An old Wall Street gag had it that the Mafia once turned down a seat on the American Stock Exchange for fear of picking up a bad reputation.
Amex, which dates from the California gold-rush days, prospered for decades as a place where speculative stock buyers could find action that was unavailable on the relatively staid Big Board of the New York Stock Exchange. Inevitably, Amex's high appeal led to some lowdown practices. One series of stock frauds, unearthed in 1961, was the work of the father-and-son team of specialists Gerald A. and...
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