from www.nydailynews.com – Seven reputed mobsters and more than a dozen other suspects were charged Wednesday with luring women from Russia and Eastern Europe to work in strip clubs and arranging sham marriages for some of them.

The defendants are to appear in Manhattan Federal Court to face charges of extortion, visa fraud, marriage fraud and racketeering.

Visa rules prohibited the women from working in flesh palaces so the suspects allegedly had them lie on their applications to say they were coming to the U.S. for summer waitressing jobs.

Some of the women were matched up with Americans for phony marriages so they would gain the proper legal status to strip in the U.S., court papers say.

“The defendants themselves had one thing in common — the desire to turn the women they allegedly helped enter this country illegally into their personal profit centers,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

The indictment says the seven members or associates of the Gambino and Bonanno families controlled the strip clubs in Queens and Long Island with iron fists.

They are charged with shaking down protection money from the club owners and overseeing disputes about which clubs got which women.

“Today, that business model has been extinguished,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge James Hayes.