ISGRO TO PLEAD GUILTY TO EXTORTION
Isgro, who was at the center of a federal payola case in the 1990s, was charged with extortion and loan sharking along with two other men who also entered into plea bargains with the government, the Associated Press said.
All three will pay restitution to victims who were charged 5% a week in interest for loans, according to the plea agreement.
The men were expected to enter pleas to two of eight counts of a federal indictment before U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins. The indictment's six other counts are expected to be dismissed.
Defendants Anthony "Uncle Tony" Saitta, 63, and Valentino Bartolone, 35, were allegedly collectors of the payments.
Isgro, 52, was arrested outside the Le Grand Passage shopping center in Beverly Hills, where authorities said he conducted many of his loan-sharking operations.
According to the agreement, Isgro and his associates admitted that "on several occasions threats of force and acts of intimidation were used to obtain payments on the loans."
During a preliminary hearing, Isgro's attorney, Donald Re, said that his client is neither an extortionist nor a gangster.
Authorities spent $10 million and seven years prosecuting Isgro payola allegations before a judge threw the case out in 1996, ruling prosecutors had not brought the case to trial quickly enough.
