BORN TO STEAL A relatively recent movie that I enjoyed watching is titled "Boiler Room". It stars Giovanni Ribisi (is there a movie where this guy hasn't cried in?) and basically is about men that have no qualms whatsoever about ripping off others for bigtime money. This is done through stock scams, such as selling stock that doesn't exist. Really interesting stuff. So, I was pleasantly surprised to receive this book from the publisher. Written by Gary Weiss, writer for Business Week, "Born to Lose" provides us with the a great insight, and obviously more in-depth one than the movie, into the sewers of Wall Street. The book is about the experiences and life during the 1990s of one Louis Pasciuto. While pumping gas, and at the same time pulling credit card scams, he meets the expensively dressed and even more expensively driven Roy Ageloff who invites Louis to drop by his office and maybe get a better life. And the rest is criminal history. Roy is working a "chop shop"* brokerage house and thus Louis gets his start on Wall Street. Pretty soon Louis is making over a hundred grand a month (not bad for a 20 something kid) pushing these stock scams to unwitting customers. See, Louis is a born talker and liar, and given the right environment these assets come in very handy. While the subtitle states "when the Mafia Hit Wall Street", the Mafia doesn't really rear their head until later in book. Although present they keep a low profile. Louis ends up with a wannabe, by the name of Charlie Ricottone, who latches onto Louis' success at scamming. See, criminals attract other criminals sometimes this is good, most times this is bad for one of the criminals. In this case this is bad for Louis. At times, and rightly so, he fears for his life. During this period in Louis' life he falls in love, gets married, moves from home to home, car to car and job to job. All the while Charlie is there to get his share. Finally to escape Charlie's repeated beatings he flips and starts talking to the government about the "stock" business. Bottom line here is these guys (mafioso, wannabes and your basic crooks), no matter what the environment, are going to break the law. Born to steal. This book would be perfect except its missing three, important, sections. First, all non-fiction books require an index. Second, there are a lot of characters coming and going in this book and a brief rundown of the "cast" would have been nice. Third, a glossary of stock terms would have made this an easier read. I know, pick, pick, pick....but I'm allowed to do that because I was born to read. *Chop Shops (in the stock market world) - the difference between what a brokerage firm pays for a stock and what they end up selling it at is known as the chop. It's a crime to acquire cheap stock, pump up the price with smoke and mirrors, then sell it for a huge profit, or chop.
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