly from Shurtleff himself:

What I would like to do Sam is. I gotta tell. I would like to you. I would like to. First, I will tell you personally that and I told you this when you came to Utah, I appreciated you coming. I thought that your presentation was very helpful….

I told my guys after your presentation that it was exactly what I was looking for, that your candor was exactly what I was looking for. Uh, everybody else appreciated immensely that you came out. You did it on your own time. You did it on your own dime because we didn’t have a budget for anything and we really appreciate that.

Um, I gotta ask you this Sam. I mean, the Attorney General may be stubborn on this thing. What if I sent you something? …. Ultimately, this damage is my office…. That hurts the office, you know that Sam…. My job is to find a way to undo the harm…

A few days, later, Kirk Torgensen wanted me to be satisfied with only the private verbal apologies previously conveyed to me by Richard Hamp, John Kimble, and him. He told me, "Sam, you’ve gotten an apology from three people in my office." Mark Shurtleff never retracted his false remarks about me.

Overstock.com continues to promote Shurtleff's reckless lies

To this very day, Overstock.com proudly promotes Shurtleff's reckless lies about me on its website and from time-to-time Patrick Byrne stills refers to those lies in an effort to smear me. White-collar criminals usually don't stop doing crime unless they are caught and held accountable. It was only a matter of time before the law caught up with Mark Shurtleff and it's only a matter of time when the law will catch up with Patrick Byrne. For example, in January 2014 California Judge imposed a $6.8 million judgment against Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) for false advertising and unlawful business practices.

Written by:

Sam E. Antar

Disclosure

I am a convicted felon and a former CPA. As the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie, I helped my cousin Eddie Antar and other members of his family mastermind one of the largest securities frauds uncovered during the 1980's. I committed my crimes in cold-blood for fun and profit, and simply because I could. If it weren't for the heroic efforts of the FBI, SEC, Postal Inspector's Office, US Attorney's Office, and class action plaintiff's lawyers who investigated, prosecuted, and sued me, I would still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today. I do not want or seek forgiveness for my vicious crimes from my victims. My past sins are unforgivable.

There is a saying, "It takes one to know one." I've provided professional work for the FBI, IRS, SEC, Justice Department, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies in training them to identify fraud and catch white-collar criminals. Often, I refer cases to them as an independent whistleblower. In addition, I teach white-collar crime classes for various government entities, professional organizations, businesses, and colleges and universities.

I do not own any Overstock.com securities long or short.

Overstock.com's New Disclosures Today Show Company Financial Reports Were a "Joke"

Overstock.com’s (NASDAQ: OSTK) new amended financial reports filed today, vindicates findings, first exposed in this blog, that the company violated Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation G governing non-GAAP disclosures, such as EBITDA and materially overstated its non-compliant EBITDA in financial reports dating back to Q2 2007. Even worse, Overstock.com disclosed in its 10-Q for Q3 2008, released today, that its restatement of financial reports dating back to 2003, due to accounting errors relating to revenues, customer refunds, and customer credits, may subject the company to future regulatory action from the Securities and Exchange Commission and litigation from shareholders seeking damages:

On October 24, 2008, we disclosed certain accounting errors and announced our intent to restate certain of our financial statements and other information to correct these errors (see Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements contained in Part I, Item 1 “Financial Statements (Unaudited) (Restated)”). As a result of these errors, we may become subject to litigation and regulatory action. Although we would vigorously defend against any such actions, there can be no assurance that we would prevail. An award of damages in such suit or a regulatory penalty imposed as a result of regulatory action could be substantial and harm our business. The financial costs and the dedication of the time of management to defend such actions could also harm us financially and disrupt our business. (Emphasis added.)

As I detailed in a previous blog post, on October 24, 2008, Overstock.com surprised investors and reported that it was restating all financial reports dating back to 2003, due to a newly disclosed accounting error relating to customer refunds and credits. The company disclosed that all previous financial reports issued from 2003 to Q2 2008 “should no longer be relied upon.”
In Overstock.com's latest 10-Q report released today, the company revealed:

...the CEO (principal executive officer) and Senior Vice President, Finance (principal financial officer) each concluded that the control deficiency previously described constituted a material weakness in the Company’s system of internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2008.

...management, including our CEO (principal executive officer) and Senior Vice President, Finance (principal financial officer), has revised its earlier assessment and has now concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2007 or during the interim periods ending September 30, 2008 in reaching a reasonable level of assurance that information required to be in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act was properly recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the Commission’s rules and forms.  (Emphasis added.)

Therefore, Overstock.com disclosed that it did not maintain a straight set of books due to a "material weakness" in internal controls.

The latest customer refund and credit accounting errors follow a string of material accounting errors that have plagued Overstock.com throughout its history. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission discovered that Overstock.com intentionally did not report revenues in compliance with GAAP, since its inception. In February 2006, the company disclosed inventory accounting errors for fiscal years 2002 to 2005.

According to a Fortune magazine article way back in February 2000:

Overstock.com came to Byrne's attention last spring when its founder approached High Plains for capital. "The financials were a joke," says High Plains CFO John Pettway.  (Emphasis added.)

However, Overstock.com's financial reports remained a "joke," as evidenced by its string of material accounting errors and willful non-compliance with SEC Regulation G in reporting a non-compliant EBITDA.

Starting in November 2007, this blog was the first to expose Overstock.com’s willful violations of SEC Regulation G governing non-GAAP disclosures, such as EBITDA. As a result of Overstock.com's violations of Regulation G, the company materially overstated its non-compliant EBITDA in financial reports from Q2 2007 to Q2 2008, including comparable non-compliant EBITDA numbers for each period. Overstock.com reconciled its non-compliant EBITDA to operating loss, rather than net loss (the most directly comparable GAAP measure required under SEC Regulation G), and improperly removed stock-based compensation costs from its non-compliant reported EBITDA.

Beginning in November 2007 to just last week, I informed Overstock.com Audit Committee member Joseph J. Tabacco Jr, via several emails, Cc'd to the SEC, about the company's non-compliant EBITDA disclosures, but management led by CEO Patrick Byrne, stubbornly refused to change its non-compliant EBITDA disclosures, until today. When Overstock.com originally disclosed that it was restating its financial reports dating back to 2003 in its October 24 press release and subsequent Q3 2008 earnings call, my blog noted that the company continued to report a non-compliant EBITDA in its Q3 2008 earnings report. During the Q3 2008 earnings call, both CEO Patrick Byrne and company President Jonathan Johnson, responding to questions posted in my blog a day earlier, flat out denied that Overstock.com violated Regulation G. Patrick Byrne told investors:

The claim that EBITDA is not compliant with SEC definition is nonsense.  (Emphasis added.)

In my next blog post, I detailed how Overstock.com's recently announced accounting errors for customers refunds and credits caused further material overstatements of the company's non-compliant EBITDA disclosures.

Shortly afterwards, I emailed Overstock.com's Board of Directors, CEO Patrick Byrne, and Audit Committee member Joseph J. Tabacco Jr. to alert them about the company's continuing non-compliance with Regulation G in reporting EBITDA.

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne responded with callous indifference, writing me:

I usually have my secretary handle these kinds of letters. Would you like her email?

Yours ever,

Patrick

However, cooler heads at the company, likely led by Audit Committee member Joseph J. Tabacco Jr., prevailed over Patrick Byrne and Jonathan Johnson. Now, in Overstock.com's latest 10-Q for Q3 2008 released today, the company renamed its non-compliant EBITDA disclosure to “Adjusted EBITDA” and it reconciles "Adjusted EBITDA" to net loss, rather than operating loss, the most directly comparable GAAP measure required under Regulation G. By renaming its non-compliant EBITDA disclosure as “Adjusted EBITDA,” the company can now properly eliminate stock-based compensation costs and losses from discontinued operations from “Adjusted EBITDA.”

Journalists, bloggers, and others who dared to expose misdeeds by Overstock.com's unprincipled management team have faced a vicious retaliatory smear campaign orchestrated by CEO Patrick Byrne with the collusion of his paid shills: cyberstalker Judd Bagley, Mark Mitchell (former Columbia Journalism Review reporter who left CJR under mysterious circumstances), and message board trolls Dave Patch and Evren Karpak.

Journalists Gary Weiss, Herb Greenberg, Joe Nocera, Floyd Norris, Roddy Boyd, Carol Remond, Bethany McLean, Seth Jayson, bloggers Jeff Matthews, Zac Bissonnette and Tracy Coenen, and others have faced reprisals in the form of despicable smears and outright lies spewed by Byrne and his paid cronies.

In addition, independent research firm Gradient Analytics and short seller Copper River Management were subjected to meritless litigation from Overstock.com, on top of the smear campaign orchestrated by CEO Patrick Byrne. Gradient, whose early work first exposed deceptive financial reporting of revenues by Overstock.com, recently settled with the company, while the litigation against Copper River continues on. Overstock.com's latest disclosures about accounting errors and restatements of financial reports, puts its litigation prospects with Copper River in severe jeopardy.
Patrick Byrne even recruited the current Attorney General of the state of Utah Mark Shurtleff, with a $5,000 payment, to discredit me in an effort to get me to back off from covering Overstock.com in my blog. Byrne's collusion with Shurtleff was exposed in tape recorded conversations by me with members of Shurtleff's office.

I call on the Securities and Exchange Commission to start an enforcement action and the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into the vicious retaliatory smear campaign orchestrated by CEO Patrick Byrne in an effort to prevent critics from exposing the false and misleading reports and disclosures by Overstock.com and its unprincipled management team.

To be continued....

Written by,

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO and a convicted felon)

Disclosure: Not short or long Overstock.com.

What Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Does Not Want Anyone to Know

One of the many divisions reporting to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is the Tax and Revenue Division. According to the Utah Attorney General’s Office web site, the Tax and Revenue Division:

• Represents the Tax Commission, Department of Financial Institutions, the Insurance Department and state agencies that issue bonds and
• Handles tax litigation and bankruptcy.

In particular, the web site boasts that, “Attorneys in the Tax and Revenue Division provide legal support for the [Utah] Tax Commission.” The web site goes on to claim that the Tax Division is “is vigilant about auditing and collecting taxes so honest taxpayers do not have to pay an unfair share of the state's expenses.” In other words, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is in charge of all litigation involving the collection of state taxes.

We need to ask, “How diligent Mark Shurtleff is in paying his own taxes in the past?”

From 1990 to 1993, Mark Shurtleff was a private practice trial lawyer in California. Was he starving from practicing law? I ask this question because the State of California imposed a tax lien on him for nonpayment of taxes. That makes him a tax delinquent.

On February 20, 1996, the state of California imposed a tax lien (Case number 96077277) on Mark Shurtleff of $11,093 for back taxes. At least a few months later he was able to scrounge up some bucks have that lien released (Case number 960259624) on May 23, 1996.

By 1996, Mark Shurtleff was the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Utah. Was he making more money as a government official than as a private trial lawyer? Why didn’t he pay his taxes earlier or rather before a tax lien was imposed on him? Apparently, as a government official, he believed that it was time to clean up his act. Not so fast.

Acts of vandalism

As I detailed in a previous blog post, in 1998 Mark Shurtleff decided to run for a position on the Salk Lake City Commission. According to the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, police caught him red handed in the act of tearing down his opponent’s campaign signs. Now, as Attorney General for the state of Utah, he posts videos of arrests of criminal suspects on his web site. I wonder how Mark Shurtleff would have felt if the police had videotaped his prior act of vandalism for everyone to see.

Selling favors to contributors

Now, Mark Shurtleff is running for re-election as Utah Attorney General. According to an audio biography on the Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s website, “Mark wanted to serve others and make a difference in his life.” True to his word, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has abused the integrity of his office to serve the personal interests of certain campaign contributors.

It is perfectly legitimate for companies to donate monies to politicians to help further their political interests. However, it is not legitimate for elected officials to accept large sums of money to do favors for corporate contributors using state resources.

In another blog post, I detailed how Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff colluded with campaign contributor Overstock.com to deliberately defame me because of my exposure and criticism of the company’s misdeeds.

Just a few days after receiving a $5,000 payment from Overstock.com, Mark Shurtleff wrote an “open letter” on his office’s letterhead to Overstock.com that contained outright lies about my agreement to make a free presentation at his 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference.

Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne used Shurtleff’s letter in a press release in an attempt to discredit my exposure and criticism of his company’s actions. However, taped recorded conversations with Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen completely and categorically rebuffed Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s outright lies.

Utah has a statute covering “Criminal Defamation.” It states:

(1) A person is guilty of criminal defamation if he knowingly communicates to any person orally or in writing any information which he knows to be false and knows will tend to expose any other living person to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule.

(2) Criminal defamation is a class B misdemeanor.

Imagine if some Republican in Utah had the courage to go against corruption in their party like Alaska Governor and current Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin did in Alaska. It would be a nice dose of Shurtleff’s own medicine to see him arrested on videotape for corruption.

Written by:

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO and a convicted felon)

Disclosure: No position in Overstock.com securities. Not a Utah resident.

Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne Pays Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to Defame a Blogger

It is perfectly legitimate for companies to donate monies to politicians to help further their political interests. There are also instances in which elected officials have accepted large sums of money to do favors for corporations. As I will be describing in this blog post, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff sold out the integrity of his office, as the chief legal officer of the state of Utah, for a mere $5,000 campaign contribution as a favor to Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK).

Here is what happened:

The Utah Attorney General’s Office invited me to make a presentation at its 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference

In August 2007, the Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp invited me to appear at the Utah Attorney General’s 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference after reading my blog and whitecollarfraud.com web site and watching my appearance on CNBC's Business Nation that aired in June 2007.

I agreed to make my presentation for no fees and took no cost reimbursements, as has been my policy with all speaking engagements. In other words, my presentation at the white-collar crime conference did not cost the Utah Attorney General’s office a single penny.

About two weeks later, Richard Hamp contacted me again with an unusual request on behalf of his office. He asked me not to mention Overstock.com during my presentation, unless someone asked a question about the company during the presentation. I agreed, since my fraud presentation was not about Overstock.com, anyway. Months later, in November 2007, Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen, in a telephone conversation, revealed to me that Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne was “tee’d off” about my scheduled appearance at the conference and wanted the Utah Attorney General’s office to cancel it. He told me:

I understand that Patrick Byrne [CEO of Overstock.com]. I understand that he, you know, they, they were even tee’d off that we even invited you to come out. We got a bunch of blow back from them when we even invited you to come out. I stood up for the right, you know the fact, you know, that we still need him to have him come out. I give Patrick Byrne, Sam. I understand that he is a loud mouth and I understand who Patrick Byrne is…. 

I will provide more details about my conversations with Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen, later in this blog post.

On October 30, 2007, one day before my speech, Overstock.com made a $5,000 “campaign contribution” to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. However, Overstock.com did not publicly report this until months later. As I will detail below, Overstock.com’s campaign contribution to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was no coincidence. In my opinion, Overstock.com’s so-called $5,000 campaign contribution was actually a payment or rather a bribe to gain a favor from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. The company and the Utah Attorney General colluded to defame me.

A day later, on October 31, 2007, despite Overstock.com’s fervent objections, I came to Salt Lake City, Utah and I made my presentation at the conference without compensation and took no cost reimbursements. As I had previously agreed with Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and later confirmed by him, I never mentioned Overstock.com during my presentation and fully honored the terms of our agreement.

At that time, I thought everything went well. I received nothing but praise from the Utah Attorney General’s office.

For example, Andrew Adams from KSL News Radio interviewed Chief Deputy Attorney General Torgensen and me, after my presentation:

There was a "rock star" in a room full of "good guys" downtown today. It was a bad guy at the "White Collar Crimes Conference. The women auditors were almost in a swoon.

Sam Antar just explained how his family had skimmed $20 million off the top, and then made another $75 million from pumping and dumping Crazy Eddie, Inc. stock in the 1980s.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgenson was a sponge. "When you hear it from somebody who did it, it gives you insights into how they think," Torgersen (sic) said.
"I'm no rock star, I'm a crook," Antar said. "White collar crime is just as brutal as violent crime."

That was Antar's message. He says the way to crack down is with better auditing and policing. He also says his CPA license was just revoked; that should have happened 15 years ago. [Emphasis added.]

On November 1, 2007, I posted a blog item detailing my visit to Salt Lake City. See excerpt below:

On Wednesday, October 31, 2007, I visited Salt Lake City Utah at the invitation of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff as part of their 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference. My presentation started at 9:00 AM and was supposed to finish by 11:15 AM. I invited the persons attending the fraud conference to ask me any question. I answered every single question posed to me truthfully, unambiguously, and without deflection. As a result, my fraud presentation concluded about one-half hour later than originally planned.

There were still more questions. So I stayed around at the conference until 1:30 PM and did not leave the conference until every person was satisfied that their questions were answered by me. Afterwards, I visited the Securities and Exchange Commission office in Utah and met with them about issues related to Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne. I waived my right to counsel as we discussed issues relating to Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne, and other persons working in collusion with him.

The next day, on November 2, 2008, I received an email from Deputy Attorney General John Kimble thanking me for my presentation:

From: John Kimble [mailto:jkimble@utah.gov]
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 9:09 AM
To: Antar, Sam E.
Subject: Re: 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference - Thank you

Sam,

Thank you for giving such a dynamic and thought-provoking talk. I've received nothing but positive feedback. I hope you enjoyed your brief stay in Salt Lake. Also feel free to contact me if there's anything I can do for you in the future.

John

Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp called me to thank me and added that the feedback was terrific. It was the last time that anyone from the Utah Attorney General’s office contacted me until the following chain of events.

Overstock.com calls in a favor

Apparently, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne was very unhappy with my successful and widely praised fraud presentation, my blog post as detailed above about my visit to Utah, and the fact that I fully abided by my agreement with the Attorney General's office. They were unable to get Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s office to cancel my presentation. Therefore, having sent Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff a so-called $5,000 “campaign contribution” a few days earlier on October 30, 2007, it was time to call in a favor.

According to Fortune Magazine, Overstock.com dispatched the company's general counsel and an "old friend" of Mark Shurtleff, to complain about me:

The company's general counsel, former Utah securities regulator Mark Griffin, complained to Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff, an old friend. [Emphasis added.]

Together, Overstock.com and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff colluded to manufacture false allegations about me.

On November 8, 2007, unknown to me at that time, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote an open letter to Overstock.com falsely claiming that:

As Utah Attorney General, I am writing this letter to rebut a blog Sam Antar posted on his website on November 1, 2007. I tried to post this letter as a comment on his blog but Mr. Antar apparently refused to post it….

I was warned that Mr. Antar might use this speaking engagement to suggest that my office or I personally, endorse or support his accusations against Overstock.com or some other public company. Based on that warning, officials in my office secured a promise from Mr. Antar that he would not use this invitation for that purpose. So much for the promises of a convicted felon!

To my surprise, on November 14, 2007, Overstock.com, issued a press release based on Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s open letter and CEO Patrick Byrne ranted on about me somehow being involved in an illegal media conspiracy to take down his company:

"The letter from the Attorney General of Utah, which Sam has, for a week, ignored and refused to post to his blog as twice requested, speaks to Sam's perfidy," Byrne added. "The real investigative business journalists left in this country might explore whose interests are being served by the promotion of Sam Antar by CBS MarketWatch, Dow Jones, and Fortune."

Overstock.com proudly continued to disseminate Mark Shurtleff’s lies with links to his letter and their accompanying press release on the company’s web site under the caption, “Naked Short Selling” even though I have never naked shorted a stock in my life. In fact, I never owned Overstock.com securities, long or short. In addition, I receive no compensation from anyone for writing my blog.

No one from the Utah Attorney General’s office tried to contact me to tell me about any complaints. In addition, Mark Shurtleff’s office had my email address and phone number. As I will detail below, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff did not even consult with his own Deputy Attorney General’s Richard Hamp and John Kimble before making his reckless lies. Richard Hamp and John Kimble were my contacts at the Utah Attorney General’s office and I made my agreement with Hamp.

Why didn’t Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff simply email me or call me? Why didn’t Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff consult with his own subordinates about any agreements made between his office and me? Reason: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was acting on behalf of his campaign contributor Overstock.com and its "loud mouth" CEO Patrick Byrne to defame me.

My only agreement with the Utah Attorney General’s office, confirmed afterwards, in taped phone conversations by both Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen and Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp, was that I would not mention Overstock.com during by presentation, unless asked to comment by someone attending their 14th Annual Conference on White Collar Crime. I abided by my agreement with the Utah Attorney General’s office. I never agreed with the Utah Attorney General’s office to exclude any mention of my fraud presentation in my blog or anywhere else.

Exposing Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s lies about trying to post a comment on my blog

Mark Shurtleff's letter, as detailed above, was written on November 8, 2007 (it's incorrectly dated November 8, 2008) and Overstock.com released his letter through a press release issued on November 14, 2007. However, despite Shurtleff’s claim that he “tried to post this letter as a comment on his blog,” I did not receive any request from Mark Shurtleff or his office to post anything on my blog until a day after Overstock.com's press release, on November 15, 2007 at 11:41 AM ET. I promptly posted his letter in my blog later that afternoon at 2:45 PM after finishing another free fraud presentation and arriving at my office.

Exposing Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s lies about my agreement with his office

Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp had tried to contact me by leaving a message on my voicemail on November 13, 2007 at 4:36 PM ET, five days after Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff had already written letter to Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne defaming me and one day before Overstock.com's press release. In other words, five days after Mark Shurtleff had already released his letter to Overstock.com for eventual dissemination in a press release did anyone from his office attempt to contact me.

I retrieved that message hours after Overstock.com's press release, a day later, on November 14, 2007. Richard Hamp said in the voicemail message:

Hey Sammy, this is Rich Hamp. John [John Kimble, Deputy Attorney General] and I were talking. We'd thought we’d give you a quick call and say thanks again for coming out to our conference. We sure do appreciate it. We know our boss has probably not been as appreciative but John and I sure are. If you get a chance give me a call at 801 XXX-XXXX. Thank you. Goodbye.

Evidently, Richard Hamp knew something was up and tried to warn me by distancing himself from Mark Shurtleff’s false allegations.

I confronted Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen about Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s lies

I was completely surprised and appalled by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s letter and Overstock.com’s follow up press release reiterating Shurtleff’s lies. I called Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp who had arranged for me to make my fraud presentation at the Utah Attorney General’s 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference.

On November 15, 2007, Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp called me back after receiving a message from me and confirmed to me in phone conversations that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff lied about me. Worse yet, Richard Hamp revealed to me that he was not even consulted by Mark Shurtleff about any agreements made by Hamp and me relating to my fraud presentation.

If Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff had not even consulted his own subordinates regarding any agreement, how could he make such a false allegation that I violated any agreements with his office? Apparently, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff fabricated a story about me in return for a $5,000 payment disguised as a campaign contribution.

Even if Shurtleff misunderstood my agreement with his office and brazenly issued false allegations, he had ample to time to issue a retraction, apologize, and move on. However, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff stuck to his false allegations, despite contrary statements from his subordinates refuting his allegations and an email exchange with blogger Tracy Coenen. Mark Shurtleff's failure to retract his lies is further proof that his false allegations about me were motivated by Overstock.com's $5,000 payment and his "old" friendship with company General Counsel Mark Griffin.

I told Richard Hamp:

I certainly never agreed with you to not post on my blog. The agreement that we had was, was that we would not discuss any matters relating to Overstock.com at the meeting [my presentation at the Utah Attorney General’s 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference], unless of course it was bought up and I complied with that agreement. [Emphasis added.]

Richard Hamp’s reply:

I fully agree. You did everything I asked you to do, Sammy. [Emphasis added.]

Later, Richard Hamp said:

It puts me in a bad spot as well because I disagree with him [Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff]…. What’s happening here has nothing to do with John [John Kimble, Deputy Attorney General] and I….

What is happening does not reflect my or John’s feelings, wishes, desires, or anything else. What you did is exactly what you promised to do for exactly the price you promised to do it at with no expense on our side and total expense on your side. You promised you would not open the Overstock door while you were here. You didn’t. I have absolutely no fault to you and I have nothing but praise from all the things I’ve read about your presentation….

No one consulted with me or John…. Here, I extend an invitation for you to come out here and do a presentation and you do exactly what it was I asked you to do. You do an excellent job of it and you know, and it makes me feel good, it makes the whole audience feel good, and then afterwards this whole thing happens and it kind of personally embarrasses me, too, at that stage because no one ever consulted with me or and John's, here saying….John here, agrees. To finish the thought, here we invite this poor guy to come out here. He comes out on his own dime and then we slap him in the face. Neither John nor I knew what was going on at the administrative level…. [Emphasis added.]

In a follow up phone conversation, Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp told me:

I am not going to argue any of the points Sammy. Sammy you did exactly what you said you would do for me. Kirk [Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen] even brought up the fact that Sammy agreed not to blog this. I said no, Kirk. We never had a discussion about blogs one way or the other. Sammy agreed he would not mention Overstock during...his presentations. He didn’t. You know. Just so Kirk was on the same page with me.

I am not going to misrepresent what our agreement was. Our agreement was that you wouldn’t mention Overstock while you were here. That was the end of the agreement. In all honesty, I didn’t even think about the blogs to even bring em up or mention em…. I've read it [your blog] and I don't have the same problem parts of my office do have with it....

I really feel bad about it, Sammy, because you did everything I asked you to do and I can’t fault you for any of this. Well there. [Emphasis added.]

Kirk Torgensen tried to make amends but a “stubborn” Mark Shurtleff refused to retract his lies

I tried to contact Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff by phone and email, but he would not respond to me. However, Mark Shurtleff had time to correspond with blogger Tracy Coenen and he stubbornly refused to retract his lies. Afterwards, at Richard Hamp's suggestion, I called Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen and demanded a complete retraction of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's lies.

Kirk Torgensen asked me:

He [Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff] can apologize to you, but what kind of action do you want? [Emphasis added.]

My reply:

I want a complete apology and a retraction.

I told Kirk Torgensen that I wanted Mark Shurtleff’s apology and retraction to be “widely disseminated” in the same manner as Shurtleff's false allegations about me.

In a follow up phone call, Kirk Torgensen, backtracked, telling me that Mark Shurtleff “may be stubborn on this thing” and offered an apology from the “Office” of the Utah Attorney General, rather than directly from Shurtleff himself:

What I would like to do Sam is. I gotta tell. I would like to you. I would like to. First, I will tell you personally that and I told you this when you came to Utah, I appreciated you coming. I thought that your presentation was very helpful….

I told my guys after your presentation that it was exactly what I was looking for, that your candor was exactly what I was looking for. Uh, everybody else appreciated immensely that you came out. You did it on your own time. You did it on your own dime because we didn’t have a budget for anything and we really appreciate that.

Um, I gotta ask you this Sam. I mean, the Attorney General may be stubborn on this thing. What if I sent you something? …. Ultimately, this damage is my office…. That hurts the office, you know that Sam…. My job is to find a way to undo the harm… [Emphasis added.]

In other words, Kirk Torgensen now suggested that Mark Shurtleff is too “stubborn” to take responsibility and admit his false allegations. He wanted the Attorney General’s office, rather than Shurtleff directly himself, to issue an apology. I hesitantly agreed to Torgensen’s suggestion, only if such retraction would be widely disseminated in the same manner as Shurtleff’s original letter containing his false allegations. I also wanted Kirk Torgensen to have Overstock.com post the Utah Attorney General’s office’s apology and retraction on the company’s web site in full, without any spin from Patrick Byrne.

Kirk Torgensen did not believe that Patrick Byrne would agree and revealed what he thought of Byrne:

I know, but you know, he won’t do that….

You know him. I know him. I saw him almost get into a fistfight last year at the legislature….

Oh my God, … I’ll tell you, you should read the stuff that he’s been saying about the voters in Utah who would not vote for his voucher [initiative]….

He called us all a bunch of morons that didn’t care about kids….

You know, I am not going to stand up for Patrick Byrne, ever…. [Emphasis added.]

In our next phone conversation, Kirk Torgensen asked me:

Can you give me a day to see if I can get approval to do a press statement that would clarify the inaccuracy?

My response:

Please understand that the inaccuracy has to be a categorical retraction…signed by the Attorney General’s office, not necessarily the Attorney General, without any rationalization, without any excuses, and I would like to have a draft of it for my attorney to review it.

Later on, Kirk Torgensen responded:

Well, that may be a tall order, Sam. I am going to do the best I can.

I waited an entire day, for the Utah Attorney General’s office to issue an apology for Mark Shurtleff’s actions and a retraction of his false statements about me. On November 16, 2007, I called up Kirk Torgensen and asking him why such apology and retraction had not he issued. He curtly retorted:

Sam, you’ve gotten an apology from three people in my office.

In other words, no official, written apology would be forthcoming from Mark Shurtleff or even his office. Kirk Torgensen wanted me to be satisfied with only a verbal apology, after Overstock.com and Mark Shurtleff colluded to disseminate lies about me through an open letter and a press release.

I objected, saying in part:

What he [Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff] did is absolutely wrong and casts a shadow on your office and casts a shadow on the ethics and integrity of your office because of the actions of him [Shurtleff] on behalf of a campaign contributor, which is totally 100% wrong….

Kirk Torgensen’s response:

I understand where you are coming from, Sam.

Patrick Byrne stubbornly continued to lie

On February 9, 2008, Patrick Byrne continued his pathetic pattern of habitual lies with a new lie claiming that I invited myself to a meeting with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, met with him, and agreed not to “spin” my fraud presentation or blog “as an endorsement” by Shurtleff of my views:

At the request of Sam Antar the Crook, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff met with Sam on the condition that Sam not attempt to spin it as an endorsement of Sam’s views. Sam had his meeting then immediately welched on that promise.

However, as detailed above, I never requested to make any such fraud presentation. Rather, the Utah Attorney General's office invited me to make a fraud presentation at their 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference. In addition, I never had any meeting with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. My only agreement (confirmed by Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp, Deputy Attorney General John Kimble, and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen) was not to mention Overstock.com during my fraud presentation. My fraud presentation was done without any compensation and without any cost reimbursements to me. It was totally free!

To this day, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff stubbornly refuses to retract his false allegations about my agreement with his office and issue an apology. Shurtleff even stubbornly continued to spew his lies when interviewed by Fortune Magazine in December 2007, weeks after the events described above.

Overstock.com CEO still will not retract his company’s press release using Shurtleff’s lies. Patrick Byrne's paid shills, nauseating cyberstalker Judd Bagley and washed up former CJR reporter Mark Mitchell, have continued to spread Mark Shurtleff's lies and other lies on Byrne's smear web sites (Antisocialmedia.net and DeepCapture.com).

Patrick Byrne likes to claim that the Securities and Exchange Commission is a “captured regulator” doing the bidding of Wall Street and hedge funds. Yet, Patrick Byrne has a captured state Attorney General in his side pocket. His name is Mark L. Shurtleff.

To be continued....

Written by:

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO and a convicted felon)


Disclosure: Not long or short Overstock.com.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff once caught removing opponent's campaign signs

Mark Shurtleff is seeking re-election as Utah State Attorney General. However, many voters are unaware that in 1998 Mark Shurtleff, running as a GOP candidate for the Salt Lake City Commission, was caught removing his opponent's campaign signs by the police.

According to a 1998 article in the Deseret News:

…Mark Shurtleff was caught pulling down one of his opponent's campaign signs…. Shurtleff pulled down the Reberg sign on Union Park Avenue near 7500 South. West Valley resident Allen Hose, who has worked on Democratic campaigns, saw him do it and made a few calls, including to the local police.

The Salt Lake City Tribune also reported:

Republican Mark Shurtleff, who has stressed honesty and integrity in his campaign, admitted his actions to police….

While Mark Shurtleff still claims to espouse “honesty and integrity” as the cornerstone for his current re-election bid to be Utah State Attorney General, in reality he is the best corrupt public official that the unprincipled management team at Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) can buy.

I will have more to say about Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff in my next blog post. In the meantime, you can read my previous blog posts about Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, here and here.

Written by:

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO and a convicted felon)

Disclosure: Not long or short Overstock.com. Not a Utah resident.

Patrick Byrne has a new pet journalist with a captured mind

It looks like Patrick Byrne has a new pet journalist with a captured mind. I just received the following email from Mark Mitchell about a story he wants to publish on Patrick Byrne's blog, hosted by Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK). See Gary Weiss's blog for background on Mark Mitchell.

From: Mark Mitchell [mailto:mitch0033@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:38 PM
To: Sam E. Antar
Subject: Interview possible?
Dear Sam,

I am writing a story about short-selllers (sic) and their relationships with independent researchers and the media. I would like to give you the opportunity to respond to various allegations regarding your work.

Is there a time when I can interview you? If so, please provide me with a phone number and a time when it would be convenient for me to call.

My story is for a Web site called DeepCapture.com.

Best regards,

Mark Mitchell
847-XXX-XXXX

I guess that the temperature is rising in Overstock.com's corporate suite as the Securities and Exchange Commission zeros in on the company and Patrick Byrne, the admitted target of their probe. New information has come to light that strongly suggests that Overstock.com bribed Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to defame me. For background information on Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff read here and here. I will release other taped conversations with persons at the Utah Attorney General's office, soon.

Update:

Read Gary Weiss's updated blog item "The 'Mark Mitchell Mystery' Solved" and the comments section for an exchange between Gary Weiss and Mark Mitchell. Apparently, Mark Mitchell is being paid Patrick Byrne to do hatchet jobs on other Byrne critics, too.

In addition, please read "Shop at Overstock, support Cyberstalking," by Zac Bissonnette.

Written by,

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO and a convicted felon)

Open Letter to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Re: Your lies on behalf of campaign contributor Overstock.com

To Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff:

I respectfully urge you to come clean about your efforts to smear me on behalf of your campaign contributor Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a formal investigation of Overstock.com. Patrick Byrne is the admitted target of the SEC probe in contrast to his previous denials. By colluding with a public company and campaign contributor under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a press release containing lies and distortions about me, you have become a facilitator of the company and possibly involved yourself in the commission of a securities fraud.

I urge you to promptly issue a full and complete categorical retraction of your false and misleading open letter to Overstock.com and issue a full public apology to me. In addition, Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne are asked to completely and fully rescind the company's false and misleading press release containing Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's lies and distortions in his open letter about me and issue a full public apology to me, too.

For additional information, please read the following blog posts:

• Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Panders to Campaign Contributor Overstock.com & CEO Patrick Byrne and Defames Critic
• Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Caught Lying on Behalf of Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne

Please note that other documentary evidence including taped phone conversations with persons in your office has been delivered to investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Respectfully,

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

Cc: Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock.com), Joseph J. Tabacco Jr. and Clay Corbus (Overstock.com Audit Committee members), and Kenneth Israel (Securities and Exchange Commission)

Update (08/18/08): Please read my blog post entitled, "Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne Pays Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to Defame a Blogger." Just a few days prior to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's defamation of me in his "open letter" and Overstock.com's subsequent press release, Shurtleff received a $5,000 so-called campaign contribution from Overstock.com. In addition, new details of phone conversations with Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen verify that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff lied on behalf of Overstock.com to defame me.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Caught Lying on Behalf of Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne

In a previous item on my blog dated November 19, 2007 and entitled, "Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Panders to Campaign Contributor Overstock.com & CEO Patrick Byrne and Defames Critic," I responded to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's deliberate efforts to defame me on behalf of campaign contributor Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) and its CEO Patrick Byrne. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has ignored my requests to categorically retract his letter and issue a public apology.

Enclosed is a taped conversation between Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and I that categorically refutes the deliberate lies of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Listen to it for yourself. The other person in the tape that he refers to as "Kirk" is Kirk Torgensen, the Chief Deputy Utah Attorney General.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff colluded with a public company (Overstock.com) that is a campaign contributor and it's CEO Patrick Byrne, both of whom are under investigation by the SEC, to disparage, defame, and discredit me.

The above taped conversation has been delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Other taped conversations will be delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission and posted on this blog in the near future. Both New York and Utah are "one party" consent states and as such, the recording of my phone conversations was legally permissible.

Written by, Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

Update (12/13/07): Please read my blog post entitled, "Open Letter to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Re: Your lies on behalf of campaign contributor Overstock.com."

Update (08/18/08): Please read my blog post entitled, "Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne Pays Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to Defame a Blogger." Just a few days prior to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's defamation of me in his "open letter" and Overstock.com's subsequent press release, Shurtleff received a $5,000 so-called campaign contribution from Overstock.com. In addition, new details of phone conversations with Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen verify that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff lied on behalf of Overstock.com to defame me.

Update (07/16/14): please read my blog post entitled, "Indicted Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was bribed by Overstock.com too."

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Panders to Campaign Contributor Overstock.com & CEO Patrick Byrne and Defames Critic

Anatomy of a Smear

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's deliberate efforts to defame me on behalf of Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne have placed a dark cloud on his ethics and integrity as the chief legal officer of the state of Utah. In an interview with the Deseret News, published a fews years ago, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, once claimed:

But as attorney general I have repeatedly demonstrated that campaign contributions make absolutely no difference in how I do my job.

However, if you a public company under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission like Overstock.com, it takes only about $10,000 in campaign contributions to call in a favor from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Like Crazy Eddie, Mark Shurtleff's prices are INSAAAANE!

On November 14, 2007 Overstock.com issued a press release concerning a blog item that I had written a day after my recent fraud presentation at the Utah Attorney General's Office on October 31, 2007 for its 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff had written a letter dated November 8, 2008 (his date is one year ahead of time) on behalf Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne, a campaign contributor under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission that contains lies, distortions, false, and misleading information, in an effort to disparage, defame, discredit, and smear me. As is always my policy, I charged no fees and took no cost reimbursements from the Utah Attorney General's office for my fraud presentation, as I traveled from New York to Utah and back over two days and paid for everything out of pocket.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has claimed that I violated a certain agreement and understanding that I not refer to my speaking engagement at his crime conference in my blog posts about Overstock.com. Mark Shurtleff claims that he tried to have his letter posted as a comment to my blog item mentioning his white collar crime conference and my meeting afterwards with the SEC about Overstock.com. He claims that I "apparently refused" to publish his letter in my blog. He has claimed that I used his white collar crime conference for "self-promotion as a person who can detect and expose errant practices of public companies." All of Mark Shurtleff's above claims are not true.

I made no such agreements with the Utah Attorney General's office, which was confirmed to me by certain individuals in that office, to avoid any mention of their white collar crime conference in relation to Overstock.com in my blog, web site, or any other venue outside the fraud conference. My only agreement with the Utah Attorney General's office, which was also confirmed to me by certain individuals from that office, was not to mention Overstock.com during my fraud presentation, unless asked by a participant in the audience. I abided by that agreement.

It was Mark Shurtleff's office that invited me to speak at their 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference after reading my blog and whitecollarfraud.com web site and watching my appearance on CNBC's Business Nation aired in June 2007. The Utah Attorney General's Office promoted my appearance at their white collar crime conference issuing a flyer and a press release. I simply listed my speaking appearance on my whitecollarfraud.com web site. In my blog item referred to in Shurtleff's letter, I wrote that after my fraud presentation at his conference, I visited the SEC to discuss Overstock.com.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff claims that:

Our invitation, and his presentation at our conference, should not to be taken as any comment on Mr. Antar's self-promotion as a person who can detect and expose errant practices of public companies.

So what am I self-promoting? A "crook" that gives free speaking engagements paid for by me on my own dime?

I have written about Overstock.com's possible violations of securities laws both before and after my fraud presentation at his white collar crime conference. Nowhere in the blog item that Mark Shurtleff refers to in his letter or anywhere else on my blog or whitecollarfraud.com web site have I used his white collar crime conference for "self promotion as a person who can detect and expose errant practices of public companies" despite the fact that I made no such agreement in any way with his office concerning this issue.

On August 22, 2007, after the I accepted the Utah Attorney General's Office's invitation to speak at its 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference, at the bottom of a blog item entitled, "Did Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne cook the company's numbers and mislead investors? (Part 2)," I added the following note:

Newly scheduled fraud presentations:

On October 31, 2007, the Utah Attorney General's Office (Financial Crimes Unit) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Utah Attorney General's Office was well aware of that blog item. They sent me no blog comments, emails, or in any way communicated to me that they objected to that information in a blog post. They let me speak at their white collar crime conference about two months later.

On November 15, 2007, a day after I learned about Overstock.com's press release and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's letter, I contacted certain individuals at his office by phone who were directly involved in my fraud presentation about his allegations. Those individuals can confirm that Mark Shurtleff's allegations about me are completely baseless, inaccurate, false, and misleading. Those individuals can confirm that Mark Shurtleff's letter made certain false allegations about me and they categorically contradict every single claim he has made in his letter.

Those individuals from his office have already apologized to me for the actions of their Attorney General, have told me that they "disagree" with him and are "embarrassed" by his actions. They confirm that I did nothing wrong, fully lived up to their expectations, violated no agreements and understandings, and were very pleased with my fraud presentation.

I told those persons from his office that if Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff posted a categorical retraction of his letter and gave me a public apology, that I would stand by him and defend him for retracting his errors. One high ranking individual had offered to have the Utah Attorney General's office and not specifically Attorney General Mark Shurtleff issue a written apology and not a categorical retraction. However, a day later on November 16, 2007, he withdrew that offer and said I should just accept his verbal apology and the verbal apologies of certain other persons from his office.

Rest assured that I possess plenty of detailed and irrefutable documentation to back up my representations that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff made false and misleading claims in his letter from certain knowledgeable individuals in his office. Those individuals can confirm that I broke no promises made to the Utah Attorney General's office and violated no agreements or understandings made with that office. I have already provided detailed documentation to the Securities and Exchange Commission which is investigating possible securities law violations by Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne, an admitted target of their probe and a campaign contributor to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

I now publicly ask Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to categorically retract his letter concerning me and issue a full public apology to me for his ill advised actions. Mark Shurtleff should take full responsibility for his actions, rather than shift the burden of accountability to his staff for his blunders. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's staff should be free from any reprisals for disagreeing with his actions concerning me, confirming to me information contrary to his allegations, and their apologies to me.

After his letter was published in Overstock.com's press release, I had sent Mark Shurteff an email and have made several requests to his staff asking that he contact me regarding his concerns. He has deliberately avoided email or phone contact with me. So far, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff arrogantly and stubbornly refuses to issue a categorical retraction and fully apologize to me, despite the facts and irrefutable evidence.

Overstock.com's issuance of press release containing false and misleading information based on Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's letter creates a serious disclosure issue for a company whose financial disclosures are now being seriously investigated by the SEC. I have asked the SEC to refer this matter to other appropriate law enforcement authorities, as well.

A legitimate question can be raised as to whether the Chief Legal Officer of the state of Utah by publicly taking the side of Overstock.com after taking their campaign contributions has become a facilitator of the company and has involved himself in the commission of a securities fraud.

Like Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff once claimed:

My campaign is primarily funded by those who care about the same values and principles I do.

I guess that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff found a perfect match and jumped into the sack with Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne. Mark Shurtleff is an unprincipled state attorney general who has demonstrated himself as a corrupt public official by pandering to the campaign contributions of Overstock.com and its CEO, Patrick Byrne, who are both under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible securities law violations.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's claim that I refused to post his letter as a comment in my blog

Specifically, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff made the following allegation:

As Utah Attorney General, I am writing this letter to rebut a blog Sam Antar posted on his website on November 1, 2007. I tried to post this letter as a comment on his blog but Mr. Antar apparently refused to post it.

Mark Shurtleff's letter was written on November 8, 2007 (it's dated November 8, 2008) and Overstock.com released his letter through a press release issued on November 14, 2007. I did not receive any request from Mark Shurtleff or his office to post anything on my blog until a day after Overstock.com's press release, on November 15, 2007 at 11:41 AM ET. I promptly posted his letter in my blog later that afternoon at 2:45 PM after finishing a fraud presentation and arriving at my office.

A certain person from the Utah Attorney General's office had left the following message on my mobile phone voicemail on November 13, 2007 at 4:36 PM ET five days after Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's letter to Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne and one day before Overstock.com's press release. In other words, only after Mark Shurtleff had already released his letter to Overstock.com for eventual dissemination in a press release did anyone from his office attempt to contact me.

I retrieved that message hours after Overstock.com's press release, a day later, on November 14, 2007. That person said:

We'd probably give you a quick call and say thanks again for coming out to our conference. We sure do appreciate it. We know our boss has probably not been as appreciative but....sure are. If you get a chance give me a call at 801 XXX-XXXX. Thank you. Goodbye. [Names were excluded in "but...sure are."]

However, nothing in that message indicated that I had violated any understandings or agreements with the Utah Attorney General's office, nor did that person warn me about Mark Shurtleff's letter or address any specific urgent concerns. To the contrary, the voicemail expressed their appreciation for my visit despite Shurtleff's relative lack of appreciation. Other than the message referred to above that I received five days after Mark Shurtleff's letter to Patrick Byrne, no one from the Utah Attorney General's office attempted to either email, post mail, or telephone me other than send me positive responses to my fraud presentation.

The Utah Attorney General's office already had my email address and several phone numbers if they seriously wanted to reach me. The concept of a state Attorney General attempting to reach me via a comment on my blog for such a serious matter is ridiculous considering that his staff had my home phone number, office phone number, cell phone number, and my email address. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff could have just picked up the phone before the letter was issued and called me saying, "Sam, we have a serious disagreement...." Instead, he personally personally pandered to the whims of a campaign contributor Overstock.com and its CEO, Patrick Byrne, both of whom are under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That same individual, whom I contacted on November 15, the day after Overstock.com's press release had said:

What you did was exactly what you promised to do for exactly the price you promised to do it at with no expense on our side and total expense on your side.

Did the Utah Attorney General's office play a game a catch up to cover their tracks after releasing its letter to Patrick Byrne on November 8, 2007 and Overstock.com's press release on November 14, 2007?

The blog comment that I received from Mark Shurtleff arrived on November 15, 2007 about 7 days after he wrote his letter and a day after Overstock.com released that letter. The phone message I received from an individual within the Utah Attorney General's Office was sent to me 5 days after Mark Shurtleff wrote his letter a day before Overstock.com's press release. In any case, certain individuals have confirmed to me and I have detailed irrefutable records to back up my representations that I did not violate any agreements, understandings, or promises made to Utah Attorney General Michael Shurtleff's office regardless of Shurtleff's claims to the contrary.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's claim that I used his invitation to "bookend" and "inappropriately...attack" Overstock.com in my blog

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff alleges:

Mr. Antar was invited to speak at our 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference, and to express my concern and dismay at the way Mr. Antar used that invitation to "bookend," and inappropriately attempt to legitimize, his attack on a publicly traded company headquartered in Utah.

In my blog post November 1, 2007 entitled, "Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne Continues to Dodge Questions about SEC Probe and Faces Counterclaims by Rocker and Gradient," referred to in Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's letter, I wrote:

On Wednesday, October 31, 2007, I visited Salt Lake City Utah at the invitation of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff as part of their 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference. My presentation started at 9:00 AM and was supposed to finish by 11:15 AM. I invited the persons attending the fraud conference to ask me any question. I answered every single question posed to me truthfully, unambiguously, and without deflection. As a result, my fraud presentation concluded about one-half hour later than originally planned.

There were still more questions. So I stayed around at the conference until 1:30 PM and did not leave the conference until every person was satisfied that their questions were answered by me. Afterwards, I visited the Securities and Exchange Commission office in Utah and met with them about issues related to Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne. I waived my right to counsel as we discussed issues relating to Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne, and other persons working in collusion with him.

In the closing paragraph of my blog item, I wrote:

Special thanks to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff for inviting me to make a fraud presentation at his office's 14th Annual Conference on White Collar Crime. In the last eight years, I have traveled across our great country and made over 200 fraud presentations on behalf of over 70 hosting organizations, including dozens of government entities, universities, professional groups, and companies free of charge and without any cost reimbursement.

I neither expressed nor implied that my fraud presentation at the Utah Attorney General's 14th White Collar Crime Conference had anything to do with Overstock.com in that blog item. I was in Salt Lake City Utah to give my fraud presentation at his white collar crime conference and "afterwards" I visited with the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide certain information about Overstock.com. In fact, the Utah Attorney General's Office was well aware of my plans that day and they permitted me to invite certain persons from the SEC, who I would meet up with later at their offices, to attend their white collar crime conference. At the end of my blog post, I gave, "Special thanks to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff for inviting me to make a fraud presentation at his office's 14th Annual Conference on White Collar Crime."

What "bookend" is Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff referring too? None exists except in Shurtleff's imagination. In telephone conversations with certain persons from the Utah Attorney General's office, I was told that they had no issue with my blog item. In other words, Mark Shurtleff is wrong.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff allegation that I violated a promise to his office

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff alleges:

I was warned that Mr. Antar might use this speaking engagement to suggest that my office or I personally, endorse or support his accusations against Overstock.com or some other public company. Based on that warning, officials in my office secured a promise from Mr. Antar that he would not use this invitation for that purpose. So much for the promises of a convicted felon! The day after speaking in Utah, he submitted the forgoing (sic) post, opening and closing his latest round of Overstock attacks with references to me, my office, and his presentation at our crime conference.

A certain person at the Utah Attorney General's office told me that Overstock.com was upset over Utah Attorney General's office invitation to me to make a fraud presentation at their white collar crime conference. The only agreement that I made with Mark Shurtleff's office was to not discuss Overstock.com during my fraud presentation, unless asked by someone in the audience.

I fully complied with my agreement to the Utah Attorney General's office. Nowhere in my blog or whitcollarfraud.com web site did I write anything to suggest that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff personally endorsed anything I had written about Overstock.com or any other public company.

While Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff writes, "So much for the promises of a convicted felon," none of the promises I made with his office were violated. It is Mark Shurtleff who has written false and misleading accusations on behalf of a campaign contributor, despite information from his own staff that refute his allegations. It is Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff that cannot be trusted to tell the truth or own up to his errors in judgment.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's allegation that I claim that he endorses my views about the current practices of any public company or supports any so-called "controversial statements" I have made

In his letter, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff claims:

Let me be perfectly clear: Our invitation to Mr. Antar was in no way an endorsement of his views on the current practices of any public company. It was in no way a statement of support or an endorsement of Mr. Antar's controversial statements respecting any particular public company of any sort. Our invitation, and his presentation at our conference, should not to be taken as any comment on Mr. Antar's self-promotion as a person who can detect and expose errant practices of public companies.

Where did I say in my blog or whitecollarfraud.com web site that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff endorses my "views on the current practices of any public company" as alleged by Shurtleff? Where have I written on my blog or whitecollarfraud.com web site any "statement of support" or any "endorsement" as alleged by Shurtleff? The answer is nowhere. I invite Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to prove me to the contrary.

During my taped presentation, I never discussed Overstock.com nor did any person in the audience ask me about Overstock.com.

The Attorney General's Office and other attendees actually praised my fraud presentation

Andrew Adams from KSL News Radio interviewed Chief Deputy Attorney General Torgensen and I after my presentation:

There was a "rock star" in a room full of "good guys" downtown today. It was a bad guy at the "White Collar Crimes Conference."

The women auditors were almost in a swoon.

Sam Antar just explained how his family had skimmed $20 million off the top, and then made another $75 million from pumping and dumping Crazy Eddie, Inc. stock in the 1980s.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgenson was a sponge. "When you hear it from somebody who did it, it gives you insights into how they think," Torgersen (sic) said.

"I'm no rock star, I'm a crook," Antar said. "White collar crime is just as brutal as violent crime."

That was Antar's message. He says the way to crack down is with better auditing and policing. He also says his CPA license was just revoked; that should have happened 15 years ago.

Link to audio clip.

Two days after my fraud presentation and one day after my blog post discussing that presentation, a certain individual from the Utah Attorney General's office emailed me, writing:

Thank you for giving such a dynamic and thought-provoking talk. I've received nothing but positive feedback. I hope you enjoyed your brief stay in Salt Lake. Also feel free to contact me if there's anything I can do for you in the future.

Other individuals from the Utah Attorney General's office have told me that they received only praise from the persons attending my fraud presentation.

Certain persons from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff office contradicted his allegations and fully agreed that I did what I was supposed to do at the fraud presentation and did not violate any understandings or agreements with the Utah Attorney General's office. They had read my blog item that Mark Shurtleff had complained about in his letter, found nothing wrong with it, and disagreed with his judgment and actions.

A message to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff

In your letter you wrote:

In light of Mr. Antar's background as a convicted white collar criminal, we believe that the public should carefully scrutinize and objectively examine any public statements Mr. Antar makes.

If you had actually attended and listened to my fraud presentation at your white collar crime conference or read the any newspaper coverage about my other fraud presentations, I make just about the same representation to every audience. I teach them, "Do not trust, just verify, verify, and verify." I explain to my audiences that the word "trust" is a professional hazard for law enforcement, antifraud professionals, and the accounting profession. In addition, I explain to my audience that no person is beyond reproach, even an Attorney General as you have aptly demonstrated by your behavior. I will send you a tape of my fraud presentation at your 14th white collar crime conference. You may learn something about crooked CEOs, too, instead of kowtowing to them after you receive campaign contributions from them or their companies.

In your letter, you claim:

Neither I, nor the Office of the Utah Attorney General, is reliant on Sam Antar for training or advice on the current practices of public companies. This office is not underwriting or endorsing in anyway Mr. Antar or his views. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It was your office that asked me to take time out of my schedule to come to you for "training or advice on the current practices of public companies." I did not say that you or your office was "underwriting or endorsing" my views. However, it is your office that invited me to express my views on white collar crime and your office praised the presentation of my views at your white collar crime conference. Your office and conference attendees have given me nothing but positive feedback about my presentation.

Lastly, you state in your letter:

"I admonish Mr. Antar to remove from his website any reference (including the forgoing (sic) blog) that might suggestion such a conclusion; and to be careful not to suggest such a connection or conclusion in any of his public statements."

Well than Mr. Shurtleff, at least you have raised public awareness of cronyism and possible corruption by high public officials, such as the chief legal officer of an entire state.

The word and wishes of an unprincipled state attorney general who has demonstrated himself as a corrupt public official by pandering to the campaign contributions of a company and CEO under scrutiny by the SEC gets no respect or cooperation from this convicted felon. You are an Attorney General, who does not care about possible crimes by companies who happen to be campaign contributors, in your own backyard.

However, I invite you to provide me via email with specific detailed reasons of what I should edit or remove from my blog post and why. I strongly advise you that before you respond to me, Mr. Shurtleff, you and your office should get your stories straight. You have the right to remain silent and a constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Otherwise, your charade has wasted enough of my time.

PS: A state Attorney General should be careful to proof read official documents before signing and releasing them. Your date was off an entire year. Your letter was dated November 8, 2008, not 2007. You had one incomplete sentence, "Mr. Antar was invited...." You used the wrong spelling for "forgoing." It should be "foregoing." I guess that's the best quality a campaign contributor can expect from you for $10,000.

Well, typos happen to the best of us.

Written by:

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

Update (11/29/07): Please read my blog post entitled,"Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Caught Lying on Behalf of Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne," and listen to the taped conversation between Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and I.


Update (12/13/07): Please read my blog post entitled, "Open Letter to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Re: Your lies on behalf of campaign contributor Overstock.com."

Update (08/18/08): Please read my blog post entitled, "Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne Pays Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to Defame a Blogger." Just a few days prior to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's defamation of me in his "open letter" and Overstock.com's subsequent press release, Shurtleff received a $5,000 so-called campaign contribution from Overstock.com. In addition, new details of phone conversations with Deputy Attorney General Richard Hamp and Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen verify that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff lied on behalf of Overstock.com to defame me.