Explain to me how a loan shark would operate today

Ok a little while ago when I was in the car on my way back from getting lunch, a thought crossed my mind.

How would a loan shark operate today to be successful?

I mean if a guy was to try to intimidate a business owner who owed him money, the majority would laugh in his face and the feds would be knocking down the guys door in no time.

So how the fuck would a guy even make a living in todays world being a loan shark?

People go to loansharks because they can't go to banks, O.C.101 right? A loan shark is going to have him sign over the business as collateral in advance, in order to ensure prompt and proper payment. It's the guys who have little or no collateral, and default, that one would have to administer a beating to, not a business owner.

I can tell you from the few loansharks i met here, a lot of their "clients" are investors from construction who take huge loans from them and then once building is finished they give them flats in that buildings or money after flats are sold.

The Loan-sharking Racket

https://thenewyorkmafia.com/mafia-loansharking-racket-shylocking/

I think you'd be surprised who is taking out these loans.

I knew a guy who knew a loanshark who operated out of this Hungarian restaurant - we went to it a few times. Most of his clients were stockbrokers. They would be guys who just lost all their liquid cash on one bet, but had a deadline to exercise warrants or options on another trade but needed the cash to execute the order. These aren't guys who are going to the feds or else they would never be able to go back to this guy again, and they needed him regularly.

Ironically, the one time I am aware of that he got ripped off was when the son of a mob guy came to town, took a loan from this guy and then basically said "fuck you, don't you know who I am?" I have no idea what happened or who was involved, but the shark had people to go to and got connected with this kid's dad and was re-paid PROMPTLY, with apologies. Other than the shithead kid, all of: the shark himself, his clients, and even the kid's mob dad all behaved like businessmen.

Which at the end of the day makes sense. The guy was (perhaps still is) running a business.

That makes sense. And generally speaking, IS how the "loan" business works.

How would a loan shark operate today to be successful?

I mean if a guy was to try to intimidate a business owner who owed him money, the majority would laugh in his face and the feds would be knocking down the guys door in no time.

So how the fuck would a guy even make a living in todays world being a loan shark?[/quote]

The key in my eyes is not charging extortionate rates but being a useful solution for someone who needs/wants fast cash. It's never hard to find someone who wants money right? Important is getting the balance between being profitable and not pushing someone beyond their means so that it becomes an issue. Old school style of charging extortionate rates and then threatening them should be gone, but it can still be profitable.

Take New York, the number of people there, the number of small businesses and the crazy prices of rent, cost of living etc. It should be a loansharks playground

Where do you get this from? The vast majority of cases today involve loansharking and the subsequent extortion that comes along with it after you miss payments and the amount of debts that actually go running to the feds is probably less than 1%. For a loanshark to be successful today they would do the same thing they've done since the dawn of time.

A lot of loan sharks now are doing 6to5 knockdown loans instead of the traditional juice loans
Borrow $20k you pay back $1000 a week for 24 weeks then your done . No more getting completely juiced to death . It’s not much different than a term loan from the bank . You pay more
Interest obviously but it’s also quicker and easier to get for a guy in a need

6-5 is used a lot for a weekly loan at the track for example.. borrow $200 and pay back $240.

You looking for a loan Rush? Let me know, I'll give you a solid deal on the vigorish.

You can be in the loan shark business--legally--if you go into "payday loans." The annual percentage rate is 664% in Texas. And you don't have to break kneecaps if the borrower gets behind in his payments--just take him to court and let the judge make him cough it up.

Turnbull I got a solicitation after the dealership sold my info and it was like 860% on some Indian Reservation

They use a tomahawk on your kneecaps if you're late with payments.

As some posters already said...people go to loan sharks, not the other way around. There are many business owners or high society people who are in huge debts, mostly from gambling, and again as someone already said, today's loan sharks usually make legal deals with the help of contracts (notary) and thats how in the end many "victims" lose their businesses, expensive mansions and cars. I have at least a dozen of examples from my neck of the woods regarding former millionaires who lost everything to loan sharks mainly because some of their spoiled brats decided to gamble with 10,000 - 20,000 euros per hand lol.