Born to Steal
When the Mafia Hit Wall Street
By Gary Weiss 

     Louis Pascuito grew up as the son of hard-working parents, but he never thought they were smart. He never believed in God, or right and wrong. To Louis, the crime was in getting caught. If people were willing to let you steal from them, they had whatever losses you caused coming to them.

     Louis began his career in crime by stealing from his parents' savings. His father never seemed to know. Louis progressed to credit card scams when he noticed a guy coming into the gas station where he worked with all kinds of stolen credit cards. He kept his mouth shut for a cut of the take. Then he met Roy, the man who always looked sharp and drove a variety of expensive cars. When Roy offered to show Louis how to make that kind of money, Louis accepted in a hurry.

     The deal was a stock scam. Louis would sell stocks over the phone. The stocks existed, but not at the prices Louis quoted. He scammed some people over and over. This was the scam that brought about the dot-com disaster.

     Then, a man named Charlie Ricotone came into his life. He knew how to make people afraid, very afraid. Louis wanted him gone. But how could he just get rid of the Mafia?

Born to Steal is an eye-opening look at how the Mafia and lesser criminals cost honest, hard-working people enough money to feed America. It will make you furious. But we all need to know what is happening to our country.