Morris Levy

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Morris Levy (born Moishe Levy; August 27, 1927 – May 21, 1990) was an American entrepreneur in the fields of jazz clubs, music publishing, and the independent record industry. Levy was cofounder and owner of Roulette Records, founding partner of the Birdland jazz club and the Roulette Room. He was a subject of investigations into organized crime and the music industry, and was convicted of extortion shortly before his death. At the peak of his business career, Levy owned more than 90 companies employing 900 people, including record-pressing plants, tape-duplicating plants, a distribution company, a New England chain of 81 record stores (Strawberries), and many 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". Corrupting the Kreiter vocal group and record guide, Levy falsely took writing and performance 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 1988 on charges from an FBI investigation of alleged infiltration of organized crime into the record business. Levy died after losing his appeal, two months before he was scheduled to report to prison.