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John "Junior" Gotti made a failed bid to turn himself into a publishing king by investing in a celebrity-packed magazine for prison inmates called Hottie, it was revealed yesterday.
Gotti sunk some $20,000 into the rag, which he hoped would be filled with sexy music stars such as Lil' Kim.
But instead of working with publishing and music-industry professionals, he hired the wife of a fellow inmate - a woman who lived in Binghamton - to cover the glitzy celebrity world.
A discussion - taped in prison - about the doomed magazine idea involving Gotti, his lawyer, Richard Rehbock, and reputed Gambino crime family associate Steven Dobies was played during Junior's federal racketeering trial.
During the March 2003 talk, Dobies told how the inmate's wife, a woman named Stephanie, was not returning his calls. He also talked about meeting with a New York man named Jamal, who said he would do a better job overseeing the project.
"His point was very valid . . . how do you run a magazine that's based on the music industry, when you're in Binghamton where you couldn't even pay one of the people [celebrities] to go to perform. You gotta be in the city every day."
"He knows Lil' Kim, too?" Gotti asked about Jamal.
"He knows all of them," Dobies said.
Gotti's lawyer said that his sister, Victoria, heard of the plans for Hottie - and didn't think much of them.
"Vicki's idea about this thing, is that your perspective on this is totally wrong. It's not gonna sell," Rehbock said.
Gotti mused that, even if it was a failure, he could still use his investment in the mag in one way.
"I'll use it as a write off, a business loss," Gotti said. He added that his investment was with "clean money" - an assertion the feds dispute.
Also yesterday, Junior's younger brother Peter, 31, took the witness stand and told about the many failed efforts his bother made to help him get a job and get established in business.
He said Junior gave him $80,000 to open a pet store, which failed, and later gave him $96,000 to open a bakery, which failed. Peter said the failures came because he was a "degenerate" gambler.
He used this to rebut a claim by the feds that he once picked up $50,000 in dirty cash for his older brother - at a time when Junior was supposed to have been retired from the mob.
Peter said his brother would have never trusted him with that kind of money because of his gambling.
kati.cornell@nypost.com
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