The true tale of Barry Minkow, the amazing teen-age swindler, resembles the story ''The Emperor's New Clothes.'' Mr. Minkow turned an insolvent carpet-cleaning business into a public company with a paper value of more than $200 million. He was lionized in the press, indulged on the Oprah Winfrey show and given a hero's welcome on Wall Street. But only a few people saw, or wanted to see, that his business scarcely existed.