Born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1858 was the Godfather & Prime Minister of Chicago Policy. He was introduce to the numbers game while in New Orleans during his travels throughout the South. He later moved to Chicago's near Southside in 1885 on 29th & Federal St then later to 3135 S Rhodes Ave.

In the original Policy days, Sam hustled bets from would be gamblers in the neighborhood but more frequently at the downturn corner of State & Madison. When not there, he could be found in a section of State St known as Whiskey Row. Whiskey Row was a two block stretch on the west side of the street from Van Buren on the north to Harrison on the south. He was quite a gambler himself and would often be found at 311 S Clark St. in a gambling house. That house was owned by 3 people: Al Bryant, George Whiting, and John " Mushmouth" Johnson. This is where he mostly met Mushmouth and struck a deal.

In 1890, Johnson sold his interest in 311 and opened the Emporium Saloon at 464 S State St. with Sam's policy game became a featured attraction. The business flourished with political protection from 1st ward bosses Alderman Michael " Hinky Dink" Kenna and Committeeman John " Bathhouse" Coughlin.
By the turn of the century, Policy became good business with everybody playing from poor to wealthy. Policy stirred up gambling fever to a pitch comparable to the frenzy of the gold rush days. People were robbed at gunpoint in the streets. With this and the fire bombing of a church led to the Illinois Senate Bill #30: Anti Policy Law of 1905.

With the passing of the Anti Policy Law, the game went underground and Policy Sam went into the bail bond business. A year later in 1906 Mushmouth shut down the Emporium. But things changed political with William Hale " Big Bill" Thompson becoming Mayor in 1915. One of his quotes: " if you wanna gamble, go ahead and gamble! My police will have better things to do than worry about a little crap game". In that same year Chicago's first black city council member Oscar DePriest was elected Alderman of the 2nd ward. With an alliance between DePriest, Martin Madden, and Thompson the policy racket would flourish free from police interference. Sam got back in the racket and hooked up with Julius Benvenuti to open the first organized game was launched the Blue Racer Policy Wheel. Benvenuti's family store was the front.

But Sam being a generous fellow to a fault often gave away money to anyone with a need, went broke and dropped out the game. This continued for a few more times. He later jump back in the racket in 1923. He would attend the policy kings meeting later down the road in which was the formation of the Policy Syndicate but wasn't a member. Sam Young continued to be involved in the Policy racket until his death on May 18, 1937. He died in his sleep in his at 3155 Rhodes at the age 76. The Benvenuti brothers paid all expenses for the funeral and pick up the tab for shipping Sam's body to Louisville for the burial.


My source is Kings: True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings & Numbers Racketeers. I'll be posting more general summaries on other individuals and scenarios later. For anybody interested in the Policy racket in Chicago, I recommend this book for it's informative notes. Many events/people that you can't find in-depth information on the net.

good post

First I ever heard about the numbers game is when I read the Auto of Malcolm X and about West Indian Archie.

Numbers are legal today...and run by the state....called LOTTO .

Ethnic immigrant neighborhoods still have underground numbers games though.

The Bolita is still pretty big in Miami. The Cuban exiles in the area really hold onto their cultural identity, and that game is a part of it

"The Bolita is still pretty big in Miami"

What about in NYC?

My people in Miami call it "Bolet"

"Your People"?

Do you mean your Amico Negros?

Ah, you're Haitian. I figured that you were originally from the Caribbean .

You can still get down with the street number in New York if you know where to go. But it's nothing---and I mean nothing---compared to what it was when I was a kid. The state number put a thousand numbers guys out of business. Literally.

The state number put a thousand numbers guys out of business. Literally.



That's the truth. They seen how much money was involved and decided to take it over for themselves. What year did the state take over? Was it 76?

The Lottery came into New York in 1967. The daily number itself not until the early '80s.

You act like a character from a Spike Lee film.

yep, just like the actor who played Marlo on "The Wire"....Jamie Hector.

To quote Tony Soprano-"Is this a sign of disrespect?"

or since spike lee is also black, is this your way of accepting me as a Brotha?

@pizza,

Interesting that you're aware of bolita and bolet....because from my understanding Cubans and Haitians occupy different worlds/social strata in Miami.
Since most people don't venture/learn about other ethnic groups at all ,either you are a well traveled, naturally curious guy...........or you're the bank for bolita/bolet ring.:)


===========================================================================================

Speaking of the Caribbean and the numbers game though...does anyone know of a documentary about Madame St. Claire? In the film "Hoodlum" and in "Cotton Club" she's portrayed as one of the only leaders of numbers rings that fought back when Dutch Schultz muscled in on the Harlem numbers industry.

Gets,

Here is a recent story in Palm Beach County Florida. As PB said they are many large scale operations in Miami/Dade County.

By Liz Balmaseda and Christine Stapleton

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH —

A multicity police sweep on illegal street lottery operators and ticket-holders Friday night nabbed 20 people on charges of running a lottery, possessing illegal lottery tickets and renting a house for gambling.

Delray Beach police executed search warrants and seized $21,000 in gambling proceeds from six businesses: the Lake Ida Supermarket; Giveness Caribe Restaurant; Fred Noel Jewelers; Francois Appliance; Degree Unisex Salon; and Store One.

In all, the searches left 20 people facing charges ranging from possession of illegal lottery tickets to renting a home for gambling activities, according to a Delray Beach police report. Those arrested include; Kesner Sama, 58, of Delray Beach; Jose Rafael Lopez, 34, of Boynton Beach; Josue Simeon, 23, of Delray Beach; Anniel St. Surin, 45, of Delray Beach; Rafael Tavarez, 23, of Palm Springs; Jose German Fernandez, 22, of Coral Springs; Luis Reyes, 35, of Lake Worth; Jean Robert Francois, 62, of Boynton Beach; Elton Mondesir, 43, of Pompano Beach; and Kendrick Carvajal, 29, of Oakland Park, who also was charged with marijuana possession.

The Palm Beach County sheriff’s Strategic Intelligence Section and Boynton Beach Police Department also searched four locations suspected of selling bolita tickets and made arrests at two places in West Palm Beach and one in Lantana.

In West Palm Beach, investigators searched the Island Music Center and Multi Services on North Military Trail south of Community Drive and seized $878. They arrested Dieunous Paul, 41, of suburban West Palm Beach, on felony charges of operating a lottery.

The sheriff's office also searched Discount Foods on North Congress Avenue south of Okeechobee Boulevard, where they confiscated $1,654 and arrested Joseph Theus, 65, of Lake Worth, on felony charges of running an illegal lottery.

In Lantana, deputies seized $2,144 at Beauvais Caribbean Restaurant on South Congress Avenue south of Lantana Road, arresting Jose Ramon Rodriguez, 60, of Boynton Beach on felony charges of operating an unlawful lottery.

In Boynton Beach, police arrested Daniel Rotefeuille, 61, and charged him with operating an illegal lottery and resisting an officer without violence. Dieroste Couyoute, 41; Frantz Pacius, 40; Alex Prosper, 32; Elvin Duran, 32; and Souvenir Dore, 43, all of Boynton Beach, also were charged with operating an illegal lottery.

Friday’s sweep and arrests in West Palm Beach and Lantana “stemmed from numerous complaints,” said Teri Barbera, sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Bolita — Spanish for “little ball” — games are common across the Caribbean. Historically, they involved taking bets on which number ball will be drawn from a bag. In Haiti, where bolita is known as borlette, the lottery game generates an estimated $1.5 billion.

But in this country, where the illegal lottery racket was rampant in Cuban immigrant communities in the mid-20th century, the underground bolita business had faded.

In fact, when authorities arrested Delray Beach resident Pierre Richard Clervil last year on charges that he was running a borlette operation from the back of a Caribbean grocery store, they charged him with a rarely used statute of setting up, promoting or conducting a lottery for money.

On Saturday morning, nearly one year after prosecutors were forced to drop those charges, Clervil was arrested again on the same charges.

Clervil, 32, escaped facing criminal charges last year after one of the key investigators on the case was arrested on charges unrelated to the case.

Despite a six-month investigation into the illegal lottery operation and a sweep that included three locations, prosecutors dropped the charges against Clervil after the arrest of city police narcotics investigator David Chin was charged with perjury and official misconduct, accused of lying about his relationship to a confidential informant.

That investigation led Delray Beach SWAT to raid Polo’s Market on Congress, where they found a secure back room that was walled off from the rest of the store by a black reinforced door. Inside the room they found a dry-erase board with winning lottery numbers, borlette receipts, tickets, two laptop computers and more than $1,000 in cash.

It’s not clear whether the raid that led to the nine arrests early Saturday took place in more than one location, or yielded evidence similar to last year’s sweep.

In Saturday’s sweep, Clervil was arrested on charges of establishing a gambling place, playing an illegal lottery and possessing an illegal lottery ticket.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/c...ne-on-il/nY5sm/

I've been splitting my time between New York and Florida for the past 17 years. And prior to that, my parents had a place in Sunny Isles (North Miami Beach), and prior to that, my maternal grandparents has a place in Miami Beach as well. And my grandparents on my father's side had a place on Key Largo. They were two of the first Italian born landowners in Monroe County. Italians and Jews are very similar in that regard (they call it being born with sand in their shoes). They equated a few months a year in Florida as the personification of the American dream .

So needless to say, I have a lot of Cuban American friends down there. And Castro Cuba fascinates me because I see them as being similar to the Italians under Mussolini. Cubans are also very big on family and Catholicism, very much like Italians.

Zo Pound

Thanks NNY,

West Indian Archie would be ashamed of the people in this story.."caught with slips/tickets?"

Good article. Pizza mentioned how ingrained some of this stuff is in the cultures of some places. I bet you most of the people arrested are regular people, working ,paying taxes.....and with a STRAIGHT FACE will wonder what they did wrong?

When recent immigrants are caught by cops in cockfighting(pause) events....they have the same confusion.


I used to see stores/bodegas in certain neighborhoods where there is NO inventory. & few customers..and I just assumed that they were moving drugs there(to be able to pay the store rent)..but apparently they are running numbers or have gambling spot there)

pizza,

thanks...you bring a unique perspective to the forum


Besides the social similarities, lot of the Cubans who fled Castro were the old money Spaniards....and surely you see the physical traits they share with some Italians.


"George Stone? What was your REAL name before ye chainged it.....?

Andy Garcia

Yeah, right?saw the Bad Boys 2 film with the Zoe Pound villains (with Jamaican accents??)

Saw the gangland doc. on them and true to the nature of ethnic crime organizations.....Zoe Pound made their fortune by exploiting their own people. Torturing dock workers to get info on who was running drugs for Colombians and then stealing a ton of keys.

Like I said recently, it's the American way to exploit your own kind. Look no further than the Italian American Mafiosi who preyed on immigrant peddlers in their own neighborhoods a hundred years ago.

Re Zoe Pound: They ratted each other out a few years ago, no?

It's true to form once these groups become more Americanized. It's me first. Just like the Italian American Mafiosi of today .

And thank you, Gets .

Zoe Pound have expanded into other locations due to drug trafficking. Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and even read somewhere in Canada.

probably French speaking area,Quebec, more than likely in Montreal

OF COURSE they ratted each other out. I knew that before I even looked up the story.


Besides omerta....lcn guy has incentive to keep his mouth shut..he would still have a network to be able to earn in some way when he gets out.

Lower level crime organizations like Zoe pound offer no such chance...if you get out in one piece...you're just a broke older guy with felony on his record...and the younger dudes who came up aren't sharing SHIT!!!

Gets,

We have a certain amout of front businesses down here for gambling and numbers but pain clinics, ponzi schemes and medicare scams are the business of choice for the bad guys down here. In South Florida from West Plam Beach to Miami it is one large metropolitan area of about 4 million people. This area is considered by many in LE as the Fraud/Scheme/Scam capital of the world. Most folks would tell you Boca and the surrounding areas are nothing but Ritzy retirement communities and they are, but there is lots of money to be made here and a lot of bad guys looking to scam their way to the high life. Here is an example.


A former business partner of the man who inspired the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street," about a high-profile stock fraud scheme in the '90s, has been sued for alleged Medicare fraud.

The complaint, filed on Feb. 10, claims that Danny Porush and five other leaders of privately held Med-Care Diabetic & Medical Supplies Inc and an affiliated company participated in a "deceitful, high pressure telemarketing" scheme to sell unneeded medical equipment to patients.

Porush said in an email that he works as a manager at Med-Care and that the company never engaged in the activities alleged in the complaint.

Porush and Jordan Belfort, the main character in "The Wolf of Wall Street," led defunct brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont Inc, a boiler room that pumped up stocks. In the film, Belfort's right-hand business partner is named Donnie Azoff and played by Jonah Hill.

The lawsuit was brought by Tiffany Bumbury, who worked for three months as a telemarketer at a Med-Care affiliate until she was terminated around November 2010.

Bumbury sued under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which makes it illegal to submit false claims to Medicare. She stands to earn up to 30 percent of any recovery.

Belfort pleaded guilty in 1999 and Porush in 2002 to charges of securities fraud and money laundering in connection with Stratton Oakmont. Porush was sentenced to four years in prison and released on probation in 2004.

Bumbury's lawsuit claims that during his probation Porush "began engaging in and/or directing deceitful, high-pressure telemarketing activities through Med-Care and/or its affiliates."

Med-Care, which is based in Boca Raton, Florida, has over 500 employees and serves more than 350,000 patients, according to the company. It does not publicly disclose its revenue.


MED-CARE VS MEDICARE

In April 2013, Med-Care came under congressional scrutiny over its marketing and billing practices.

Steven Silverman, the president of Med-Care who is also named as a defendant in the complaint, testified at the time that in 2012 Med-Care received around $35 million from Medicare for supplying patients with medical products. The company sells items including diabetes supplies, breathing and oxygen equipment.

A memorandum prepared for the hearing by congressional staff maintained that 68 percent of a sampling of Med-Care claims to Medicare were found to be improper.

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who organized the hearing, asked Silverman to provide additional information by Feb. 17. A spokeswoman for McCaskill said the office has not received the requested documents.

Bumbury's lawsuit alleges that Porush and the leaders of Med-Care used telemarketers to cold-call patients to push products later billed to Medicare. Making unsolicited calls to Medicare patients is largely prohibited by federal law.

Telemarketers were instructed to say whatever was necessary to make a sale, Bumbury alleged in the complaint. For example, they pronounced the name Med-Care like "Medicare"; offered products for free; and said they were calling on behalf of the "Christian Healthcare Network" or the "Christian Diabetic Network" and that proceeds would be donated to charitable causes, she said.


"BALD-FACED LIE"

In response to Bumbury's charges, Med-Care's Silverman said Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies closely monitor the company.

He called the lawsuit a "totally frivolous" act of a disgruntled former employee.

"This is just a private individual looking to shake us down," he said.

Silverman said Bumbury's allegation of its telemarketers cold-calling was a "bald-faced lie" and the company only contacted people who had given their express consent to be called. The company also does not offer any products for free or waive patient co-payments, he said.

As for the name Christian Healthcare Network, Silverman said the company at one time used the name when it was doing some charity work with churches, but has not used it in years.

Bumbury's lawsuit alleges that Porush is paid both as a payroll employee and as an undisclosed owner. The complaint said that Med-Care transferred over $258,000 to a company registered in his wife's name and located at the couple's alleged residence at a Boca Raton country club. It also cited a $12,000 a month Rolls Royce lease in that company's name.

Porush declined to comment on the alleged payments but said that his tax returns have been audited. He denied having any undisclosed ownership of the company. (Reporting by Terry Baynes in New York; Additional reporting by Michael Pell in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/21/fraud-wolfofwallstreet-idUSL2N0LN19H20140221

Never saw either. Friend of mine knows some things and schooled me to it.

Sounds a lot like today's LCN to me .

cheech, I read your posts on this forum...I know you are connected to people who are Bout That Life.

I was saying that those are the two things that brought the name ZP to my attention. I heard the word "zoe" mentioned before but that's a common nickname or phrase in Kreyol. It means "bone" in the region where my family is from. After seeing the doc. I realized that I had heard about them before without knowing it.

NNY,

Again, thanks. What are some of the factors that you think create a climate where those types of crimes are so prevalent?


Never heard that part of the country described as the epicenter for fraud/ponzi schemes
From the outside looking in...it seems like high number of retired people plays into the medical insurance fraud

Gets,

The bad guys are doing more and more of this kind of stuff because when they get caught their only looking at 5 years tops as opposed to 20+ for racketeering or drug dealing. Your right we have an army of retired people down here and unfortunately not all of them are well informed when it comes to scams.The doctors love Medicare and so do the bad guys and its for the same reason. Medicare is a pay now ask questions later payer. We all know that insurance companies do everything they can to delay paying a claim and if they must to pay as little as possible. Well Medicare is required by law to pay each claim submitted within 30 days of the date of service. It takes about 6 months for the Medicare claims department to get around to vetting each claim and the bad guys know this. This is how the typical scam works: Bad guy number 1 decides to bank roll a medicare scam. He finds bad guy number 2 who works in a doctors office with lots a medicare patients and gives him $5,000.00 for a list of names, SS numbers and ICD 9 codes for the medicare patients. Then bad guy number 1 opens a storefront medical office with a desk and phone and submits claims to Medicare all day for millions of dollars for medical services and devices for patients that were never seen. Now by the time Medicare catches onto this fraud 6 months later this guy has already closed up shop and made 5-10 million dollars. Heres the thing though about these guys, its never enough so they can only stay away for so long and they come back to the well and eventually get caught. The sentencing guidelines for these white collar crimes are a fraction of what these losers will get for racketeering and the money is better. Here is the best part, the current Governor of Florida was involved in one of the largest medicare frauds of all time. See below.



Rick Scott 'oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history,'

Florida Democratic Party says
Gov. Rick Scott scared the bejesus out of seniors with an online ad claiming that Medicare rate cuts would lead them to lose access to their doctors, hospitals and preventive care.

Then, the Florida Democratic Party fired back at Scott, issuing a press release that called Scott "the ultimate Medicare thief."

The Democrats were referring to Scott’s prior tenure as CEO of Columbia/HCA about a decade ago, when the hospital company was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare fraud.

"Rick Scott is saying Democrats are committing Medicare robbery, when in fact he's the ultimate Medicare thief. He lost the right to accuse Democrats of raiding Medicare when he oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation's history. Rick Scott's company stole money that should have gone to health care for seniors," said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp in the Feb. 25 press release.

Separately, we have fact-checked Scott’s claim "we are seeing dramatic rate cuts" to Medicare that will affect people's choice of doctor, hospital and preventive care. We concluded that Scott had failed to say that the rate cut only applies to Medicare Advantage, and thus only affects a fraction of all Medicare beneficiaries. Also, it could be several months before we know the actual impact of the cut which could vary county by county. We rated Scott's claim Mostly False.

Here, we’ll fact-check the Democratic counter-attack that Scott "oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history."

Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA

During Scott’s 2010 race for governor, PolitiFact fact-checked multiple claims related to his tenure at Columbia/HCA. Now, we’ll recap some of our earlier discussion of the investigation and fine.

Scott started what was first Columbia in 1987, purchasing two El Paso, Texas, hospitals. Over the next decade he would add hundreds of hospitals, surgery centers and home health locations. In 1994, Scott’s Columbia purchased Tennessee-headquartered HCA and its 100 hospitals, and merged the companies.

In 1997, federal agents went public with an investigation into the company, first seizing records from four El Paso-area hospitals and then expanding across the country. The investigation focused on whether Columbia/HCA had committed Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Scott resigned as CEO in July 1997, less than four months after the inquiry became public. Company executives said had Scott remained CEO, the entire chain could have been in jeopardy.

During his 2010 race, the Miami Herald reported that Scott had said he would have immediately stopped his company from committing fraud -- if only "somebody told me something was wrong." But there were such warnings in the company’s annual public reports to stockholders -- which Scott had to sign as president and CEO.

Scott wanted to fight the accusations, but the corporate board of the publicly traded company wanted to settle.

In December 2000, the U.S. Justice Department announced that Columbia/HCA agreed to pay $840 million in criminal fines, civil damages and penalties.

Among the revelations from the 2000 settlement:

• Columbia billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for tests that were not necessary or had not been ordered by physicians;

• The company attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals;

• The company illegally claimed non-reimbursable marketing and advertising costs as community education;

• Columbia billed the government for home health care visits for patients who did not qualify to receive them.

The government settled a second series of similar claims with Columbia/HCA in 2002 for an additional $881 million. The total for the two fines was $1.7 billion.

On Scott’s 2010 campaign website, he admitted to the $1.7 billion fine, though the link is no longer on the site.

What type of record was that fine?

The fine clearly set a record, though the Justice Department (and media reports at the time) were not always consistent in their terminology, sometimes describing it as the "largest government fraud settlement in U.S. History" and other times more specifically as the "largest health care fraud case in U.S. History."

A Justice Department spokeswoman said that officials refer to Columbia/HCA as "largest health care fraud" rather than the more narrow term "Medicare fraud" because it involved defrauding other government programs such as Medicaid rather than Medicare exclusively. The Justice Department described in detail the various ways the company defrauded Medicare and other government health programs here.

Here’s a key point, though: While the Columbia/HCA settlement was a record at the time for health care fraud, it has since been surpassed. In cases related to the improper promotion of certain drugs, Johnson & Johnson agreed to a a $2.2 billion settlement in 2013, Pfizer settled for $2.3 billion in 2009, and GlaxoSmithKline settled for $3 billion in 2012.

"HCA was the record health care fraud at the time. It’s now Glaxo," Justice Department spokeswoman Linda Mansour told PolitiFact in an email.

That said, these cases were a little different. While the Justice Department’s case against Columbia/HCA repeatedly mentions overbilling and defrauding Medicare and Medicaid specifically, the three newer cases focused on the marketing of drugs, with Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs caught up in the impropriety, rather than being the specific targets of the fraud.

Because the Justice Department press releases explaining the settlements don’t explicitly break down how much of the misconduct in those more recent cases defrauded Medicare explicitly, it’s difficult to make comparisons.

The Pfizer case includes violations relating to misbranding and kickbacks, "so there may be a distinction to be made for that reason when thinking about whether it all should be classified under the very general category of ‘Medicare fraud,’ " said Asha Scielzo, who practices health care law at the firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

The Columbia/HCA case "still is the largest fraud settlement for a hospital corporation in U.S. history," since all the others involved pharmaceutical firms, added Zack Buck, a health care law professor at Mercer. "So I guess, the quote (by the Florida Democratic Party) is a little loose."

The Scott campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this fact-check. However in 2010, Scott told the Tampa Bay Times, "There's no question that mistakes were made and as CEO, I have to accept responsibility for those mistakes. I was focused on lowering costs and making the hospitals more efficient. I could have had more internal and external controls. I learned hard lessons, and I've taken that lesson and it's helped me become a better business person and a better leader."

Our ruling

The Florida Democratic Party said Scott "oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history."

The Columbia/HCA settlement has since been surpassed in dollar value, though the bigger cases involved Medicare somewhat less directly. Because the Democratic Party could have been a bit more specific in its wording -- by saying that Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud at the time -- we rate the claim Mostly True.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statem...t-medicare-fra/