Philip Abramo

Philip Abramo (born 1945), aka "The King Of Wall Street", is a caporegime in the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family who was involved in security fraud and murder.

Early years

Born in New York, Abramo is one of the very few Cosa Nostra mobsters to have attended college. In 1971, he was convicted of possessing stolen property. In 1973, Abramo was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin and sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

White collar crime

At some point, Abramo joined the DeCavalcante family and eventually became a made man, or full member, of the family. He became involved in extortion, loansharking, and microcap stock fraud schemes. Abramo was the hidden control person behind Sovereign, a prominent microcap stock company and its sister trading firm, Falcon Trading. Abramo also controlled two penny stock firms, Toluca Pacific Securities and Greenway Capital. Abramo allegedly controlled other small-cap stock dealers through brokers and traders owing allegiance to him.

Murder

In addition to white collar crime, Abramo also committed murder. In 1989, Abramo and other DeCavalcante family members murdered Frederick Weiss, a recycling executive and former city editor of the Staten Island Advance newspapers. The murder was a favor to Gambino crime family boss John Gotti who feared that Weiss was cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on a waste company investigation. In 1991, Abramo participated in the killing of John D'Amato, a man whom Gotti wanted to install as boss of the DeCavalcante family in 1990.

As Abramo's status rose in the DeCavalcante family, he frequently served as a liaison between the DeCavalcantes and the five crime families of New York. [http://www.businessweek.com/1997/13/b3520108.htm] . The FBI identified him as a frequent visitor to Gotti prior to his imprisonment in 1992. Abramo is also the brother-in-law of Alan Longo, a member of the Genovese crime family.

Conviction and prison

In 1994, Abramo was indicted in New Jersey for allegedly swindling 300 people nationwide out of $1 million by selling them fraudulent lines of credit. In October 2000, Abramo was indicted on charges of racketeering, conspiracy to murder, and securities fraud. On July 4, 2003, Abramo was convicted of five murders, including those of D'Amato and Weiss, as well as racketeering and loan sharking charges. As of April 2008, Abramo is serving a life sentence in the United States Penitentiary (USP) Lewisburg in Pennsylvania.

External links

* [http://www.businessweek.com/1996/51/b35062.htm BusinessWeek.com - The Mob on Wall Street]
* [http://www.thelaborers.net/newspapers/ny_times/Crime%20Family%20Dealt%20a%20Blow,%20Police%20Say.htm Crime Family Dealt a Blow, Police Say] by William K. Rashbaum
* [http://www.ipsn.org/indictments/loren-maltese_indictment/decavalcante_indictment2.htm United States of America v. Giovanni Riggi, Girolamo Palermo, Charles Majuri, Stefano Vitabile, Philip Abramo, Francesco Polizzi, Anthony Mannarino, Louis Consalvo, Gregory Rago, Frank D'Amato, Bernard Nicastro and Frank Scarabino] , United States District Court of Southern District of New York
* [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/June03/decavalcanteverdictpr2.pdf DeCavalcante Verdict]
* [http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator]