Meet Sam E. Antar: The Architect of Donald Trump’s "Mortgage Fraud" Criminal Case Against New York AG Letitia James
- Donald V. Watkins
- Oct 13
- 3 min read
By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on October 13, 2025
An Editorial Opinion
Sam E. Antar is the former chief financial officer (CFO) of Crazy Eddie, a consumer electronics chain in the Northeastern United States during the 1980s. From the beginning, Crazy Eddie engaged in fraudulent business practices, including under-reporting income, skimming sales taxes, paying employees off the books, over-reporting profits, inflating inventory, money laundering, and duping auditors. At its peak, Crazy Eddie had 43 stores in four states and reported more than $300 million in sales.
Two years after Crazy Eddie went public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in 1984, Sam Antar was named the company's CFO. Antar earned a degree in accounting in 1980 and served his apprenticeship with Penn and Horowitz, Crazy Eddie's auditor. Antar assisted the family members who founded and managed Crazy Eddie in perpetuating an ongoing fraud scheme at the company. Eventually, all participants in the fraud scheme were caught, convicted, and imprisoned, including Sam Antar.
Antar Now Works as a Fraud Investigator for the U.S. Government
Today, Sam Antar works as a fraud investigator for the U.S. government and other clients. According to his website, Antar's federal clients include the U.S. Departments of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Defense, and Treasury, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
On his website, Antar claims that his investigative work formed the basis for the DOJ's probe into “mortgage fraud” allegations involving New York Attorney General Letitia James. DOJ indicted James last week on federal criminal charges of bank fraud and making false statements in connection with a mortgage application on a property in Virginia. It appears that DOJ’s entire case against James is built around Antar’s analysis of the mortgage transaction in question.
Antar proudly showcased his "mortgage fraud" theory against Letitia James in an October 12, 2025, article that was published on his website. Antar’s article is linked here.
Antar’s Analysis of “Mortgage Fraud” is Fatally Flawed in Profound Ways
In his published article, Sam Antar suggests that DOJ has a rock solid case against Letitia James. President Donald Trump has relied on Antar’s analysis, as well.
Antar's work is the basis for Trump's September 20, 2025, public demand to Pam Bondi that she indict Letitia James because "Leticia [sic]..... [is] guilty as hell." Trump's post was meant to be a private message to Bondi, but it was mistakenly posted on his Truth Social media account.
Interestingly, Sam Antar is not a criminal defense attorney. In fact, he's not an attorney at all. Likewise, Antar has no known expertise in bank rules and regulations that govern underwriting obligations and activities for mortgage lenders. Furthermore, Antar has no known expertise in the creation, sale, underwriting, and/or servicing of mortgage-related insurance products. Finally, Antar has no known expertise in the federal tax code, or the state tax codes for New York and Virginia.
At best, Antar is a former entry-level accountant who immediately joined an ongoing white collar fraud scheme after he became CFO at Crazy Eddie in 1986. The fraud committed by Antar would be considered small-scale when compared to the multibillion dollar financial fraud schemes involving WorldCom, Enron, and HealthSouth in the early 2000s.
Despite Sam Antar’s apparent lack of formal qualifications as a certified fraud examiner in mortgage lending, he has promoted himself as some sort of financial expert in Trump's case against Letitia James.
As expected, Antar's mortgage fraud analysis in the Letitia James case is fatally flawed in profound ways. A highly skilled criminal trial defense lawyer with only moderate expertise in mortgage lending can zero out Antar’s entire mortgage fraud analysis in less than two hours of cross-examination.
If Trump and newly appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who has never prosecuted a criminal case, are relying on Sam Antar’s mortgage fraud analysis to convict Letitia James on mortgage fraud and false statement charges, they will lose this case in a spectacular fashion. There are holes in Antar’s purported “mortgage fraud” analysis that are big enough to drive a caravan of Mack trucks through them without touching the sides.
If properly defended in a fair and unbiased judicial venue, the government's criminal case against Letitia James can be won by a qualified and capable criminal defense team 10 times out of 10.
Thanks for this very informative post. I'm a longtime expat, but I do remember Crazy Eddie's. Didn't realize what a scam it was. The real single reason there's been a case brought against James is she had the temerity to charge Trump with fraud and win big time. Hasn't he been trying the same thing against Adam Schiff? Must be the same source.
You all can dish it out, but you can't take it. LOL. That's it, throw in the race card too. Figures.
People that voted for Trump new exactly what they was getting with all of the scum but they said He can't be that bad and we want to give him another chance. Instead of trusting a person of color because They said she can't be that smart, now this is what we got. The other race deal with the bullshit because people of color deal with they bullshit all the time!
Thanks so much for this in-depth explanation of the totally trumped-up accusations being lodged against Letitia James. It deserves to be seen by lots and lots of people.