His Crazy Eddie chain was known for its ads featuring a maniacal pitchman, Jerry Carroll, who always shouted, “Our prices are insane!”
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“Crazy” Eddie Antar, who was extradited to US from Israel for racketeering and stock fraud charges in 1993, has died on Saturday.
In 1984, the chain went public.
The number of stores quickly grew from NY to three other states, selling TV, stereos, VCR and electronics at bargain prices, thanks in part to the famous TV and radio commercials. Stockholders, during a revolt in 1987, took over the company, and shortly after that it was discovered that $45 million in merchandise was missing.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
At the same time, federal prosecutors had been building a fraud case against Antar, charging that he had defrauded shareholders through stock manipulation, according to The New York Times. The chain collapsed on federal fraud charges, and Antar fled to Israel.
Antar was extradited to the United States in 1993 and was convicted on racketeering and stock fraud charges.
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Antar founded Crazy Eddie with his father in 1971, starting with a single storefront on Kings Highway in Brooklyn. “For most of the next fifteen years CARROLL performed commercials in the same frenetic manner he had for radio”.
