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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey Saron, Hey Elizabeth, how are you doing, Buddy?

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Speaker 3: I always look forward to.

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Speaker 2: Seeing buddy, old pal looking good, looking good. Thanks thanks,

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Speaker 2: keeping keeping healthy.

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Speaker 4: I'm trying to keeping trying to keep fit there, Tiger.

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Speaker 4: All right, you know that's what former President George Bush

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Speaker 4: once said to my Asian friend in a very racist moment,

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Speaker 4: keeping fit there, Tiger.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's ridiculous, mad ridiculous. Well, you know, you know

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Speaker 2: what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 3: I do? Do you want to know?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 3: You want me to share it with you? Okay?

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Speaker 4: Well you know your boy Anthony in here, you boy,

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Speaker 4: Anthony Keatis, Sure, yeah, you're the lead singer read hot

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Speaker 4: Chili Peppers. Did you know that he was a star

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Speaker 4: before he was a star? Do you know he was

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Speaker 4: once a child actor?

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Speaker 2: I feel like in the peripheral of my h.

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Speaker 3: I got deep ones for you. He was. His father

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Speaker 3: was like an actor.

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Speaker 2: You know, his father, Blacky Lawless, right, Blackie Dammit or

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Speaker 2: Blackie Damit Yeah, Blackie Lawless. Uh yeah, with the metal

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Speaker 2: Misfits whatever I got it anywhere.

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Speaker 4: So Anthony Kety's dad, Blackie dam It was. He had

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Speaker 4: connections in La and the film world. So his son's like, oh,

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Speaker 4: I want to try my hand at acting, and his dad's like, okay,

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Speaker 4: gets him in a movie. The movie gets him into

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Speaker 4: He's in a bunch of them, right, But with his

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Speaker 4: big movie, he's in his nineteen seventy eight, he plays

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Speaker 4: the son of Sylvester Stallone's character in the movie Fist.

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Speaker 4: Do you know the movie fat it's the whole union

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Speaker 4: story where he leads this group of truck drivers trying

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Speaker 4: to unionize in like the thirties, and he's this tough guy.

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Speaker 4: It's a great movie. It's what people used to say.

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Speaker 4: It's one of his best huh. Anyway, Ketus plays his

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Speaker 4: son right, no, and so he's like trying to be

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Speaker 4: like this young actor. So he goes up to Stallone

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Speaker 4: on like this first day of set, and he's like, oh,

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Speaker 4: he goes up to you know, mister Sloane, mister Stallone, right,

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Speaker 4: but he's like, Hey, I'm gonna be playing your son.

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Speaker 4: So I thought that we should get to hang out

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Speaker 4: sometime and so I could develop a rapport. Before he

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Speaker 4: can finish, Stallone looks down, interrupts him, says, no, I

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Speaker 4: don't think so around for a pa and he says,

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Speaker 4: somebody come and get this kid, get him out of

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Speaker 4: here and out of his presence, just like I don't want.

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Speaker 4: So that was his life in the movies since so then.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought you had like a bad dad like

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Speaker 2: his dad.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you read Scars issue his memoir, the whole

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Speaker 4: stuff with his dad and like he's losing his virginity

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Speaker 4: to his dad's girlfriend. His dad was like getting him

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Speaker 4: all high on drugs early on.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing he's still alive.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: His dad was also was like hanging out with all

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Speaker 4: the rock stars of the seventies, so he gave him

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Speaker 4: that dream.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I like, oh, I'll just hanging out with that zeppel

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Speaker 3: w and over in the UK and it's like.

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Speaker 4: What yeah, and he you know, he also Anthony Keittas

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Speaker 4: he hung out with Blondie. Yeah, and he asked her

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Speaker 4: if Debbie Harry, if she would marry him when he

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Speaker 4: was like eight years old. And she remembered this years

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Speaker 4: later and commented her and said, like, one of the

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Speaker 4: sweetest things is when this little young man you know

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Speaker 4: him as Anthony Ketas asked me to get married. I

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Speaker 4: had to very plately turn him down because she was like,

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Speaker 4: you know, a grown woman came eight years old, but

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Speaker 4: good taste that.

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Speaker 2: Well that that whole tale is ridiculous. I like that.

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Speaker 2: You know what else is ridiculous?

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Speaker 6: R for it being crazy?

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Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,

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Speaker 2: and cons It's always ninety nine percent murder free and

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Speaker 2: one hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: You heard that that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's not easy opening at business.

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Speaker 3: From what I hear.

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Speaker 2: I've never done it, but yeah, I've never done it,

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Speaker 2: but people close to me have and it's a huge

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Speaker 2: gamble with a lot of work. Yeah, you know, you

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Speaker 2: can't take time off, at least not for a while.

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Speaker 4: I guess I started companies. Yeah, yeah, I guess that counts.

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Speaker 4: I was thinking more like shops business.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm thinking more shops businesses. But even starting

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Speaker 2: your own company, like you know, like what company? Did

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Speaker 2: you start?

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Speaker 3: A CGI animation company?

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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I mean it's a risk, oh yeah, totally, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: huge risk, and it takes a lot of time. Most

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Speaker 2: small business owners dedicate almost all of their awake hours

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Speaker 2: in the day to maintaining and growing the business. You will, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's exhausting, but you know, people soldier on. You have

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Speaker 2: to be nimble and crafty when taking the risk to start.

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Speaker 3: A business, sponsor to the market.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and like many fail, but it can be really

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Speaker 2: satisfying and like a comfortable payoff when the business is

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Speaker 2: run right and outside forces work in your favor.

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Speaker 4: So a lot of people in my family owned businesses.

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Speaker 4: My grandparents tried a shop that they loved and it

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Speaker 4: made them so happy. But not only just like, oh,

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Speaker 4: the business part is all the people they met, Yeah,

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Speaker 4: and the rapport in the relationship and they'd write them

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Speaker 4: letters from when they be traveling. So that's what they liked,

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Speaker 4: was the connections. And you forget about it's a business.

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Speaker 2: Of people and that's what really like makes for success.

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Speaker 2: If you keep that in mind, that keeps you, you know, successful.

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Speaker 2: And it's so much hard work, so much hard work.

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Speaker 2: But what about those who love a shortcut?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 3: Yes, what are people?

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Speaker 2: What of those who look for loopholes or ways to

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Speaker 2: manipulate the business?

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Speaker 5: Ah?

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Speaker 3: What of the crimers the subjects of this show.

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Speaker 2: So a lot of the criminals we talk about, they

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Speaker 2: just can't help it.

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Speaker 3: The criminals can't help it. She just can't help it.

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Speaker 2: There's there's no way that they could ever go straight.

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Speaker 2: And many times because they were never law abiding to

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Speaker 2: begin with, they don't know anything.

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Speaker 3: Or they never knew what law abiding would even look like.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they may have been raised in crime. Sometimes they're

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Speaker 2: just wired that way. I got a wired guy for you,

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Speaker 2: but also maybe with a little bit of raised in it.

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Speaker 3: Going in Eddie and Tar don't know the name, don't.

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Speaker 2: Know the name. He was born in nineteen forty seven

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Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, New York. His grandparents Murad and Tara Antar.

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Speaker 2: They were Syrian Jews who left Aleppo, Syria in nineteen

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Speaker 2: twenty and moved to Brooklyn. It's a good time to

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Speaker 2: cut out of Syria back there.

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Speaker 4: That to the whole Sych's Peako thing in the division

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Speaker 4: of the land. It was a really a good time

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Speaker 4: to get out of them.

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Speaker 2: So in Syria the family ran a market stall. It

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Speaker 2: was a diverse marketplace. There are a lot of Syrians, Arabs, Turks,

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Speaker 2: Egyptians all working together. The Antars had a son named Sam,

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Speaker 2: and when they all came to this country, Sam opened

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Speaker 2: his own store and carried on the family tradition. But

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Speaker 2: he always had lots of cash on him, and he

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Speaker 2: would explain the money to his family, but they knew

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Speaker 2: that he wasn't always one to tell the truth. It

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Speaker 2: turns out he actually wound up having like a side

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Speaker 2: family I think anyway, But he was you know, he

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Speaker 2: had a lot of questionable things. Whatever. Sam's son.

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Speaker 3: We also had two house keys in his pocket. Pretty

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Speaker 3: much a lot of money, a lot of house keys.

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Speaker 2: Sam had a son named Eddie who wanted to follow

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Speaker 2: in his dad's footsteps. And when Eddie was sixteen, he

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Speaker 2: dropped out of Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. He

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Speaker 2: decided to become an entrepreneur. So this consisted of quote

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Speaker 2: ripping off customers at tourist traps in midtown Manhattan.

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Speaker 3: Ah, that kind of entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 2: That's according to his friend and colleague Larry Weiss. So

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Speaker 2: Eddie sold stuff like binoculars at a huge markup. But

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Speaker 2: like that's the standard for tourist retailers, right, great, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: people are visiting a place, they need an item.

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Speaker 7: They don't know the.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they just want to get what they need. They

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Speaker 2: don't want to have to leave the main tourist drag.

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Speaker 3: So the airport economy and.

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Speaker 2: Completely it is oh my god, in the airports, can

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Speaker 2: I tell you?

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Speaker 5: So?

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Speaker 2: You know, people are desperate. Whatever they want the luxury,

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Speaker 2: they'll pay for it. I was on KUWAITI not long ago,

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Speaker 2: and there was a place selling a super thin, almost

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Speaker 2: paper like hoodie for seventy dollars.

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Speaker 3: Oh wow, like just like somebody to keep the rain off.

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Speaker 2: It was no, it wasn't even that. It was just

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Speaker 2: cheaply made. It's like a cheap cheap thing, like if

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Speaker 2: you're staying in that area, that would be the only

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Speaker 2: way to get something with long sleeves there, like if

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Speaker 2: you needed them. I don't know why, but if you

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Speaker 2: knew your way around, you knew that there was like

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Speaker 2: a target like three miles away and where you could

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Speaker 2: get something for much much cheaper and made much better.

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Speaker 2: So Eddie joined that seventy dollars paper hoodie tradition. So Eddie,

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Speaker 2: his dad Sam, and his cousin Ronnie Gindy. They owned

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Speaker 2: a business together and it was called Sitan Sound. It

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Speaker 2: was an electronics store. Eddie wasn't messing around when it

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Speaker 2: came to sales. He'd seen his family run a retail

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Speaker 2: business and he was sure that he could outdo it.

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Speaker 2: He always wanted to one up everybody. He could aggressively

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Speaker 2: make more money just by being Eddie, is the way

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Speaker 2: he thought of it. He was so aggressive that he edge, yeah,

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Speaker 2: he's just like, you are not leaving this store without

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Speaker 2: buying something, you know, and it's going to be expensive.

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Speaker 2: So he was so wild in that that people started

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Speaker 2: calling him crazy Eddie.

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Speaker 3: Oh wait a minute, crazy Eddie.

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Speaker 2: Crazy Eddie. And he explained that quote, I wouldn't let

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Speaker 2: a person walk out the door without selling, so he's

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Speaker 2: basically kidnapping them, preventing them from leaving. So Sitan Sound

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Speaker 2: open in nineteen sixty nine and electronics constantly evolving, and

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Speaker 2: the consumer market's really opening up at this.

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Speaker 3: Point, Sister Radios is broken out exactly.

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Speaker 2: I'm like a lot of small businesses. The place struggled.

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Speaker 2: They almost went bankrupt after just eighteen months, and Eddie

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Speaker 2: he was determined to see it through though. He knew

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Speaker 2: that he could run the business. He knew he could

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Speaker 2: make it successful, so he bought out his cousin Guindy

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Speaker 2: and he took over operations. First order of business changed

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Speaker 2: the name, so Sit and Sound was no more. Now

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Speaker 2: there was crazy Eddie's.

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Speaker 3: Oh that's a name.

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Speaker 2: That's the name, and with big dreams you need space.

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Speaker 2: So Eddie closed the shop and moved it to a

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Speaker 2: bigger space a few blocks away. He had to write

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Speaker 2: the ship though. Changing the name and moving the store,

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Speaker 2: that's not going to draw in the customers, sure, and

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Speaker 2: browbeating the ones who did come in really didn't help either.

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Speaker 2: So Eddie turned to the art of massage. Massage, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and boy did he massage the books. That is your face.

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Speaker 4: How is he going to get people in? Like, just

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Speaker 4: take a little pressure off my shoulders. I'll totally buy

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Speaker 4: a camera.

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Speaker 2: He falls the the book to reduce or even like

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Speaker 2: completely get rid of taxable income.

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Speaker 3: Oh and so he's a business that doesn't make any money.

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Speaker 2: Right, so he paid employees under the table. He skimmed

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Speaker 2: thousands of dollars in cash from what would come into

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Speaker 2: the shop. For every five dollars reported by Crazy Eddie,

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Speaker 2: he and his family took a dollar. So just lifting

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Speaker 2: it right out. Things really started to evolve for Eddie

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Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy two. Remember Larry Weiss, Eddie's pal, and

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Speaker 2: I told you about uptime Partner. Yeah, he was the

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Speaker 2: marketing director at Crazy Eddies and he came up with

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Speaker 2: an idea to record a radio ad.

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Speaker 7: Oh yeah, And.

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Speaker 2: So they hired a local DJ called doctor Jerry off

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Speaker 2: of WPIXFN. Jerry's government name was Jerry Carroll. So Larry,

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Speaker 2: we got Larry Jerry Eddie all diminutives. So Larry wrote

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Speaker 2: the script.

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Speaker 3: The sounds like cartoon mice, you exactly.

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Speaker 2: Jerry read the script that Larry wrote. In the original script,

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Speaker 2: Doctor j Jerry yelled, crazy Eddie, the man is insane, yes,

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Speaker 2: and like he read the lines really quickly and full

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Speaker 2: of bravado, and then ran that last line in like

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Speaker 2: super over the top boisterous way. Eddie liked the tone,

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Speaker 2: but he didn't like the content. According to Larry, Eddie

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Speaker 2: quote freaked out, he said, quote, what are you talking about?

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Speaker 2: I am not like he took the insane comment personally.

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Speaker 2: He did have his quirks. He there was an old

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Speaker 2: sweater that he considered like his good luck charm and

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Speaker 2: he wore it almost every day for two years straight.

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Speaker 2: Like right, mons insane, you know, but it's quirky. So

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Speaker 2: Larry changed the line though, crazy Eddie, his prices are insane.

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Speaker 3: That's smart. Yeah, that's real smart.

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Speaker 2: That's real smart. So with that he changed history. In

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy three, Eddie opened a second location in sias At,

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Speaker 2: New York. He said that among customers in the New

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Speaker 2: York area, recognition for the Crazy Eddie name was higher

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Speaker 2: than Coca Cola's. Wow. Now, whether that's true or not,

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Speaker 2: who's to say.

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Speaker 4: I did hear about this from people from New York,

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Speaker 4: Like the Crazy Eddie was very much a character.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it gets there. So Eddie had these survey

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Speaker 2: cards in his store, and like the ads rolled out

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Speaker 2: and the survey cards started rolling in. Customers were complaining

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Speaker 2: about the commercials and they said that they would never

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Speaker 2: come into the store again if they kept playing the commercials.

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Speaker 2: But Eddie was like, no, no, no, I won because

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Speaker 2: the cards are only available in the store, so they

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Speaker 2: had to come in to make that complaint since I

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Speaker 2: don't let anyone leave without buying something like I win.

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Speaker 2: According to Larry, Larry said quote, people might get irritated

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Speaker 2: by them, but they remember.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, all those weird like local ads are their

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Speaker 4: best ads.

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Speaker 2: Average exactly exactly. So Larry wrote and produced over thirty

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Speaker 2: five hundred Crazy Eddie TV and radio spots over the years.

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Speaker 3: Total Trailblazer. I mean like everybody imitated him.

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Speaker 7: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. In nineteen seventy five, Eddie opened up third location

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Speaker 2: in Greenwich Village. He also set up a corporate main

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Speaker 2: office on Coney Island Boulevard in Brooklyn. And the same

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Speaker 2: year that he did that, Crazy Eddi ads moved from

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Speaker 2: radio to TV, Big Thangs, Crazy Eddie becoming a cultural phenomenon.

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Speaker 2: As you said, there was the Christmas in August sale

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Speaker 2: ad Doctor Jerry dressed up as Santa Claus and like

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Speaker 2: people off camera would throw fake snowballs at him, and

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Speaker 2: like in these ads, he's just like running down like

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Speaker 2: just talking talking. Donk super fast, yeah, super fast, the

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Speaker 2: whole out.

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Speaker 3: Right now for coming up. We got CRS, we got TV.

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Speaker 2: Yeah see you can. I don't speak fast, you can,

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Speaker 2: I must speak quickly. Then they had a Spanish language

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Speaker 2: ad and Doctor Jerry didn't speak and that he just

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Speaker 2: like walked back and forth with behind the guy who

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Speaker 2: was actually speaking, and he was holding a radio to

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Speaker 2: his ear and then would like stop and wave at

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Speaker 2: the camera. It's just random. Nineteen seventy seven, Saturday Night

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Speaker 2: Live ran a skit that was a parody of the

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Speaker 2: Crazy Eddie ads, dan Ak played Crazy Ernie. Okay, so

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Speaker 2: that's a parody. That same year Eddie kept the business rolling.

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Speaker 2: He opened two more locations, one in the original New

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Speaker 2: Jersey location of the very first store that he moved

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Speaker 2: out of, and the second one.

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Speaker 7: In the Bronx.

305
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Speaker 2: So we get to nineteen eighty one, Eddie has ten locations.

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Speaker 2: He has a flagship store in Manhattan's Upper east Side.

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00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,760
Speaker 2: The store openings are major events. Huge crowds showed up.

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Speaker 2: Twenty thousand people came when they opened the East Brunswick

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Speaker 2: store in November of nineteen seventy eight.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean because back then this was the

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Speaker 4: Apple Store. I mean, like if you wanted to get

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Speaker 4: your electronics any of this type of stuff.

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Speaker 2: He gave away so much cool deals.

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Speaker 3: It must have been like, you know, the doorbuster types.

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Speaker 2: People got there because they wanted free T shirts, hats, Frisbees. Okay,

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Speaker 2: plus they could meet doctor Jerry in the flesh because

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Speaker 2: like Jerry Carroll was in the TV ads, Eddie wasn't,

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Speaker 2: and so Jerry would wear like zany clothes have these

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Speaker 2: theme ads rattling off the details. No one knew who

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Speaker 2: the real Crazy Eddie was. That's interesting, they only knew

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Speaker 2: Jerry Crazy Eddie.

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Speaker 4: Is like like basically left off stage completely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so Harry, Yeah, totally. Harry Spirow was a member

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Speaker 2: of the advertising team. He said, quote, these store openings

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Speaker 2: were extraordinary. We would promote the hell out of them,

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Speaker 2: and there would be lines around the block for people

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Speaker 2: to get a free T shirt. So it's like more

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Speaker 2: than just spending money. They just wanted free stuff. But

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Speaker 2: you get him in the store and then they see

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Speaker 2: cool things. Eddie was going through it though, despite his

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Speaker 2: massive success and I mean success in cooking the books,

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Speaker 2: he was an alcoholic and he wasn't confronting this disease

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Speaker 2: at all. One night, he got into an argument in

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Speaker 2: the bar and it spilled outside and he got stabbed

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Speaker 2: in the tummy. Yeah. He would never give anyone any

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Speaker 2: specifics about the incident. All his family knew is that

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Speaker 2: he'd been stabbed, and he was really vague about the

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Speaker 2: location or the reason or even like how many people

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Speaker 2: were involved in this brawl. But it wasn't for business,

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00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:03,360
Speaker 2: That's what everyone knew. So the guys at Crazy Eddies

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Speaker 2: put a lid on it and it didn't get public.

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Speaker 2: This is what Larry had to say, quote crazy Eddie

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Speaker 2: was supposed to be a fun store, a place you

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Speaker 2: could bring the kids crazy, but in a nice way,

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Speaker 2: not in the founder gets stabbed way. We're going for

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Speaker 2: circus stabby, want non stabby. Nineteen seventy nine, the Antars

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Speaker 2: they began taking all that skimmed money and depositing it

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Speaker 2: in Israeli bank accounts, like hundreds of thousands of dollars,

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Speaker 2: putting in there. Eddie's wife, Debbie, said that they would

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Speaker 2: keep garbage bags of cash stuffed under their bed, but

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Speaker 2: for Syrian culture that wasn't unusual. The practice was called necti,

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Speaker 2: and it's basically under the table activities, and you do

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Speaker 2: this to keep the money out of the hands of

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Speaker 2: the government.

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Speaker 3: This is the whole Mediterranean, but.

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Speaker 2: It's especially important in Ottomn and Syria. So you know,

357
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Speaker 2: a special tax had been levied on Christians and Jews

358
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Speaker 2: at the time, so nectie preserved the wealth that was

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Speaker 2: in effect being stolen.

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Speaker 3: The slaws did the same issue the Automans.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so I mean they were being taxed with

362
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,760
Speaker 2: no benefit in return. So Eddie he'd move his cash

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Speaker 2: to Israel by strapping it to his chest for the

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00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:11,880
Speaker 2: plane ride. And Debbie said, quote, I was there once

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Speaker 2: when Eddie strapped the money onto his body. He wanted

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Speaker 2: to know if it was concealed. Money was always in

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Speaker 2: the house and if I needed it and I asked him,

368
00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:20,720
Speaker 2: he would say, go underneath the bed and take what

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Speaker 2: you need.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 7: Right.

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Speaker 3: Oh hey.

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Speaker 4: By the way, fun fact your dude, Anthony kaitis he

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00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:28,480
Speaker 4: once had thirty thousand dollars strapped to his body at

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Speaker 4: age eight by his father, who made the money selling

376
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,080
Speaker 4: cocaine in Europe, and had him fly internationally back with

377
00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:36,879
Speaker 4: a thirty thousand because he said nobody would check a

378
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:38,919
Speaker 4: kid for this money. If they find me, will get busted.

379
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:40,680
Speaker 4: So he's like, okay, pop.

380
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Speaker 2: So who among us has it?

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Speaker 6: Exactly?

382
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:45,160
Speaker 3: This is an international phenomenon.

383
00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,680
Speaker 2: Let's take a break and when we come back, I'm

384
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Speaker 2: going to let you know how things are going in

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Speaker 2: the land of Eddie. Ah.

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Speaker 5: Yes, hello, hey to you, it's me.

387
00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:19,800
Speaker 2: It's look at us crazy Eddie. Let's talk about Crazy Eddy.

388
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 2: The commercials were legendary. Thousands of commercials and radio ads

389
00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:28,000
Speaker 2: for crazy Eddies ran in the eighties. Crazy Eddie commercials

390
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,280
Speaker 2: were in the background of movies like Splash, Oh I

391
00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:36,480
Speaker 2: do remember that. Yeah, in one commercial, Doctor Jerry dressed

392
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,000
Speaker 2: up like Superman and it really looked like a Superman costume,

393
00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:44,920
Speaker 2: so much so that Warner Communications sued the Crazy Eddy chain. Wow,

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Speaker 2: because you know it's probably right on, but Warner Communications

395
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:53,040
Speaker 2: was also the parent company to the video game system Atari,

396
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Speaker 2: and Atari's biggest customer in the United States. Crazy Crazy

397
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Speaker 2: Eddy and Crazy Eddy knew this, so he told Warner

398
00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:03,360
Speaker 2: that if they moved forward with their lawsuit, Crazy Eddie

399
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:07,320
Speaker 2: would stop carrying Atari products. The lawsuit was settled, he

400
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:11,000
Speaker 2: went away. Someone reached out asking to be the TV

401
00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 2: spokesman for Crazy Eddie. Well, like, we already have Doctor Jerry.

402
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:18,800
Speaker 2: What this guy's calling over and over again. He's saying, no,

403
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:20,600
Speaker 2: you can do but I can do better. I could

404
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,680
Speaker 2: be better at him, and like, who is it? Mister

405
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 2: Brown left a message another message he wants to be

406
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:33,320
Speaker 2: the spokesperson. That was James Brown. James Brown, James Brown, having.

407
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:36,280
Speaker 3: James got my dad.

408
00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:39,960
Speaker 2: Basically he was having a little bit of trouble selling

409
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:41,800
Speaker 2: albums and a lot of bit of trouble with the

410
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,800
Speaker 2: I R s, so he yeah, he needed the money.

411
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:49,040
Speaker 2: Eddie and Larry considered it like should we hire James Brown.

412
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:51,199
Speaker 2: I mean, he had called over and over, but at

413
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:53,200
Speaker 2: the end of the day they turned him down. Why

414
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:55,560
Speaker 2: ruin a good thing with Doctor Jerry? Plus, I'm guessing

415
00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,240
Speaker 2: doctor Jerry was cheaper and like easier to yell at.

416
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,679
Speaker 3: Yes, so the story show up on time for the

417
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 3: recordings of the commercials.

418
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,280
Speaker 2: That's very true. The store is like operating at peak

419
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:11,679
Speaker 2: capacity as far as everyone knows. They have these crazy openings.

420
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 2: But they also had these crazy in store promotions, so

421
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 2: he would have bands play at stores. One of those

422
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:22,440
Speaker 2: bands was Queen Damn. Right before they played their gig

423
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:24,000
Speaker 2: at Madison Square Garden, they.

424
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Speaker 6: Played crazy Wait what This is.

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00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:29,879
Speaker 2: What Larry Weiss said quote. The Antar family enterprise was

426
00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:32,359
Speaker 2: getting the kind of buzz usually reserved for the latest

427
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:36,800
Speaker 2: girl bands, Andy Warhol in films by Cassavetti's Guard and Scorsese.

428
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,960
Speaker 4: Wow, okay, the edge of the culture, Eddie.

429
00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:44,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so there goes Queen. That's amazing. But it

430
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,440
Speaker 2: wasn't all glittsy celebrity business. There was still the criming.

431
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:50,359
Speaker 2: Don't forget, of course. So between nineteen eighty and nineteen

432
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 2: eighty three, the Antars deposited more than six million dollars

433
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,639
Speaker 2: into one offshore bank account. Good for that, you know,

434
00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:00,639
Speaker 2: just skimmon. Eddie stole a lot of stuff, including the

435
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:01,720
Speaker 2: crazy Eddi logo.

436
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:02,960
Speaker 3: How do you steal a lot?

437
00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 2: It was okay, it's what he had on the ads

438
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,400
Speaker 2: and the shirts and the hats, all the other promotional stuff.

439
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,359
Speaker 2: He took it from a Zapp's comics cover illustrated by R. R.

440
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,480
Speaker 3: Crumbs. It's an R crumb, It's.

441
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,760
Speaker 2: A design And so when they asked our crumb about it,

442
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:17,840
Speaker 2: he said, I was sort of flattered.

443
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:21,680
Speaker 3: I like him. Yeah, right, northern California guy. If ever,

444
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:22,720
Speaker 3: there was exactly.

445
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,000
Speaker 2: Eddie also loved insurance scams, just delicious.

446
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 3: Bet you he did dip into those.

447
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:32,360
Speaker 2: He did. It's normal for stores to have water damage

448
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,639
Speaker 2: from pipes bursting or like natural disasters flooding or whatever.

449
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,119
Speaker 2: For most store owners, it's a really bad break and

450
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:41,760
Speaker 2: a hard loss. For Eddie, it was a blessing if

451
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:44,119
Speaker 2: something like that happened in the shop. He would have

452
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,480
Speaker 2: his employees move any merchandise that wasn't selling into the

453
00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 2: flooded store. It's like all the other ones, like what's

454
00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:52,399
Speaker 2: not moving, Okay, go drive it over to paramus or

455
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 2: whatever thing is. Jerry said, quote, Eddie was sure to

456
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 2: run up a hose to maximize the water flow. He

457
00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:01,439
Speaker 2: sometimes had the guy dump gear out of boxes and

458
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,120
Speaker 2: put the contents and sinks filled with dirty water. He's

459
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 2: just like sees an opportunity, takes it. In nineteen seventy nine,

460
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 2: the family, the Antar family, wanted to find a way

461
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:16,520
Speaker 2: to sort of manage all the skimmed money. Eddie started

462
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,120
Speaker 2: skimming less and less, which made it look like more

463
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,879
Speaker 2: money was coming in, and that showed better profit margins.

464
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 2: So while the company's actual profits when you take into

465
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:30,200
Speaker 2: account skimming from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty three increased

466
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 2: about thirteen percent, but they reported profits increasing by one

467
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,000
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy one percent.

468
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 3: That's how much they were skimming.

469
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 2: So in eighty three they're like, okay, we've prepped this,

470
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:42,760
Speaker 2: We've slowed down the skimming. Why are we doing this?

471
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 2: We want to take the company.

472
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 3: Public and knew it the big scam, the big scams market.

473
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,719
Speaker 2: Eddie's cousin Sammy said, quote. The more profit they showed,

474
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 2: the better chance they would get to make more money

475
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,920
Speaker 2: going public. So cousin Sammy went and got an accounting

476
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,040
Speaker 2: degree in nineteen eighty and he did an apprenticeship with

477
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:03,919
Speaker 2: the auditor that Eddie had pen and Horowitz. So he's like,

478
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 2: they're laying the groundwork for cousin Sammy. On September thirteenth,

479
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four, Crazy Eddie held its initial public offering

480
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:17,679
Speaker 2: the IPO stock exchange symbol CRZY. Not everyone in the

481
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:20,359
Speaker 2: company was on board with this idea. It's dangerous to

482
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 2: open the books you've been cooking, very dangerous, Yeah, but

483
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 2: it went forward. Shares sold initially at eight dollars a share.

484
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:30,679
Speaker 2: By early nineteen eighty six, the stock was trading at

485
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:34,720
Speaker 2: more than seventy five dollars a share, huge jump. There

486
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 2: was a three million dollar deficit from the previous year's

487
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 2: inventory fraud that needed to be covered up, though, so Sammy,

488
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 2: Cousin Sammy gets put in. He had to figure out

489
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 2: a way to show the company had experienced a ten

490
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 2: percent increase in sales. So to do this, Cousin Sammy

491
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 2: came up with a money laundering scheme that he called

492
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 2: the Panama pump Ooh good name though, right, So the

493
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,680
Speaker 2: family would deposit money in Israeli bank accounts. Those funds

494
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 2: would then be transferred to accounts in Panama under false names.

495
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,399
Speaker 2: The Panama accounts would then send payments to Eddie and

496
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: the States, and that money would be used to puff

497
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 2: up same store sales totals. Huh, they're just circulating it.

498
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 3: I get that, But where are the receipts in the moving?

499
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:17,159
Speaker 5: Like?

500
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:21,000
Speaker 2: How are they baked all the receipts? I suppose? Okay, Yeah,

501
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 2: So now that the company was public, Crazy Eddy had

502
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 2: to really ramp up the inventory side of things. He

503
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 2: had to show investors that the profits were increasing. He

504
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:30,639
Speaker 2: had to get that stock value as high as he

505
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 2: possibly could. So for the fiscal year ending March first,

506
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, the company falsified inventories by three million dollars.

507
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,480
Speaker 2: The next fiscal year, the amount increased to between ten

508
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 2: and twelve million. Nineteen eighty five rolls around. Doctor Jerry's

509
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 2: Crazy Eddy character was better known to New Yorkers than

510
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 2: Mayor ed Kotch.

511
00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 3: How is that possible?

512
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 7: He was.

513
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 2: And he wanted to be in the spotlight, like he

514
00:24:57,119 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 2: was a publicity.

515
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 4: I mean I knew as a kid, I remember, and

516
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 4: I wasn't I was across the continent.

517
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 2: Exactly so nineteen eighty six, the stores had a ninety

518
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 2: nine percent name recognition, which was higher than President Ronald Reagan.

519
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 2: At the time, people knew Crazy Eddies than Ronald Reagan.

520
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 4: So he would have Crazy Eddy would have killed Walter

521
00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:23,720
Speaker 4: Mondo oh forty nine states to one.

522
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 2: There was a strain of heroin on the streets called

523
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:31,479
Speaker 2: Crazy Eddie, Like it was everywhere street truck. Yeah, but

524
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 2: things weren't smooth sailing for Eddie after the IPO, at

525
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 2: least not on the home front. He fought a lot

526
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:39,399
Speaker 2: with his wife, Debbie Antar.

527
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 3: That's bad because she knows where the body's are there.

528
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:43,640
Speaker 2: Well, then he went and got himself a girlfriend.

529
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 3: Oh, that's doubly bad.

530
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,679
Speaker 2: She was also named Debbie oh Man, Debbie Airlick.

531
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 3: This is like like five strikes. He's like he struck

532
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 3: out once and he's sitting on the other.

533
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 2: Debbie Antar wasn't aware of W two point zero. But

534
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 2: then Sam, Eddie's father got involved. So Eddie's dad, Sam,

535
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 2: he was mad that his son had quote surpassed him

536
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 2: outshined him.

537
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 3: That's what he's upset.

538
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:09,959
Speaker 2: That's what he's upset about. And so he wanted to

539
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 2: maneuver the transfer of Eddie's one third share of the

540
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 2: company to him.

541
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 4: He wants to take his son's whole wealth. Huh, because

542
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 4: he's mad that his ego got stepped there.

543
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:20,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so he figured, Okay, if I can get

544
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:24,160
Speaker 2: the couple to divorce Eddie, Eddie won't want his steak

545
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,160
Speaker 2: to go to Debbie Antar, so he'll likely hand it.

546
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:29,399
Speaker 3: Over to me name and then I'll never give it

547
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 3: backris logic.

548
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Sam told Debbie Antar that Eddie was not

549
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 2: spending an upcoming holiday evening with investors like he shoulder if.

550
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 3: The Shakespeare wrote the Sopranos.

551
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,359
Speaker 2: Pretty much, Sam's like my son. He's actually going to

552
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 2: be loved up with his much younger mistress. Go catch him,

553
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 2: go get him. But yes, Zaren, those eyes.

554
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,959
Speaker 4: Okay, give me a second, okay, and my eyes are closed.

555
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 2: I want you to picture it. It's New Year's Even,

556
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,399
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four. If you are a limo driver in

557
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 2: New York City, the Apple City, this is a pretty

558
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 2: good night for you if you can get high roller

559
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 2: clients who want to feel flush and tip a lot.

560
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,919
Speaker 2: But traffic wise, it's a nightmare. New Year's Eve Cinco

561
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,880
Speaker 2: de Mayo, Saint Patrick's Day, amateur nights, every chucklehead ties

562
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 2: one on and Careen's around the streets, but at jobs

563
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 2: and jobs that here you are. You've picked up two

564
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 2: women in Brooklyn who are on their way to East

565
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,880
Speaker 2: eightieth Street in manhat. You've got the music playing softly

566
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 2: as you glide through the streets on your way to

567
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,879
Speaker 2: their destination. You were told that they didn't want to

568
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 2: stay long, so you should just chill there until they

569
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,919
Speaker 2: were ready to go. Can't argue with that, You'll just

570
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 2: read your book a new Daniel Steele. It's juicy. So

571
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 2: Debbie Antar and her sister in law Ellen Antar, they

572
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,400
Speaker 2: sit in the back of your limo. Debbie weeps softly

573
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,399
Speaker 2: as Ellen rubs her back and talks about what a

574
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 2: horrible person or brother is. This may be juicier than

575
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 2: your Daniel Steele novel. Zaren telling you you ease toward

576
00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 2: the destination and there's another limo waiting out in front.

577
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 2: Debbie yells, that's his stop here. The ladies jump out

578
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,719
Speaker 2: and head over to the other Minnow you watch as

579
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,160
Speaker 2: the two women run over and yank open the back door.

580
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 2: Debbie leans in and starts yelling at the guy in

581
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 2: the back. She's pounding on the roof of the limo

582
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 2: as she berates who you now realizes her husband. This

583
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 2: cannot be good. Just then the door to the building

584
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 2: opens and outstrets a bodacious babe in a tight cocktail

585
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,399
Speaker 2: dress makes stole over her shoulders. The women whip around

586
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 2: and look at her. They walk over to confront her.

587
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:32,520
Speaker 2: Eddie calls out from inside the limmo, Debbie. Both the

588
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 2: wife and the mistress turn and look at each other,

589
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 2: and now it's on. They scream, they scratch, they throw, purses,

590
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 2: compacts fall on the sidewalks with flatter You see a

591
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 2: man down the street pick up the receiver on a

592
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 2: payphone and call on her one way. He watches the

593
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 2: melee while nodding and talking, looking up at a nearby

594
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 2: street sign. Eddie jumps out of the limo and goes

595
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 2: to stop the fighting. Baby baby, I can explain. Ellen

596
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 2: shoves him out of the way, and Eddie turns and

597
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 2: slaps his sister right across the base.

598
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 3: WHOA.

599
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 2: Everyone freezes. Your instinct is to get out and give

600
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,000
Speaker 2: Eddie a taste of his own medicine. You all hear

601
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 2: sirens approaching in the distance. They get closer and Eddie

602
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 2: jumps back into his limo and screeches away. Debbie, Antar

603
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 2: and Ellen climb in the back of your limo their

604
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 2: makeup hall smear. You look in your rearview mirror and

605
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 2: you see the other Debbie staring at the sidewalk and

606
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 2: then dejectedly heading back into the building. You whisk the

607
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:28,040
Speaker 2: ladies back to Brooklyn in a very sad, very quiet ride.

608
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 5: Wow.

609
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 2: So sam Antar's plan had worked to a degree. Yeah,

610
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 2: Eddie and Debbie did get a divorce, but the whole

611
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 2: transferring assets thing, no, that failed. Eddie. He tricked Debbie

612
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 2: into signing divorce papers that she hadn't had a chance

613
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 2: to read. So he gave her the old heart cell

614
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:51,239
Speaker 2: like in his early Sight and Sound days, just like

615
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 2: pubbling her with information and pressure. She didn't get on paper.

616
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 2: The fifty percent split that Eddie told her in his

617
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 2: pitch pretty much nothing. He just screwed her over. Really, Yeah,

618
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 2: he's horrible. So Eddie, do you have kids? I don't know.

619
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 2: I had trouble tracking that down. Eddie wound up marrying

620
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 2: the other Debbie w two point zero who should be

621
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,480
Speaker 2: ashamed of her something and they had a son together.

622
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 2: So you know, like pretty much, Debbie one is the

623
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 2: only good person in this Let's take a break on

624
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 2: that bummer note, and when we come back, I'm going

625
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 2: to tell you how the business side of Crazy Eddie

626
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 2: was firing.

627
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 7: All right, All right, Zarin.

628
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 3: What's up? What's up? Dude?

629
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 2: Good ads.

630
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm telling you, Crazy Eddie could take me.

631
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 2: I wish there were Crazy Eddie ads in there, all right,

632
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 2: p Crazy Eddie. He just now had to show more

633
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 2: than profits. He also had to cover up earlier frauds.

634
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 2: So there's a lot that he's got.

635
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 3: Going on, and he's doing this all with open books.

636
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's public. During the nineteen eighty seven fiscal year,

637
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:16,880
Speaker 2: between twenty two and a half and twenty eight million

638
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 2: dollars worth of inventory was falsified.

639
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 4: And there was a huge stock run in eighty seven

640
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 4: tanks in October, and so you have this huge downturn

641
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 4: with the biggest months into the depression. So everybody is

642
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,000
Speaker 4: suddenly running for the aisles trying to figure out how

643
00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 4: to get their money.

644
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 2: Right.

645
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,719
Speaker 3: Yes, the exact wrong time did wrong. What he has

646
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 3: to deal with.

647
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 2: Right, and so the fraud, it's becoming more and more

648
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 2: difficult to hide. Oh, I bet that messed with the

649
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 2: outward facing books. So but we're going back does October

650
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 2: eighty six, the stock value had fallen, So this is

651
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 2: pre crash. It had fallen to seventeen fifty a share.

652
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 3: Oka Okay.

653
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 2: December of eighty six, he announced his resignation as CEO

654
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 2: and president.

655
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 3: Wow.

656
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, cousin Sammy was installed in his place. But in

657
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 2: April of eighty seven, Eddie announced just kidding, he did it,

658
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 2: just kidding, filing he said he was actually reason he

659
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 2: said he was actually still president in the CEO. H.

660
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 2: So this is also pre crash eighty seven, like that

661
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 2: was in the fall, and so he said that he

662
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 2: fired his dad and some other family members, like they

663
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 2: had this big family argument.

664
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 3: Come to Jesus business.

665
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 2: What else was he doing at this time? Cashing out

666
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 2: his stock shares worth between twenty five and thirty million dollars. Oh,

667
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 2: he was just getting out of dodge.

668
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like, let's let's cash out this casino.

669
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 2: As we're leading up to the crash Spring eighty seven,

670
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 2: the company's stock was trading at ten dollars a share.

671
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 3: He should have signed it over to his dad now right, Yeah,

672
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 3: he could hold the bed.

673
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 2: So his earnings are down twenty percent from the previous year,

674
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 2: but there was a thirty four percent increase in sales

675
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 2: how because he opened up thirteen more locations.

676
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 7: Wow.

677
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 2: Yeah. May of eighty seven he reaches out to Canadian

678
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 2: investment bankers Annual Belsberg to partner in taking the company

679
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 2: private again. Meanwhile, Elias Zinn, who a guy, he runs

680
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 2: like a discount electronics business in Texas. He partnered up

681
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 2: with this management consultant named Victor Palmiery, and the two

682
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 2: of them decided to purchase seventeen and a half million

683
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 2: dollars in Crazy Eddie stock. So that was seven point

684
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 2: five percent of the outstanding shares.

685
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 3: So they tried to do like a hostile takeover, eh.

686
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 2: So they you know, they wanted to eventually possess a

687
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 2: controlling interest. Hostile takeovercha. So rumors swirled about this takeover

688
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 2: and financial analysts began looking into the situation at Crazy Eddies.

689
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,479
Speaker 2: So when the books were fully opened, everyone learned that

690
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 2: stockholders had been losing money since nineteen eighty four. Oh

691
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 2: and Eddie had also sold six and a half million

692
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 2: shares worth seventy four million dollars. This new intel triggered

693
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 2: a buttload of lawsuits against the Antar family. So Eddie

694
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 2: and cousins Sammy. They weren't deterred though. They're in it

695
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 2: to win it. They attempted to counteroffer the takeover, but

696
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 2: Zin outbid them. It's like a low.

697
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 3: Rent succession, seriously so.

698
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,520
Speaker 2: November sixth, nineteen eighty seven, Zin became the new owner

699
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:17,600
Speaker 2: of Crazy Eddy. Okay, he came in and he immediately

700
00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 2: fired any anti family members on the payroll. Wow, like

701
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 2: you're out of here. This is no longer a family business.

702
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 2: Palmieri's financial analysts completed their preliminary audit and they estimated

703
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 2: that Crazy Eddy's inventory was forty to fifty million dollars short,

704
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,720
Speaker 2: with the final figure winding up being eighty million dollars

705
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 2: short of what they paid for of inventory. Yeah, exactly

706
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 2: what they paid for. June nineteen eighty eight, suppliers asked

707
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 2: that the company be liquidated so that they can try

708
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:47,160
Speaker 2: and recover some of the money owed to them. March

709
00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 2: eighty nine, Crazy Eddy stores start closing. Seventeen of the

710
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 2: forty three stores closed up shop for good.

711
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:54,280
Speaker 7: At this time.

712
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 2: So then June sixth, nineteen eighty nine, five creditors petitioned

713
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 2: to force Crazy Eddies into bankruptcy, so they forced the issue.

714
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 2: Those five were owed eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars,

715
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 2: which seems like a drop in the pot really, but

716
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:09,840
Speaker 2: they're the ones at.

717
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 3: The front leverage.

718
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:15,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the company filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection fifteen.

719
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,800
Speaker 3: Days later, so the reorganization bankruptcy exactly.

720
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 2: A new CEO and company president named Peter Morticella. He

721
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,839
Speaker 2: said that the petition created problems and was ill advised,

722
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 2: but also promised that you know what, business is going

723
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 2: to operate as usual. Where you have twenty six stores remaining,

724
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 2: that's a lot of retail space. We're going to keep

725
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,000
Speaker 2: making money. Don't worry, We'll pay everyone.

726
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 3: People are still buying BCRs.

727
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, don't worry. Crazy Eddies still going strong.

728
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,919
Speaker 2: But by the fall of eighty nine they were down

729
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 2: to eighteen stores, so they had to keep closing. There

730
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:52,120
Speaker 2: were serious dips and sales and so suppliers. They also

731
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 2: they were worried about getting paid. They were worried about

732
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,400
Speaker 2: all this you know, craziness with the books, so they

733
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 2: wouldn't provide inventory, So a lot of the stores had

734
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 2: empty shelves in sections of it. They just don't have

735
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 2: anything to sell. On October second, nineteen eighty nine, Crazy

736
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:12,279
Speaker 2: Eddy's bankruptcy converted from chapter eleven to chapter seven. And

737
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 2: so I've discussed this before. That means that the operation

738
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,080
Speaker 2: of the business does not continue. At this point, all

739
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 2: assets are liquidated to pay off the creditors.

740
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 3: The boat is sinking, Grab all the wood you can, exactly.

741
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 2: So the company began total liquidation and the remaining eighteen

742
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 2: Crazy Eddy stores were closed. End of an era's erin.

743
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 4: And then we get into the big box stores that

744
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 4: come and take over, like the Best Buys.

745
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 2: Totally truly era. Yeah. So Crazy Eddi's operations may not

746
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,480
Speaker 2: have been Eddie Antar's problem anymore, but what he did

747
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:47,160
Speaker 2: while he was there sure was doesn't just get wiped away.

748
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 2: Arnie Spindler a longtime executive employee who quit the company

749
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 2: after Eddie fired his dad and his brothers in that

750
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 2: big family fight. He was about to make things very

751
00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 2: messy for it. Oh yeah, he gave investigators information regarding

752
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 2: all of Crazy Eddie's fraudulent business practice.

753
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 3: Not the Panama Pump.

754
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 2: The Panama Pump baby, so Spindler. He pointed the finger

755
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 2: at Eddie and cousin Sammy, but he was like, no

756
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 2: one else in the family was involved. They're all innocent, which,

757
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 2: you know.

758
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 3: You got a thing for Debbie.

759
00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:21,440
Speaker 2: I guess the Feds they wanted to make that determination themselves.

760
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 2: They're like, you know, that's very kind of you, but

761
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 2: we're going to go ahead and serve the entire Antar

762
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 2: family with subpoenas.

763
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:28,800
Speaker 3: We appreciate your opinions.

764
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 2: Everybody got papered.

765
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 3: We do this. We're good at this. So we got

766
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 3: a printer.

767
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 2: So, oh yeah, we got plenty of time. September sixth,

768
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,840
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty nine, the SEC charged Eddie with securities fraud

769
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:44,640
Speaker 2: and illegal insider trading. Of course, January nineteen ninety, a

770
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,400
Speaker 2: federal district judge ordered Eddie to repatriate more than fifty

771
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 2: million dollars that he had illegally transferred to Israel.

772
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:53,799
Speaker 3: Oh, bring the money back, Bring the money back home.

773
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:56,839
Speaker 2: And then they asked him to appear in court to

774
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 2: explain what happened with the money.

775
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 4: So why is he not in Israel with his money?

776
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,319
Speaker 2: That's a good question. So they tell him, you know,

777
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 2: send the money back and then show up and come

778
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 2: into court and tell us, you know, how did this

779
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 2: all happen.

780
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 4: I'd be like, I have to go there and get it.

781
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 4: I got to sign paperwork that you want to see

782
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 4: my face. It's a whole thing.

783
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,320
Speaker 3: I'll be right back pretty.

784
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:16,440
Speaker 2: Much what happened? He failed to appear?

785
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 3: Oh did he?

786
00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:20,280
Speaker 2: Yeah? So they issued an arrest warrant and Eddie surrendered

787
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 2: to the US Marshals. He was released in ordered to

788
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 2: appear at a second here.

789
00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:25,799
Speaker 3: Oh he didn't make it out of the country though.

790
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:26,239
Speaker 7: Well.

791
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 2: He failed to appear at the second hearing, and so

792
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 2: a second arrest warrant was issued and his assets were frozen. Okay,

793
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 2: he made it out of the country. He ran off

794
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:38,760
Speaker 2: to Israel. He had six passports in five different names,

795
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,919
Speaker 2: notes on him, forty three million in cash. So don't

796
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:45,200
Speaker 2: forget he is fifty million in the bank in Israel.

797
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:48,239
Speaker 2: He's forty three million in cash. I don't think it

798
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:49,320
Speaker 2: was strapped to his budday.

799
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:50,760
Speaker 3: No, No, that'd be heavy to walk around.

800
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:51,839
Speaker 7: It was just like it's a lot.

801
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 2: And you know what else he had with him. He

802
00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 2: went to Israel bought a townhouse and just lived his life. Hey, hey, listen.

803
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 2: Cousin Sammy, though, he wanted to be another Sammy the Bull,

804
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 2: so he rat it out. He offered to testify for

805
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:13,479
Speaker 2: federal prosecutors in exchange for immunity, and he would also

806
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,840
Speaker 2: plead guilty to three felonies, so that you know. But

807
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,200
Speaker 2: his whole thing was, I want zero jail time.

808
00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 3: Oh he's got too soft for jail.

809
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:27,239
Speaker 2: His attorney, Howard Serrata said, quote Sam e Antar, and

810
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:31,480
Speaker 2: everyone calls him Sammy, but Sam e Antar was in

811
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 2: the inner circle, at the heart of the conspiracy. He

812
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:37,399
Speaker 2: knows where all the bodies are buried. I'm praying it's

813
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 2: not literal.

814
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:38,839
Speaker 3: Yeah.

815
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:44,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, So cousin Sammy sam E he got six months

816
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 2: house arrest, twelve hundred hours of community service, three years probation,

817
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:50,720
Speaker 2: and ten thousand in fines.

818
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 3: I'll take that deal. Yeah right, that's not a bad deal.

819
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 2: Eddie, Eddie's on the run. Eddie's in the wind. Three years,

820
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 2: three years, he's on the run. He would up spots

821
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 2: like Tel Aviv, Zurich, Sal Paulo, Cayman Islands. He's going

822
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,120
Speaker 2: to all the shady spots quite the vacation.

823
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:12,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was looking for like the non extradition vacation.

824
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:17,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, he got arrested in Israel, Venezuela on federal

825
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,879
Speaker 2: racketeering conspiracy charges, so just keeps getting amped up. That's

826
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,319
Speaker 2: June of ninety two, and he gets extradited to the

827
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 2: US in January of ninety three. So before he was nabbed,

828
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 2: sightings of Eddie rolled in from Brazil to Paris, to

829
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 2: Israel to New York is everywhere.

830
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:33,399
Speaker 3: I see the crazy idea here that.

831
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,959
Speaker 2: Attorney Serata said, quote, He's like a character from dust

832
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,799
Speaker 2: Dayevsky with a death wish who dances on the edge

833
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 2: of a flame. He likes to live dangerously, all the

834
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,920
Speaker 2: cops and robbers stuff like, oh, does someone want to

835
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 2: write like or he wants to be a commentator on

836
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 2: what at that point was court TV or now would

837
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 2: be like the.

838
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 3: News channels in bok TV.

839
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:09,239
Speaker 2: Yes, commentator on book TV. We're so good anyway, So

840
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 2: back to Eddie. He pleaded not guilty and his trial

841
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 2: kicked off in June of nineteen ninety three. One of

842
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:19,960
Speaker 2: the US attorneys on the prosecution was none other than

843
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 2: co author of the Patriot Act and future Secretary of

844
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:26,040
Speaker 2: Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.

845
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 3: Churt Off. I was wondering, it's gonna either be.

846
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 4: Comy Chertoff or what's his name the other one, not

847
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:34,879
Speaker 4: Comy Mueller.

848
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,319
Speaker 2: Bob Yeah, yeah, yeah, Nope, chirt Off coming in there.

849
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 2: He's like, I penned the Patriot.

850
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 4: Act because they were at the Big three in the

851
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:42,359
Speaker 4: US Office at that time.

852
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

853
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:43,719
Speaker 3: Post.

854
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,240
Speaker 2: So he's in charge of like get pinning Eddie June.

855
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 2: Let's see July twentieth, nineteen ninety two, Eddie's found guilty

856
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 2: of seventeen counts of fraud. He was sentenced to twelve

857
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 2: and a half years in prison.

858
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:56,160
Speaker 7: Yeah.

859
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:59,400
Speaker 2: His brother, Mitchell was found guilty on three counts, acquitted

860
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 2: on two. The antar's lawyer filed an appeal. April ninety five,

861
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 2: a federal appeals panel agreed with their contention that the

862
00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:12,359
Speaker 2: judge who presided over the trial was biased. Chertoff, who

863
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 2: called Eddie the Darth Vader of retail on the quote,

864
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 2: No he was gaming it. He vowed to begin a

865
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 2: new trial. That's it. I'm coming after you again. May

866
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:26,840
Speaker 2: ninety six, Eddie pleads guilty to federal fraud charges. He

867
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 2: gets sentenced in February of ninety seven to eight years

868
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:31,640
Speaker 2: in prison, and he had to pay more than one

869
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million dollars in fines in fine mines.

870
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:39,880
Speaker 2: Plus there were more than a billion dollars a billion

871
00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 2: with a b in judgments against him thanks to civil suits.

872
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:47,360
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no no. So the efforts to recover additional

873
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:50,839
Speaker 2: money from the Antar family for the defrauded stockholders were

874
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:53,799
Speaker 2: deemed complete in twenty twelve. Like that's it, that's it.

875
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 3: You're not getting it done.

876
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 7: Yeah.

877
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 2: So, after the Crazy Eddie chain closed in eighty nine,

878
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 2: Jersey based Investment Group bought the rights to the Crazy

879
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:07,480
Speaker 2: Eddie's trademark. In January of nineteen ninety they announced that

880
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:11,000
Speaker 2: they had purchased the leases in Brooklyn and East Brunswick,

881
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 2: New Jersey, with the intent to reopen and they were

882
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 2: going to revive Yeah, nothing ever came of that. In

883
00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, Alan and Mitchell Antar, Eddie's grandchildren, they

884
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:28,239
Speaker 2: revived the chain online and it was Crazy Eddieonline dot com.

885
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 2: They opened a store in Wayne, New Jersey too, like

886
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 2: an actual brick and mortars they used. His prices are

887
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,480
Speaker 2: insane slogan, and they re hired doctor Jerry as the spokesman.

888
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 3: Got on them. I like it.

889
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:42,319
Speaker 2: Doctor Jerry, by the way, had founded his own advertising

890
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 2: agency in the Yeah, so the grandkids. They wanted to

891
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 2: eventually open ten more brick and mortar stores listener. That

892
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:52,360
Speaker 2: did not happen.

893
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 3: No.

894
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 2: Nineteen ninety nine, the shop in Wayne closed down. It

895
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 2: was it was a good one year run. They were

896
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 2: still online though. Thousand and one. Eddie returns to the company.

897
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:05,799
Speaker 2: Got out early. He's ready to go. The business was

898
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 2: only online or bye by telephone at the time, so

899
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:14,360
Speaker 2: he re registered the domain as crazy Eddi dot com

900
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,319
Speaker 2: and he rebooted with doctor Jerry once more.

901
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 3: To Jerry came back.

902
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 2: Jerry comes back and he like hired doctor Jerry as

903
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 2: the ad consultant.

904
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 3: That's a trusting friendship is is.

905
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,439
Speaker 2: By two thousand and four, Crazy eddy dot Com had

906
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 2: disappeared once again. The company tried to live again the

907
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 2: next year and then it went co put. So the

908
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 2: Crazy Eddi trademark and intellectual property were then bought by

909
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:42,600
Speaker 2: a Texas space company called Trident Growth Fund. Oh god,

910
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 2: I know, it's just getting battle ready. So in July

911
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 2: of two thousand and six, tried tried to auction the

912
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:52,759
Speaker 2: brand and the domain name crazy Eddie dot They tried

913
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:55,960
Speaker 2: to auction it on ebayh god, but the reserve price

914
00:44:56,080 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 2: wasn't met. Like all of the most prestigious, high value

915
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:01,799
Speaker 2: business trade deals are done on day.

916
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,879
Speaker 4: Everyone knows. Yeah, I once sold by blackness. I got

917
00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 4: a lot of money for it.

918
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 5: So on.

919
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:13,240
Speaker 2: March third, two thousand and nine, Brooklyn based businessman Jack

920
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 2: Gemmel he bought the rights to the Crazy Eddy name.

921
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 2: He started a new online Crazy Eddy store at prices

922
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:21,320
Speaker 2: are insane dot com.

923
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 3: Oh no, okay, yeah, makes sense.

924
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 2: And he started looking for physical retail space and he

925
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:28,200
Speaker 2: said that he was you know what, guys, I'm opening

926
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 2: fifty new stores in two years. So every was like,

927
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 2: uh huh. That's and like his version of Crazy Eddie's

928
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:38,960
Speaker 2: online did about as well as the other iterations. He

929
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,800
Speaker 2: struggled along selling appliances and electronics online, but he couldn't

930
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:45,439
Speaker 2: get it to take off. And brick and mortar, which

931
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:49,200
Speaker 2: is starting to fizzle anyway, that didn't take off. So

932
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 2: by twenty twelve, the online business had ended. Prices are

933
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:56,600
Speaker 2: insane dot com doesn't exist anymore as of twenty eighteen,

934
00:45:57,280 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 2: the Crazy Eddie trademark is listed.

935
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,440
Speaker 3: As abandoned owned by Amazon.

936
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,920
Speaker 2: Pretty much, So get in there, people, get that cursed trademark.

937
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:06,840
Speaker 3: Get you some of that crazy.

938
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:10,240
Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, cousin Sammy became an advisor

939
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:15,000
Speaker 2: for government agencies and businesses investigating fraud. So white hat fraudster.

940
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:17,399
Speaker 3: Yeah.

941
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 2: September tenth, twenty sixteen, Eddie passed away at the age

942
00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 2: of sixty eight. He had been suffering from liver cancer,

943
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 2: but no official cause of death was given. October twenty twenty,

944
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 2: doctor Jerry passed away after suffering from cardiac issues for

945
00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:31,879
Speaker 2: several years.

946
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 3: Sorry, so this is.

947
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 2: Really like tying up. It's the end of it all.

948
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 2: There's a journalist named Gary Weiss who's no relation to

949
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:39,720
Speaker 2: Larry Weiss. The promo guy.

950
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:42,320
Speaker 3: OGU Larry Eddy on one of the og cartoons.

951
00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:45,600
Speaker 2: Is no relation Gary Weiss. He did a ton of

952
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,320
Speaker 2: research on Eddie and his wildlife, and he published a

953
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 2: book called Retail Gangster in twenty twenty two. It's a

954
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,480
Speaker 2: phenomenal book. It's really well written. It's like a super

955
00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:58,600
Speaker 2: deep dive, lots of side information and background. He does

956
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 2: the story much more justice than I ever could. So

957
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 2: check it out. Check it out like I did from

958
00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:05,360
Speaker 2: the Oakland Library online service.

959
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:05,799
Speaker 5: There you go.

960
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:09,279
Speaker 3: I like that everyone the online libraries.

961
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:12,680
Speaker 2: Right, everyone, Yeah, the libraries. It's amazing. So what's your

962
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 2: ridiculous takeaways?

963
00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 4: Erin Man, this is a throwback with the crazy eddies stuff,

964
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 4: Like I missed the fast talking local advertising model.

965
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 3: I know that it's still somewhere around. Like down in

966
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 3: LA they have like.

967
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 4: A mattress guy like he does like a you're killing

968
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,279
Speaker 4: me Larry about the deals they're doing for waterbeds or

969
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:33,360
Speaker 4: whatever it is. And then up here they when I

970
00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:35,600
Speaker 4: was in northern California as a boy, they had the

971
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:38,279
Speaker 4: Federated ads. It was like very much the same thing.

972
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:39,800
Speaker 4: It was like electronics and then they would do it

973
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 4: fast talk and they were doing this crazy, crazy deal someday.

974
00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:47,400
Speaker 4: It's like that energy seems very honest to me. For capitalism.

975
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 4: It's the only time capitalism feels right now. I'm like,

976
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:50,399
Speaker 4: that's there.

977
00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:50,759
Speaker 2: It is.

978
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 4: Anything else feels like I would just trying to be

979
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 4: slick or my friend or like help me with my journey.

980
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is a lot. You're intense, You're on cocaine,

981
00:47:59,040 --> 00:47:59,600
Speaker 3: and you want.

982
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:03,320
Speaker 2: What's in my give me Paul from the Diamond Center exactly.

983
00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:06,160
Speaker 2: There's a there was a channel here in Oakland called

984
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:08,760
Speaker 2: soul Beat. It was like kind of a public access.

985
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 2: Oh it's not around anymore, but it was the best

986
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,360
Speaker 2: and we watched it growing up. And they have an

987
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,880
Speaker 2: Instagram account and they have the old ads like the

988
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 2: local ads and are so good. They brought back memories.

989
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:23,640
Speaker 2: So yeah, those are the you know, local ads.

990
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 7: We need more celeb there.

991
00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:25,319
Speaker 2: It is.

992
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:27,720
Speaker 3: Enjoy them, share them with friends.

993
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 2: That's the Ridiculous. You can find us online at ridiculous

994
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:35,919
Speaker 2: crime dot com. There's merch there. We're at Ridiculous Crime

995
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 2: on Twitter and Instagram sometimes threads. Don't get me mad

996
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 2: about that email. If you want to not be answered

997
00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 2: at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com, get on the

998
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:51,120
Speaker 2: iHeart app and leave us at talk back. That's it.

999
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 2: That's all I got. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth

1000
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 2: Dutton and Zaren Burnett, duced and edited by Demented Dave Cousten.

1001
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:05,800
Speaker 2: Research is by mad mursa Brown and Ape Poop Andrea

1002
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 2: song Sharpened Hear. The theme song is by Lupy, Thomas

1003
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:12,400
Speaker 2: Lee and deranged Travis Dutton post wardrobe is provided by

1004
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:16,080
Speaker 2: Botan five hundreds. Executive producers are Bonkers, Ben Bolan and

1005
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:27,200
Speaker 2: Nutty Noel Brown. We dis Crime, Say It one More Times.

1006
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:32,160
Speaker 1: Cry Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.

1007
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 1: My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1008
00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:37,240
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