When the news leaked Thursday a federal grand jury had indicted James, social media blew up with opinions and analysis. Some of those posts congratulated Sam Antar and the investigative work of his website.
Antar, himself a convicted felon, is a self-described expert on white collar crime and the clever schemes by the wealthy to save money and to hide it. He pleaded guilty in the 1990s to engaging in financial cover-ups at Crazy Eddie, the electronics retailer, where he was the chief financial officer.
In an X post written after James’ indictment leaked to the public, Antar called the political pressure behind the criminal investigation irrelevant because, he wrote, “what matters is the evidence, and the record we’ve built speaks for itself.”
Antar now advises government agencies, law enforcement, law firms, accounting firms, hedge funds, and public companies on white-collar crime, and trains professionals to detect and prevent fraud. He also serves as an expert witness and whistleblower, referring cases to authorities and reporting financial irregularities through his blog, White Collar Fraud.
Just how extensive is the Letitia James record? According to Antar, who says he has studied numerous public documents, the current New York attorney general has committed 13 acts of mortgage fraud over a span of 42 years.
“Every single mortgage document she signed,” Antar wrote Thursday, “contained false information.”
If those allegations are true, New York's AG was engaging in decades of greedy white collar fraud when she sued Donald Trump over bank fraud and real estate fraud -- and won.
James ran for AG on promises of putting Trump and Trump's family under the microscope.
White Collar Fraud’s investigation of James was described in a March 21 story, written by Antar. That article describes how a Brooklyn rental property owned by James is a five-unit dwelling. Numerous legal documents state it has four dwellings, however, and that discrepancy has persisted over 20 years, in multiple documents, that benefit James.
Why does that matter? Beyond the fact New York code requires factual documents, Antar alleges it allowed James to circumvent federal lending rules that limit eligibility to no more than four rental units.
Antar’s story also alleges James benefitted from her political power. He points out a New York state agency, the Department of Buildings, shrugged off the appearance of fraud when “ordinary” New Yorkers would have been punished with stop-work orders and financial penalties.
According to an April 1 story at White Collar Fraud, a legal document signed by James and dated August 17, 2023 states that a Virginia residence would be her primary residence. That false statement benefitted her financially with the home's lower mortgage rate, Antar writes. It also violated New York election law because she must reside in New York as a candidate for public office.
Reacting to the indictment Thursday, James described the indictment as President Trump’s “desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
