Published: 26 August 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Author of book on the Syrian Jewish retail legend says he became interested in the project through Eddie’s cousin, who became a witness against him.
Crazy Eddie was a consumer electronics empire built on hype. Entrepreneur Eddie Antar grew his chain of discount stores in the New York of the 1970s with unforgettably loud TV commercials, a reputation for low prices and a compelling story about an underdog family of Syrian Jews who had fled persecution and built a successful business.
It was also, alas, a business built on fraud.
The complete story of the rise and downfall of Eddie Antar and the Crazy Eddie chain is told in a new book called Retail Gangster: The INSANE, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie, written by veteran investigative journalist Gary Weiss.
The Crazy Eddie chain, which closed in 1989, didn’t just execute one big scam, it ran dozens of them at once. The company, for several years, pocketed sales taxes. There were multiple varieties of accounting fraud, warranty scams, used products sold as new and questionable reporting of financial results. All along, there was plentiful nehkdi — Syrian slang for cash-only transactions — by the people running the business.
It all ended with the chain dead and multiple executives behind bars.
Weiss has long specialised in stories of business malfeasance, and the Crazy Eddie story is one of the most colourful in recent history. He said he was first interested in the project when Sam E. Antar, Eddie’s cousin, colleague and ultimately a key witness against him, became a commenter on Weiss’ blog in the early 2000s. Weiss had been working on the book, off and on, since 2008.
FULL STORY
New book explores the insane career of Syrian Jewish hustler ‘Crazy Eddie’ Antar (JTA)
Photo: Gary Weiss and the cover of his book
