Written by Johnny Israel
Last year a friend of mine took out a $400 dollar title car loan from a pay day loan company. He agreed to pay back $530 in thirty days at 462 % interest, with the option of paying $118 to extend the loan for ten days. The $118 dollars was for the right to extend the loan, which was not applied against the original loan of $530. My friend was unable to pay the $530 loan on time, so he paid an extended loan four times, which is the maximum by state law. In the meanwhile the original loan collected a penalty at 462% interest, which accumulated to over $800 dollars. His debt had now accumulated to $1,272 from a $400 dollar loan. Predator loan companies were given the green light to loan shark at a minimum of 462% percent interest rate by state and federal law.
In the early eighties, mob figures such as Gene Gotti, under the direction of reputed mob boss, John Gotti, members of the Gambino Group, were on the hunt to launder money from their drug trafficking operations. The Gambino Group found the perfect money laundering scheme through “front shops” known as pay day loans. Gene Gotti along with John Carneglia, a cheap gangster in an expensive suit, sought out reputable business men to run the predator loan companies, such as Check City, Quick Loan, Easy Cash, and a host of other predator loan companies. Since the mid eighties, Check City has grown from a small store front loan company to a lucrative nationwide business.
Chicago mob boss, James Marcello, with his longtime friend Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, followed suit behind the Gambino Family. Laundered money from his heroin and cocaine distribution was fronted through Chicago’s predator pay day loan companies. This brings us to Joseph Capana, a contemptible Chicago hood, and drug dealer. For years, every Monday morning, Joseph Capana’s private plane secretively flew from Chicago to Mexico, and back to Chicago with a load of fifty pounds of cocaine. Capana lived a well-to-do life off the backs of his drug addicted victims. Capana also owned and operated Chicago’s “Capana Lounge” night club, a favorite hangout of mob boss James Marcello and Joey “The Clown” Lombardo.
At the advice of Marcello, Capana help set up predator pay day loans through out Chicago, which eventually spread throughout Philadelphia and South Jersey with the assistance of mob associates, Edward Wagner and Danilo “Danny” Starita, which ran a sports-gambling ring in Philadelphia. Wagner was a longtime friend of mob boss, Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, who is now serving life in a New Jersey prison.
America’s poorest societies are the victims of predator pay day loan companies, including our military soldiers and their families. Predator pay day loans are deliberately setup to make sure that their victims cannot pay off the original loan, thereby forcing the borrower to purchase extended time at an enormous sum of money. The moment a borrower enters the door of a predator loan company, they are unwittingly swept into a web of promises of a quick loan with easy payments. Predator loan companies have profited billions, and continue to profit off the backs of America’s poor, especially military personnel.
The top three Democrat Presidential contenders have stated publicly that as President, they would introduce legislation to abolish predator pay day loans. This will never happen. Predator pay day loan companies pay out millions of dollars to hired lobbyists to represent their shady loan sharking activities before members of congress and state legislatures. It is a fact that members of congress and members of state legislatures have received millions in kickback schemes from predator pay day loan companies.
Take the case of disgraced Congressman, Duke Cunningham, from California. Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting two million dollars in bribery from defense contractors. Further, pay day loan lobbyists funneled thousands of dollars into Cunningham’s dirty little hands for his congressional influence. In other words, Cunningham persuaded his fellow congressmen to turn a blind eye to predator pay day loan companies’ corruption.
End of Part I
