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

New York Daily News Archive | Getty Images

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!

Subscribe to Dirty Money on Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play

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.

Related: The Twisted Scam That Bilked Movie Crews Out of Millions

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 ZoneRoad & 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.

Business News

'Unprecedented in Our 53-Year History': Southwest Airlines Announces Its First Mass Layoffs Ever

The airline is eliminating 15% of its corporate workforce, including many in senior leadership positions.

Side Hustle

This 30-Year-Old's $6,000-a-Month Side Hustle Started Making Money 'Immediately' — But He's Not Quitting His Day Job

Derrick Mathy works in orthopedic surgical device sales and is on a mission to bring people together in real life.

Business News

Elon Musk's xAI Claims Its New Grok 3 AI Is Better Than ChatGPT and DeepSeek: 'Seeing the Beginnings of Creativity'

xAI debuted the new AI on Monday, claiming it has 10 times the computational power of Grok 2.

Side Hustle

'I Was Called Crazy': This 27-Year-Old's Side Hustle Hit $30,000 a Month in Under a Year — Now It's Worth Millions

Changing regulations forced Angel Rodriguez's jet ski rental company to shut down, and the young entrepreneur had to figure out his next move — fast.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Franchise

Sam The Concrete Man is North America's #1 Residential Concrete Franchise

Sam The Concrete Man franchisees have the flexibility of working from home in the high demand residential concrete industry.