Another Mystery Solved!

From time to time you may have asked yourself, “How does one raise the capital to open a store below 14th Street devoted to rice pudding?” I know I have!

But now we know the answer to another one of New York’s great mysteries: you don’t — instead, you open a store devoted to rice pudding in order to launder gambling profits:

A multimillion-dollar sports gambling ring – allegedly masterminded by a wealthy “rice pudding entrepreneur” – was sacked yesterday when authorities raided the operation just days before Super Bowl Sunday.

Taking individual bets of more than $10,000 on football and baseball games, the high-stakes ring raked in about $21 million a year, said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

The lucrative operation was headed by Peter Moceo, 45, who lives in the luxurious Trump Tower and owns a chic eatery in NoLIta, prosecutors said.

Investigators seized $25,000 in cash at Moceo’s Spring St. pudding shop, Rice to Riches. But Spota said it wasn’t the rice that brought Moceo his riches.

“We have evidence that he used [gambling] proceeds to start up and actually run Rice to Riches,” Spota said.

The Post (which didn’t even have to embellish its self-evident headline, “Rice to Riches”) adds some details, including this great quote:

Residents living near Moceo’s Little Italy pudding shop said they thought there was something shady about the store, which opened in April 2003.

“Who the heck is going to get rich off rice pudding?” asked Ozbbel Baez, a local carpenter.

Boom! Another mystery solved, which again solidifies our theory that the only people able to succeed in New York are, in fact, just doing something illegal.

Bonus Points: “This Store Sells Rice Pudding. Nothing Else.” article (New York Times, April 2, 2003)