NEWARK, N.J. -- A prominent record company executive and a reputed mobster were charged with extortion for allegedly trying to take over a record dealership that refused to pay a million-dollar debt for discount albums.
The indictment handed up Friday and made public Tuesday charged Morris Levy, 59, of New York, owner and president of Roulette Records, with involvement in the extortion plot, U.S. Attorney Thomas Greelish said.
The extortion charges are part of a 117-count indictment charging Gaetano Vastola, a reputed soldier in the DeCavalcante organized crime family, and 10 others with cocaine and heroin sales, loansharking, gambling, bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, insurance fraud and movie bootlegging, Greelish said.
Levy was arrested in his room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston and released after posting $50,000 cash bail. Vastola is a fugitive.
Levy, who operates 60 Strawberries Records and Tapes stores in New England, has been prominent in the music business since founding the Roulette label in the 1950s.
Levy and Vastola allegedly guaranteed that John Lamonte, 41, a record dealer from Darby, Pa., would pay $1.25 million for a shipment of 4 million cut-out, or discount, records bought on credit in 1984 from MCA Records Inc.
But Lamonte refused to pay, saying the best records had been removed from the shipment, and threats and at least one beating administered by Vastola failed to convince Lamonte, Greelish said.
A reputed capo, or captain, from the Genovese organized crime family in New York presided over a meeting last fall to settle a dispute between Levy and Vastola over who was responsible for the debt owed by Lamonte, Greelish said.
The result of the meeting was a decision to take over Lamonte's business, Out of the Past Ltd. Lamonte was removed from his business and is now in the federal witness protection program, Greelish said.
The prosecutor refused to specify how Vastola, 58, of Colts Neck, N.J., and Levy, 59, became middlemen in the sale of records by MCA to Lamonte. He said there was no indication of wrongdoing by MCA, based in Universal City, Calif.
'Vastola and Levy guaranteed payment to MCA,' Greelish said. 'I won't comment on the arrangement between Levy and MCA. There is no charge MCA was responsible for having Vastola collect the debt presumably owed to it by Out of the Past.'
