SEC Charges Eleven in Stock Manipulation Ring

[jurisper]

Check this blog, posted by wossisname, the online broker guy, over at the Other Place: http://breakshotblog.com/?p=100

This is for the people that always ask about what is going on with La Costra Nostra in the California underworld. This was a story from last week in Orange County involving a second-generation wiseguy. Joey Mangiapane Jr. is the son of Joe Mangiapane, a wiseguy who hung around Anthony Fiato and Mike Rizzi back when they ran LA and was a crony of James Caan. Joey’s brother Lenny was a Queens wiseguy who supposedly got into a fight with Caan that Caan won — hard to live that one down. The fake wiseguy beat up the real one.

Joey Jr. I used to see around, and I know he had a really nice restaurant overlooking the ocean in Dana Point. He did not necessarily need to be a crook, but it’s glamorous when you’re a second-generation wiseguy. People think you’re dangerous, exotic, and give you exagerrated respected; you watch Mob movies and think it’s a documentary.

So, Joey Jr. decided to be half-a-wiseguy (a civilian being a crook for recreation) and got busted on a “penny-ante” stock scheme — the type with small returns, a huge paper trail, and a decent chance of getting caught. It did not make big headlines in California. It was a small deal in the OC Register online — no Bernie Madoff press, no Bernie Madoff loot.

That blog belongs to some ex-mob guy. When you look around, it's amazing how many of these people have blogs. Here's one that belongs to Tony "The Animal" Fiato, mentioned in the quote above as a crony of Joe Sr: http://mafiaslugger.blogspot.com/

The other crony mentioned, Mike Rizzi, seems to have been a rather violent fellow with Gambino connections: http://www.hollywoodmafia.com/MikeRizzi.html

I guess that's a little bit interesting given the story quoting the police as saying the original money-in-car arrest was Gambino connected.