10 Unternehmen, die angeblich von der Mafia kontrolliert werden

Eine der interessantesten Episoden der HBO-Serie „The Sopranos“ war in Staffel 6: Zwei Mafia -Idioten, Burt und Patsy, versuchen, ein neues Café in einer Nachbarschaft zu zerstören, wo ihre Crew Geld gegen „Schutz“ sammelt. Aber das Café ist ein unternehmenseigenes Franchise, und der Manager erklärt, dass er keinen Zugriff auf das Geld hat; er konnte es ihnen nicht geben, wenn er wollte. Wenn sie ihn bedrohen, erklärt er, dass Drohungen gegen den Laden oder seine eigene Sicherheit dem größeren Unternehmen wahrscheinlich nicht viel ausmachen werden. Als einer der Gangster den Laden mit leeren Händen verlässt, lässt er den Kopf hängen und sagt: "Es ist vorbei für den kleinen Kerl."

Die Szene verdeutlicht auch perfekt die Aussichten für den kleinen Mafioso. Wenn uns die letzten zwei Jahrzehnte eines gelehrt haben, dann, dass Unternehmenskontrolle und Effizienz genau die Dinge sind, um den Erpressungsgriff der Mafia zu lockern. Aber gilt das auch für traditionelle, von der Mafia geführte Unternehmen?

Organisierte Kriminelle investieren seit langem in legitime Geschäfte, sowohl als Operationsbasis als auch als Mittel zur Geldwäsche aus illegalen Aktivitäten wie Drogenhandel, Waffenhandel, Prostitution, Schmuggel, Fälschung und Raub. Die Mafia bevorzugt unregulierte oder bargeldbasierte Unternehmen, die die Kraft und den Mut erfordern, Dinge zu tun, die Mitglieder der feinen Gesellschaft vermeiden. So ist beispielsweise die Abfallentsorgung so stark mit der organisierten Kriminalität verknüpft, dass der Begriff „Sanitär-Crew“ in einigen Teilen des Landes genauso gut mit „Mob“ synonym sein könnte.

Auch wenn Mob-Typen im Fernsehen und in Filmen ein höheres Profil erlangt haben, besteht immer noch die Wahrnehmung, dass der tatsächliche Mob weniger präsent oder relevant ist als in der Vergangenheit. Im digitalen Zeitalter sind Bargeldgeschäfte transparenter, was es schwieriger macht, die Konkurrenz zu unterdrücken. Das Gesetz scheint geschickter darin zu sein, diese Kriminellen zu fassen, und eine Reihe hochkarätiger Anklagen haben Schlagzeilen gemacht – angefangen mit den berühmten Fällen, die von den Manhattaner Anwälten Rudolph Giuliani in den 1980er und Robert Morgenthau in den 1990er Jahren vorgebracht wurden, bis hin zum ehemaligen US-Staatsanwalt General Eric Holders historische Zusammenfassung von Mitgliedern der New Yorker „Fünf Familien“ (Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese und Luchese) aus dem Jahr 2011 [Quelle: Rashbaum ].

Die Mitgliedschaft in der italienischen Mafia, auch bekannt als La Cosa Nostra, soll in den letzten Jahren von 5.000 auf 3.500 gesunken sein [Quelle: Goldhill ]. Sogar die Morde sind zurückgegangen. Die Mordrate der Mafia in Italien ist zwischen 1992 und 2012 um 80 Prozent gesunken, und Beamte der Strafverfolgungsbehörden sagen, dass die gewalttätige organisierte Kriminalität auch in den USA zurückgegangen ist [Quelle: Davies Boren ]. Angesichts dieser Informationen kann man leicht den Eindruck gewinnen, dass ein Teil der Macht der Mafia nachgelassen hat.

Dieser Eindruck, so stellt sich heraus, ist ein Mythos. Während die traditionellen kriminellen Aktivitäten nachgelassen haben, hat sich die Mafia an die Zeit angepasst und findet Wege, in der heutigen Wirtschaft erfolgreich zu sein. Sie mag weniger bekannt sein, aber in einigen Branchen (und Gewerkschaftshäusern und politischen Hinterzimmern) hat die Mafia immer noch Einfluss. Dies zeigt sich in Italien, wo La Cosa Nostra jedes fünfte Unternehmen kontrolliert [Quelle: Tsai ]. Hier in den USA bekommt man durch ihren Einfluss in New York City, wo sie immer noch Müll transportiert und Wolkenkratzer errichtet, leicht ein Gefühl für die Geschäftstätigkeit der Mafia.

Werfen wir einen Blick auf einige der Unternehmen und Branchen, die historisch von der Mafia kontrolliert wurden – und ob sie heute noch miteinander verbunden sind.

1. Müllabfuhr/Abfallwirtschaft
2. Glücksspiel
3. Zimmerei und Bau
4. Windenergie
5. Immobilie
6. Restaurants und Pizzerien
7. Riegel
8. Pornographie
9. Musikaufnahme
10. Fisch

Die Verbindung zwischen der Müllabfuhrindustrie und der organisierten Kriminalität reicht Jahrzehnte zurück. In den USA ist La Cosa Nostra seit den 1950er Jahren Teil des kommerziellen Abwasserentsorgungssystems von New York (persönlicher Müll wird vom städtischen Gesundheitsministerium transportiert). Carters, wie Mülltransporter genannt werden, waren schon immer in der Lage, Routen zu finden und untereinander zu verkaufen, was das System anfällig für Gewalttaktiken machte.

Die Mafia trat über die Teamsters-Gewerkschaft in die Branche ein , erlangte Einfluss auf bestimmte Strecken und wandte unappetitliche Taktiken an, um den Wettbewerb in Schach zu halten. Als Browning-Ferris Industries, ein führendes Unternehmen der nationalen Abfallindustrie, 1992 auf den Markt kam, fand die Frau eines leitenden Angestellten den geköpften Kopf eines deutschen Schäferhundes auf ihrem Rasen. In seinem Mund war eine Notiz: "Welcome to New York" [Quelle: Keenan ].

Die Strafverfolgungsbehörden in New York haben ständige Fortschritte gemacht, um die Branche zu bereinigen. Es war eine der obersten Prioritäten von Rudy Giuliani als Bürgermeister von New York City, und er und Anwalt Robert Morgenthau überwachten in den 1990er Jahren die Anklagen gegen Mitglieder der kriminellen Familien Genovese und Gambino.

Still, the Mafia presence persists. As recently as January 2013, 30 people were indicted for extortion in New York City. The group included members and associates of three different mob crews — the Gambino, Genovese and Luchese crime families — all connected to the garbage-hauling business [source: Margolin].

The trend continues overseas. The Italian Mafia's Camorra group is said to have controlled garbage in the city of Naples since the early 1980s. The badly run system gained worldwide attention back in 2008, when uncollected garbage piled up on the city's streets for more than two weeks because the Mafia left the dumps closed.

Mob history tells of two famous occurrences in now-famous locales. The first was in 1929 when, under the guise of celebrating mobster Meyer Lansky's honeymoon, organized crime figures met up in Atlantic City to discuss prohibition. Specifically, they discussed how the Mafia could profit from the end of prohibition by investing in casinos and nightclubs [source: Harper]. As the other story goes, Lansky and his right-hand man, Bugsy Seigel, looked at a Las Vegas desert and saw its potential as a gambling Mecca. In life and in lore, Mafia and casinos are inextricably linked. It makes sense: Odds are designed to be on the side of the house, regulators are paying less attention than they might be in other industries, and the Mafia has the muscle to make the sometimes-volatile gambling business run somewhat smoothly.

The mob connection helped build Las Vegas into the multi-billion-dollar tourist destination it is today. But aside from in the occasional museum, theme restaurant or run-in with one of the locals, tourists aren't likely to see evidence of the Mafia in Vegas these days. Even casinos have gone corporate.

But mobsters have adapted to the times and taken their act online. These days, they are more likely to be busted for online sports gambling. In 2008, a Queens district attorney charged the Gambino family with illegal sports and casino-style gambling operations. Players were allowed to borrow gambling money at 200 percent interest [source: Bonner]. More recently, members of the Genovese family in New Jersey were indicted for making millions of dollars each year through illegal gambling operations [source: Ivers].

In Europe, officials have raised concerns over the vast amounts of money being laundered by the Mafia through online gambling , particularly sites based in Germany, where there are no penalties for illegal gambling activities [source: Walther].

Similar to its waste-management strategy, the Mafia made its way into the building business through unions. Typically, construction companies make bids for jobs that include union crews. Mafia-run construction companies are known to include union rates in the bids and win the contracts — then pay far less to their workers. Inside the union, Mafia cronies get top jobs, shake down the legitimate crews and sell jobs to the highest bidders (rather than the most skilled carpenters), and there are even threats of physical violence. They also invest in and own companies that provide materials like steel or cement to other construction crews (the cement shoes trope clearly exists for a reason). These companies pile on the costs, making the price of building expensive.

The mob has taken a piece of several of New York's real-estate booms. Giuliani's office tried leaders of all five families in 1986 for controlling concrete labor unions and demanding kickbacks that cost the city millions [source: Long]. In 1990, the five families were up on federal charges in Brooklyn for receiving kickbacks and fixing bids on a $150 million job with the New York City Housing Authority [source: Gardiner].

It seems the Mafia remains a part of construction companies and unions today. Mafia-linked subcontractors continue to build projects in Manhattan, including the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center . As buildings pop up all over the city, it's assumed that the Mafia still takes part in the city's continued growth [source: Marzulli et al.].

Talk about an ill wind. In countries across Europe, criminals are investing in wind farms and other types of green energy as a way to launder dirty money. In fact, a growing "eco Mafia" in Italy is taking advantage of environmental grants offered by the Italian government and the European Union by entering the wind business .

A combination of factors makes wind power attractive to criminals. There is a lack of regulation in the industry, a high price for the product, complicated financing — and government subsidies. Wind power sells for a higher price in Italy than anywhere else in the world, which is why there are now so many windmills dotting the Sicilian hills. While the country's citizens have to look at a propeller-filled landscape, they keep quiet for fear of retribution. Meanwhile, legitimate wind providers get muscled out of licenses to build working farms, or they are unwittingly sold licenses by the Mafia without knowing exactly what kind of businesspeople they're dealing with [source: Squires and Meo].

This Mafia-backed wind power extends beyond Italy, with Italian wind developers looking to source turbines and equipment to other regions of Europe.

The Mafia might not exactly control real estate, but mobsters do like to invest in property. And when there's easy money to be made in real estate, it's even easier to find a Mafia connection with a scam .

During the run up to the housing bubble in 2008 and after the subsequent crash, it was Dominick DeVito, connected to the Genovese family, who was finding new ways to make bad deals for homeowners. DeVito was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for his particular real estate scheme, which involved buying up big houses in Westchester County, the suburbs just north of New York City, and selling them for outrageous profits. He and his associates lied to get the mortgages, then used the new homes as collateral for more mortgages, which eventually went into foreclosure — but not before they cashed in on some insurance money for things like broken pipes (freshly and very deliberately broken by the Mafia). When the housing market took a dive, the Genovese crew was there flipping foreclosures in the same way.

In another unexpected twist, relaxed lending practices by major banks and mortgage companies before the bust actually helped the loan sharking business. People apparently turned to home equity loans to erase mob debt [source: Smith].

Anyone lucky enough to have eaten at a famous mob hangout, like Rao's in the Bronx or Umberto's Clam House in lower New York City, knows the Mafia is connected to some delicious restaurants. Even the lesser-known mob spots, like PortuCale Restaurant & Bar in Newark, New Jersey, allegedly the former base of money laundering operations for more than $400 million brought in by the Genovese family, supposedly serves really delicious meals [source: Golding].

The Mafia's foodie reputation has an even richer history. In the 1980s, for instance, the Sicilian Mafia relied on the so-called "pizza connection" to ship heroin and cocaine to mob-run pizzerias in towns throughout the U.S. using cans of San Marzano tomatoes. Even cheese and olive-oil makers could be shaken down to export heroin [source: Lubasch].

Today, mob-run pizzerias, restaurants and cafes are everywhere. A recent sweep of Rome, for example, resulted in the seizure of 27 restaurants and cafes, plus assets worth 250 million euros. This included the extremely popular Pizza Ciro, which had been in business for more than 10 years and was said to be used to launder money from drugs, loan sharking and extortion. An estimated 70 percent of restaurants and bars in downtown Rome are thought to be in the hands of organized crime, producing more than $1.35 billion euros per year. Even Germany is home to more than 300 mob-run restaurants. And it's not always easy to tell that you're in a mob-run establishment. Unlike the dingy, tacky or smoky joints of the past, these fronts have high standards and good reputations [source: Conti].

As early as the 1930s, when homosexuality was illegal in the U.S., Mafia-connected establishments were around to provide gay and lesbian customers a place to meet, mingle and spend money. At one point, the Mafia had a monopoly on gay bars in New York City and probably ran similar spots in other cities around the country.

In fact, the Genovese family ran Manhattan's Stonewall Inn, the site of the infamous 1969 Stonewall riots, which took place after patrons fought back against police raiding the bar. Investing in the former straight bar, Tony "Fat Tony" Lauria purchased and transformed The Stonewall in 1966, seeing more potential in the neighborhood's growing gay community .

His motives were far from pure. Because customers were forced to live in the shadows, the mob could keep standards low. Drinks were overpriced and watered down, and conditions were not hygienic or well-maintained. And while Fat Tony reportedly paid the cops up to $1,200 a month to stay away, Stonewall's owners still made big profits by extorting customers in exchange for turning a blind eye to their illegal behavior.

Another Genovese guy, Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, had a hand in running more than 80 bars, restaurants and discos in the 1970s, many of them catering to the gay community. He also ran holding companies offering an array of services (from the obligatory money lending and garbage collection to topless dancing and interior decorating). These companies served as money-laundering fronts until the law caught up with him, and he went to jail for tax evasion [source: Vitello].

As gay activism gained ground, the connection between gays and the mob weakened [source: PBS]. There are likely still Mafia members connected to bars and clubs in cities across the country, but the LGBT community today isn't reliant on the mob's (or anyone else's) subpar services.

The Mafia has long been connected to the production and distribution of pornographic movies, books and magazines. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Colombo family reportedly ran coin-operated machines showing 8mm films in New York's seedy Times Square. During the same era, Mafioso types owned and controlled most of the adults-only movie theaters, X-rated distributors and labs processing 35mm films. "Mickey Z" Zaffarano of New York's Bonanno family started a successful nationwide chain, Pussycat Cinemas, before the FBI caught up with him in 1979. And the connected Peirano family made the wildly successful breakout porno movie "Deep Throat." (The film's tragic star, Linda Lovelace, would later claim she made the movie under the threat of mob violence.)

The Mafia's connection to porn waned in the 1980s and 1990s as video cassettes took over the market, Hollywood realized it could tap the vast profit potential and Times Square got a family-friendly makeover that no longer included coin-op porn [source: Gallo].

More recently, high-profile connections between organized crime and Internet pornography have been uncovered. In 2005, Gambino family members were brought up on fraud charges for offering free tours of adult websites and then billing extravagant charges to their customers' credit cards. The scheme brought in so much money, profits were invested in a phone company, a bank, and more than 64 shell companies and foreign bank accounts.

While the 2005 arrests were the last high-profile Internet porn bust, it's assumed that several Mafia groups are involved in sex trafficking that results in the creation of pornography. Members of the American Mafia have been brought up on sex trafficking and prostitution charges, while the Russian Mafia is said to favor the high profit margins found in trafficking sex slaves from economically poor areas in the Ukraine and Romania [source: Weiss].

Anyone who's seen "Jersey Boys" (the movie or the Broadway musical) knows something about the Mafia's recording industry history. It tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' connections to Gyp DeCarlo, a Genovese-tied mobster from New Jersey. Years earlier, another Genovese guy named Willie Moretti had a hand in building Frank Sintara's career. A scene in "The Godfather," where Luca Brasi puts a gun to the head of a bandleader to get a singer out of a contract, is reportedly based on a 1943 story, in which Moretti put a gun to bandleader Tommy Dorsey's head on Sinatra's behalf [source: Kleinknecht].

The Mafia has been a force behind some of the best recordings and recording artists of all time. But even as it promised to protect artists, the Mafia would eventually intimidate and extort them, too.

Take the Genovese family's Moishe "Morris" Levy, known in some circles as the Godfather of Rock and Roll (he also founded famed New York jazz club Birdland for his friend Charlie "Bird" Parker). As a producer of classic hits including "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Levy's contracts were notoriously one-sided, keeping everything that could generate long-term money, including copyrights and publishing royalties [source: Sucher]. Mafiosi like Levy not only controlled artist management, they also owned the concert venues, then eventually the record labels , record processing plants and even the record stores. Levy founded the Strawberry record store chain in the 1970s.

In the 1980s, organized criminals reportedly bought record-pressing plants, allowing them to duplicate copies of a master recording and flood the market with lower-priced copies. Since then, as the industry has become more corporate and less lucrative, the music Mafia seems to have gone quiet.

There was a time when eating a seafood dinner in New York City would cost you a pretty penny. OK, fish is still pretty expensive around the country; but if you've had fish anywhere along the East Coast, you've probably paid a premium to the Genovese crime family or its colleagues.

Since the 1930s, Genovese Mafiosi have run the Fulton Fish Market, one of the oldest and most important fish wholesalers in the country. Fulton Fish, to this day, provides fresh seafood to much of the East Coast. The mob considered it another cash-friendly spot for money laundering, loan sharking and no-show jobs. Then New York City District Attorney Rudy Giuliani exposed the operation in the 1980s, and proposed a government takeover of the market in the 1990s. At the time, the market sold an estimated 125 million pounds of fresh fish every year, worth more than $1 billion [source: Raab].

The Fulton Fish Market has since moved to the Bronx, and efforts to keep out organized crime continue. Whether anything has changed has yet to be reported.

More recently, in 2014, members of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families were found to be involved in a scheme with the Italian 'Ndrangheta syndicate, which was shipping cocaine through New York inside wholesale frozen fish. The plan wasn't so much about fish, however. In fact, fish were abandoned at one point in favor of frozen pineapples [source: Marzulli].

Originally Published: Feb 27, 2015

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Author's Note: 10 Businesses Supposedly Controlled by the Mafia

Ich bin in den Vororten von Los Angeles aufgewachsen und habe die Mafia immer als ein Hollywood-Konstrukt betrachtet. Die Charaktere waren großartig, aber zu kühn gezeichnet, um echt zu wirken. Nachdem ich die letzten 20 Jahre in New Jersey und New York gelebt habe, bin ich hier, um zu berichten, dass der Mob tatsächlich unter uns lebt. Freunde sprechen darüber, mit den Kindern von Mafiosi aufzuwachsen, so beiläufig, wie ich darüber sprechen würde, mich unter die Kinder von Hollywoodstars zu mischen. Sie erzählen Geschichten darüber, wie sanftmütige Typen, die Pizzerien betreiben, plötzlich verschwinden könnten. Oder wie ein Kind einmal behauptete, einen Körper gesehen zu haben, der hinten in einen Koffer gestopft war. Die Geschichten mögen übertrieben oder sogar komplett erfunden sein, aber das Interessante ist, dass die Mafia für sie genauso Teil der amerikanischen Kulturgeschichte ist wie Hollywood oder Fords Fließband.

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