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A New York City man has accused gambling giant MGM of "preying on his gambling addiction with repeated cash bonuses". Also named in the suit are the company's online arms, BetMGM and Entain.
But the company claims it's all one big fraud, the latest from an individual they believe to be a conman.
In court papers, MGM says Sam Antar, a twice-jailed “fraudster” who repeatedly victimized friends, relatives and strangers, is engaging in “his latest scheme” by falsely accusing MGM of wrongdoing.
His criminal history is pretty extensive.
In 2013, Sam Antar was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for taking $225,000 in a fraudulent investment scheme. He was convicted and jailed last year on theft by deception charges involving nearly $350,000. In April, he admitted committing federal securities fraud for bilking investors including friends stemming from that same case, and was ordered in May to pay restitution.
As a result, MGM is asking that a federal judge dismiss the case.
“Sam Antar is a convicted felon and repeat fraudster who has pled guilty to defrauding numerous individuals out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in false stock investment schemes,” MGM wrote in its June 9 response to Antar's litigation, filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. “Rather than accept accountability for his own actions, Antar blames BetMGM for his crimes, falsely claiming that BetMGM preyed upon his alleged gambling addiction.”
The Antar name may ring a bell to those who grew up in the New York City area. He's the nephew of the late Eddie Antar, better known as "Crazy Eddie", an electronics store entrepreneur whose commercials ran relentlessly during the 1980's. Crazy Eddie offered the unforgettable pitch, "Our prices are insane!"
Eddie Antar himself was no stranger to criminal activity. From the beginning his management was accused of under-reporting income, skimming sales taxes, and paying employees off the books. For every $5 Crazy Eddie reported as income, $1 was reportedly taken by the Antars. As a public company, Eddie, and others were found to have engaged in increasing amounts of inventory fraud to increase reported profits and inflate the value of Crazy Eddie stock.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
