February 12, 200422 yr Mob Charged with Making Mint on Phone Sex Bills Thu Feb 12, 8:41 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo! NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mobsters ripped off users of telephone sex lines and dating services to the tune of $200 million in what U.S. officials said was a new method by organized crime families to make money illegally. Indictments announced by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn on Tuesday said Gambino crime family members advertised "free" samples of phone sex, horoscope or dating services but once customers made the call, a $40 monthly fee would be automatically added to their telephone bills. The enterprise stretching from New York to Kansas -- a departure from traditional Mafia schemes such as loan-sharking and betting -- made between $50,000 and $600,000 every day from 1997 to 2001, according to the indictment. Ten mobsters and their associates were charged with the billing fraud known as "telephone cramming," including reputed Gambino member Richard Martino, 44, and his brother Daniel, 53, an assistant professor of chemistry at a suburban New York college. The fees were often disguised as a charge for "voice mail." But when one company, Southwestern Bell, would no longer process the charges, Richard Martino and an advertising executive Norman Chanes, 57, set up their own billing company, the indictment said. The defendants were charged with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and other charges, U.S. prosecutors and the FBI (news - web sites) said. Several of the same men were charged last year with running an Internet pornography scheme. Tuesday's indictment added to those charge and seeks the forfeiture of $430 million -- $200 million from the phone billing scheme and $230 million from the Internet case.
February 12, 200422 yr Oh, if I only had half of those $40 charges on my phone bill over the years...
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