Payola - Music and the Mob | 5

American Scandal

Wondery

True Crime, Exhibit C, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, History Daily, American History Tellers, Lindsay Graham

4.6 • 18.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1986, federal prosecutor Marvin Rudnick is close to cracking the biggest payola case in decades. It might even involve the Mafia and one of the record industry's most notorious figures, Morris Levy. So why do his bosses abruptly take him off the case?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American Scandal add-free on Amazon Music, download
0:05.8	the app today.
0:09.8	The
0:19.2	Federal prosecutor Marvin Rudnick is a stocky bulldog of a man with thick glasses and unruly
0:24.8	hair.
0:25.8	His brown suit looks like he slept in it.
0:28.0	The man sitting across from him, Joe Isgro, couldn't be more different, slick back hair,
0:33.4	a black silk suit, and a single gold crucifix hearing.
0:37.6	To Rudnick, Isgro looks exactly like what he's accused of being, a shady, mob-connected music
0:43.5	industry hustler who's up to his neck in Paila.
0:47.3	Like millions of other Americans, Rudnick watched the Blockbuster NBC News report on Paila
0:52.7	that aired about two months ago.
0:54.8	Isgro was the star of that show.
0:57.3	The TV crew filmed him in a New York hotel lobby meeting with Mafia Don, John Gotti, and
1:02.2	his underboss, a convicted heroin trafficker named Joe Armon.
1:07.2	Isgro was seen heading up to the hotel penthouse carrying what appeared to be an envelope full
1:11.5	of cash.
1:12.5	Rudnick, who convened a grand jury to investigate Paila, thinks it was a payment for the mob's
1:17.5	help in delivering bribes to DJs on the take.
1:20.7	But Isgro maintains he's innocent, and furthermore, he says NBC's report has destroyed his business.
1:27.1	Rudnick can't believe it, but Isgro came down here willingly to meet with him, and it seems
1:31.7	like he's mostly here to complain.
	...

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