The chain rose to prominence throughout the Tri-State area (New York-New Jersey-Connecticut) as much for its prices as for its memorable radio and television commercials, featuring a frenetic, "crazy" character played by radio DJ Jerry Carroll (who copied most of his shtick from early TV commercial pioneer, used car and electronics salesman Earl "Madman" Muntz).

[1] Almost from the beginning, Crazy Eddie engaged in fraudulent business practices, including under-reporting income, skimming sales taxes, and paying employees off the books.

These practices, in conjunction with aggressive sales tactics, enabled Crazy Eddie to significantly undercut competitors and grow rapidly.

During the process of going public, Crazy Eddie continued to engage in fraud, over-reporting profits, inflating inventory and duping auditors.

Unable to sustain his fraudulent business practices, co-founder Eddie Antar cashed in millions of dollars' worth of stock and resigned from the company in December 1986.

In February 1987, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey commenced a federal grand jury investigation into the financial activities of Crazy Eddie.

Antar had paid for an on-air ad and Carroll read the chain's slogan "his prices are insane" in an exaggerated and frenetic manner.

One of his more memorable promotions was for Crazy Eddie's annual "Christmas in August" sale, where he would dress in a Santa suit and do the commercial while stagehands threw fake snowballs at him.

[citation needed] Warner Communications, the parent company of the distributor of the Superman movie series, found the commercial to be problematic and sued the chain trying to stop it.

[6] An early Eddie's commercial parody appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live on January 22, 1977, in the Dan Aykroyd creation, "Crazy Ernie".

An example is the frightening first sight of a television receiver with a typical Jerry Carroll commercial on screen by Daryl Hannah's mermaid character in Ron Howard's 1984 comedy Splash.

[8] Crazy Eddie also was known to have in-store appearances by notable rock acts, including all four members of Queen in their Manhattan location on Tuesday, July 27, 1982 (prior to their performance that evening at Madison Square Garden).

[11] Despite the misgivings of people closely associated with Crazy Eddie, the company held its initial public offering on September 13, 1984 (former symbol: CRZY).

[citation needed] Only months after Crazy Eddie's IPO, Antar's marriage to his wife, Debbie, became unstable as a result of frequent arguments.

Crazy Eddie's troubles began almost immediately afterward; the scam had relied extensively on family members helping keep the appearance that it was an immensely successful company.

In addition, Crazy Eddie booked $20 million in phony debit memos or charge backs to vendors that reduced accounts payable.

Zinn eventually partnered with management consultant Victor Palmieri's backing to purchase $17.5 million worth of Crazy Eddie stock, which represented 7.5% of the outstanding shares.

When Palmieri's financial analysts completed their preliminary audit a few weeks after the takeover, they estimated that Crazy Eddie's inventory was short by $40 to $50 million.

On June 6, 1989, Crazy Eddie was served with a petition by five of its creditors, who had not been paid a total of $860,000 they were owed, which sought to have the company forced into bankruptcy.

[16] Company president and CEO Peter Martosella cited problems created by the creditors' position (which he termed "ill-advised"), but said business would be conducted as usual at the remaining 26 stores and that Crazy Eddie was still a strong franchise.

By the autumn of 1989, the chain was down to eighteen remaining locations and sales were continuing to decrease and stores were unable to keep items stocked due to lack of supplier interest in the company.

[4] Based on information gathered during its investigation, the SEC charged Eddie Antar with securities fraud and illegal insider trading on September 6, 1989.

[4] Eddie fled to Israel using a forged Brazilian passport and the alias David Jacob Levi Cohen, and purchased a townhouse in the city of Yavne.

He avoided jail time in exchange for his testimony, however, and was instead sentenced to six months of house arrest, 1,200 hours of community service, three years of probation, and was levied more than $10,000 in fines.

[24] In 1998, the grandchildren of Eddie, Allen and Mitchell Antar, revived the chain with a shop in Wayne, New Jersey, and as an online Internet venture, crazyeddieonline.com.

[25] The revived company retained the slogan "His prices are insane" and re-hired Jerry Carroll, who by this time had founded his own advertising agency, as spokesman.

The Crazy Eddie trademark and associated intellectual property were then acquired by Texas-based company Trident Growth Fund.

However, Gemal was never able to find the retail space he sought to reinitiate the Crazy Eddie store chain, and in 2012, the online business ended.

Titled Retail Gangster and written by journalist Gary Weiss, the book chronicles, in significant detail, how Eddie Antar was able to build his business into one of the most profitable in the country and the illicit means he employed.

In the 2016 film The Accountant, Ben Affleck's character references Crazy Eddie Antar and the Panama Pump when describing an ongoing embezzlement case.