Crazy Eddie, Fraud Mother?
NO ONE does fraud like Eddie Antar, and Crazy Eddie is the bizarre story that got Becca hooked on fraud!
Adam, Becca, and their Dad Jeff pop a few ludes and drop down the rabbit hole into a 1970’s New York City punk rock fever dream. They meet a young Eddie Antar scamming tourists in a seedy Time Square clip joint and follow his journey to become the eccentric millionaire founder of Crazy Eddie Electronics. Antar was a marketing genius, and by the mid 1980’s commercials for the chain were inescapable, shoppers were practically screamed at to rush out to Crazy Eddie’s because ‘HIS PRICES ARE INSANE!!!!’Â
The insane prices, of course, were facilitated by an elaborate criminal racket. Money laundering, insurance fraud, tax evasion, bribery, insider trading… Eddie Antar did it all! But when the cash begins to dry up, Eddie’s increasingly desperate and brazen behavior puts him in the crosshairs of the SEC. That’s when Eddie Antar became an international fugitive and left his family, who enabled and benefited from his behavior, holding the bag.
Pics from the episode:
17 year old Jeff Platsky in 1971
A Crazy Eddie electronics store in New York City in the 1990s.Credit...Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times
Queen at their in-store appearance at Crazy Eddies record store in New York
Lines out the door were possible by the store’s advertising campaign, which was I guess you could say the very first viral marketing gimmick.
Jerry Carrol filming a Crazy Eddie spot. Credit: Sam Antar on TwitterÂ
1970s Time Square.. Credit: Gothamist
Syrian immigrant children (ca. 1910-15) - WikipediaÂ
Bazaar in Bensonhurst, 86th Street east from Bay 32nd Street, Brooklyn. (source)
A Sony stereo cassette player, something you might buy at Crazy Eddies
Crazy Eddie prospectus
An article from the New York Times the year after they IPO’d in 1985 - talking about what a Business Genius Crazy Eddie was.
The warrant for Crazy Eddie, a.k.a. Ezra Ben Shlomo
Captured by a hot cop!
Eddie Antar, center, founder of the Crazy Eddie electronics store chain, after being extradited from Israel in 1993. He later pleaded guilty to a single charge of racketeering conspiracy.Credit...Dan Hulshizer/Associated Press
Sam Antar… Photo by Jonas Vandall, courtesy of Sam Antar
Another Antar family member more recently in trouble with the law. Sam A. Antar’s mugshot: (source)