The common perception of organized crime as consisting of tightly knit underworld syndicates who operate on the periphery of the legitimate business world is a misconception. It was illustrated as such in a most public way with the revelation of the Savings and Loan Scandal which swept through dozens of fronts that posed as banking institutions during the 1980's. With the revelation that there was a direct and demonstrable relationship between mob influence at the highest levels of bank ownership for those institutions implicated and the government and corporate sponsors of the loan programs in question, the myth had been dispelled that organized crime is even capable of operating without the knowing involvement of so-called legit power-figures.

Indeed, "the distinctions drawn between business, politics, and organized crime are at best artificial and in reality irrelevant. Rather than being dysfunctions, corporate crime, white-collar crime, organized crime, and political corruption are mainstays...
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