One of the most profitable and time-honored underworld operations has always been stock and securities fraud and theft. Regardless of whether the invaluable paper was stolen or counterfeited, this racket has brought incalculable billions to the racketeers who have engaged in these types of schemes.
And New York, otherwise known throughout the world as The Big Apple, has always been at the very epicenter of all the action. No other city, state, or country, for that matter, has even come close to ever duplicating the sheer volume of fraudulent paper moved, or the amounts of money that changed hands, as New York City.
As the recognized and undisputed world capital of finance that plays host to the famed industry of Wall Street, New York City is uniquely poised and situated as the vessel by which untold fortunes are bought and sold, won and lost, on a daily basis. And it’s been that way since the New York stock market was first invented at a meeting of 24 stockbrokers way back in the year 1792 and later formally constituted and named the New York Stock and Exchange Board in 1817.
But as with any shiny new, lucrative thing or business that later becomes wildly profitable, criminals are usually also drawn to the mix. And this particular type of sophisticated scheming requires very intelligent, savvy, and organized criminals at that.
