Spotting a stock fraud is extremely difficult, but finding some smoke is significantly easier.
Founded by Eddie Antar, Crazy Eddie was a chain of consumer electronic stores in the Northeast. After going public in the 1980s, the stock became nearly a ten-bagger before investigators found it to be a fraud. Investors may not have suspected that the retailer boosted profit margins by manipulating a cash skim, but there were some other signs that the soaring stock price didn’t tell the whole story.
Ricky Mulvey talked with Gary Weiss, author of “Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie” about:
- Why investors bought into Eddie Antar’s hype
- How criminals save money on sales tax
- The eventual downfall of Crazy Eddie
Host: Ricky Mulvey
Guest: Gary Weiss
Engineers: Rick Engdahl, Dan Boyd
