Holding Patrick Byrne's Feet to the Fire

Fraud-fighter Sam Antar has an offer to Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne that you can bet that he can't refuse. He has written an open letter to Byrne that is worth perusing.

Sam, who is much in demand as a speaker by business and law enforcement groups, will be giving a talk to the financial fraud unit of the Utah Attorney General's office in Salt Lake City on Oct. 31.

Since he will be in the Overstock neighborhood, Sam has issued a challenge to Byrne, one that I am sure that Byrne will instantly accept.

Sam wants Byrne to face off with him, mano-a-mano, without handlers or lawyers or spin doctors or any of Byrne's retinue of camp followers, in a meeting with the SEC, which is conducting a formal investigation of Byrne and Overstock.

Byrne has been ducking Sam's pointed questions about his questionable accounting, contradictory and false public statements, and blatant violations of the company's code of ethics for months. Indeed, Byrne's shills -- led by a creep called Evren Karpak who was later put on the Overstock payroll -- got Sam tossed off the Investor Village message board for asking those questions.

Let's see if Byrne has the guts to answer Sam's questions in front of the SEC, on the record, waiving immunity.

Hey, if he has nothing to fear, if he has done nothing wrong, he'll jump at the chance!

Sam also offers to meet with Overstock's house stalker, Judd Bagley, for a similar faceoff in front of the SEC:

Perhaps, your Director of Communications, Judd Bagley, will agree to a separate meeting with the SEC and me, too? I would be willing to stay an extra day in Salt Lake City to hear his unfiltered explanation of the issues that I have raised with the SEC. I am quite sure that the SEC wants to hear his answers to my questions, without coaching, too.

Seems like a golden opportunity for this corporate chamber pot to empty its contents in an appropriate forum.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



-----------

Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.