Bad Biz

The record biz is taking its lumps, what with payola investigations and trial testimony about a reputed Mafia figure working inside a major company. Now comes insults on top of the injuries.

It’s in a just-out book (from Franklin Watts) called “Mob Star,” about reputed Gambino crime family boss John Gotti. He’s described in the subtitle as “the most powerful criminal in America.”

According to authors Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, on Jan. 23, 1986, Gotti and three of his top lieutenants met at New York’s Helmsley Palace Hotel “with recording industry executives seeking venture capital for an album by a new artist.”

But Gotti, the book says, decided not to do the deal because “the recording industry was too dishonest.”