The Very Crazy Story of Crazy Eddie, the Electronics and Scamming Giant On this episode of the 'Dirty Money' podcast, we close the circuit on a crooked discount electronics empire.

By Dan Bova Edited by Dan Bova Mar 7, 2023

Anyone who grew up in the New York/New Jersey area in the '70s and '80s remembers Crazy Eddie. It was an electronics retail store chain that had the most memorable and obnoxious commercials ever.

So the guy in the commercial was just an actor, but there was a real Crazy Eddie — and he was way wilder than the TV spokesman. Behind the scenes and the screams, Eddie Antar never met a scam he didn't love and was a pathological liar.

On this episode of Dirty Money, co-hosts Jon Small and Dan Bova speak with Gary Weiss, author of Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie, to get all the details on the electronics giant's gigantic scams, which earned him the nicknamed "the Darth Vader of capitalism" by U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff.

Hold onto your wallets, this is going to be a wild one!

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About Dirty Money

Dirty Money is a new podcast series from Entrepreneur Media telling the tales of legendary scammers, con artists, and barely-legal lowlifes who stop at nothing to bilk their marks of millions. Hosted by Entrepreneur editors Dan Bova and Jon Small, the podcast takes a deep dive into the deviants behind the deeds.

Dan Bova

Entrepreneur Staff

VP of Special Projects

Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids include This Day in History, Car and Driver's Trivia Zone, Road & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars, The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff, and Wendell the Werewolf.

Read his humor column This Should Be Fun if you want to feel better about yourself.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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