It's Always About The Money: Director Of New Jersey Division Of Criminal Justice Says The Mob Goes Where The Money Is

Veteran organized crime journalist and author George Anastasia offers a piece on Elie Honig, the Director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice for Jersey Man Magazine.

Elie Honig says it’s not that complicated.

The mob goes where the money is.

“As long as there’s money to be had, that’s where you’ll find them,” said the young, energetic former federal prosecutor who now heads the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.

Honig (seen in the above photo) is in a position to know.

He made his bones prosecuting mobsters for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, winning cases in which dozens of gangsters were convicted, including high-profile targets like Gambino crime family capo Danny Marino and Genovese family leader Ciro Perrone.

Four years ago Honig, who grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ and graduated from Rutgers University before heading off to Harvard Law School, traveled down the turnpike from Manhattan to take the post of Deputy Director of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice. In February 2013 he was sworn in as Director.

His office, with a staff of more than 500, is responsible for developing cases against drug cartels, corrupt politicians, street gangs, white collar criminals and, of course, wiseguys, of which New Jersey has more than its share.

It’s the only state in America in which seven different Cosa Nostra families have deeply rooted operations.

“The five New York families,” Honig says matter-of-factly. “The DeCavalcante Family [New Jersey’s only indigenous organization and the group on which The Sopranos was based] and the Philadelphia family.”

And while violence is down in that particular underworld, the business of crime is still going strong.

“They’ve cut down on the murders,” Honig said.

That, he quickly added, is not a moral issue but rather a business decision.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://jerseymanmagazine.com/its-always-about-the-money/

A Piece Of The Action

Veteran journalist and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) offers his take on why New Jersey should get a piece of the action in sports betting in Jersey Man magazine.

A friend of mine who likes to wager on sporting events has an interesting take on the Super Bowl, a game that arguably attracts more action than any other American athletic contest.

“It’s a chance to get even,” he once told me with a laugh.

Then he paused, shrugged and added, “Or to get even worse.”

He’s been there. So have tens of thousands of others.

Last year the sports book in Vegas took $116 million in bets. The year before it was a record setting $119 million. But those numbers are only a fraction of what is bet on the game. Nobody has an accurate figure because many of the guys taking bets don’t report their business income.

But the total is in the billions. Best estimates are from $3 billion to $5 billion.

... All of this is by way of background because the really big game for New Jersey this year will play out in the federal courthouse in Philadelphia where, on Feb. 17, lawyers for the Garden State will try to convince members of the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals to allow bookmaking in the state’s casinos and at its racetracks.

New Jersey has been fighting this battle for more than a decade. This may be its last chance.  At issue is the Sports Wagering Act of 2014, a newer version of the Sports Wagering Act of 2012 that the courts struck down.

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://jerseymanmagazine.com/a-piece-of-the-action/