WISEGUYS, RABBIS, and THE FBI

He was an entrepreneur. He was a loanshark. He was in big trouble.Mel Cooper was a businessman with an edge, making risky loans to New York businesses. In 1984, U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani charged Cooper with running the biggest loansharking scheme in New York history. The FBI had infiltrated "The Cowboy Palace," a nightclub Cooper funded with money from a group of Long Island Rabbis. But Giuliani only had eyes for the Mafia, and in one of his first RICO prosecutions, he arrested seven Mafa capos and soldiers from four crime families along with Cooper and his partner- a dentist from Long Island.After being convicted, Cooper served one year of his 30-year sentence, when he was accidentally released. This as-yet-untold story brings 1970s and '80s New York to life, with characters and con artists who went on to infamous careers. It's the true story of what happens when driving ambition and flexible ethics meet.