Is that worse than the legal loan sharking, the predatory expansion of gambling and any number of other ill-advised ventures people pursue voluntarily?

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The simultaneous contracts could be arranged to replicate any agreed interest rate while providing legal protection against default on one side and loan sharking on the other.

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Gold Club owner Kaplan and his associates are also accused of credit card fraud, money laundering, extortion, loan sharking, obstruction of justice, bribing two Atlanta police officers and having illegal mob ties, including paying protection money to the Gambino crime family.

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