He was more famous than the mayor of New York — and one of the biggest fraudsters in American history. In this episode of Fascinating Nouns, host Daniel J. Glenn sits down with author Gary Weiss, author of Retail Gangster: The Fall of Crazy Eddie, to unravel the wild true story of Eddie Antar — the man behind the iconic “His prices are insane!” commercials that dominated New York airwaves in the 70s and 80s.
We dig into the origins of the Antar family’s Syrian-Jewish immigrant roots, the cultural practice of “Nehkdi” (profit skimming) that became the gateway to massive fraud, and how Eddie built his empire on stolen sales tax, bait-and-switch sales tactics, and rigged co-op advertising deals. We trace the company’s rise through its 1984 IPO, the inventory fraud that inflated its stock price, and the family betrayals — including Eddie’s own cousin and CFO, Sam Antar, who eventually became the key witness against him.
Finally, we cover Eddie’s dramatic downfall: insider trading, a hostile takeover that exposed empty filing cabinets, his international manhunt and capture in Israel, and one truly wild detail — a former Crazy Eddie salesman who went on to become a street boss in the Bonanno crime family.
This is one of the craziest true crime business stories you’ll ever hear — equal parts immigrant success story, family betrayal, and Wall Street fraud.