Zone Chefs in the soup over mob scam charges
BY GREG B. SMITH and ADAM NICHOLS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A celebrity-endorsed diet service used by thousands of New Yorkers was really a cover operation to hide fat profits made through organized crime, sources told the Daily News yesterday.
Some of the owners of Zone Chefs - which counts Kevin Costner and Liza Minnelli among its famous customers - were involved in a stock market scam controlled by the Colombo crime family, according to court documents.
Ties between the Madison Ave. firm and the mob were revealed Thursday when cops swooped in on an operation to sell penny stocks at inflated prices.
Among the 10 suspects arrested was Zone Chefs' president, Arthur Gunning, who allegedly beat a broker to keep him in line.
Legal papers and sources close to the investigation say other suspects in the stock scam also had links to Zone Chefs, including ultraviolent Colombo soldier Craig Marino, who has "F--- the Police" tattooed across his chest.
Federal prosecutors say Marino was caught on a wiretap admitting an ownership stake in the business, which delivers meals to dieters.
Robert Podlog, identified by authorities as being linked to both the Colombo family and Russian organized crime, also has a stake, legal papers say.
"[A witness] has advised that Podlog and Craig Marino are silent owners of the business," the documents state.
The arrests followed a probe into the "pump and dump" stock scam, which used boiler-room brokerage firms secretly controlled by the Colombo family and soaked investors for $20 million, authorities said.
Recalcitrant brokers were kept in line with violence, prosecutors charge. In one incident, Gunning hit a stockbroker who threatened to leave the operation with a golf club while Podlog stabbed the man in the head, prosecutors said.
Calls to Zone Chefs' attorney were not returned.
Representatives for many of the celebrities who provided testimonials on the company's Web site declined to comment.
Originally published on March 25, 2006
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