Is Bernie Madoff a born criminal or an opportunist?
What motivates one possessed of a true criminal mind? Greed? The thrill of getting away with fraud? Conning innocent people? All of the above?
Once punished, can a born criminal become one of the good guys?
These are but a few of the questions we posed to Sam E. "Sammy" Antar, an extremely vocal, self-confessed possessor of a criminal mind, during a conversation on a cold evening last week in a midtown Manhattan coffee shop.
Sammy, the former chief financial officer of Crazy Eddie, Inc., was a mastermind, along with his cousin Eddie "Crazy Eddie" Antar and an uncle, Sam M. Antar, of one of the largest security frauds of their day, having cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars.
Becoming the government's key witness against his cousin and uncle in both the criminal and civil prosecutions, Sammy pled guilty to three felony counts and was sentenced to six months' house arrest, twelve hundred hours of community service and three years' probation, as well as being fined.
Our conversation with Sammy is so wide-ranging that we are sharing it with our web readers in installments.
"Dinner with Sammy," Part One
In today's installment, Sammy burnishes his own credentials as an unrepentant and confirmed bad guy.
"I solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help me God!" Sammy exclaims in mock gravity as he tucks into his dinner: a scoop of tuna surrounded by rings of green and red peppers and circles of Bermuda onion.
"Before we talk about Madoff, you have to understand that there are two types of criminals," he explains, "the one that plans to be a criminal and the one that when the opportunity presents itself becomes a criminal. I'm not going to say that one is better than the other; both are evil. I was the worst kind of criminal; I committed my crime simply because I could. I enjoyed it and if I'm not a criminal today, it's only because I got caught."
Cooperating with the Feds:
"The only reason that I cooperated with the United States government is because I didn't want to pick up a bar of soap and worry who my boyfriend was going to be; it just wasn't my style. I did not cooperate because I wanted to do the right thing; I did not cooperate because I believed in God; I did not cooperate because I found God; I did not cooperate for any moral or heroic reasons. The only reason I cooperated is because I got caught--most people cooperate because they got caught."
Rehab for criminals
"The zebra doesn't change its stripes. All of this sorrow, all of this morality, all of this redemption is baloney! I do free speaking engagements all over the country. I pay out of my own pocket. People often ask me if I'm redeemed. I say, 'Just because I do good deeds now that doesn't mean I'm redeemed.' When I was a criminal, I walked old ladies across the street too."
The criminal's attitude toward potential victims:
"The criminal considers your humanity as a weakness to be exploited in the execution of a crime," Sammy confides. Then, staring intently at us across the table, he drives his point home, observing, "You are being nice to me now, sitting down with me. You are having a code of ethics: you believe in innocence until being proven guilty, which is a wonderful thing. I'm not demeaning that. That just gives us the the initiative to commit our crimes."
Sammy's credo:
"Having consumed the mound of tuna at his plate's center, Sammy proceeds to systematically attack the surrounding rings of peppers and onions. Energized, he expands on his theme by invoking the late Ronald Reagan. "He said 'trust and verify.' I say, 'don't trust, just verify,' because when you give me your trust that gives me the initiative. Your code of ethics, your willingness to believe that today Sammy Antar may be a reformed felon; your willingness to sit down with me now, even though I was an economic predator, without checking your pockets"--here Sammy rather playfully leans toward us--"your innate trust limits your behavior and gives me the opportunity as a criminal to exploit it, because we measure our effectiveness by the comfort level of our victims. You can steal more with a smile than you can with a gun."
Log on tomorrow for the next installment of "Dinner with Sammy," his take on the nature of Bernie Madoff's criminality.