Mafia men own up to $650m porn fraud on net

[emad]

Times
From James Bone in New York

SIX reputed mobsters from New York’s Gambino crime family have pleaded guilty to using internet porn sites and “free” sex lines to cheat users across the globe out of $650 million (£344 million) in one of the biggest consumer frauds in American history.

One of the charges involved an extortion attempt against the former porn publisher Richard Desmond, the proprietor of the Daily Express. One of his executives was beaten by the gang.

An alleged Gambino captain, a soldier and four associates admitted their involvement on Monday just before the start of their trial in Brooklyn. Prosecutors said that they advertised “free” phone numbers offering adult entertainment, horoscope readings and telephone dating and then billed callers $40 (£22) a month for “voice mail” — a practice known as phone “cramming”.

The mobsters also persuaded web surfers to part with their credit card information so that they could enter “free tours” of porn sites, saying the data was needed for “age verification”, and then charged their credit cards up to $90.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1486281,00.html

[truthisfreedom]

1. cute. they use embarrassment to keep it quiet, too... most guys are

afraid to complain because it draws attention to what they've done.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. A few details of the intimidation of Desmond

from today's Private Eye. Desmond owns a national newspaper, and has been a large contributor to Labour party funds - just after the government approved his takeover of the Express papers.

The trouble began in September 1992 when Martino and Chanes flew to London and met Desmond for tea at the Four Seasons hotel. Over the previous few years they had spent well over $1m advertising dial-a-porn services in his publications, but now they wanted their money back. Desmond, they claimed, had been ripping them off by vastly overstating the magazines' circulation. As Martino put it: "You're fucking us."

According to Chanes, Desmond's response was to call Martino stupid and common - which suggests he didn't realise Martino was a "made man" from the Gambino clan. The usually suave and smooth-talking mafioso quickly reverted to his other personality, that of Richie from the Bronx. "This is not over," he snarled as Desmond walked out, warning him that he'd better not try to bring out any porn mags in the US.

Undaunted, Desmond sent his lieutenant Philip Bailey to New York just two weeks later to look for publishing opportunities. When Martino learned that he was in town, he allegedly told Chanes that "I'm gonna send a car to get him ... I'm gonna give him a message for his boss." Bailey was then kidnapped by several burly thugs in a limo with tinted windows, who pistol-whipped him, slashed his face and applied a Taser-style electric prod to his testicles. "We want our money back," they yelled. "You tell your fucking boss. It's a small pond ... Tell your boss he's a dead man."

Bailey was so badly battered that British Airways refused to let him board his plane, and he had to convalesce for several days at the house of porn magnate Bob Guccione before he could return home. On his arrival in London, he was met at the airport by three bodyguards and taken straight to Desmond's house. According the the Village Voice, which has seen Bailey's affadavit, Dirty Des said: "You don't look so bad, Bailey." A furious Bailey leaped at Desmond and had to be pulled off by the bodyguards. Desmond allegedly added that he had no intention of paying Chanes a penny: "He can whistle for it."

However, Desmond did pay the mobsters £2 million a few days later, Bailey resigned, and Desmond denied ever hearing of Martino when The Times asked him about the incident, and said that Bailey's story was a fantasy.

What nice friends Tony Blair has, eh?

[realFedUp]

3. Did they place cameras in Gitmo or Abu Ghraib?

And isn't the Mob, not having uniforms,
terrorists also?

[radwriter0555]

4. LOL I love it. Preying on the weakness of men to cash in... Serves the

victims right, I suppose.

[tx_dem41]

5. Yes, I guess NO women indulge in internet porn...

:eyes:

Possibly, you need to get out more.

[radwriter0555]

6. Well no, they don't. They are, however, the least likely to seriously

profit from it, all while being the ones to be exploited by it.

Females really DO need to take over the porn industry and start cashing in on the cows men are... horny little devils!