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All 19 Ways The New York Mafia Makes Money | How Crime Works - YouTube
Channel: Insider
[0]
My name is John Pennisi.
[1]
I'm a former made member of
the Lucchese crime family.
[5]
This is how crime works.
[9]
We were involved in a Range Rover scam
[12]
where the Range Rovers were purchased
[15]
or financed from the United States, here,
[18]
and shipped to countries like China,
[21]
where they had a specific Range Rover
[25]
that didn't have all
the bells and whistles
[28]
that the Range Rovers in
the United States had.
[31]
And they were sold almost
for four times the amount.
[34]
And there was a stipulation that
[36]
if you purchased a Range
Rover from the United States,
[40]
you would sign paperwork saying
[42]
that you weren't going to export the car.
[45]
They were buying them maybe
for $100,000 $120,000,
[48]
and it was being sold in China
[50]
for about up to $400,000.
[53]
A lot of members of organized crime
[56]
went into legitimate businesses,
[58]
whether they opened up
pizzerias, restaurants,
[62]
construction companies,
and things like that.
[65]
One of the legitimate businesses
[67]
was in the Fulton Fish Market,
[68]
which is where most of the fish
[71]
that goes to the restaurants
in New York City comes from.
[74]
Rudolph Giuliani came into
the Fulton Fish Market
[77]
and seen that
[78]
there were members of organized crime
[82]
planted there with
businesses that were legit,
[85]
and he took them all out.
[87]
So that was one example of
[91]
ways that which they tried
to slip into legitimacy,
[95]
but because of who they were,
[97]
law enforcement got them out.
[99]
So, the food industry
was always a big earn
[102]
for organized crime in the past,
[104]
and it is present today.
[106]
As earning capability's
[109]
been taken away from Cosa Nostra
[111]
because of the government and the FBI,
[115]
they went a little more
[116]
in the legitimate way of doing things,
[119]
creating companies that supply food,
[122]
but what they would do is
they would go to restaurants
[127]
and insist that they
have to use their product
[130]
and their companies.
[131]
So the specific companies
that they would create
[134]
would be the companies which
supply the restaurants,
[138]
whether it be pasta, sauce, cheese, water,
[143]
and even imported food
from Italy and Sicily.
[146]
A lot of members of organized crime
[148]
have purchased their own restaurants
[150]
and went into that legitimate business.
[153]
They have took control
of restaurants as well
[156]
that weren't theirs.
[158]
They'll come in as partners.
[159]
So they would create companies
[161]
that become vendors for food,
[163]
which supply the restaurant industry.
[166]
As far as Hollywood, in years past,
[171]
organized crime had a big
hold on the unions there.
[175]
And that's how they
were able to manipulate
[178]
and control what went on in Hollywood
[180]
with the movies and music business.
[182]
The sanitation was bigger years ago,
[185]
and they brought a big case on them.
[187]
Years ago, there was a big arrest
[190]
of the private sanitation companies.
[192]
They were charging so much money
[195]
towards local businesses
to pick up their garbage.
[198]
But even presently, today,
[200]
members of organized crime
[202]
own companies that are private sanitation.
[205]
So there's still a big presence
[206]
in the sanitation industry.
[210]
Tax evasion or tax fraud
and money laundering
[213]
is something that always went on
[215]
in Cosa Nostra in the past
[218]
and still to this present day.
[219]
Illegal money that's being
made in the street today
[223]
is not being claimed on taxes.
[226]
That's tax evasion or
tax fraud right there.
[229]
Money laundering happens
when organized crime,
[233]
they're making money
[234]
and they're buying legitimate businesses,
[237]
restaurants and companies,
[239]
so they're washing the
money, illegal money,
[241]
through these legitimate businesses.
[244]
Insider trading was bigger years ago
[246]
where Cosa Nostra went
into the financial center
[250]
and created companies,
[251]
and they were finding out information.
[253]
The SEC came down on them.
[255]
There was a lot of
people who were indicted
[257]
and went to prison as a result of that.
[259]
And they kind of pushed them out.
[262]
So, counterfeiting went on more years ago.
[266]
There was always
counterfeit bills, 10s, 20s,
[269]
where people were pushing
this counterfeit money
[271]
back into society.
[273]
Today, it's a little more difficult,
[275]
because the way the bills are made,
[277]
you know, the bills have
specific emblems on it
[280]
and wires in the bills.
[282]
So the government made it harder
[285]
for members of organized crime
[287]
to counterfeit their bills.
[289]
In Sicily and Italy,
they use cryptocurrency,
[293]
especially to buy narcotics.
[295]
And I believe that in New York,
[297]
the same thing's happening.
[298]
A lot more criminals
are using cryptocurrency
[301]
to do scams and as a means
[304]
to pay for things to
do criminal activities.
[309]
Cryptocurrency would
come into effect again,
[311]
where the loan shark could get paid back
[315]
in cryptocurrency today.
[316]
Loan-sharking is a way
in which Cosa Nostra
[319]
made money years ago
[320]
and makes money up to the present day,
[322]
where they loan somebody money
[324]
at a rate or where there's vig involved.
[328]
The vig is the interest
[330]
that they're making off
the principal of the money.
[332]
A lot of times, people in the street life
[335]
can't walk into a bank for
whatever reason and get a loan.
[338]
They'll go to a loan shark.
[340]
Gambling is always going to
be an earn for Cosa Nostra.
[344]
It was done on a much larger scale.
[346]
They had casinos, illegal casinos,
[349]
a lot of card games.
[350]
Today, there's not a lot of that going on,
[352]
as it did years ago.
[354]
But you're always going
to have your bookmaker
[357]
take an action to make some money.
[359]
So a lot of times,
[360]
gambling and loan-sharking
go hand in hand.
[364]
There's gambling going on;
[365]
maybe somebody runs out of money;
[367]
there's a loan shark,
[368]
somebody that's lending money;
[370]
they borrow the money from the loan shark.
[373]
And gamblers are always
going to be owing money.
[377]
So in turn, they go to the loan shark.
[379]
So those two specific ways to make money
[384]
go hand in hand for Cosa Nostra.
[387]
So, gambling's been taken to
a new level in present times,
[391]
where now there is online gambling.
[394]
So Cosa Nostra has
[397]
people who have online gambling,
[400]
mostly in Costa Rica,
they'll build websites,
[403]
and they'll have their
customers go online,
[405]
and they gamble through the website.
[407]
Years ago, it was all done through paper,
[410]
people writing things down.
[412]
There was none of that online activity.
[415]
As far as gun trafficking
and arms trafficking,
[419]
obviously it was bigger years ago,
[421]
but every family has a member
[424]
or certain members that
are involved in guns.
[428]
And you're going to see
a little gun trafficking
[431]
where somebody's leaving the state
[432]
or maybe getting guns from another state
[434]
and bringing it back into New York
[437]
for sale or for use.
[439]
So there's always some
kind of gun activity
[441]
going on within organized crime.
[445]
Drug dealing and drug trafficking
[448]
was done on a much larger scale years ago.
[451]
It is a big earn for Cosa Nostra,
[454]
but I think it's done on
a much, much lower scale
[458]
than it was years ago.
[460]
At one time, prostitution
was a big, big earn
[463]
for organized crime,
[465]
as well as the whole sex industry,
[468]
pornography and all of that.
[471]
Today, that no longer exists
[473]
as a moneymaking opportunity for them.
[475]
Years ago, organized
crime made a ton of money
[479]
through the 1-800 sex calls,
[481]
where you would call up
[483]
and talk sexual with a woman on the phone.
[486]
It was a big, big earn for them.
[488]
So that's no longer available to them.
[491]
Extortion is another means
in which to make money
[494]
where, years ago, it would be maybe
[497]
pushing up on local
businesses, restaurants,
[500]
and have them pay extortion money.
[503]
It's harder to do today.
[504]
People are not afraid
to pick up and call 911
[507]
and call the cops on these people.
[508]
They're not afraid of
repercussions from them.
[510]
So, today, it's mostly where one business
[514]
is owed money by another business.
[516]
They would try to go
about getting their money
[518]
in any other way, and
then as a last resort
[521]
they would come to one of us
[523]
and we would collect the money,
[525]
if we could collect the money,
[526]
and we would sometimes take half
[528]
or take whatever percentage
we felt that we wanted
[531]
and give them the rest.
[533]
Most of the business
that we got involved in
[536]
to collect money was the
construction business,
[539]
whether it was a supplier
of construction material
[543]
or people that were doing
construction themselves.
[546]
And one company owed another company,
[548]
and one company wasn't paying,
[550]
and we would get involved.
[552]
Another way in which organized crime
[554]
got involved in construction
was bid rigging,
[557]
where a certain contractor would be given
[560]
a job without going for bid.
[564]
And that no longer takes place today,
[567]
because the government doesn't allow it.
[570]
You know, the government monitors
[571]
what goes on with these
construction activities.
[574]
So bid rigging is something
that really was lost today.
[578]
Another means in present times
[580]
which to make money was fiber optics.
[582]
Myself, I was specifically involved
[585]
with a bunch of guys in our family.
[587]
We were installing fiber
optics for a big company,
[592]
and we would get
subcontractors to do the work
[596]
for the company that we had.
[598]
The companies did not
have to put it up for bid.
[600]
They just were given the job to do
[603]
and told what they should charge
[605]
and what they should not charge.
[607]
And so that's where the
crime comes involved in that.
[610]
So, presently, Cosa Nostra is making money
[613]
through the old methods,
and some are new methods,
[616]
like bookmaking, gambling,
[620]
extortion, labor racketeering,
[623]
the construction industry,
[627]
the carting industry,
the garbage industry.
[630]
And those are always going to go on.
[634]
Some of the newer ways
in which they make money
[636]
is through restaurant vendors
[639]
and restaurants and legitimate businesses.
[643]
They are even inducting members now
[646]
that are legitimate people
[648]
that have businesses and have money.
[652]
So some of the ways in which
[654]
they lost earning capabilities
[657]
is the unions.
[659]
And the reason being is that
[660]
the government monitors the unions now.
[663]
So the government kicked out
members of organized crime
[667]
and companies that were
involved with organized crime
[670]
out of the construction industry,
[673]
the fish market,
[675]
and even the garbage industry.
[678]
Cosa Nostra, to me, is like an amoeba.
[681]
And it's always changing shapes and forms,
[684]
and they're always trying to come up
[687]
with new schemes and new
scams in which to make money.
[691]
And this will always continue,
[692]
because without scams
[695]
or scores to make money,
[697]
money equals power, and without power,
[701]
there is no more Cosa Nostra.
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