The nature of the ties aren't disclosed in court filings that reference the secret communications between prosecutors and the judge that took place in October. What's known is that numerous mobbed-up stockbrokers including a Gambino stock fraud ringleader who once dangled a competitor out a ninth floor window while working at another firm have cycled in and out of A.S. Goldmen. Marchiano's attorney has said his client is a victim of mob extortionists. In recent years, federal and state prosecutors have launched a coordinated crackdown to sweep Wall Street clean of mob influence. More than a dozen mob-linked Goldmen alumni have been snared in federal busts for crimes after leaving the firm.
Brokers refuse to let customers sell shares, restricting supply to pump stocks up.
Once the price is driven high enough, insiders sell shares at huge profits. The stocks tank, wiping out ordinary investors. Frank Persico worked at Goldmen for five months in 1990 and again from January 1991 to December 1992, securities documents show. He was a Colombo family associate prominently accused in last month's spate of federal stock fraud indictments charging cooperation among all five La Cosa Nostra families. And penny stock promoter Al Chalem, found executed gangland style in a New Jersey mansion with associate Maier Lehmann in October, also worked at Goldmen in the early 1990s.