Accused mob figure pleads not guilty to loan-sharking

LOS ANGELES — Accused mob figure Joseph Isgro pleaded not guilty Monday during his arraignment on federal loan-sharking and extortion charges. Isgro, 52, is accused of lending money at 5%

interest a week to people in financial distress and then employing men to collect the payments outside a swank Beverly Hills shopping center. At a bail hearing Friday, an FBI agent testified

that Isgro, a record industry promoter, is a soldier in New York’s Gambino crime family. In the late 1980s, Isgro was tried in Los Angeles for allegedly giving cash and drugs to radio

station programmers to ensure broadcast play time for certain records. The case was thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct. MORE TO READ