Sam Antar on Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne

Sam Antar, mastermind of the Crazy Eddie's stock swindle, is one of the nation's leading experts on stock fraud and accounting shenanigans. He donates his time to working with law enforcement and securities regulators in preventing future Enrons.

So his latest blog post, describing Overstock.com's smear and stalking campaign against its critics, carries particular weight and is must-reading for anyone following this slo-mo train wreck.

The title is "Don't Mess with Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne," and it begins as follows:

As a criminal I knew ugly and vile behavior up close because I practiced it with a cold, dark, and heartless soul. I knew all too well how to use your humanity as a weakness to be exploited. I knew all too well how to win you over with honey. Also, when honey did not work I knew how to instill fear in you through intimidation.

Today, we have a war being conducted by Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock.com) against almost anyone who does not fit into his agenda of deflecting from the poor performance of Overstock.com. If you mess with Patrick Byrne, watch out, his anger seems to know no bounds.

As a convicted felon I understand Patrick Byrne’s war of intimidation, smears, and deflection from the personal experience of my own vile criminal actions. Below, I outline some of Patrick Byrne’s actions and some of those persons who work in concert with either him or Judd Bagley (Director of Social Media at Overstock.com).

When the Overstock disaster is finally a vile memory, this courageous piece will stand out as seminal, a worthy follow-up to Joe Nocera's column in the New York Times last month, and Susan Antilla's excellent smack-down of the nauseating Bagley in Bloomberg.

Antilla and Nocera were both crudely smeared for their reporting by Byrne's hatchet men and surrogates, and I am sure that Sam will be next. (Confidential to Judd Bagley: "psst! I hear Sam's a convicted felon!")

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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