What is Accounting?

What is Accounting?

Courtesy of Sam Antar at White Collar Fraud 

The best definition of accounting I’ve ever heard comes from securities attorney Howard Sirota appearing on Russia Today’s segment, "US Marks two years since Lehman Brothers collapse."

The difference between arithmetic and accounting is that in accounting the result can be any number you want it to be.

See the video below:

Back in the day, my former nemesis Howard Sirota was lead attorney in the successful class action litigation against Crazy Eddie. Today, Sirota represents whistleblowers, such as me, who are frequent targets of retaliation by unscrupulous public companies.

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 our 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 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.

There is a saying, "It takes one to know one." Today, I work very closely with the FBI, IRS, SEC, Justice Department, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies in training them to identify and catch white-collar criminals.

I do not seek or want forgiveness for my vicious crimes from my victims. I plan on frying in hell with other white-collar criminals for a very long time.

Recently, I exposed GAAP violations by Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) which caused the company to restate its financial reports for the third time in three years. The SEC is now investigating Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne for securities law violations (Details here, here, and here).

In addition, the SEC is now investigating possible GAAP violations by Bidz.com (NASDAQ: BIDZ) after I alerted them about the company’s inventory accounting practices.

I do not own any securities in Overstock.com or Bidz.com, long or short. My investigation of these companies is a freebie for securities regulators to get me into heaven, though I doubt I will ever get there.