Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street Read Free Page B

the custody of a perfectly respectable corporation called
     Penson Financial Services. But instead of actually contacting Penson and opening the accounts, which would have presented
     problems since Louis was not actually buying stock for his clients, Louis just went ahead and made copies of Penson’s forms
     and made believe he was dealing with Penson. So the nonexistent Disney shares were put in nonexistent Penson accounts.
    He had other great things for his clients. The hot investment vehicle of the 1990s was high on his list—initial public offerings,
     or IPOs, when companies sell stock to the public for the first time. The public loved IPOs. IPO investors would buy the shares,
     and the shares would turn into something better than gold. It was in all the papers. Everybody was talking about IPOs. The
     blabbermouths on CNBC were constantly hyping them.
    So Louis had a fine IPO at United Capital. He sold Welch and other clients shares in the IPO of “Goldman Sacks.” Great name.
     Not Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that was actually going public. Louis changed the spelling of the name. He figured
     that maybe, if he ever got caught, using a phony name somehow would make it less serious.
    The Goldman Sacks IPO was Joe Welch’s first investment at United Capital. Then came the Disney “shares.” Welch sent a $48,000
     check, by Federal Express priority-one overnight delivery, directly to Louis’s “corporate headquarters” in Eltingville.
    Joe Welch’s checks came often, which made him a terrific client. In the weeks before the visit to Tucson, Louis had called
     Joe Welch with other opportunities as they arose. Trading situations, for instance. If a stock traded at a certain price.
     Louis said he could “buy” the stock for a few bucks less than its price in the market. Then he would “sell” the stock. Instant
     “profits” for Joe Welch—instant cash for Louis, who would follow the standard procedure of taking Welch’s money and keeping
     it.
    After the first $300,000 from Welch, Louis was ready to go to Arizona to lay the groundwork for getting the rest of the $10
     million just sitting in that goddamn Smith Barney account.
    He had to look the part. No problem.
    In the morning, as he prepared to leave for the airport, Louis put on his platinum Rolex Presidential. This was not the Oyster,
     which the losers and wannabes wear. This was top-of-the-line, with a square-diamond bagette bezel. It had cost him $17,000
     and it
looked
as if it cost him that much. To get money, even if you are desperate for money as he was, you have to look as if you have
     money already. His suit was a custom fit. The tailor had come to his office and measured it to his body. Pinstripes. Suitably
     conservative. The suits had cost him $2,000 each but you need a custom suit, you have to have one, if a suit is going to look
     really good. In a regular suit the ass would be a little baggy but the waist would be tight. Custom suits fit the body perfectly.
     Not that Louis was a freak or anything. He would look great in an off-the-rack suit. He was 160 pounds of solid muscle. Louis
     made good first impressions. He was somber, sensitive when in the right mood. He spoke with a New York accent, a street accent,
     but his manner was deferential, respectful. Not arrogant. He was a New York broker but he didn’t act the part. Strangers quickly
     noticed the taste so evident in his tailored Armani suits, his clean-cut appearance, his manners. In moments of greenback-driven
     passion at some of the firms where he had worked, Louis would tear off his shirt, revealing a muscular back covered with a
     panoply of tattoos, with “Native New Yorker” in Old English lettering and an ebullient, sprawling dragon covering the left
     shoulder. But the tattoos were well hidden under his $300 Hugo Boss shirts, with “LAP” on the cuff.
    Rich people dressed that way. Or so he thought until Joe Welch pulled up in his rusting heap of a