looks like sammy (the self proclaimed convicted felon)
who has been targeting ostk wouldn't allow a letter
from Mark Shurtleff, the Utah Attorney General be
posted on his blog. As a result, the letter was
brought public by ostk, along with a press release.
overstock.com
investors.overstock.com
S T A T E O F U T A H
M A R K L. S H U R T L E F F
ATTORNEY GENERAL
RAY HINTZE KIRK TORGENSEN
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
November 8, 2008
To Whom It May Concern:
As Utah Attorney General, I am writing this letter to rebut a
blog Sam Antar posted on his website on November 1, 2007.
I tried to post this letter as a comment on his blog but Mr.
Antar apparently refused to post it. Mr. Antar was invited to
speak at our 14th Annual White Collar Crime Conference, and to
express my concern and dismay at the way Mr. Antar used that
invitation to “bookend,” and inappropriately attempt to
legitimize, his attack on a publicly traded company
headquartered in Utah. We invited Mr. Antar to speak at our
conference solely because he is a convicted felon. There is
much that law enforcement can learn fromcriminals to catch
more criminals and better protect the public. The invitation
to Mr. Antar allowed Utah law enforcement and securities
professionals to gain access to the inner-workings of a known
criminal mastermind. I was warned that Mr. Antar might use his
speaking engagement to suggest that my office or I personally,
endorse or support his accusations against Overstock.com or
some other public company. Based on that warning, officials
in my office secured a promise from Mr. Antar that he would
not use this invitation for that purpose. So much for the
promises of a convicted felon! The day after speaking in Utah,
he submitted the forgoing post, opening and closing his latest
round of Overstock attacks with references to me, my office,
and his presentation at our crime conference. Let me be
perfectly clear: Our invitation to Mr. Antar was in no way an
endorsement of his views on the current practices of any
public company. It was in no way a statement of support or an
endorsement of Mr. Antar's controversial statements respecting
any particular public company of any sort. Our invitation,
and his presentation at our conference, should not to be
taken as any comment on Mr. Antar’s self-promotion as a
person who can detect and expose errant practices of public
companies. In light of Mr. Antar’s background as a convicted
white collar criminal, we believe that the public should
carefully scrutinize and objectively examine any public
statements Mr. Antar makes. Neither I, nor the Office of the
Utah Attorney General, is reliant on Sam Antar for training or
advice on the current practices of public companies. This
office is not underwriting or endorsing in anyway Mr. Antar or
his views. Nothing could be further from the truth. I admonish
Mr. Antar to remove from his website any reference (including
the forgoing blog) that might suggest such a conclusion; and
to be careful not to suggest such a connection or conclusion
in any of his public statements.
Very truly yours,
Mark Shurtleff
P O B o x 1 4 2 3 2 0 - S A L T L A K E C I T Y , U T A H 8 4 1 1 4 - 2 3 2 0 - T E L ( 8 0 1 ) 5 3 8 - 9 6 0 0 - F A X 5 3 8 - 1 1 2 1
overstock.com
Overstock.com Lauds Utah Attorney General's Attempted
Correction to Convicted Felon's Blog
SALT LAKE CITY, UT, Nov 14, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News
Network) -- Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) has received
and published a copy of an open letter from Utah Attorney
General Mark Shurtleff to Sam Antar, the substance of which
Antar refuses to post to his blog after Shurtleff twice
attempted to submit them as comments. The Attorney General's
comments can be read at: overstock.com
Shurtleff maintains that Antar used his blog to violate a
commitment to avoid exploiting, for self-promotional purposes,
an invitation to participate in a recent seminar on white
collar crime organized by the Utah Attorney General's office.
Shurtleff's letter states, "I was warned that Mr. Antar might
use this speaking engagement to suggest that my office or I
personally, endorse or support his accusations against
Overstock.com or some other public company. Based on that
warning, officials in my office secured a promise from Mr.
Antar that he would not use this invitation for that purpose.
So much for the promises of a convicted felon!"
Antar is a former CPA who engineered the money laundering
portion of the legendary Crazy Eddie stock manipulation
scheme.
Referring to Antar as a "known criminal mastermind," Shurtleff
wrote, "We invited Mr. Antar to speak at our conference solely
because he is a convicted felon. There is much that law
enforcement can learn from criminals to catch more criminals
and better protect the public."
Shurtleff went on to affirm: "Neither I, nor the Office of the
Utah Attorney General, is reliant on Sam Antar for training or
advice on the current practices of public companies. This
office is not underwriting or endorsing in any way Mr. Antar
or his views. Nothing could be further from the truth. I
admonish Mr. Antar to remove from his website any reference
(including the forgoing blog) that might suggest such a
conclusion; and to be careful not to suggest such a connection
or conclusion in any of his public statements."
Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne has engaged in a
very public battle against illegal stock market manipulation.
Several bloggers and journalists, including Sam Antar, have
responded with equally public attacks against Byrne.
"For over two years I have alleged that the New York financial
media has grown so cozy with Wall Street that they refuse to
report on what the smart money knows: that a crack exists in
our financial system by which criminal hedge funds are
profiteering at the expense of hundreds of entrepreneurs; that
this is destroying corporate governance, ruining companies,
and possibly creating systemic risk; and that the SEC has
grown so captured that getting them to enforce the rule of law
to stop this may take (quite literally) an Act of Congress,"
Byrne said.
"The letter from the Attorney General of Utah, which Sam has,
for a week, ignored and refused to post to his blog as twice
requested, speaks to Sam's perfidy," Byrne added. "The real
investigative business journalists left in this country might
explore whose interests are being served by the promotion of
Sam Antar by CBS-MarketWatch, DowJones, and Fortune."
To learn more about Patrick Byrne's fight against corruption
on Wall Street, view Bloomberg's Emmy-nominated special
report "Phantom Shares"
cdn.overstock.com
or Byrne's own narrated presentation entitled "Deep Capture" at
deepcapturethemovie.com.
About Overstock.com
Overstock.com, Inc. is an online "closeout" retailer offering
discount, brand-name merchandise for sale over the Internet.
The company offers its customers an opportunity to shop for
bargains conveniently, while offering its suppliers an
alternative inventory liquidation distribution channel.
Overstock.com, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a publicly
traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market System and
can be found online at overstock.com.
Overstock.com is a registered trademark of Overstock.com, Inc.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited
to, statements the impact of the crack in the financial
system, and the level of capture within the SEC, as well as
all such other risks as identified in our Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2006, and all our subsequent filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which contain and
identify important factors that could cause the actual results
to differ materially from those contained in our projections
or forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: Overstock.com |
