News: Gambino Crime Family Rakes in $200 Million on PhoneSex Con
 

Sorry if this has already been posted elsewhere... but damn... thats alot of phone sex!!

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/17711.htm

GAMBINOS IN $200 MILLION PHONE-SEX RIP-OFF: FEDS

By KATI CORNELL SMITH

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February 11, 2004 -- The Gambino crime family raked in nearly half a billion dollars ripping off users of phone-sex lines and Internet porn sites, the feds charged yesterday.

A new indictment charges reputed soldier Richard Martino and a white-collar cohort with roping millions of victims into a $200 million fraud scheme by advertising "free" samples of adult-entertainment services - such as phone sex, horoscope lines and dating services.

A total of 10 Gambino wiseguys and associates were charged in the "telephone cramming" scheme yesterday, including Martino's brother Daniel, 53, an assistant professor of chemistry at Mercy College in Westchester.

Once the customers had placed a call to one of the 800 numbers, a $40 monthly fee would be automatically added onto their local telephone bills - often disguised as a charge for "voice mail."

When one company, Southwestern Bell, would no longer process the charges, Richard Martino, 44, and advertising executive Norman Chanes, 57, allegedly set up their own billing company, USP&C.

The new billing company sent out invoices resembling bills from Southwestern Bell, labeled instead "Southwest Region Bill."

Once customers got wise and started to complain, USP&C set up a call center to handle the gripes - but operators were instructed to offer only partial refunds, unless the customers insisted on getting all their money back, the indictment said.

The enterprise generated between $50,000 and $600,000 in gross revenue every day from 1997 to 2001, according to the indictment.

A cut in the profits was kicked up to reputed Gambino capo Salvatore "Tore" Locascio, 44, who is also named in the indictment, according to court papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Genser.

Martino was released on $1 million bail at an arraignment in Brooklyn federal court, where he pleaded not guilty.

Martino, Chanes, and Richard Chew, CEO of the company that publishes Playgirl and High Society magazines, were originally indicted in March on the alleged Internet smut

Good on them.

more info on it tomorrow @ http://ganglandnews.com/column.htm
for those interested.

What makes me mad is that it says that they made nearly half a billion dollars. $200 million is not even half of half a billion dollars. American news pisses me off. The mob is doing better with their phone sex lines than I am doing with mine. $200 million is a nice chunk of change.

crazy shit