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mobbed up with wise guys?
Pornster gone legit splashed by rival papers
By Simon Bond
Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times made a front page splash over the Christmas holidays with the allegation that a former bodyguard to Richard Desmond, the publishing millionaire who recently bought the UK tabloid group Express Newspapers, arranged to pay over $3 million to America's biggest mafia family after a business deal went sour.
The report says that a businessman with contacts in organized crime brokered the payment for Desmond after his company, Northern & Shell, became unwittingly caught up in a deal with a firm linked to the Gambino crime family.
The Gambinos believed they were legitimately owed millions of dollars following their purchase of a telephone sex company from Desmond's adult entertainment empire.
The Sunday Times reported that the money was paid back in cash, in bundles of £20 notes stashed in a sports bags and delivered during a late night drop-off in London's shady Soho district.
There is no accusation that Desmond had any idea that his associates had been unwittingly dealing with the mob when he sold the sex line company in 1992.
Desmond has issued a statement denying the reports and involvement in any mafia-related deal.
However, the allegations are set to refuel the debate over Desmond's $175 million acquisition of the Express Group of newspapers.
His company publishes the mainstream celebrity bible, OK! magazine, but also produces a string of adult titles, including Asian Babes and Big Ones. His purchase of the Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star titles has already prompted the regulatory authorities at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to invite comments on the acquisition. Their report will be passed to Government Minister Stephen Byers, who will then decide whether the case should be referred to the Competition Commission on public-interest grounds.
Desmond may face a struggle to get regulatory approval.
Although he proudly pronounced himself as a socialist when interviewed about the acquisition before Christmas, 10 Labour members of parliament signed a petition expressing "grave concerns" about his move into newspapers.
Desmond's critics say that his association with telephone sex lines and internet pornography has simply left him too marked by sleaze to be suitable to run a national newspaper with daily sales of 1.6 million.
Nevertheless, the Desmond camp has already started to counter these latest allegations by dismissing them as the latest wave in a series of calculated attacks printed by rival publishing groups who are either upset because they failed to buy the Express Group themselves or are concerned that the newspapers will be revived under Desmond's stewardship and provide them with a new competitor.
-Simon Bond covers European media for Media Life, writing from outside of London.
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