Ninteen people were indicted in an alleged plot to manipulate stocks in a case that showed how organized crime was trying to muscle in on Wall Street.
The case involved a lot of cooperation between the Bonanno and Genovese crime families and payoffs to a half-dozen brokers at a small Wall Street brokerage house, Meyers Pollock Robbins Inc., prosecutors said.
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Two of the company’s top executives also were among those accused in what the FBI called a “classic pump-and-dump operation” in which mob-connected brokers allegedly drove up the price of the stock so they and their accomplices could unload it at a profit to members of the public.
Top members of New York’s Genovese and Bonanno crime families allegedly used strong-arm tactics, including a threat to “knife” family members of the company’s chairman if he stopped cooperating in the scam, authorities said.
Former Meyers Pollock Robbins President Michael Ploshnick was sentenced to up to 7 1/2 years in prison after he admitted in court to running the scam, which cheated investors out of $176 million.
