Nothing but Money: How the Mob Infiltrated Wall Street by Greg B. Smith

Author:Greg B. Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: True Crime
ISBN: 9780425228807
Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Published: 2009-06-02T06:46:27+00:00

The fifth race at Aqueduct featured a Najinsky colt named Glory of Fun. He’d been purchased at auction from a Saudi prince. His bloodline was strong, but this was his first race. His owners included Francis Warrington Gillet III and an old Gillet family friend, Joseph Cornacchia, a major-league name in the world of Thoroughbred horse racing. Cornacchia was a printer from Queens who’d transformed himself into a multimillionaire man-about-Palm Beach with money he made printing up a little game nobody ever heard of called Trivial Pursuit. Cornacchia owned dozens of famous horses. In 1994 his Go for Gin won the Kentucky Derby. Two years later his Louis Quatorze won the Preakness. He’d bought into Glory of Fun because of Warrington’s relationship with his father. It was likely Cornacchia had no clue about the third partner on Glory of Fun, Salvatore Piazza.

After Warrington started talking up Glory of Fun at the Monitor office, Sal had come around asking questions. Warrington was not entirely clear on what exactly Sal Piazza was all about. By now, he’d become aware of a certain influence at Monitor. The influence seemed to involve guys from Staten Island and Brooklyn in jogging suits and gold jewelry and manicures floating in an out with no apparent vocation. Every Friday, a guy everybody called Robert from Avenue U showed up, went into Jeffrey Pokross’s office for a while and then left. Warrington never actually heard the guy say a word, but he could tell that everybody at Monitor would have listened if he did.

Sal Piazza was a slightly different version of Robert from Avenue U. He was a congenial silver-haired guy in an aquamarine nylon jogging suit who knew something about buying and selling stocks. And now he wanted a piece of Glory of Fun. This was something of a dilemma for Warrington. Sal Piazza was surely affiliated with organized crime. It wasn’t as if Sal had told Warrington anything like that. It didn’t say “Bonanno crime family” on his business card. But Warrington just knew there was more to Sal Piazza than a passing knowledge of the stock market and an ever-changing set of jogging suits. So when Sal Piazza asked to become a partner in Glory of Fun, Warrington knew that Sal wasn’t really asking.

Sal wrote checks to Warrington under a business called Chateau Margot. Warrington didn’t ask about this. Warrington didn’t ask about anything. He just made sure the checks cleared, which they did. Now there were three partners attached to Glory of Fun: Francis Warrington Gillet III of Maryland horse country; Joseph Cornacchia of upstate Saratoga County, New York, and Palm Beach; and Salvatore Piazza of the Bonanno crime family.

At Aqueduct Glory of Fun was running five to one. Sal Piazza had shown up with Warrington to watch, and he’d brought his entire family. His wife, his mother, his kids, his friends from the social club—everyone. It was like a scene from Goodfellas, with Warrington the odd man out. Warrington was very popular with this crowd because he could talk Thoroughbred horses all day and not get bored.

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