Steve Comisar
{{Short description|American con man}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Steve Comisar
| image = Steve_Comisar_in-hollywood.jpg
| alt = Comisar
| caption = Comisar in 2020
| other_names = Brett Champion
| occupation = Con man
| birth_place =
| birth_name = Steven Robert Comisar
| death_place =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|12|30|mf=yes}}
}}
Steven Robert Comisar (born December 30, 1961) is an American criminal and book author. He has been convicted of fraud and extortion multiple times.{{r|Metropolitan News-Enterprise Online 2006}} He used confidence tricks and other techniques to fool his victims. Comisar was in federal prison and was released April 27, 2018.{{r|prison}}
Career
Comisar grew up in Beverly Hills, California. As a young man he sold a "solar powered clothes dryer" in national magazines for $49.95. Buyers received a length of clothesline.{{r|Sandbeck 2007 p. 221}} Comisar has been arrested and convicted of numerous crimes.{{r|prison}}{{r|articles.latimes.com 12-1999}}{{r|justice.gov 2008}} Comisar was convicted of a variety of frauds in 1983, 1990, 1994 and 1999. All these trials took place in Federal court in Los Angeles.{{r|Rosenzweig 2002}} In 1999, Comisar was arrested for swindling investors in a fake television quiz show involving Joe Namath. He was sentenced to thirty-three months in jail.{{r|articles.latimes.com 12-1999}}
Comisar used the working name Brett Champion during the period when he said he had retired from his criminal activity and posed as a fraud prevention expert and consultant, using it on Dateline NBC,{{r|Metropolitan News-Enterprise Online 2006}}{{r|Main Justice 2010}} The View, Sally Leeza Crook & Chase and in various other television appearances, and when he wrote the book America's Guide to Fraud Prevention.{{r|Main Justice 2010}}{{r| Independent Newspapers Online}}{{r|articles.latimes.com 11-1999}} Comisar is now prohibited from using this alias or from referring to himself as a consumer fraud expert. His book is considered a "piece of fraud history" by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and is on display in their fraud museum.{{r|acfeinsights}}{{r|accountingtoday}}
References
{{reflist|1=30em|refs=
| title = Prisoner Admits Trying to Extort Money From Two Local Lawyers
| website = Metropolitan News-Enterprise Online
| date = November 20, 2008
| url = http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/comi121106.htm
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081120044330/http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/comi121106.htm
| archive-date = November 20, 2008
| url-status = live
| access-date = February 11, 2018
}}
| url = https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/
| title = Federal Bureau of Prisons
| publisher = Bop.gov
| accessdate = May 25, 2011
}}
| last = Sandbeck
| first = E.
| title = Organic Housekeeping: In Which the Non-Toxic Avenger Shows You How to Improve Your Health and That of Your Family, While You Save Time, Money, and, Perhaps, Your Sanity
| publisher = Scribner
| year = 2007
| isbn = 978-1-4165-9570-0
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AfvBaQaFtrcC&pg=PA221
| access-date = February 11, 2018
| page = 221
| quote = Awhile back the brilliant scam artist, Steve Comisar, cleverly exploited the efficiency of line drying laundry by advertising a "Solar Powered Clothes Dryer" for only $49.95. When the suckers, er, customers, opened the eagerly awaited packages, they discovered that the "Scientifically proven, space-age clothes dryer" was a piece of clothesline. I'm sure quite a few of them were amused. The equipment necessary for line drying clothes is usually inexpensive, ...
}}
| title = Purported 'Former' Con Man Is Sentenced Anew - Los Angeles Times
| website = Los Angeles Times
| date = December 7, 1999
| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-dec-07-me-41367-story.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090107175113/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/07/local/me-41367
| archive-date = January 7, 2009
| url-status = live
| access-date = February 11, 2018
}}
| title = Release No. 07-066 Career Con Man Sentenced To Five Years For Attempting To Extort Money From Attorney Representing Murderer
| website = justice.gov
| date = May 15, 2007
| url = https://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2007/066.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080519140934/https://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2007/066.html
| archive-date = May 19, 2008
| url-status = dead
| access-date = February 11, 2018
}}
| title = Schwarzenegger Names Federal Prosecutor To Court
| website = Main Justice
| date = July 2, 2010
| url = http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/07/02/schwarzenegger-names-federal-prosecutor-to-court/
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101121100547/http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/07/02/schwarzenegger-names-federal-prosecutor-to-court/
| archive-date = November 21, 2010
| url-status = dead
| access-date = February 11, 2018
}}
| last = Rosenzweig
| first = David
| title = 'Former' Con Artist Accused of Bilking 84-Year-Old Man
| newspaper = Los Angeles Times
| date = December 24, 2002
| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-24-me-swindle24-story.html
| access-date = February 9, 2018
}}
| author = Independent Newspapers Online
| url = http://www.iol.co.za/news/back-page/the-man-who-can-t-stop-conning-1.6962
| title = The man who can't stop conning
| publisher = Independent Online
| date = July 24, 1999
| accessdate = May 25, 2011
}}
| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-24-me-59160-story.html
| title = Author of Consumer Fraud Guide Arrested
| work = Los Angeles Times
| date = November 7, 1999
| access-date = May 25, 2011
}}
[http://www.acfeinsights.com/acfe-insights/2011/3/24/barry-minkow-added-to-the-list-of-repeat-offenders.html Barry Minkow Added to the List of Repeat Offenders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624175621/http://www.acfeinsights.com/acfe-insights/2011/3/24/barry-minkow-added-to-the-list-of-repeat-offenders.html |date=June 24, 2011 }}, from Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Scott Patterson, ACFE Media Relations Specialist
| url = http://www.accountingtoday.com/gallery/acfe-fraud-museum-63177-1.html
| title = ACFE's Fraud Museum
| date = June 29, 2012
| publisher = Accounting Today
| accessdate = March 4, 2014
}}
}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Comisar, Steve}}
Category:21st-century American writers
Category:American male writers
Category:American prisoners and detainees
Category:American people convicted of fraud