Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street

Read Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street Storyline:

FromWeiss, a business journalist, tells the fascinating story of Louis Pasciuto, a man "born to steal," who grew up in the Wall Street Mafia, was caught by law enforcement at age 25, and then turned against his former accomplices. With engrossing detail, we learn about the degraded life of Pasciuto as he moved from a gas station attendant to a Wall Street stockbroker in 1992. With lies and schemes that bilked naive investors of untold sums, he worked for chop shops (which looked like brokerages and were registered but sold usually worthless stocks) and bucket shops (which pretended to sell stocks), and in turn was bullied by gangsters who wanted their share. This description of the Mafia's infiltration of Wall Street is a tale of thievery in the 1990s on a scale never before seen. When caught by federal agents, he joined their efforts against the "Guys" in exchange for the government's Witness Protection Program. This story clearly illustrates that truth is better than fiction. Mary WhaleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedReview"...a remarkable glimpse into the essentially lawless, virtually unregulated turf of easily manipulated penny stocks...and...broker strategies..." -- St. Petersburg Times, 7/14/03 "...an instructive and hilarious portrait of the twisted contemporary convergence of business, entertainment and crime...thoroughly engaging and original..." -- James Toback, screenwriter of the Academy-Award winning “Bugsy” and director of “The Pick-up Artist” "Few authors have captured the dark side of American capitalism as entertainingly as Weiss...a knockout." -- T.J. English, author of THE WESTIES and BORN TO KILL "Think ‘Wiseguy’ meets ‘Wall Street,’ or ‘The Sopranos’...a rip-roaring read..." -- John Rothchild – co-author of ONE UP ON WALL STREET