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.

I eventually pleaded guilty to three felonies: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. I was sentenced to only six-month’s house arrest, 1,200 hours of community service, and paid approximately $10,000 in fines.

In my settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, I agreed to a lifetime bar from being an officer or director of a public company and paid $20,000 in disgorgement of losses that were avoided by selling my Crazy Eddie stock at inflated prices.

In my settlement with the victims of my crimes, I avoided all civil liability.

We committed our crimes at Crazy Eddie for fun and profit and simply because we could. We had no empathy whatsoever for our victims. During my sixteen years at Crazy Eddie and two years spent covering up our crimes after being terminated from the company, I never had a single conversation with any of my co-conspirators about morality or the suffering of our victims. Our conversations focused solely on the successful cold-blooded execution of our crimes.

I was the main witness in the Crazy Eddie criminal trial prosecuted by US Attorney’s Office in Newark, NJ, civil trial prosecuted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and civil litigations brought against us by our victims.

I did not cooperate with the government and victims because of any sense of morality or remorse for my crimes. I simply cooperated with them to avoid a long prison sentence and reduce potential monetary penalties. If my crimes had remained undetected and the government did not seek to prosecute me, I would probably still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today.

Apologies for my crimes are irrelevant. It is my view that “apologies do not bring back the dead or undo the losses suffered by the victims of my crimes.” As I told Wall Street Journal reporter Herb Greenberg for his March 3, 2007 Wall Street Journal column entitled, “My Lunch with 2 Fraudsters: Food for Thought for Investors”:

"I don't want to be held up on the pedestal of redemption. I would rather people learn from my vile, ugly and vicious crimes. It is most important that they understand the ugly nature of criminality. My life is a mistake of history."