Безумный Эдди: История мошенничества и краха империи электроники.

U. S. electronics retail company

Crazy Eddie was a consumer electronics chain in the Northeastern United States. The chain was started in 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, by businessmen Eddie and Sam M. Antar, and was previously named ERS Electronics (ERS stood for Eddie, Rose and Sam; Rose and Sam were Eddie's parents). The chain rose to prominence throughout the Tri State area (New York New Jersey Connecticut) as much for its prices as for its memorable radio and television commercials, featuring a frenetic, "crazy" character played by radio DJ Jerry Carroll (who copied most of his shtick from early TV commercial pioneer, used car and electronics salesman Earl "Madman" Muntz). At its peak, Crazy Eddie had 43 stores in four states and reported more than $300 million in sales. Almost from the beginning, Crazy Eddie engaged in fraudulent business practices, including under reporting income, skimming sales taxes, and paying employees off the books. These practices, in conjunction with aggressive sales tactics, enabled Crazy Eddie to significantly undercut competitors and grow rapidly. During the process of going public, Crazy Eddie continued to engage in fraud, over reporting profits, inflating inventory and duping auditors. Unable to sustain his fraudulent business practices, co founder Eddie Antar cashed in millions of dollars' worth of stock and resigned from the company in December 1986. Crazy Eddie's board of directors approved the sale of the company in November 1987. The entire Antar family was immediately removed from the business. The new owners quickly discovered the true extent of the Antar family's fraud, but were unable to turn around Crazy Eddie's quickly declining fortunes. In 1989, the company filed for bankruptcy and was liquidated. In February 1987, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey commenced a federal grand jury investigation into the financial activities of Crazy Eddie. In September of that year, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission initiated an investigation into alleged violations of federal securities laws by certain Crazy Eddie officers and employees. Eddie Antar was eventually charged with a series of crimes. Antar fled to Israel in February 1990, but was returned to the United States in January 1993 to stand trial. His 1993 conviction on fraud charges was overturned, but he eventually pleaded guilty in 1996. In 1997, Antar was sentenced to eight years in prison and was subject to numerous fines. He was released from prison in 1999, and died in 2016.

Almost from the beginning, Crazy Eddie's management engaged in various forms of fraud. The Antars deliberately falsified their books to reduce (or eliminate) their taxable income. They also paid employees off the books, and regularly skimmed thousands of dollars (in cash) earned at the shops. For every $5 Crazy Eddie reported as income, $1 was taken by the Antars. In 1979, the Antars began depositing much of this money—hundreds of thousands of dollars—in Israeli bank accounts. The Antar family skimmed an estimated $3 to $4 million per year at the height of their fraud. In one offshore bank account, the family deposited more than $6 million between 1980 and 1983. Despite the misgivings of people closely associated with Crazy Eddie, the company held its initial public offering on September 13, 1984 (former symbol: CRZY). Shares of the company sold initially for $8. By early 1986, Crazy Eddie stock was trading at more than $75 per share. Eddie recruited his cousin, Sam E. Antar (known as Sammy), to assist the company with its fraud. Sammy earned a degree in accounting in 1980, and served his apprenticeship with Penn and Horowitz, Crazy Eddie's auditor. In 1986, he was named chief financial officer of the company. Sammy was informed that there was a $3 million deficit from the previous year's inventory fraud that needed to be hidden. Additionally, he was instructed to find ways to show a 10% growth in sales. As this was going on, another electronics discounter entered the picture and started buying up shares in Crazy Eddie. This man was Elias Zinn, who was based in Houston and was running his own business across Texas. Zinn eventually partnered with management consultant Victor Palmieri's backing to purchase $17.5 million worth of Crazy Eddie stock, which represented 7.5% of the outstanding shares. This eventually resulted in Zinn and Palmieri ending up with the controlling interest in the company, which enabled them to initiate a hostile takeover. Once rumors of a takeover started, financial analysts began to examine more closely Crazy Eddie's financial situation. What they discovered was that while most stockholders of the company had lost money since 1984, Eddie had sold 6.5 million shares worth $74 million (~$ in ). A flurry of stockholder lawsuits were filed against the Antar family. Company president and CEO Peter Martosella cited problems created by the creditors' position (which he termed "ill advised"), but said business would be conducted as usual at the remaining 26 stores and that Crazy Eddie was still a strong franchise. and the chain, which only five years earlier had been one of the more lucrative retail chains in the United States, had ceased to exist.

In the meantime, a longtime Crazy Eddie associate named Arnie Spindler, who quit the company after Eddie dismissed his father Sam, brothers Allen and Mitchell and others after a family dispute, had provided investigators with information concerning Crazy Eddie's fraudulent business practices. Spindler implicated Eddie and Sammy, but stated the rest of the family was innocent, though subpoenas were served to the entire Antar family. In January 1990, a Federal district judge ordered Antar to repatriate more than $50 million (~$ in ) he had transferred illegally to Israel. He was also ordered to appear in court to explain what had happened with the money. When he failed to appear, an arrest warrant was issued. Eddie surrendered to U. S. Marshals a week later, but was released and ordered to appear at a second hearing. When he failed to appear at that hearing, a second arrest warrant was issued and his assets were frozen. As of 2009, Sammy was an adviser for government agencies and businesses investigating fraud. Eddie was arrested in June 1992 on federal racketeering conspiracy charges and was extradited to the United States in January 1993. He pleaded not guilty and his trial began in June 1993, and was prosecuted jointly by U. S. Attorneys Paul Weissman and Michael Chertoff. On July 20, Eddie was found guilty of seventeen counts of fraud. His brother, Mitchell, was found guilty of three counts, and acquitted on two.

Soon after the chain closed in 1989, a New Jersey based investment group led by Alex Adjmi bought the rights to the Crazy Eddie trademark and announced in January 1990 that it had purchased the leases on Crazy Eddie's original location in Brooklyn and another in East Brunswick, New Jersey. The intent of the Adjmi group was to reopen the chain, but nothing ever came of the attempt. In 1998, the grandchildren of Eddie, Allen and Mitchell Antar, revived the chain with a shop in Wayne, New Jersey, and as an online Internet venture, crazyeddieonline. com. The revived company retained the slogan "His prices are insane" and re hired Jerry Carroll, who by this time had founded his own advertising agency, as spokesman. Despite plans to expand the chain to a potential 10 stores, the new Crazy Eddie did not expand beyond the Wayne store and in 1999 the only shop of the revived chain closed. Eddie returned to the company in 2001, which by this time had been doing business solely as an Internet and buy by telephone business for more than a year. He reinitiated the Web site as crazyeddie. com and once again hired Jerry Carroll to do its advertising. By 2004, crazyeddie. com had disappeared again, and after a brief attempt to revive the online retailer in 2005, Crazy Eddie ceased to exist once again. The Crazy Eddie trademark and associated intellectual property were then acquired by Texas based company Trident Growth Fund. In July 2006, Trident attempted to auction the brand and the domain name crazyeddie. com on eBay, but the reserve price was not met. On March 3, 2009, it was announced that Brooklyn based businessman Jack Gemal had bought the rights to the Crazy Eddie name and quickly began a new online Crazy Eddie venture at pricesareinsane. com. Gemal was also reported to be scouting retail space for new Crazy Eddie retail locations, stating that he wanted to open 50 locations during the next two years. This online venture performed business in the same manner as Crazy Eddie's other online stores, selling appliances and other electronics through the Internet. However, Gemal was never able to find the retail space he sought to reinitiate the Crazy Eddie store chain, and in 2012, the online business ended. The pricesareinsane. com site no longer exists, and as of 2018, the Crazy Eddie trademark is listed as abandoned. Jerry Carroll died in October 2020 after suffering from cardiac issues for many years. Writer Gary Weiss, in doing research for a book he was writing about the rise and fall of Crazy Eddie, learned that Carroll's death had not been publicized, despite how ubiquitous a presence he was while serving as spokesman for Crazy Eddie.

On September 10, 2016, Eddie Antar died at the age of 68. A funeral home in Ocean Township, New Jersey confirmed the death. Although Antar had been suffering from liver cancer, an official cause was not given. CNBC Commentator and journalist Herb Greenberg remarked that Antar's death was the "end of an era".

On August 23, 2022, a book detailing the rise and fall of Crazy Eddie was released. Titled Retail Gangster and written by journalist Gary Weiss, the book chronicles, in significant detail, how Eddie Antar was able to build his business into one of the most profitable in the country and the illicit means he employed.