#82 Planet Money: Inside The Mind Of A Financial Criminal




Planet Money show

Summary: Before Bernie Madoff, there was the Antar family. The Antars ran the popular "Crazy Eddie" electronics chain, which was known for its frenetic commercials and low prices. The business was crooked from the start, but the fraud got more serious when the family took the company public in 1984. Eddie's nephew Sam Antar was one of the masterminds of the fraud. He explains how the family managed to cheat investors out of millions and why the scheme eventually fell apart.