Morris Levy

Morris Levy (August 27, 1927 – May 21, 1990) was an American mobster and entrepreneur in the fields of jazz clubs, music publishing, and the independent record industry. He is known widely as the founder and owner of Roulette Records, the Birdland jazz club and the Roulette Room.At the peak of his businesses, Levy owned more than 90 companies employing 900 people, including record-pressing plants, tape-duplicating plants, a distribution company, a prominent New England chain of 81 record stores (Strawberries), and numerous record labels. Levy, who went by "Moishe" or "Mo" within the record industry, was described by Billboard magazine as "one of the record industry's most controversial and flamboyant players" and by Variety as "The Octopus", for his far-reaching control, disproportionate to the size of his companies, in every area of the record business. AllMusic described him as "a notorious crook who swindled artists out of their owed royalties." Levy was widely known for falsely taking writing credit in order to receive royalties—enriching himself at the expense of many of his signed artists, especially black R&B artists.Levy was convicted of extortion in 1990, on charges from an FBI investigation of the alleged infiltration of organized crime into the record business. Levy died after losing an appeal, two months before he was scheduled to report to prison.