Mob Business 2009:

I guess the Mobs different/current businesses would be around construction, prostitution, pornography, protection, fencing goods/loads, illegal gambling/sports betting, loan sharking. (Feel free to jump on board and name others).
What other things are prominent for the mob these days?
There are a few things I don't understand...

I'm not entirley sure about 'No-Show' jobs? What exactly are they and how do you make money from them?

Construction, is it because they control/influence unions (e.g. take strike action etc if they don't get their way/price)?

Mobs (Italian and others) operate wherever money can be made quickly. In addition to all the traditional rackets like gambling, loan sharking, etc., they are also into more sophisticated stuff like investment frauds and industry-wide shakedowns.

Construction, garbage hauling and trucking continue to be main rackets. If you read Selwyn Raab's outstanding "The Five Families," you'll see how those rackets operate. The Mob sets up an "association" and forces legitimate construction companies, garbage haulers, truckers, etc., to join--for big monthly fees to the "association." In return, the Mob cartelizes the industries and divvies up routes, jobs, etc., among the legitimate companies who pay them off. The result is that the companies raise the price of their concrete, garbage hauling, freight rates, etc. The public pays.

"No show" jobs are standard Mob stuff. The Mob puts its own men in key positions in labor unions. They coerce builders, trucking companies, etc., into hiring their guys, at union wages, for jobs that the guys never have to work at. The guys then turn part of their wages back to the Mobbed-up union bosses. Unions are a prime source of racketeering. Mobs can plunder the treasuries and pension funds of unions they dominate. They can shake down construction companies by enforcing "rulebook slowdowns" that delay completion of projects and can cost the companies millions in late fees. They can also assure that union members turn out and vote for politicians who pay them off.

Thanks Turnbull, I do own and have read Selwynn Raab's 'Five Families' but it looks like I'm going to have to re-visit those pages to polish up my rusty knowledge.

I know drug trafficking is not considered tradionally as a viable business (officialy) venture for La Cosa Nostra in America but would they need to now accept have a much larger hand in that business as competition from the Russians, Albanians etc. threatens their power/income?

Can the Mafia survive without being deep in the drugs business?
Or would you say they are already 'deep' now?

As it has always been since the end of Prohibition, illegal gambling is the #1 money maker for the Mafia. Primarily bookmaking (sports betting), but also other forms such as video poker, numbers, and high-stakes card games.

Attendant with illegal gambling is, of course, loansharking - another continuous income producer for the Mafia.

The Mafia also continues to be involved in various forms of extortion, from shaking down legitimate businesses for protection money to enforcing the street tax from independent bookies, shylocks, drug dealers, burglars, etc. in some areas.

The Mafia has been marginalized in the area of drug trafficking for about 25 years now. Ever since the fall of the Pizza Connection in the mid-1980's. While it was once involved in the upper-to-mid level of the drug trade, it is now more in the mid-to-lower level. This is obviously with respect to the Mafia in the U.S., not the Italian OC groups who smuggle narcotics into the country.

The only area left with substantial labor racketeering activity by the Mafia is New York/New Jersey, though there are other areas with lesser activity such as New England, Chicago, etc.

New industry regulations by the Giuliani administration in the mid-1990's largely removed the Mafia from the food markets and the waste hauling industry. The Mafia lost control of the unions involved in garbage and the trade associations they controlled were replaced by a new government installed one. National carters moved in and took over most of the business. However, the Mafia still owns or controls a number of the smaller carters and is still involved in carting, recycling, etc.

The Giuliani administration also attampted to do the same thing in the contstruction industry but unsuccessful. This is one of the primary reasons why the Mafia remains the most involved in construction more than any other legitimate industry. The Mafia is still involved in bid-rigging, extortion, sweetheart deals, no-show jobs, and embezzeling unions funds, though on a lesser scale.

Repeated indictments removed the Mafia from trucking in the Garment Center and Airports but they are still involved with trucking in other industries, such as construction and the waterfront.

The Mafia still has a presence on the waterfront, both the New York and New Jersey docks, as well as Florida.

While much has been made in the press about new groups like the Russians and Albanians cutting into the Mafia's business, the truth is they more often simply add to the overall amount of organized crime rather than act as direct competition for the Mafia. And often, these new groups work together with or for the Mafia.

1. Bid-Rigging: Only pre-selected companies are allowed to bid. A company is either owned by the mob or must kickback a percentage in order to be chosen for the job. Unapproved companies trying to bid will have problems with the mob-controlled union.

2. Sweetheart Deals: A mob-controlled union allows a company to use non-union labor or union labor for only part of the job. The company saves money and kickbacks some of it to the mob.

3. Extortion: A mob-controlled union extorts payments from a company in turn for labor peace, timely deliveries, no harrasment, etc.

4. No-Show: In turn for any of the above - being selected for a job, using non-union workers, labor peace, etc. - a company puts mob members on their payroll. The mobsters have a legitimate source of income for doing no work.

5. Embezzling: Mob guys in key union positions are able to divert union funds through ghost payrolls, use it as capital for loans or investments, force workers to kickback part of their pay to keep their jobs, etc.

Thanks IvyLeague,
So in regards to no-show jobs.
The 'actual workload' in the job description obviously wouldn't get done by the mob guy in the position, so some other legitimate employee would have to pick up the slack and basically do two jobs for the price of one?
I hope this makes sense...

It's all very interesting, thanks for your help.

It really isn't about work load. In return for rigged bids, sweetheart deals, etc., contractors will give mob guys no-show jobs. There are a few reasons for this. First, as far as their finances go, it looks like them simply paying their employees rather than making some cash payment to somebody for something they may not be able to explain to investigators. Second, these no-show jobs give mob guys a legitimate cover and all that comes with it, i.e. health benefits, etc.

I should also add there is a thing called "no work" jobs. If you ever watched The Sopranos, the guys (Vito, Patsy, Eugene, Benny, etc.) sitting around on the construction site had no work jobs. And every once in a while, guys who had no show jobs (Paulie, Chris) would stop by to pick up their paychecks.

Damn I'd love a no-work job or a no-show job haha.
So they use that for an income on a tax return. That's awesome (for them).
I wonder what happens though in regards with the businesses they do this with. Obviously the 'job' they have isn't getting done but they are getting paid for it anyway... How would a company afford to have mobsters in no-show jobs and still make a profit?

The cost of the no-show jobs and other Mob-imposed "taxes" is passed on down the line. If a construction company is being made to pay for no-show jobs at, say, a hotel construction in Vegas, the construction company will pass on the cost to the hotel owner. He, in turn, will pass on the cost as a higher per-night fee to his guests. If the Mob applies a $10/ton "surcharge" to each load of concrete delivered to a construction site for a new condo, each condo owner ultimately will pay that as higher monthly maintenance fees.

One point that's often overlooked: the Mob's "victims" benefit, too. If a legitimate concrete contractor or garbage collector agrees to join a Mob-controlled "association," and pay their monthly "fee," the "member" will be protected from competition--no other legitimate contractor or collector will be permitted to compete for the "member's" business.

Ahhhh I see. Very interesting. Very smart...
So no-show jobs will only last as long as a contract on a particular development then? Can you have permanent employee no-show jobs?

I will guess that, if a construction company agreed to no-show jobs at one site, the Mob will probably take that as a precedent for imposing no-show jobs at other sites taken on by that contractor. Once a victim, always a victim.

Good point, what a racket!
I wonder how much the contracts sort of annual salaries vary from... That's incredible.

Union jobs in New York are very well paying. In construction as well as in other industries. But many companies are willing to pay it because giving some mob guys no show jobs in return for soft union contracts saves them a lot of money. Recently the 27 year old son of Genovese soldier was convicted for killing another kid in a beef. The son had a $100,000 no show job on the docks.

Another type of construction racket is the "rule book slowdown," which is described in detail in the Sammy da Bull bio, "Underboss":

Construction unions have "rulebooks" that they follow, covering a broad variety of situations--overtime, safety, hours, etc. These can be as thick as a phone book. And they theoretically apply to every construction job. As a practical matter, most of the rules are ignored because the builder and the union want to get on with the job.

But, as Da Bull describes it, the Mobbed-up union official will tell the builder to use a certain drywall contractor (like Da Bull). If he refuses, there'll be a "rulebook slowdown." Suddenly a union member (like Da Bull's no-good nephew) will invoke a rule that every truck entering the site has to be inspected for "safety" so that union members won't "get hurt" by the truck. It can take two hours for each truck to be "inspected"; meanwhile deliveries from other trucks are halted. The union may insist that overtime be doled out according to the "rules"--e.g., most semior members get first dibs--rather than to everyone. The construction company has a contract with the owner of the building to finish by such-and-such a date, and has to post a performance bond--if he's late, he's fined. So, rather than watch his profits go up in smoke from the "rulebook slowdown," he caves, and hires that drywall contractor--and anyone else the Mob dictates.

It's so clever isn't it, and it's so well entrenched that it would almost be impossible to get rid of the mob in regards to construction. They are involved in almost every aspect and have ways around everything if they don't get there way to ensure that eventually one way or another, they do.
I take my hat off to them in that respect.

Turnbull, IvyLeague, thank you for sharing your expertise.

Turnbull on a side note: What does your signature translate to?
If it's not too personal...

Gladly, veneratio:

My signature is the final verse of the "Siciliana," the opening aria of "Cavalleria Rusticana." You may recall that Anthony sang it toward the end of Godfather III.
It's in Sicilain dialect. The translation is:


Within your door blood is shed
And now it doesn't matter to me if I killed myself on your doorstep.
But if I died and went to heaven
And didn't find you there, I would flee.

veneratio, you should check out a new thread on this board about the Mob extoring a bus company for another example of unions and racketeering.

Great, thanks TB!

That was an interesting article on the bus company extortion.
I loved the telephone calling cards scam that was used on "The Sopranos" where they got someone to buy a whole lot of talk time on credit, sell that credit to customers on the street and then when the credit was due for payment, no payment was made so all the credit was cancelled but they had already sold all the talk time and made their profit. That was clever!

Just about every operation they had going on The Sopranos was inspired by real events. The bogus calling cards, the "pump and dump" stock scam, the HUD mortgage fraud, the bogus health insurance claims, the bust out of David Scatino's sporting goods store, the illegal dumping of asbestos, and on and on.

I always wondered about them portraying these events/schemes.
The ideas were so good I wouldn't be surprised if it inspired copy cats who hadn't heard/thought of the scams before seeing the Sopranos?

yea probably very likely

You know, i read somewhere that online poker and other gambling sites can be huge moneymakers for organized criminals.