My On Crime & Security Column: Organized Crime: A 'Hostile Takeover' Hits Business Hard

The national business web site AllBusiness.com published my On Crime & Security column today.

The column covered organized crime's takeover of a company.

Shoplifters will steal your products, and armed robbers will steal your money, but organized crime will steal your entire business.

 

Organized crime has long targeted businesses for extortion. Only last week a man who claimed to be a "strong arm" for organized crime pleaded guilty to charges that he attempted to extort $10,000 from a Massachusetts vending machine business.

 

But in one alarming case, organized crime stole an entire company.

 

Last month, federal authorities charged 13 individuals, including an alleged member and an associate of the Lucchese organized crime family, with racketeering and related offenses stemming from an alleged extortionate takeover of FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. (FPFG), a publicly held company in Texas. Racketeers allegedly looted FPFG through a series of fraudulent consulting agreements and acquisitions involving companies controlled by Nicodemo S. Scarfo and Salvatore Pelullo.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/16758188-1.html