Joe Isgro Pinched in Los Angeles

Joe Isgro
Academy Award-nominated producer, Purple Heart veteran and reputed Gambino soldier Joseph Isgro was picked up in Los Angeles last week on gambling charges, sources in Los Angeles confirmed for this blog.

He was arrested on July 18 by LAPD detectives and was being held in the Valley jail in Van Nuys. He was to be brought to New York to face gambling-related charges that are close to reaching the statute of limitations.

Isgro, who reportedly has had two heart surgeries, was not being given his medication in a timely fashion. A judge remedied the situation by ordering Isgro's release if his medication was not made available to him on an as-needed basis.

He was due to be brought to New York before or after this weekend, July 26-27.

A former record promoter, Isgro was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison in 2000 for running a loan-sharking business outside a Beverly Hills shopping center. Isgro, who spent most of 1990s fending off federal payola and racketeering charges, was accused of lending money at 5% interest a week to people in financial distress and using subordinates to threaten those who fell behind in their payments.

Isgro was a producer on the 1992 film "Hoffa" while under indictment on racketeering charges. It was reported in 2007 that he was set to produce a film about Charles "Lucky" Luciano, as well as former drug lord Pablo Escobar.

A 60-year-old Isgro, at that time, told the Los Angeles Times: "I was 15 years old when Luciano died. If someone wants to try to associate me with Luciano, then so be it. The government has wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money chasing me..."

In a 2000 affidavit, the FBI singled out Isgro as one of 192 identifiable members of the Gambino crime family; he was said to hold the position of a mob soldier who has been under federal investigation for many years.

"I'm a soldier all right," Isgro told the LA Times. "A decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, and a proud member of the Isgro family."

Isgro broke into Hollywood 15 years ago, producing "Hoffa," a 20th Century Fox film about the mobbed-up union leader, which starred Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito.
The article reported that, at the time, Isgro has seeking to sign several actors from "The Sopranos" to join the cast. Isgro and his associate Dan Michaels, chief of Full Force Films, have also interviewed a number of writers and directors, including Charles Matthau, son of the late actor Walter Matthau.

The article further noted that Isgro had already signed hit music producer Scott Storch to score the soundtrack and is in talks with New Line Cinema to distribute the movie, according to New Line's Joseph Khouri.

http://www.cosanostranews.com/2014/07/joe-isgro-pinched-in-los-angeles.html

Scorsese thanks for posting.

jerry heller, easy e's manager mentions him in his book ruthless.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jsn3p...hop&f=false

Figure in '80s payola probe faces NY gambling case
Jul. 30, 2014 - 12:11 pm


NEW YORK -- He's been one of the nation's most influential record promoters, the producer of an Oscar-nominated movie, a defendant who successfully fought racketeering charges in a high-profile payola case, and an admitted loan shark who shook down borrowers in ritzy Beverly Hills.
Now the roller-coaster life of Joe Isgro is taking another plunge, with new charges that he helped run a mob-linked gambling operation.

Isgro, who once helped get airplay for songs by such stars as Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, pleaded not guilty to gambling, conspiracy and money laundering charges Wednesday in New York City. He for years has denied any connection to organized crime.

Isgro declined to comment as he left court, but his lawyer, Aaron M. Rubin, said his client "strenuously denies the charges."

"We're looking forward to having our day in court," Rubin said.

The case begins a new chapter in the tale of a Hollywood figure whose own story sounds like the makings of a movie. Indeed, it was a screenplay-in-the-making as recently as last year, according to a press release from the intended writer, whose office didn't immediately respond to an inquiry Wednesday about the project's status. The planned title: "Hit Man."

Isgro, 66, has been a music-business player for decades, coming to prominence when independent promoters exerted enormous influence over what songs Americans heard on Top 40 radio. As a leading promoter, Isgro ran a company that grossed as much as $10 million a year during the 1980s.

He came under scrutiny after a 1986 NBC News story examined what it called the resurgence of payola — bribing radio station employees to play certain records, a practice that spurred congressional hearings and legislation in the 1960s. The TV report suggested promoters were winning airplay with cash and cocaine and raised the specter of Mafia involvement.

Labels rapidly jettisoned independent promoters, at least temporarily, and federal authorities began probing record-promotion practices. Indicted in 1989, Isgro denied doing anything illegal.

Some associates pleaded guilty, but he went to trial in Los Angeles in what was seen as the biggest payola case in decades. It collapsed when a judge threw out the case mid-trial in 1990, saying prosecutors had withheld key information from Isgro's lawyers and calling it "outrageous government misconduct."

Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully for six more years to revive the case — before the lead prosecutor pleaded guilty himself to unrelated charges of taking more than $133,000 from informants and felons.

Meanwhile, Isgro pressed ahead with a record label he had founded, releasing albums by funk master Rick James and others. He also dived into the movie business, serving as executive producer of the 1992 biopic "Hoffa," starring Jack Nicholson.
In 2000, Isgro was arrested outside a Beverly Hills shopping center where prosecutors said he lent money at interest rates of up to 5 percent a week, browbeat borrowers who fell behind and ordered henchmen to beat them. Isgro pleaded guilty to extortion and served about three years in prison.

Prosecutors in that case said he was a soldier in the Gambino crime family, an assertion echoed in the new gambling indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. It describes Isgro talking with a now-dead reputed mob bookie about sports betting payments and software in 2009.

Since his release from federal prison, Isgro has continued making music distribution deals. And he has said his alleged Gambino ties are bunk.

"I'm a soldier, all right — a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War," the Purple Heart recipient told the Los Angeles Times in 2007. "And a proud member of the Isgro family."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/30/6593511/figure-in-80s-payola-probe-faces.html#storylink=cpy

Isn't he a made guy in the gambinos?

The article above says...

"Prosecutors in that case said he was a soldier in the Gambino crime family, an assertion echoed in the new gambling indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. It describes Isgro talking with a now-dead reputed mob bookie about sports betting payments and software in 2009."

N.Y. / REGION

Payola Figure Is Charged in Gambino Betting Ring
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.JULY 30, 2014
Photo

Joseph Isgro, a convicted loan shark who has been a record promoter and a movie producer, at court in Manhattan. Credit John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times
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Joseph Isgro’s résumé tracks a peculiarly American life, a roller-coaster ride through Hollywood and the underworld, with associates ranging from rock stars to mobsters.

He is a decorated Marine who became one of the nation’s most powerful record promoters in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he was cleared of payola charges in federal court. He went on to produce the film “Hoffa,” which received an Oscar nomination. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to running a loan-sharking business in Beverly Hills.

He has long been a reputed soldier in the Gambino crime family and recently promised to tell all about his life in a film still being developed, titled “Hit Man.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Isgro, 66, added a new line to his biography, as he was arraigned in Manhattan on state charges that he helped run a sports book ring for the Gambino family.

Mr. Isgro, who was arrested last week in Los Angeles, wore a red Marine Corps T-shirt and flip-flops as he pleaded not guilty to gambling, conspiracy and money laundering charges before Justice Bonnie G. Wittner in State Supreme Court.

Mr. Isgro, who was released on $250,000 bond, declined to comment as he left the courtroom. His lawyer, Aaron M. Rubin, said Mr. Isgro “strenuously denies the charges.”

An indictment unsealed last week characterized Mr. Isgro as a Gambino soldier who conspired with Joseph Giordano, a Gambino capo and bookmaker, to set up an operation that used offshore wire rooms in Costa Rica, under the names Elite and Cristal, and took bets from people in the United States. Mr. Giordano died of cancer in prison in October.

Another alleged Gambino associate, Leonard Rapisardi, was also charged in the conspiracy, along with two men accused of managing the wire room in Costa Rica and three people in Arizona who the authorities said developed bookmaking software for the ring.

Mr. Rapisardi and the Arizona residents — Robert Stuart, Susanne Stuart and Patrick Read — were arraigned on July 22 and released on bail. The other two people indicted — Gregory Sapon and Braulio Tate Monge — have yet to be apprehended.

Mr. Isgro, who was born in Philadelphia, has always denied any connections to organized crime. For decades, he was an influential player in the music business, starting out as a local promoter for Decca Records.

At the peak of his power in the 1980s, he was a member of a group of independent record-promotion specialists known as the Network. He owned a company that grossed more than $10 million a year and counted labels like Columbia, Warner Brothers and RCA as clients.

Most major labels dropped independent promoters in the late 1980s, as news articles about the resurgence of payola, or bribing radio stations to spin records, led to a federal investigation.

In 1987, Mr. Isgro and two others were indicted on charges they furnished cash and cocaine to program directors in return for airplay. A judge threw out the charges halfway through a trial in September 1990 because prosecutors had violated evidentiary rules; the dismissal came only after executives at four stations had testified Mr. Isgro or his associate had bribed them.

Prosecutors tried to revive the case for several years, but never managed to indict Mr. Isgro again. He continued to produce music, releasing albums by James Brown, Rick James and even a posthumous album from Tupac Shakur. He also got into movies, producing “Hoffa,” which starred Jack Nicholson.

In 2000, he was accused of lending money at interest rates of up to 5 percent a week and sending thugs to beat borrowers who failed to pay. He pleaded guilty to extortion and was sentenced to 50 months in prison.

Now the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has said he has evidence that Mr. Isgro, after leaving prison, conspired with Mr. Giordano to help set up the offshore sports book in July 2009.

“These charges go back more than five years,” Mr. Rubin said. “It looks to be an ancient, ancient investigation, so we are looking forward to having our day in court.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/31/nyregi...ation.html?_r=0