Record Promoter Pleads Guilty to Loan-Sharking

LOS ANGELES — Record promoter Joseph Isgro, a reputed member of New York’s Gambino crime family, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court Thursday to conspiracy and extortion charges.

Isgro, 52, was arrested in March outside a Beverly Hills shopping center where authorities said he ran a loan-sharking operation.

Also pleading guilty to the charges were two Isgro associates, Anthony Saitta, 63, and Valentino Bartolone, 35, who served as collectors. All three will be sentenced Aug. 21 by U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins. They are being held without bail.

In secretly recorded conversations, the three men were heard threatening physical violence against debtors who were having trouble paying 5% a week interest on their loans.

“It’s a little amazing that they stood out there in the middle of Beverly Hills collecting cash and meeting victims,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Terri Law told reporters outside court.

This is the first conviction for Isgro, who lives in Tarzana. He spent nearly a decade fending off federal charges of payola and racketeering.

That case was ultimately dismissed after a judge found that the main federal prosecutor in the case withheld evidence that Isgro could have used to clear himself.