New York City. 1987. The number one electronics retailer in the tristate area is a $600million (yeah, in 1985) company with 39 locations and 2000 employees. If you say “electronics” to anyone in New York City, the first thought they will have is “Crazy Eddie.” If you turn on a TV or radio, you will hear an irritating man named Crazy Eddie screaming at you. And if you say “Crazy Eddie” into a mirror 3 times, you will turn into a 200-pound TV/VCR combo. This was the Crazy Eddie empire, named after its founder, Eddie Antar. This was the first big-box electronics store in the world. And it also turned out to be the single biggest case of retail fraud in American history.
