As a CPA with an MBA, I believe the best way to become a financial crook is to take the route the Antar's took, get somebody on the "inside" to learn what the auditors look for and how they do the looking. It's like taking lock picking courses to become a burglar.
Pretty much. It's like how the best cheaters in speedrunning are also the best speedrunners and most active members of the community. No one knows how to make a fake speedrun look legit than a speedrunner.
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917Huh, hadn't considered that, but makes sense. Any YT documentaries (like this one on Crazy Eddie) you would recommend featuring a speedrunner who was found to be cheating?
My family purchased most of our stereo equipment at Crazy Eddie’s back in the 70s. The words you used are more than appropriate. They didn’t screw over the customers. They just had a place that was too good to be true. Insaaaaaaane!
I worked at a Crazy Eddie's for a couple of years out of high school in the mid 80's in CT. I have to say that as employees, we had no idea what was happening deep within the company. It all came apart after I'd long moved on. I must say though that, it was actually a fun place to work. Everyone was cool. The bosses were great. I always did find it weird that it was the only store that I'd ever seen in which you could walk in and negotiate the price on the expensive items no matter what the price tag was. There was a secret figure inserted into a larger set of digits that gave the sales person the bottom/lowest price to work off of. The sales team would see what the customer wanted, call stock to see if the item was available, then negotiate. The amazing thing was, if you worked there, you were somewhat considered lucky and cool. I'm sure that it was probably due to the zany commercials that were always on TV and radio.
I recall a class I had in high school where the teacher went over what the guys at electronic stores could negotiate, that they had one price they could get down to without consulting their boss, and another price that their boss couldn't go below either. I don't know how true it was, but from that it seemed like it was common in the electronics industry for customers to haggle prices, which makes sense given how expensive electronics used to be. Now most people buy electronics online and don't have any opportunity to haggle, and get lower prices than local stores would publish anyway.
I worked in East Brunswick store. The price inside the digits was called "c-line" if i recall. That was the lowest you could go as a salesman and I think the employee price on stuff too.
Was that the MR and the K number? I bought a lot of electronics and home computers at the Crazy Eddie in Westbury in the 1980s. I was able to negotiate for a lot of “Insane” prices.
@@doubledrats235 Really not sure, I was a stockroom guy and that was sales stuff. I knew about the number that started and ended with 9's...the number between the 9's was the "cost" (C-line) and the lowest sales staff were permitted to go.
It sounds like an easy pitch: it's "The Big Short" meets "Better Call Saul." I can easily see David Cross and Jason Mantzoukas having their career redefining dramatic turns playing the Antar cousins.
I worked at CE back in High School in 87-88. I worked the stockroom/customer pick up. The video really only scratched the surface on how crazy it was working there. Not just that location on Route 10, it was all of them!
That cop with the mullet at 11:30, is the most 1989 thing I've ever seen. He's the perfect cool guy detective on a CBS primetime cop drama in the late 80s.
Eddie has quite a story. Juvenile detention, love triangles, he was stabbed outside of a bar and left for dead ..... His story alone is INNNNNSANE! I grew up in NYC and when they first started advertising on the radio, it was the talk of the town. He somehow got a deal for 20 or 30 second commercials for $4.99
I used to work for Crazy Eddie's back in the 80s. It was a blast and so much fun, until it wasn't. *The "family" used to come into our store on their way to the Jersey Shore, and would take all the cash out of the register, and write an IOU.* Never knew if they ever paid any of it back, I just worked in stock and sold car stereos... P.S. Oh yea, we all knew what they were doing, and knew the gig was up when the stockholders made us do 3 inventories in 1988 looking for everything that didn't exist...
I worked for Eddie early in the 80s. You missed some of the key points and a couple of great stories. Primarily, he did not flee to Israel. They had an extradition agreement with the US. He fled to Syria. The consumer electronics business in New York during the latter part of the 20th century was largely controlled by families of Syrian Jews from Brooklyn - The Wiz was another notable company. So when he fled, he went to Syria. He got CAUGHT in Israel, in a joint FBI/Mossad sting. One of my favorite stories is Eddie opened up a medical school in Grenada. Everyone wondered why, but after a while, it just was one of his crazy ideas. I found out why, quite by accident. He also desperately wanted to sell Apple Computers, but Apple was very particular about the retailers they did business with. I put two and two together when I went down to the stock room to have lunch one day, and sat down on a box for a Mac II. It was addressed to the school in Grenada. He was buying massive numbers of these computers at the discount price Apple sold Macs to colleges and universities. He was getting them cheaper than any of the other competing advertisers. One of the things you could hear echoing through the stores was "Floose (Syrian for money) talks. Cash, no tax." People who knew would get items cheaper and with no tax if they paid in cash. Syrian was used for a number or things. Another phrase you could hear was "Shoof (look at) that abbo (woman's behind). Chances were that the only women who would be offended were the women who worked in the stores. "Shoof" was used in another Eddie shibboleth - "Shoof the hushos" or look out for the thieves. People (who didn't work there) responsible for "shrinkage" were often identified and trailed, usually by the off-duty NYC cops who worked security.
@@michaelmoorrees3585 yep, and they had to totally change public accounting audit standards as a result of that through the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. Most Arthur Andersen principals just moved on to other "Big 4" firms so other than a few key players, most people at AA left relatively unscathed.
Umm...except that most of what he did is now flat out illegal and easily reportable to the government. Enron used a ton of these loopholes and they're now no longer allowed. Auditors can no longer offer consulting services to auditing clients, nor can they have a financial or personal relationship to who they're auditing, just to name a few restrictions.
@@drewo6388 ugh. SOX is the absolutely *worst* accounting law ever. It's cost companies billions of dollars in useless compliance requirements while doing very little to actually reduce fraud. (Case in point: all the big frauds that have happened in the last few years.) Even the Congressional authors of the law admitted it was a bad law shortly after they implemented it. But did they roll it back? That was too much work. Better to just let everyone suffer.
I was a kid when I lived in New York and remember these commercials clear as day. I never went into the stores but im sure my parents have. I didnt realize they made 7000 ads, but I am glad to see some of them were put up on youtube for Posterity. Sucks they were criminals, but they definitly left their mark, and thats Inssaannneee! I can still hear that in my head to this day. Thank you for doing this one.
I'm in the UK and remember Crazy Eddie's advertisements as they made their way over here in film & TV (of note, Short Circuit 2 where Johnny Five parodies one of the ads). I didn't know the full scale of the fraud that brought them down, a great video as always :)
I was a kid of the 80's, living just outside the NYC area. Crazy Eddie commercials were on every TV and radio station and in the local newspaper. People liked imitating the guy on the commercials..... and we'd compare them other situations in our own lives. So-and-so was as crazy as Crazy Eddie.
I hadn’t heard of this chain but It’s funny because there was a local furniture store near me called “Crazy Bernie’s”, and they appear to have had very similar advertising practices. Crazy Bernie himself was arrested for falsely reporting earnings and receiving tons of taxpayer money they shouldn’t have been. Sounds like someone was inspired in multiple ways.
In Sweden we had a ripoff of Crazy Eddie called Galne Gunnar, (Literally "Crazy Gunnar") that was owned by H&M. They went out of business in the year 2000.
I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that the Crazy Eddie logo was designed by underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, which was another factor in making the store look "cool." The image is traced from Zap Comix, and Crumb was not credited and most likely never compensated for it either, so Eddie may have also committed IP theft.
My 1970s college roommate was from the NYC area. Whenever he had a few beers, he would start acting out Crazy Eddie commercials. He also did Jerry's G.E. appliance store commercials. We were at a southern school, so most of us knew nothing about the New York market. It was hilarious!
As a kid growing up in NYC in the 80's I disdained Crazy Eddie. Their ads were everywhere on TV and their gimmick got old fast. Even then they had this shady vibe and I was not surprised when fraud was exposed. Seeing their ads off the air was a huge relief!
Great story. You cannot make up stories like this. Truth is stranger than fiction. Clearly they were very determined, persistent and creative in their schemes. There are a lot of business lessons to learn from in this story. Today, it would be much harder to pull off the same scheme because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which requires controls and their testing to mitigate the potential for cooking the books.
There is one thing you missed. WWOR, channel 9 out of NYC at the time was a cable "Superstation", carried on cable systems nationwide, so the Crazy Eddie ads were getting exposure far outside of the New York City market. I remember being an adolescent and teenager here in Pittsburgh and being familiar with the ads.
WWOR was not a NY station it was out of Secaucus NJ. I'm only splitting hairs because WWOR gave us some programing that Made Crazy Eddie seem legit Richard Bey and Morton Downey Jr. are two that come to mind.
Chimney stacking: stacking boxes around the outside of a pallet so that it looks like the pallet is full, even though there's nothing in the middle. labor intensive, but if the warehouse is big enough it can really make it look like you have much more inventory on hand than you actually do.
I still have a Crazy Eddie tshirt from when I was a kid, even though it was post collapse of the company. But the Antar family went from an immigrant success story to something no immigrant from Syria wanted any connection to. The grandfather Murad Antar was a store owner who came from Aleppo to the US with his young son Sam (different Sam than his nephew who did the cooking of the books, who now works for a firm that investigates fraud), Sam founded the electronics store, which he brought in his son, Eddie, who renamed it Crazy Eddie's. The Antar's were high profile in their community, until the collapse, when everyone distanced from them.
I did a project on this for Managerial Accounting class and I was absolutely enthralled with the story. Me and my project partner would just laugh the more we learned.
As a 61 year old who grew up buying electronics in the mid to late '70's and '80's, I remember the Crazy Eddie ads. I avoided them for some reason and instead did my shopping at J & R Music World out of NYC. Never had a problem with them.
J&R was amazing. Back in the day, they would have all kinds of jazz and blues CDs in the back of the store on the second floor you could barely find anywhere.
@@sjenkins1057 I never actually went to a J & R store. In fact, I lived almost 1,000 miles south of there in Columbus, Georgia. But I came to know of J & R through their ads in some of the magazines I bought: Stereo Review or Stereo World, I can't remember the title now + Rolling Stone. In time, I called them for a catalog, got on their mailing list and about every month or so, I'd get their latest catalog of products. My proudest purchase from J & R was my car stereo system. In 1980, I sent off for (literally mailing a personal check to J & R) for a Panasonic CQS-710 AM/FM Tuner with Metal / Chrome & Dolby NR built into the cassette player, a Pioneer Amp with 7 Band Equalizer, a pair of Jensen 6" by 9" coaxials for the rear deck and a pair of Pioneer Super Tweeters for up front. My Dad helped me install it all one weekend and everything worked together effortlessly. My '73 Gran Torino pumped ROCK the way it was meant to be heard. From all the AC/DC, Rush, Nugent, KISS, Molly Hatchet, Van Halen, Rolling Stones and etc cranked through the system, it's a wonder I can still hear. Sadly, I haven't been able to locate any info on the Panasonic CQS-710 radio tuner, probably lost to history.
This has been my favorite video of yours. I have a background in inventory auditing for retail electronic stores and loved their stories of trying to deceive the auditors.
I grew up in Brooklyn with a Crazy Eddie within reasonable walking distance. I bought a lot of stuff there as a kid in the 80s who loved music. I'm glad you gave some time to this; the scandal is interesting and the Crazy Eddie commercials were an iconic 80's local-chain advertisement with the most over-the-top spokesperson possible.
At the time, they said we would be the "Toys R Us" of consumer electronics. Best buy and Circuit City didn't exist as national chains. As a salesmen I could negotiate prices, and that was unheard of. I used to go down to Edison, NJ every month for a manager's meeting, Kelso (Crazy Eddie), would often be on a stationary bike, in a grey sweatsuit. pumping away, sweating, and screaming at us. Managers would get calls in the middle of the night to move inventory to another store, to keep one step ahead of the auditors. Also, at meetings, Eddie, often, would give a heads-up on the stock "pump and dump". If only I had paid more attention, I could have retied at 25. It was only "Crazy" because I was in my 20"s and didn't know better.
I grew up in New Jersey and saw these ads all the time as a kid. They cracked me up. Yeah, I knew Eddie Antar got busted for fraud, but I never knew the whole extent of it. Blew my mind.
I remember seeing this crazy guy on TV back in the late 1970's when I was stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard~! I am glad that you showed that the guy in the Crazy Eddie's TV ads was a actor & not guilty of any crimes. He did a fantastic job in making the commercials. Citizens go to prison for not paying taxes, but politician receive - a get out free jail card... Shalom
I always think of the movie "Splash" when Darryl Hannah's character, Madison, watches the Crazy Eddie commercial on the multiple televisions in the store.
What’s interesting is that even though this chain was never national. The notoriety of the commercials was. They were featured on various compilation shows and late night tv. In the 80’s we may not have e had one of these near us, but we knew the name and the ads.
Fun fact. Irving Antar (Zukey was his nick name) : opened up numerous electronic stores here in south Florida. And was also part of the fraud, and scamming. They called themselves “Audio Video Discounters”.
In the late 90s I remember doing a case study in my college tax auditing class about Crazy Eddie's. I thought it was made-up fictitious story because I never heard of his business, but I guess I was wrong.
Those commercials were insane back in the day.. I’ve probably been to one but they blend with the wiz, pc richards tss consumers and service merchandise which were the most popular electronics stores in the NY tri state area during the 80s
In college in'85 Took a Accounting 101 course. The Instructor was an actual, practicing CPA in that small town that was a well loved at the University. In that class, he taught us 'Check Kiteing"
I'm from CA and For some reason I remember these very memorable ads. I lived on the East coast during college in MA, so I probably saw them there. I like those commercials.
What a wild story. The lengths people will go to for financial compensation will never cease to amaze & entertain me. Excellent Video Company Man. This series of events was explained in an entertaining, straightforward & factual manner. This is one of your best videos to date (in my opinion).
Thanks for explaining the Crazy Eddie's story. I was always fascinated by their fraud. Now I understand how they did it. I remember seeing the Saturday Night Live skits on TV.
A certain someone also hid or underreported profits to avoid taxes and overstated earnings when it came to securing loans. Makes you wonder how often these types of crimes go undetected.
As someone who grew up partially in jersey in the 80's, right across from Philly, I remember these well, takes me back. Can still hear it in my head if think about it lol
Say what you will about Crazy Eddie, their commercials were legendary. One of their commercials appeared in the movie Splash, and I think that was what catapulted them into the public consciousness beyond New York, and across America.
I remember entering Crazy Eddie store back in the 70s and 80s. I always found the salesmen very sleazy and high pressure. The electronics sold didn't seem of high quality. Never liked the place.
We had a guy named "Crazy Larry" here in KCMO back in the 1980's. His store was at a mall called "Wild Woodys" that was an original and great place in itself. It was an indoor flea market that was an icon that I went to my whole life until it closed in the late '80's or early 90's. Anyway, Crazy Larry had great ads like the one where he drag raced his '69 Charger against a new, at the time, VW Rabbit. I never heard of Crazy Eddie's but that was a popular way to stand out back in the day.
Love your channel man, your scripts are so tight without being stuffy. You do a great job of getting into details and financials when necessary while also focusing on the more digestible narrative. Keep it up :).
Oh, Boy. We finally got cable TV in my Upstate NY home around 1981. Crazy Eddie commercials were just the most entertaining thing on there. "His prices are insaaaaaane".
I heard about Crazy Eddie via Spongebob which had an episode with a salesman called Angry Jack that sold a wide variety of shells to peoples pet snails whose adverts where a reference to Crazy Eddie
I grew up in the Syracuse area and our cable company carried the three NYC then-indie channels(5, 9 and 11), which is how I became aware of Crazy Eddie.
His young cousin said this in an interview.."i was mad at my uncle...i told him..Uncle Eddie...you raised us to be crooks! Criminals!".. very interesting. His nephew also informed and wore wires, and was the CFO. Got his first bonus check at 14 for 1500 dollars. That's like a $12,000 in today's dollar.
I grew up in NJ about 20 miles outside of NYC in the late 70's to mid 80's before we moved to Rochester, NY area. I remember this guy. You couldn't get away from the ads..
I grew up in Jersey in the 80s and 90s. Crazy Eddie's commercials are super nostalgic lol I loved seeing them as a kid when I'd stay up past my bed time watching Dennis the Mennis on Nick at Night. I even had a yellow shirt with the Crazy Eddie character and logo on the front. Good times. Oh ya and i love the reference in Seinfeld.
I did a brief stint in New Jersey around 1980. We were close enough to NYC that we got some of their TV programming. Part of that was the adverts and I really found Crazy Eddy's ads so different with so much energy and pizzazz! But I had no idea they were crooked!
How weird! I remember the main character from the movie “The Accountant” (starring Ben Affleck) referring to Crazy Eddie, but I didn’t know it was a real person/case. I thought it was a story the writers made up for the movie. I’m going to go back and watch the movie to see if the reference makes sense.
I remember the commercials, my Dad used to shop there when I was a kid and I remember they did a report on this incident on 60 minutes back in the 90's.
Oh I more then remembered this I was serving papers and had to go to the court house when I was younger. What a circus. One of the scenes in Goodfellas had crazy eddies in the background cause they filmed in 89 and it came out 90.
I gotta to admit, the family put a lot of work and dedication into committing these frauds and was able to hide behind them with their entertaining commercials.
I loved my local Crazy Eddie store growing up in Queens NY (Elmhurst) in the 80s... The store was always filled with the latest technology, the staff were always fun and everyone just had a good time working there. Where most kids maybe loved going to the arcades/mall/toy stores, you'd find me in the computer section of the store for hours upon hours. You would have indeed loved going to Crazy Eddies in the 80's. No other store has reproduced that tech wonder and being able to buy at "crazy" prices :)
I live in NC so, the only exposure to the commercials I ever saw was in the movie Splash! with Darryl Hannah and Tom Hanks. She goes to the mall and sees the commercial at an electronics store.
Jerry Carrol(actor in the commercials) used to race late model race cars up and down the east coast.. I used to love watching him drive.. he drove INSANE on the track.. the crowd loved him
I grew up in Oklahoma City and we had our local version of Crazy Eddie, her business was called Soundtrack. She had her name legally changed to Linda Soundtrack. I think her TV ads can be seen on RU-vid. There are crazies everywhere.
The good ole days. Between this and "Hey Jerry, what's the story" JGE's "show ya union card and you're in!" bits, it was like doing standup on the radio. No shame, anything to make a sale.
