Five Families of New York City

Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

April 5: Trial In Murder Of Genovese Capo

  January 30, 2010    Dapper_Don

The trial of Fotios "Freddy" Geas, charged with planning the 2003 hit against New England Genovese capo Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, has been adjourned from March 1 "to April 5 after the departure of Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd E. Newhouse from the case" as reported by Stephanie Barry for The Republican:

Geas was charged in 2008 with murder in aid of racketeering after admitted gunman Frankie A. Roche, who was charged previously in Hampden Superior Court, turned federal informant and told the FBI Geas paid him $10,000 to kill Bruno. Roche, an ex-con and fringe character in local criminal circles, told agents that Geas, a reputed mob enforcer, recruited him to shoot Bruno on behalf of rival gangsters amid a coup. Bruno, 57, was the local head of the New York-based Genovese crime family until Roche shot him six times as the mobster left his regular Sunday night card game on Nov. 23, 2003.

  

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Gambino backed Associates convicted of Racketeering

  January 29, 2010    Dapper_Don

Phillip J. Bauco has pleaded guilty in Hartford, CT to a racketeering conspiracy charge for his role in an illegal gambling operation as reported by Edmund H. Mahony for the Hartford Courant:
Federal prosecutors said the role that Phillip J. Bauco, 56, of Bridgeport, played in the conspiracy was to collect losing bets from gamblers and payoffs from bookmakers who were under the control of the gambling ring, which operated from Bridgeport to New Haven. Federal prosecutors said Bauco and his associates once tried to force an independent bookmaker to make protection payments to them. Bauco owns Auto Town Sales in Stratford, and the gambling ring used the business as a headquarters, prosecutors said.
Bauco and his co-defendant Raul "Sonny" Suner were indicted last June, and at that time Edmund H. Mahonet reported for the Hartford Courant:
Suner and Bauco claimed that they had Gambino family backing and that the New York gangsters had authorized Suner to run illegal sports betting operations in New Haven and Bridgeport, according to the indictment. The U.S. attorney's office said the two used "threats, violence and intimidation" to persuade bookmakers and gamblers to work and bet with them. When mobsters take over bookmaking operations, they customarily collect a percentage of the profits, ostensibly in return for providing protection and assistance with collecting debts from losing bettors.

  

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Jailed Genovese Godfather Pleads Guilty

  January 27, 2010    Dapper_Don

The current Boss of the Genovese crime family,...Daniel "The Lion" Leo via Wikipedia
Daniel “The Lion” Leo of Rockleigh, the reputed acting boss of the Genovese crime family, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
Leo, 69, currently in serving a 60-month federal prison sentence for his conviction on extortion charges in October 2007, faces 40 years in prison when he is sentenced April 2.
At the same hearing, Leo’s nephew, Joseph Leo, 48, of the Bronx, a reputed Genovese lieutenant, also pleaded guilty to racketeering charges. Joseph Leo is currently serving a 46-month federal prison sentence, and also faces 40 years.
The guilty pleas were announced in Manhattan by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York.
Both Leos admitted during their pleas that they participated in loan sharking and conspiring to operate an illegal gambling business, authorities said.
Daniel Leo, known for his low profile, reportedly worked his way up the family from soldier, authorities said. He became acting boss of the region’s most powerful Mafia family in 2006 after Dominick “Quiet Dom” Cirillo was sentenced to four years in prison on racketeering charges.
Leo’s crew was involved in loan sharking, extortion, and illegal gambling, authorities said.
The government is seeking the forfeiture of properties belonging to the Leos and other alleged mobsters who were named in a sweeping indictment, identifying Daniel Leo properties in Rockleigh and Boca Raton. It is also seeking Joseph Leo properties in Bardonia, N.Y.
Three brothers charged in the racketeering indictment — Felice Masullo of Brooklyn, Anthony Masullo of Middle Village, N.Y., and Angelo Masullo of Maspeth, N.Y. — pleaded guilty in November 2009. They will be sentenced Feb. 19. Felice Masullo faces 40 years in prison and Anthony and Angelo Masullo face 20-year prison terms.
Also named as part of the racketeering “enterprise” were Rocco Petrozza, 50, of Pompton Lakes, Patsy Aversa of Wood-Ridge, and Joseph Petullo of Fairfield.
The government is seeking the forfeiture of Petrozza’s property in Pompton Lakes, Aversa’s properties in Wood-Ridge, Jersey City and Toms River, and Petullo’s property in Fairfield.
Petrozza, Aversa, and Petullo are scheduled for trials in April, said Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the U.s. Attorney’s office.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/012710_Reputed_crime_boss_pleads_guilty_to_racketeering_charges_.html
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Rumors Swirl In Big Al Hit Case

  January 27, 2010    Dapper_Don

Speculation is brewing that indictments may be coming down the road against additional defendants in connection with the 2003 hit against New England Genovese capo Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno.  The trial for Fotios "Freddy" Geas, charged with planning the hit against the gangster, is set for March 1, and federal prosecutors have filed a "recent flurry of sealed documents" and "defense lawyers in the case have completely corked the flow of information" as reported by Stephanie Barry for The Republican:
Rumors about new arrests have run rampant among lawyers and shady figures alike since early last week. * * * Geas, 42, is charged with murder in aid of racketeering in 2008 after being implicated by admitted shooter Frankie A. Roche, who turned government witness and has pleaded guilty to shooting Bruno in the parking lot of South End neighborhood club on Nov. 23, 2003. Roche told the FBI Geas paid him $10,000 to kill Bruno amid a turf war among members of the so-called "Springfield Crew" of the New York-based Genovese crime family. Names of other suspects have cropped up in previous court filings, only to be dismissed by law enforcement officials as premature. They include Anthony J. Arillotta, 41, Bruno's reputed successor, and New York [reputed] mobsters Pasquale "Scop" Deluca, 78, and Arthur "Artie" Nigro, 65, none of whom has been charged in connection with Bruno's killing.

  

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Poll Results: What Is The Biggest Reason For The Decline Of The Five Families?

  January 26, 2010    Dapper_Don

Sammy GravanoTurncoat Gambino Underboss Sammy Gravano via Wikipedia
The following are the results of the poll: 58 total votes

Turncoats/Informants: 28 votes - 48%
Law Enforcement (FBI, Justice Department, etc): 12 votes - 20%
Changing Population Dynamics: 12 votes - 20%
Drug Dealing: 4 votes - 6%
Rise of Other Ethnic Gangs: 2 votes - 3%

A vast majority of our readers feel that informants such as Sammy Gravano and Joe Massino have contributed the most to the decline of the the Five Families. The old school vow of "omerta" no longer promotes the insulation and protection for the Mob like it once did. Law Enforcement and Changing Population Dynamics are tied for second. Increased surveillance sophistication by agencies have caused a headache for the Mob from day one.

Make sure to vote in our new poll!!!



Salvatore VitaleTurncoat Bonanno Underboss Sal Vitale via Wikipedia



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Colombo Capo Big Dino Flips In Cop Hit Case

  January 26, 2010    Dapper_Don


The feds have cut a deal with a Colombo hit man accused of murdering NYPD cop Ralph Dols because he married another gangster's ex-wife, the Daily News has learned.
Reputed capo Dino (Big Dino) Calabro is alleged to be one of the shooters who gunned down the off-duty housing cop outside his Sheepshead Bay home in 1997.
FBI agents moved Calabro's family out of their Long Island home and into the witness protection program yesterday, sources familiar with the case told The News.
The brazen killing of a cop - usually forbidden by the Mafia in the U.S. - was allegedly ordered by then-Colombo boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, who felt disrespected by Dols, his ex-wife Kim's fourth husband.
Calabro, 43, who was born in Italy, is the second member of the alleged hit team to flip. The alleged getaway driver Joseph (Joey Caves) Competiello began cooperating with the government in 2008.
"This really solidifies the Dols case," said a knowledgeable source.

Calabro's co-defendants have suspected for months that he was looking for a way out of the seven murders he is charged with in a federal indictment. He could have faced the death penalty for blowing away Dols.
Sources said Calabro was a no-show at defense strategy meetings at the Metropolitan Detention Center, claiming he hadn't been invited. "He finally showed up, and it was very awkward," said a lawyer.
Calabro's lawyer Richard Jasper did not return calls. A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment.

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Son On Trial For Allegedly Killing Mobbed Up Dad

  January 26, 2010    Dapper_Don

In Hackensack, NJ trial for William Silvi is set for March in connection with the May 2008 murder of his father William Marcucci who was a Genovese associate involved in the gambling rackets as reported by Kibret Markos for The Record:
The death was originally thought to be a mob hit after authorities identified Marcucci as a Genovese crime family associate who was active in gambling operations. Bergen County prosecutors later determined that the killing was not mob-related, and charged Marcucci's son, William Silvi, with murder. Prosecutors said Silvi planned the murder and recruited his brother-in-law, Daniel Tunks, to shoot Marcucci so he could collect $750,000 in life insurance.

  

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ex-Colombo family mobster Michael Franzese, a born-again Christian, busted for writing bad checks

  January 19, 2010    Dapper_Don


Some habits die hard.
An ex-Colombo family mobster who left the Mafia to become a born-again Christian motivational speaker was busted in Tennessee for writing bad checks, officials said Monday.
Michael Franzese, the Brooklyn-born mobster once nicknamed "The Prince of the Mafia," was led from a plane on the runway in Knoxville in handcuffs Friday night, police said.
The ex-wiseguy - who has bragged that he made more money than Al Capone - downplayed the arrest in an interview with the Daily News, saying it was an "unfortunate misunderstanding" with a business associate.
"I didn't pass bad checks, I didn't take any merchandise. I didn't do anything wrong," said Franzese, 59.
"It's a dispute with my former manager over a small amount of money - nothing more," said Franzese, the son of famed 92-year-old Colombo enforcer John (Sonny) Franzese.
The younger Franzese, who became a "made" Colombo soldier in 1975, made millions bootlegging gasoline until he was indicted in 1987. Deciding to leave the Mafia behind, he accepted a prison sentence and testified against his former family.
He served three years and upon his release wrote a series of mob-themed inspirational books with titles like, "The Good, The Bad, and the Forgiven" and "I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse."
He tours the country speaking to church groups, students and professional athletes on the dangers of gambling and fraud.
He said he is worried how the arrest would affect his booming speaking business.
"I'm in a ministry right now and this story has already hurt," Franzese said. "I know I carry baggage from my previous life, but I worked hard to shed my past."
Franzese was in Knoxville to speak to a men's organization at a Baptist church but instead spent the night in jail after being picked up an outstanding warrant for bad checks.
His former manager "thought I owed him money and chose to get the police involved," said Franzese, who declined to elaborate on the specifics of the dispute. "It'll blow over."
A Knoxville police spokesman would not identify the complainant in the case.
Franzese, the founder of a youth counseling group called the Breaking Out Foundation, was released from jail Saturday morning on $7,500 bond and returned home to Southern California.
He vowed not to let the arrest deter him from his new mission.
"I am going to stay out there preaching my message," he said. "I have overcome a lot and I'm going to keep doing the best I can."

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Jailbird's lame bid

  January 17, 2010    Dapper_Don

Dominick Cutaia in a mid-2000s FBI mugshot.Imprisoned Lucchese Capo Domenico Cutaia via Wikipedia
He can't stay in jail -- he's got a bullet in his leg.
Career criminal Joseph Cutaia will appeal to a Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday to let him out on bail because the bullet lodged in his right leg hurts like heck, said his lawyer, Seth Ginsberg.
Cutaia, who is the son of reputed Lucchese soldier Salvatore Cutaia and grandson of Lucchese capo Domenico Cutaia, was charged on Dec. 23 with the botched robbery of a Brooklyn electronics store.
He was shot while getting out of his car on Staten Island on Dec. 1 by unknown attackers, sources said.
Magistrate Judge Robert Levy refused to let the mob scion out on bail last month.
Cutaia is suspected in a series of armed robberies, including the Nov. 11 electronics-store job.
"It's inhumane to keep him in jail," said Ginsberg, who will ask for temporary bail so Cutaia can see a surgeon.

 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/jailbird_lame_bid_WYtgWb1ttUD4Ov17i3aX9L#ixzz0ctrFE3IZ
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Did A Potential Juror Try to Meddle With Massino's Case?

  January 17, 2010    Dapper_Don

Joseph MassinoImage via Wikipedia
Buried within an old filing in a Bonanno crime family federal case is the intriguing allegation that a potential juror in Joe Massino's case may have been up to no-good.  In a memorandum filed in January 2006 in a related crime family case, Brooklyn federal prosecutors alleged that an informant told investigators that a person in the jury pool of Massino's case 'reached out' for a member of the Bonanno crime family.  The alleged reach out was to a relative of then reputed Bonanno  crime family underboss Joseph Cammarano
, papers filed in Brooklyn federal court stated. There was no indication in the filings that Massino or his defense team, or Cammarano for that matter, knew of the situation. "This apparent effort to tamper with the jury was thwarted however, because the individual in the jury pool was not ultimately selected to the petit jury," prosecutors stated in their filings. Massino's trial is extensively detailed in "King of The Godfathers," and the hardcover version "The Last Godfather." Massino was convicted, sentenced to life in prison and is now a cooperating witness himself.
http://tonydestefano.com/id3.html


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FBI alleges Colombo Street Boss DeLeo ran family from Greater Boston

  January 17, 2010    Dapper_Don

== Summary == This is a mugshot of former Colo...Family Patriarch Joe Colombo via Wikipedia
In Boston, home to the New England Mafia and a string of legendary former bosses like “The Cheese Man’’ and “Cadillac Frank,’’ Ralph DeLeo was a virtual unknown.
“Here, I’m nothing,’’ DeLeo said within earshot of an FBI bug.
But in New York, he said, “Everybody is holding the door for ya, helping on your coat, giving you hugs . . . kissing you, and all this type of stuff. ‘Oh, you gotta sit in front, you gotta do this, are you comfortable? Can I get you coffee?’ ’’
But to the FBI, DeLeo, 66, of Somerville was somebody.
Agents tapped his cellphone from January through November of last year, then he was indicted last month on a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. The indictment filed in US District Court in Boston alleges that he is the “street boss’’ of New York’s Colombo family and runs a small crew based in Greater Boston involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and loansharking.
DeLeo is being held in Arkansas, where he’s also facing charges of cocaine trafficking. An FBI affidavit filed last week in courts in Boston and Arkansas detailed DeLeo’s alleged position in the New York mob and offered snippets of conversations from his bugged telephone calls.
The affidavit alleges that DeLeo is the highest-ranking member of the Colombo family who is not in prison, and ran the family’s business for most of last year. He allegedly reported to its boss, Carmine “The Snake’’ Persico, and acting boss, Alphonse “Allie Boy’’ Persico, who are in prison.
During an FBI-bugged call to his sister from New York last week, DeLeo, who had allegedly presided over a mob induction ceremony, admitted that he found his job “like overwhelming a little bit,’’ the affidavit said.
He described going to the ceremony in different groups and cars to “make sure we weren’t followed,’’ and added, “it was a big deal; people picking us up, taking us somewhere else and all that type of stuff, I wasn’t ready for all that.’’
In October 1989, New England mobsters did the same thing, arriving at a Medford home in different cars and groups.
But it didn’t do them much good because the FBI had planted a bug in the house and captured its first-ever recording of a Mafia induction ceremony that led to a takedown of the hierarchy of the local mob.
Before the New England family was weakened by waves of prosecution, it was unheard of for another Mafia family to encroach on its territory.
The indictment alleges that in the past year DeLeo and three other men, Franklin M. Goldman, 66, of Randolph, Edmond Kulesza, 56, of Somerville, and George Wiley Thompson, 54, of Cabot, Ark., plotted to distribute marijuana and cocaine, extort money from victims, including one in Canton, and collect loansharking debts.
DeLeo allegedly paid $50,000 for 2 kilograms of cocaine that were transported from California to Massachusetts in December 2008, according to the indictment.
It’s not DeLeo’s first brush with the law.
He served a 25- to 40-year sentence in state prison at Walpole for kidnapping and armed robbery when he escaped in 1977.
He was convicted of killing an Ohio doctor in 1977 and sentenced to 15 years to life. But the state’s governor granted him clemency in 1991 and he has been free since 1997.
Unaware that his alleged encroachment into New England last year had drawn attention, DeLeo kept talking as the FBI kept listening.
During a March call to his sister from Florida, DeLeo lamented about all of the attention he was getting from other wise guys.
“They gave me too much attention,’’ DeLeo said, according to the affidavit. “You know, too many hugs, too many kisses. You know, holding the car door for me, holding doors for me, you know all that type of stuff. And, um, I’m not into that type of stuff. I’m, uh, you know, I’m . . . at heart I’m a regular guy, you know. Uh, you know to them I’m something else, but I’m really not that something else.’’
When his sister asked if he brought his girlfriend on the Florida trip, DeLeo said he was just “with the guys’’ because he was afraid she would be suspicious if she saw the royal treatment he was getting.
“You know what I mean, cause they definitely act like Sopranos and . . . the way they [pay] attention to me is, you know, they would huh, you know she would suspect something.’’

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/17/fbi_alleges_crime_boss_deleo_ran_crew_in_greater_boston/

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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Gambino Associate Busted in Diapers for Smart Phones Switch

  January 16, 2010    Dapper_Don

Louis DaidoneFormer Lucchese Acting Boss Louis Daidone via Wikipedia
A dumbfella was pinched for swiping a shipment of smartphones from Kennedy Airport - and replacing the cargo with diapers, officials said Friday.
Reputed Gambino associate John Micali was arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court for conspiring to steal BlackBerry Storm phones and iPhones on Nov. 18.
And in an ironic twist, the feds built a case against Micali, 37, by tapping his own cell phone.
The stolen phones, destined for India and Singapore, were worth more than $81,000, according to the indictment unsealed Friday.
Micali and two accomplices, Gaetano Bounincontri and Frank Nunziata, had access to the shipment because they worked for JRS Trucking Services, which bills itself as the largest trucking company servicing JFK.
A woman who answered the phone at JRS said the company had no comment. The defendants have since been fired, a source said.
Micali - son-in-law of former Lucchese crime boss Louis (Louie Bagels) Daidone - was released Wednesday on a $150,000 bond signed by his wife, Lori.
"He maintains his innocence and will resolve these issues at trial," said Micali's lawyer, Albert Dayan.
But court papers say Micali and his co-defendants are already in plea negotiations with Assistant U.S. Attorney Celia Cohen.
Micali was released from prison two years ago after serving a 51-month sentence for burglarizing three banks.
Prosecutors in that case argued he was too dangerous to release on bail. They cited a tattoo across his back of a kneeling man, hands bound behind his back, with the words in Italian: "Kill all the police with a shot in the head."
Then his fiancée, Lori Daidone, failed to persuade a federal judge in 2004 to release him on bail so they could be married outside prison walls.
The Daily News caught Micali in another scam in 2003 when he was listed as a $58,000-a-year employee of a contractor hired by the Port Authority to remove asbestos from Ground Zero - while he was in jail.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/16/2010-01-16_goon_gets_berryd_in_fone_bust_feds_tap_wiseguys_cell_to_build_case.html#ixzz0cnVTzP8M
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John 'Junior' Gotti finds new calling - writing true crime stories

  January 16, 2010    Dapper_Don


Junior wants to go from crime boss to crime writer.
Finished with the mob, John A. (Junior) Gotti said he wants to start a new career - writing true crime tales, his and others.
The second-generation mobster Friday night shared a sumptuous Italian meal with his winning legal team, and served up his plans for the future.
"I want to try my hand at writing. I want to write about facts - possibly true crime," he said from the Galleria Dominick dining room in Westbury, L.I.
Reveling in the federal prosecutors' decision not to seek a fifth racketeering trial against him, Gotti, his lead defense lawyer, Charles Carnesi, and two others on his team feasted on pasta - with marinara and pesto sauces - seafood and appetizers.
The son of John (The Teflon Don) Gotti said the mob turncoats who took the stand in his fourth trial didn't dish true crime when they blamed him for at least seven drug and gangland murders.
"You have to believe that my father loved me. Do you think he would put his son in a position that he'd have to go out and kill people? He put me in a position of monetary things...of politicking...of dealing with lawyers," Gotti said.
Murder?
"Never," he said.
Gotti, 45, said he and his wife would start looking next week to move out of New York, maybe to Virginia, Maryland or the Carolinas.
"I think it's better for everybody if I just do move on. Out of sight. Out of mind," he said.
Gotti, who insists he left the Gambino crime family a decade ago, said he has "paid his dues."
He took a guilty plea in 1999 on another case and served nine years, three in solitary confinement.
"Then trials. Properties are gone. Lost houses. Children in counseling," Gotti said.
"I've made sins in my life. Nobody gave me a pass, and it wasn't an easy walk," he said.
His father, famously known as The Dapper Don, died in 2002 chained to a bed in federal prison.
"If you look on his death certificate he choked on his own vomit and blood. He paid for his sins, and I think, at this point, I paid for it," he said. "It's time to let go. It's time to move on."
But if the government comes calling for Gotti's help to rub out the mob, the answer is no.
"That's not my life. It's no longer my life...but their problems are their problems. I'm not part of the government either," he said.
"Here I am sitting here, the government on one side and you have my former life on the other side, and I belong no place."

 http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/01/16/2010-01-16_gotti_turns_to_life_of_crime_stories.html#ixzz0cnVBGBwX


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Friday, January 15, 2010

Could This Be the End of the Celebrity Mobster?

  January 15, 2010    Dapper_Don

John GottiJohn Gotti Sr. via Wikipedia
Predicting the demise of the Mafia is like predicting the demise of the “Rocky” franchise: Every time you think you have finally heard the last of it, it rears its ugly head.
That said, with the announcement on Wednesday that the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan would — really, this time — give up chasing John A. Gotti, the former boss of the Gambino family, after four failed tries in court, it could be argued that the mob’s celebrity era, its Great Man phase, has ended.
Mr. Gotti, from the moment he was sworn in to the mob in 1988, was not just a gangster but a boldface name. He was Junior, the son of John J. Gotti, the famous Teflon Don. As such, he was newspaper fodder: In the last 10 years alone, his name appeared 604 times in The New York Post.
But those days are over, if only because there aren’t any marquee names on the horizon. Thought experiment: Beyond Mr. Gotti, try to name a single current member of the mob.
“I probably couldn’t name one myself anymore,” said James Walden, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in mob cases. “Junior Gotti took the celebrity gangster role to such an extreme that, from a practical perspective, it reinforced to many mobsters why you shouldn’t be a peacock.”
FBI surveillance photograph of Anthony Casso i...Anthony Casso via Wikipedia

The death of such peacocks, Mr. Walden said, is due in part to the perseverance of law-enforcement agencies like the prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, which, working with techniques and technologies from racketeering statutes to sophisticated listening devices, have seriously culled the ranks of the mob. Culture, too, plays a role: Cooperating witnesses have proliferated as tenets like omerta, the Mafia code of silence, have eroded.
Mostly, though, times — and the interests of the news media, which partly created the Gotti myth — have simply changed. Today’s existential threat is not La Cosa Nostra, but terrorism — or, some might suggest, Goldman Sachs.
This end-of-an-era theme was inherent in Mr. Gotti’s trial itself, which resulted in a hung jury in December after 11 days of pained deliberations over his charges of racketeering and murder conspiracy. Mr. Gotti, looking less like a wiseguy from Queens than a NASA scientist from the Mercury era, confessed, for example, that the Mafia did exist.
He also presented the jury with an emotional defense that rested heavily on his fraught relations with his father. It was, in its sentimental and psychologically revealing way, the perfect culmination of — and conclusion to — the Mafia’s Me Generation.
The mob has been through shifts like this before and, if one had to, one could sketch a timeline of rough historical periods.
It would begin with the immigrant cohort of Charles Luciano (1897-1962) and Carlo Gambino (1902-1976), Italian natives who brought the old ways with them to New York. Joined by American-born counterparts like Carmine Galante (1910-1979) and Paul Castellano (1915-1985), this was “The Godfather” generation: European in their outlook, stoic in their manner and, more or less, unflashy in their dress.
They were supplanted by what might be called the rock ’n’ roll generation whose archetypal member was the elder Mr. Gotti (1940-2002). Men like this — Anthony Casso (also born in 1940), Angelo Ruggiero (1941-1989) and William Cutolo (1949-1999) — were well known for their unruliness and rebellion. They were the “Goodfellas” bracket: gaudy, brutal, dismissive of authority within the organization.
It is no surprise that the generation of the younger Mr. Gotti was the first to have its own TV show (“Growing Up Gotti”). Also no surprise: Its domestic foibles were the bread and butter of “The Sopranos.”
Indeed, Mr. Gotti was on the phone trading recipes with his lawyer, Charles Carnesi, when word arrived on Wednesday that the prosecution was over. “I was home sick,” Mr. Carnesi said. “He was telling me how he makes soup, I was telling him how my mother makes it. Someone buzzed in during the conversation, but I didn’t take the call.”
In recent years, there have been cases of Mafiosi accused of Medicare fraud and crimes related to Internet pornography, suggesting that a Web-savvy 2.0 generation may be on the make. Will they make the crossover from the underworld to the media?
Robert Henoch, another former prosecutor who worked on Mafia cases, does not think so.
“It’s much less glamorous than it was before,” he said. “If you’re sort of ridiculed in the press, as gangsters are these days, as opposed to how Dillinger and the first John Gotti were treated, it’s a little less” — and here he paused — “appealing.”
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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Colombo mobster wants to open a Pizzeria

  January 14, 2010    Dapper_Don

Maybe he really does take the restaurant business seriously.
Colombo crime-family slacker Dominick "Black Dom" Dionisio -- who was accused by his probation officer of socializing instead of working at his Brooklyn pizza-parlor job -- is hoping to open a new restaurant for his boss.
While Dionisio waits for his federal racketeering trial to begin, his lawyer has requested that he be allowed to help his current employer, Lucali's Pizza in Carroll Gardens, open a new eatery.
"Mr. Dionisio's duties at the new location will require him to travel to [Manhattan] for, among other things, his food handler's license and permits for the restaurant," his lawyer, James Froccaro informed the judge. "He will be purchasing décor and equipment for the new restaurant as well."
Froccaro refused to say where the new restaurant will be.
Dionisio is awaiting trial for his role in a 1991 shooting during a Colombo family war, the robbery of a Yeshiva student the same year and conspiracy to rob a Mexican marijuana smuggler.
Dionisio, who helped fund the drug trade at the Limelight and other New York nightclubs in the 1990s, pleaded guilty in 2001 and served an eight-year stint in prison for other racketeering charges

 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/klyn_mobster_gives_judge_food_for_U3LRaZfVH5DFUfHSbxdnBL#ixzz0ccQBsSGy

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Feds say NO FIFTH TRIAL for Junior Gotti!

  January 14, 2010    Dapper_Don

The "Teflon" must be genetic.
Federal prosecutors said late yesterday that they won't retry John "Junior" Gotti on racketeering charges that resulted in four hung juries over the past five years.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said the decision was made in "light of the circumstances," and an order ending Gotti's case was approved by the judge in his latest trial.
Gotti celebrated later at his Oyster Bay, LI, home with his family.
"I feel great -- I feel relieved," he told The Post.
The order doesn't prevent the feds from seeking a new indictment against the Gambino crime-family scion -- who claims he quit the mob in 1999 -- and prosecutors had made a similar announcement after Gotti's third hung jury in 2006.
'JUNIOR' GOTTI
'JUNIOR' GOTTI "I feel great."
But Gotti lawyer Charles Carnesi put the chances of another prosecution at "slim and none.
"To have a fifth trial would be ridiculous and a waste of taxpayer money.
"This is the second time that this [US Attorney's] office has determined that it's not in the interest of justice to have another trial," Carnesi said.
Gotti -- whose notorious mob-boss father, John J. Gotti, was known as the "Teflon Don" until a 1992 conviction sent him to die behind bars -- spent more than a year in the slammer waiting for his latest trial, but was sprung on $2 million bond after the jury deadlocked Dec. 1 after 11 days of deliberations.

 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/gotti_got_us_beat_feds_say_s12wBRisdhuFJmqBTNLJJO#ixzz0ccPyPSxE

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Nicky Scarfo Jr protected by the Lucchese crime family

  January 12, 2010    Dapper_Don


Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. was targeted, but never charged, in a federal racketeering case that resulted in the conviction last week of North Jersey mobster Andrew Merola, one of his best friends and closest underworld allies.
Scarfo, son of jailed Philadelphia-South Jersey mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, was under surveillance and his phones were wiretapped during the investigation, which began about five years ago.
"He was someone we were interested in," said Robert Buccino, chief of detectives for the Union County Prosecutor's Office, which initiated the probe.
Scarfo was not charged when the case was presented to a grand jury, but a sworn affidavit that is part of the case file provides details about how the onetime heir apparent to the Philadelphia crime family was able to operate in North Jersey and, more important, how he managed to reestablish himself in the underworld after he was nearly killed in a botched South Philadelphia mob hit in 1989.
According to the affidavit of a New Jersey State Police organized-crime investigator, Nicodemo Scarfo, from his prison cell in an Atlanta federal penitentiary, was able to take out the equivalent of an underworld life-insurance policy that guaranteed his son would not be targeted again after the failed hit at Dante & Luigi's Restaurant on Halloween night.
The story demonstrates how mob families interact and how underworld alliances are employed, according to law enforcement and underworld sources.
The shooting, one of the most notorious in a series of gangland hits during the Scarfo era, stemmed from a split within the crime family after "Little Nicky" Scarfo and more than a dozen of his associates were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences in 1988.
Weeks before he was shot, the younger Scarfo "learned that there were threats to his life coming from within the family," according to the affidavit submitted by Michael Gregory, an investigator with the state police Organized Crime Control Bureau.
Authorities believe the threats originated with Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, a member of a rival faction of the Philadelphia crime family. Merlino, now serving time for an unrelated racketeering conviction, has long been a suspect but has never been charged in the Dante & Luigi's shooting.
The younger Scarfo was eating dinner in the restaurant with two friends when a man wearing a mask and carrying a trick-or-treat bag walked up to the table, pulled a gun out of the bag, and opened fire.
Scarfo was hit multiple times in the arms and torso but survived. After his release from a Philadelphia hospital, he moved to North Jersey, where he was "put on record as an associate of the Lucchese [crime] family," the affidavit alleges.
That arrangement was set up by "Little Nicky" Scarfo, who had befriended fellow inmate Vic Amuso, a Lucchese crime family boss who was also serving time in Atlanta.
The younger Scarfo's position in the Lucchese organization was solidified several years later, according to the affidavit, when he was "elevated to the role of soldier."
Becoming a "made" member of the Lucchese organization, Gregory noted, "effectively ensured Scarfo Jr.'s protection." Based on underworld protocol, "he was considered 'untouchable' for any additional attempts on his life without the permission of the head of his new family."
The affidavit also notes that while living in North Jersey, Scarfo began associating with Merola, now described as one of the highest-ranking members of the Gambino crime family in North Jersey.
Among other things, Gregory pointed out that Scarfo assumed control of Merola's illegal gambling operations when Merola was jailed for 42 months on a federal extortion conviction in 1998.
While Merola was doing time, Scarfo "made collections and payments in connection with illegal gambling wins and losses and loan-shark debts," Gregory wrote.
The affidavit, submitted in March 2007, pointed out that the investigation focused on that same gambling operation and described Scarfo as Merola's "former partner."
Scarfo, 44, who remains the focus of an unrelated multimillion-dollar financial fraud investigation, was one of several people whose phones were wiretapped during the investigation. He was also spotted meeting with Merola and several other defendants by investigators conducting surveillance.
Merola, 42, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a racketeering-conspiracy charge, admitting he headed a mob crew that Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler said was involved in a "smorgasbord" of crime in New Jersey.
Twenty of the 23 defendants charged in the case have entered guilty pleas.
The crimes listed in the case included gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, labor racketeering, and a series of financial scams that could have been a Sopranos subplot.
Investigators say Merola and his associates manufactured counterfeit bar codes and used them to steal tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise from stores including Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, and Circuit City.
The scam involved copying and counterfeiting the bar codes of lower-priced items, then returning to the stores and putting the phony codes on more expensive items.
The mobsters would then buy the more expensive items at the lower price.
The indictment listed several items taken from a Lowe's store in Paterson, N.J., between October 2006 and April 2007 as examples of the scheme.
Authorities said Merola and his associates kept the more expensive items and sold them for a price closer to their actual value, or, in an even bolder move, removed the fake bar codes and returned the items for store credit or gift cards equal to their actual value.
The examples cited in the indictment included bar codes taken from a Europro vacuum listed at $49.97 used to buy a Dyson vacuum valued at $549.99; a chain saw listed at $44.97 used to buy a chain saw valued at $374; a paint sprayer listed at $58 used to buy a sprayer valued at $624; and a welding machine listed at $58 used to buy a machine valued at $669.
According to sentencing-guideline recommendations, Merola faces 10 to 12 years in prison and could be ordered to pay fines and forfeitures totaling $350,000.
He remains free on $1 million bail pending his sentencing.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/81117712.html

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Mob dad: I don't really think my boy's a rat

  January 12, 2010    Dapper_Don

His son might be a coward, but he's not a rat.
All was forgiven -- almost -- yesterday when poison-pen Colombo soldier Frank "Frankie Camp" Campione stood up for the son he had railed against in a letter last week for going to the feds behind his back.
Although none of Campione's family attended his court hearing, he wanted everyone to know that he stands by his boy.
"The New York Post called him a rat," said the wheelchair-bound gangster just before a Brooklyn federal judge sentenced him to three years for racketeering. "He's not a rat -- that's why he's not here today. He's embarrassed. What's this country becoming?"

In a sprawling, handwritten letter submitted into evidence last week, Campione accused his son, Michael, of going to the feds to prevent him from getting out on bail before his sentencing.
"I thought you knew better than that, you know that I didn't bring you up that way," he wrote his son. "A rat is the worse thing anybody can be."
Campione was arrested in April 2008 in an FBI sweep of 12 Colombo crime family members, including the boss, Thomas Gioeli. Campione is accused of trying to shake down a Long Island Joker Poker parlor.
Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Geddes argued that the letter proved that the 65-year-old Campione was far from turning his life around -- and Judge Brian M. Cogan agreed.

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Too Much Junk Food for Colombo Acting Boss Tommy Shots

  January 12, 2010    Dapper_Don


Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli, the reputed acting boss of the Colombo crime family who is "awaiting trial for five gangland murders," has been buying a lot of junk food at the prison commissary as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News:
Brooklyn federal prosecutors revealed his shopping list after they got sick of dealing with his constant complaints about his health. Gioeli, 57, suffers from diabetes and a serious heart condition that he says are made worse by a prison diet and lousy health care. Or maybe a bad snacking habit. * * * His defense lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, told the Daily News that the food Gioeli buys at the commissary is not meant for his belly. "He purchased many items during the holidays to give to less fortunate inmates on his cell block," Perlmutter said.
Gioeli is charged with the murder of five men:  Frank "Chestnut" Marasa in 1991; John Minerva and Michael Imbergamo 1992; Richard Greaves in 1995, and former Colombo underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo.

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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Mob Busting Hero Betrayed By NYPD

  January 10, 2010    Dapper_Don

Rick Cowan, the NYPD detective who "posed as a recycling company exec named Danny Benedetto in the early 1990s to expose mob influence in the carting industry," has been "stripped of the right to carry a firearm because of a line-of-duty injury" as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News:
"The nature of the Mafia is these people are very vengeful," said Cowan, 52, who retired in December 2008 after 25 years on the force. After suffering serious injuries in an on-duty car accident, Cowan had a shunt put in his head - a device that carries a small risk of complications if he suffers a blow to the head. Department officials are concerned that if Cowan lost consciousness, he would be unable to safeguard his firearm and consigned him to its "no carry" list. Cowan's lawyer said the NYPD medical division appears more concerned with liability issues than the safety of the detective and his family.
Cowan chronicles his mob-busting undercover work in Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire, and in 2002 Publishers Weekly wrote:
In 1992, New York City detective Cowan was investigating a truck bombing at a Brooklyn garbage transfer station when the "mobbed-up" thugs responsible for the crime showed up to further intimidate Sal Benedetto, the facility's owner. Thinking fast, Benedetto introduced Cowan as his "Cousin Danny," thereby averting disaster-and allowing Cowen entry into a landmark investigation in which he went undercover as Danny Benedetto to expose the Mafia's billion-dollar monopoly of the city waste removal business. By the time the grand jury indictments were handed down, Cowan had spent years on the case, helped put away dozens of mobsters and incurred lasting emotional trauma from the strain of leading a double life. Recalling it here in vivid, riveting detail, Cowan (aided by journalist Douglas Century) reconstructs a time when he was deeper undercover in the garbage "cartel" than any city cop had ever been, with the close calls to prove it. Whether he's boosting a wiseguy's car to plant a bug, navigating confrontations with goons wielding two-by-fours and baseball bats or suffering through a Mafia Christmas party with a malfunctioning radio transmitter burning into his leg, Cowan's exploits play on the page like scenes from a well-mounted mob movie. The Hollywood producer with the rights to his story won't have to spend a penny juicing it up: this is a well-told, gripping tale of a heroic investigation.

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Saturday, January 9, 2010

Disgraced South Florida attorney sent to prison

  January 09, 2010    Dapper_Don

A disbarred South Florida attorney was sentenced Friday to 43 months in prison for participating in schemes orchestrated by a local crew of mobsters affiliated with the Bonanno crime family of New York.

Kenneth Dunn admitted that he became entangled with organized crime two years ago, conspiring to forge checks, launder money and sell off documents that contained people’s personal information, including their Social Security numbers.
Dunn, of Boca Raton, told a federal judge that his cocaine habit clouded his judgment, causing him to make “horrible, horrible choices.” His co-defendants made fun of Dunn’s addiction, calling him a “crackhead” in phone conversations that were secretly wiretapped by federal authorities, said Dunn’s attorney, Manuel Gonzalez Jr.
FBI agents arrested Dunn and 10 other people from Broward and Palm Beach counties last May, in part because of the hundreds of hours of secretly taped conversations. An undercover agent playing a corrupt businessman had gained the trust of the crew headed by Thomas Fiore, of Boynton Beach, according to court records.
According to federal authorities, Fiore oversaw a host of crimes, from burning down his boxing gym, Round 1 Fitness Center in Royal Palm Beach, to extorting business owners over the placement of vending machines. Fiore, 47, consulted with the Bonanno crime family, one of the five Mafia families, and paid tribute to it, federal officials said.
Since their arrests, Fiore, Dunn and the nine other co-defendants have each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit racketeering. Dunn is the third to be sentenced, with co-defendants Nicholas Fiore, 50, of Boca Raton, receiving a 27-month term Wednesday and Frank D’Amato, 49, of West Palm Beach, getting 41 months behind bars Friday.
Dunn, 44, had been a licensed attorney in Florida since 1991. Starting in 2001, he represented a series of businesses sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, most notably Starcash, a payday loan business, and its CEO, Jeanne Leclercq. Leclercq, who once ran an Orlando-area brothel, is now serving an eight-year prison sentence for bilking about $8 million from Starcash investors.
Dunn’s law license was suspended for three years in March 2006 after he repeatedly took money from clients but failed to do the work. He was disbarred last July after he was caught attempting to open a trust account in his law firm’s name — Kenneth J. Dunn P.A. — before his suspension was over.
Before Dunn’s sentencing in Fort Lauderdale federal court, he asked for mercy from U.S. District Judge William Zloch, saying his drug addiction contributed to his actions. Dunn faced up to 57 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
Zloch grilled Dunn about why he thought he should get a break because of his drug habit. When weighing what punishment to mete out to Dunn, Zloch observed that “if anyone should know better … it should be a lawyer.”
In addition to the prison time, Dunn must pay $815,493 in restitution, the judge ordered.

Source: The Sun Sentinel http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-attorney-racketeering-20100108,0,463514.story

  

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Friday, January 8, 2010

Colombo Wiseguys take ex-pol LeBoutillier for $18.5G in scheme to rescue American POWs from Vietnam War

  January 08, 2010    Dapper_Don

An alleged errand boy for a jailed Colombo gangster was charged Thursday with scamming an ex-congressman out of $18,500 in a phony scheme to rescue American POWs.
John LeBoutillier, a wealthy blue blood Republican who was elected to Congress in 1980, has been on a personal crusade to locate dozens of U.S. prisoners of the Vietnam War he thinks are held in Belarus.
"If I was scammed, I feel betrayed," LeBoutillier told the Daily News.
LeBoutillier said he sought the help of reputed Colombo capo Frank (Frankie Blue Eyes) Sparaco, who is serving a 24-year sentence for murder and claimed he knew inmates with contacts in Eastern Europe.
Court papers allege that Charles (Charlieboy) Guiga acted as a go-between for Sparaco, retyping and correcting misspelled words in letters to LeBoutillier and collecting money for sham investigative services.
Guiga, 39, a deliveryman for a florist, was arrested at his Brooklyn home yesterday by FBI agents. He was charged with mail fraud and released on $300,000 bond. Sparaco has not been charged.
"The whole idea was to bring American POWs home, so if that's not going to happen, they have been betrayed also," LeBoutillier said.

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Mafia princess Kim Persico goes free in Target shoplifting rap after getting caught on video

  January 08, 2010    Dapper_Don

Mafia princess Kim Persico was caught on video pushing a cart full of hot goods out of Target on Staten Island, authorities said.
Persico, daughter-in-law of Colombo crime boss Carmine (The Snake) Persico, smiled as she was released without bail after appearing in Criminal Court yesterday.
Persico, 47, is charged with stealing $597 worth of cleaning supplies, clothing, health and beauty aids and home decor items.
"She put the items in a shopping cart and walked out of the store without paying," said William Smith, a spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney's office.
Her lawyer, Salvatore Strazzullo, said he expects the charges will be tossed. "Are you kidding me? Why is she going to steal from Target?" he said.
Persico, of Brooklyn, is married to Lawrence Persico, one of three sons of Carmine Persico. The don's son Lawrence has a "long history of severe mental health issues," according to papers filed in a 2003 racketeering case.

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DA nears sting of gambling ring run by Gambino mobsters in Brooklyn, Staten Island

  January 08, 2010    Dapper_Don



Prosecutors are closing in on dozens of Gambino mobsters in Brooklyn and Staten Island running a multimillion-dollar online sports betting ring, the Daily News has learned.
The two-year investigation is focusing on a high-tech operation that used text-messaging, BlackBerrys and other sophisticated devices, and stretched from New York to Aruba to Costa Rica.
Prosecutors used extensive wiretaps and surveillance and issued dozens of search warrants in the last month alone, sources said.
Among the high-ranking Gambino mobsters named are Pietro Inzerillo and Joseph Lanni, who operate the Web site www.touchdownbets.com, law enforcement sources and documents in Brooklyn Supreme Court show.
"These are made guys, major [players] in the Gambino family," a law enforcement source said. Investigators are also looking at www.nysportswager.com and www.bet1010.com.
Prosecutors are seeking nearly $20 million in assets from the reputed mobsters affiliated with all three.
Alfredo (Dark Al) Correa and Gerard Bruzzese control nysportswager.com, the largest of the three sites, the documents show.
Correa's lawyer denied the charges.
"I don't think he's connected to the mob and he denies the allegations," lawyer Joseph Mure said.
The documents are filled with phone recordings and taped conversations of mobsters at coffee shops and restaurants in Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge and Staten Island using betting codes and tough mob-talk.
"I told him make me an offer," Anthony Falco, who operated www.bet1010.com, said to his father, Lewis Falco, about a gambler who apparently owed money.
"Yeah, he wants the big bucks, tell him to go f--- himself," the elder Falco responded.
A shocked Anthony Falco last night denied the accusations.
Bruzzese, on one of the tapes, was caught schooling a young bookmaker on collecting a payment.
"The first rule I got to teach you is that when somebody has money for you, go get it....You're all excited, but that's how they're supposed to pay. I got guys who lose $15,000 and they pay me in full no problem."
The investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office and the NYPD's Organized Crime Investigative Division began in early 2008, court papers show.
No charges have been filed but sources say arrests could come anytime in the next few weeks, apparently timed around the Super Bowl.

  

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Daughter-in-law of Colombo boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico arrested for shoplifting at Target

  January 07, 2010    Dapper_Don

A daughter-in-law of mob boss Carmine (The Snake) Persico was arrested Wednesday, accused of

Carmine PersicoJailed Colombo Godfather Carmine Persico via Wikipedia
shoplifting at a Staten Island Target.
Kim Persico, 47, was charged with criminal possession of stolen property and petty larceny and was awaiting arraignment last night, police said.
Persico, who lives in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, was caught just before noon trying to steal $597 in clothing, cleaning supplies, luggage and other items, police said.
Her lawyer Salvatore Strazzullo refused comment, as did officials at the store.
Carmine Persico, 25 years into a life sentence for murder and racketeering, remains the boss of the Colombo family. Kim Persico is married to Carmine Persico's son Lawrence. Back in 2003, he was described as a Colombo associate when he was charged in a sweeping racketeering case accusing him and 44 others of using mob muscle to take over two locals of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
His dad, however, penned a letter to the federal judge on the case, saying his son wasn't "mentally capable" of the crimes of which he was accused.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/07/2010-01-07_shoplift_rap_for_mob_inlaw.html#ixzz0byoCMdP9

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My son, the rat!

  January 07, 2010    Dapper_Don


Talk about family feuds!
Scorned father and Colombo crime-family soldier Frank "Frankie Camp" Campione, 65, lashed out at his son Michael for ratting him out to the FBI in an angry eight-page letter submitted into evidence yesterday.
"Michael, that is a no-no. You don't call those Rat Bastard's [sic] on nobody. Never mind you own father. What were you thinking?" Campione wrote.
The goodfella is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last year in Brooklyn federal court to trying to shake down a Levittown, LI, joker-poker parlor.
Campione was busted in June 2008 in a sweeping FBI roundup of dozens of organized-crime members, including acting Colombo boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli, 56.
In the letter, Campione rants, "You are my son and you came from my balls and you should have known better. You have totally crushed me beyond repair."
The wounded patriarch pinned the blame on his wife, writing, "A rat is the worse thing that anybody can be as far as I'm concerned, I guess you learned that trait from your mother, but she's a woman and doesn't understand the laws of the land and family tradition."
Writing is apparently the only way the wiseguy can reach his son, because, according to the letter, Michael refuses to take his father's phone calls.
"Keeping the phone off the hook and telling people that the phone's [sic] are broke. What do you think people are fools," Campione wrote.
The mobster became so angry over the phone issue, he got into a fight with a prison guard and was thrown into solitary.
"I became frustrated and angry and got into a beef and threatened some Rat Cop in here and am in the hole right now," he wrote.
Campione also accuses Michael of cutting him off from his grandchildren and selling his car while he's in jail.
"You think that I don't know that you sold my car," he writes. "I knew this since last year. You want to rob from me, your own father, who is in jail and sick and helpless."
The letter was submitted by federal prosecutors to show Campione's lack of remorse and his dedication to the Colombo family.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/my_son_the_rat_Z6RgSQtbjS0AMMithNdhCO#ixzz0cB1aJFKg

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

One of the highest ranking members of the Gambino Family in NJ pleads Guilty

  January 06, 2010    Dapper_Don


Andrew Merola, "a reputed high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family in New Jersey," pleaded guilty yesterday "to federal racketeering conspiracy charges . . . admitting he led a crew that profited from illegal gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, identity theft, fraud and labor racketeering" as reported by Peter J. Sampson for the Record.  He was among the nearly two dozen busted in May 2008 on federal racketeering charges which piggy-backed upon an earlier New Jersey state investigation.  Nineteen other defendants already have pleaded guilty, and "three remaining defendants, including Martin Taccetta, a reputed former underboss of the Lucchese crime family’s New Jersey faction, are awaiting trial."  Joe Ryan reports for The Star Ledger:
He [Andrew Merola] said he ran an overseas sports-betting ring. He corrupted labor unions. He shook down lunch truck guys. And, he said, he directed underlings to swap barcodes on televisions and power tools at Lowe’s, Home Depot and other big-box stores to avoid paying full price.
"'He's one of the highest ranking made members of the Gambino crime family here in New Jersey,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler said after the hearing" as reported by Matt Manochio for the Daily Record.

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Monday, January 4, 2010

City honcho in frigging 'bid rigging'

  January 04, 2010    Dapper_Don

A city official was accused of bid rigging with his mobster father-in-law after they were captured in expletive-filled secret wiretaps allegedly crafting a deal for a crony to provide barriers for the Department of Sanitation, The Post has learned.
Frederick Grimaldi, the Sanitation Department's deputy chief for equipment and facilities, was caught on tape March 31 providing precise bidding instructions to his wife's dad, Michael Murdocco, a reputed Gambino crime-family soldier.
The suspected insider information was for their friend Vincent Alessi, owner of Duramix Concrete Corp., to use on documents that had to be submitted for the tens of thousands of dollars' worth of city work.
'[The air-conditioner guy] is a f - - - ing jerkoff. He’s lucky I don’t break his f - - - ing face — that’s how f - - -ing pissed off I am right now with this.'
—Sanitation official Frederick Grimaldi (right) on an alleged bid-rigging wiretap last April
 
 
"Maybe tell him $205 and $50 [delivery charge per barrier], 2-0-5 plus 50," Grimaldi says to his father-in-law as they haggle over a figure for Alessi and his New Jersey-based company to bid, according to recordings made by the state's Organized Crime Task Force and obtained by The Post.
"Then I need his information," Grimaldi says, "and then I'll take it from then."
Grimaldi, 44, Murdocco, 64, and Alessi, 42, were charged by the state's Organized Crime Task Force along with 18 other members of the Gambino and Luchese crime families and their associates on a range of charges from loan sharking to bookmaking to bribery last month.
James DiPietro, Grimaldi's lawyer, insisted the tapes are "much ado about nothing."
"It's outrageous and sad that Mr. Grimaldi cannot be indicted for the hundreds of things he has done for the people of the city, and honored for it, including by his commissioner," DiPietro said.
Less than a year ago, while authorities were eavesdropping on Murdocco in connection with another case, his son-in-law called about finding a friend to provide concrete barriers for Sanitation facilities.
"Dad, how are you?" Grimaldi began in a seemingly innocent conversation March 30 that quickly turned to allegedly fixing a contract.
"$215 plus $60 per block, delivery, it's very good, so we're looking at $275 for everything, right?" Murdocco says.
"Like, ah, $215 and maybe $50," Grimaldi replies. "Maybe just change it . . . Maybe tell him . . . $205 and $50."
Grimaldi planned to use part of his take to pay off a new home air-conditioning unit.
In one conversation recorded April 16, Grimaldi griped bitterly to his father-in-law that the air-conditioning company was stalling and if it were not installed by summer, his wife -- Murdocco's daughter -- was "gonna be screaming."
"He [the air-conditioner guy] is a f - - - ing jerkoff. He's lucky I don't break his f - - - ing face -- that's how f - - - ing pissed off I am right now with this."

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Fool for love

  January 04, 2010    Dapper_Don

A Staten Island mob moll slit her own throat over the prospect of living without her prison-bound gangster boyfriend, according to her tearful letter to the judge asking for leniency.
"I was overwhelmed with fear of my life without him," Regina Pate wrote of her Oct. 22, 2009, suicide attempt. "I could not get these worrying thoughts out of my head."
Pate's fiancé, Gambino soldier Joseph Sclafani, could face 11 months back in the brig for a parole violation.
Faced with that, she slashed herself with a razor, according to a letter she wrote to Brooklyn federal Judge Allyne R. Ross pleading for an easy sentence for her thug boyfriend.
REGINA PATE Slashed her own throat. 
 
Sclafani, who is expected to be sentenced on Jan. 7, saved her life by wrapping a shirt around her neck to staunch the bleeding and taking her to the hospital.
"She was on the brink of death," said Eric Franz, the mobster's lawyer. "If it weren't for his actions, she wouldn't have survived."
Sclafani was originally sentenced on Dec. 8, 2000, to 97 months after he pleaded guilty to racketeering stemming from his role in a cocaine and marijuana ring.
Pate, who answered the door of Sclafani's parents' Staten Island home last week wearing pink lipstick, looked fully recovered. "I'm feeling better," she said.
 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/staten_island/fool_for_love_4ZJRhZQPe7sWx5CVJYZAhN#ixzz0bePpKmTo

  

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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Met "mob" contracts

  January 03, 2010    Dapper_Don

The Mets shelled out $51.6 million in taxpayer money to contractors shunned by the city for their ties to the Mafia, labor corruption or bribery, The Post has learned.
At least seven contractors the city avoids were hired by the team to build Citi Field between 2006 and 2009, according to government records.
The tainted companies were paid from a $91 million pot the city Economic Development Corp. gave to the Mets.
Among the contractors was Ruttura & Sons, a Long Island firm that received $23 million for concrete and excavation work. Its vice president, Peter Ruttura, was convicted of fraud in 2004 for paying off business agents and labor officials in mobbed-up unions, according to court records.
BASEBALL CAPO: Maybe Mr. Met should be known as Mr. Mob -- it turns out seven contractors, shunned by the city for links to corruption, did Citi Field work.
BASEBALL CAPO: Maybe Mr. Met should be known as Mr. Mob -- it turns out seven contractors, shunned by the city for links to corruption, did Citi Field work.
 
After the conviction, the company was banned from doing business with the EDC and the city School Construction Authority. It was also placed on the city's "caution list," which warns city agencies of contract bidders' past problems, according to city records.
As part of its agreement with the EDC, the Mets had to submit records detailing how it spent the $91 million and to whom it was paid. Those records show at least six other Citi Field contractors on the caution list.
Queens-based S.N. Tannor Inc. was paid $3.5 million for electrical work despite owner Evan Tannor's 2007 felony conviction for giving $350,000 in kickbacks to disgraced labor boss and ex-state Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, according to court records.
Another Queens firm, Eagle One Roofing, was paid $7 million. Its principal, Damian Sabatino, was convicted of fraud in 2001 for bribing a labor official, money laundering, falsifying business records and prevailing-wage violations. Sabatino also pleaded guilty to income-tax evasion in 1996.
Other shady Citi Field contractors included:
* L & L Painting Co., which the FBI is currently investigating over an MTA contract, according to records. It has been suspended from doing business with the school authority. It was paid $5.6 million for stadium work.
* The Landtek Group, an athletic-field contractor that in the last four years has been probed by the city comptroller's office and the New York and New Jersey labor departments. It landed $2.4 million.
* Danco Electrical, which was busted for submitting fraudulent information to the school authority and banned from doing business with that agency until 2010. It earned $4 million.
* Breeze National, a demolition company whose principal was convicted of federal bribery charges in 1988 and reportedly has ties to the mob. It was paid $5.5 million.
The EDC said its standard practice is not to vet past first-tier subcontractors.
The Mets said in a statement that subcontractors were hired on the recommendation of Hunt-Bovis.
"The selections were based on the capability and resources of the contractors and their ability to complete the work on schedule and on budget. Citi Field was built on time, on budget and without incident or injury," the team said.

: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/met_mob_contracts_2OCxUXVFkbrXzkSUFM6HgP#ixzz0bZpY9pQf

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Mrs. Milo Sues Mr. Galante

  January 03, 2010    Dapper_Don

James Galante, the convicted trash czar behind a plot to control the carting industry in Connecticut through a so-called "property rights" scheme which allegedly included the use of mob muscle to quash competitition and inflate rates, has been sued by Kitellen Milo as reported by Edmund H. Mahony for The Hartford Courant.  Ms. Milo is the wife of Thomas Milo who also was convicted for his role in the scheme, and Mahony writes that she "wants millions for what she says are losses she suffered after buying into the garbage business at the heart of the conspiracy":
She accuses Galante of, among other things, squandering profits on no-show jobs for his "personal criminal cohorts." * * * The lawyers and investigators question the suit's premise. The evidentiary record in the criminal prosecution suggests, they say, that Kitellen Milo's ownership interest in Galante's garbage business was simply a front for her husband, a Genovese crime family associate barred by prior criminal conviction from obtaining a garbage industry license in New York. Better still, they point out, among the no-show jobs that Kitellen Milo attacks in the suit, three were created to divert more than $200,000 to her relatives — her daughter, her son-in-law and her brother-in-law, Joseph Milo. Joseph Milo provided some service for his salary. He has admitted being the bagman who delivered quarterly $30,000 payments from the headquarters of Galante's garbage empire in Danbury to Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, one-time acting boss of New York's Genovese crime family. In return, prosecutors say, Ianniello was expected to assist Galante in the resolution of business disputes. * * * Federal prosecutors said that Thomas Milo was Galante's "silent partner." Kitellen Milo, who lived apart from her husband even before he was convicted, was not charged in the criminal case. She claims in her suit that she is Galante's real partner and that she has a contract to prove it. * * * Kitellen Milo is portrayed in her suit as an honest, if naïve, investor in a notorious business. She says that she and Galante signed a contract in 1999 under which he sold her 40 percent of the common stock in the companies making up the garbage business. In return, she transferred the voting rights to Galante.

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Saturday, January 2, 2010

Wake And Funeral For Nick Rizzuto Jr.

  January 02, 2010    Dapper_Don

Following his murder last Monday hundreds of friends and family paid their respects last night at the wake for Nick Rizzuto Jr. who is the son of reputed Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto currently serving a ten year sentence in a U.S. prison on a racketeering conviction involving the 1981 murder of three Bonanno crime family capos as reported by Jason Magder for The Montreal Gazette:
As visitors came and went, they were watched by four police officers in two vans parked across the street. There was a heavy police presence as squad cars were parked in lots interspersed through the mostly industrial neighbourhood.
Video:  Rizzuto Wake
The funeral for Nick Rizzuto Jr. took place at 11:00 this morning at Madonna della Defesa Church in Montreal's Little Italy section as reported by Irwin Block for The Montreal Gazette:
Grandfather Niccolo Rizzuto Jr., the dead man's namesake, was in attendance despite being on probation, wearing his trademark fedora. But there was no sign of Nick Jr.'s father, Vito Rizzuto. * * * In addition to the public, the funeral has attracted the attention of police videographers who are filming every person walking into the church.
Video:  A Brief History Of The Rizzuto Clan:  Part I  Part II Part III

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Friday, January 1, 2010

Bonanno crime boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano gets sweet deal: visits from former wife and mistress

  January 01, 2010    Dapper_Don

The mob has a new don - Don Juan.
Bonanno crime boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano has persuaded the feds to bend the rules and let his ex-wife and his mistress visit him on alternate weeks in jail.
The flamboyant gangster is locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, serving life for racketeering while awaiting a death-penalty trial for a murder.
He's caged 23 hours a day under conditions usually reserved for terrorists because he's suspected of plotting to kill a federal judge and prosecutor.
Normally, only relatives would be allowed to visit him under prison policy.
But as prosecutor John Buretta explained in court Thursday, the warden has agreed to allow Basciano's goumada, Debra Kalb, to visit every other week.
Defense lawyer Richard Jasper wanted to make sure Kalb's visits would not interfere with visits by Basciano's ex-wife, Angela, and their four sons.
"He shouldn't have to choose between relationships of natural family members," Jasper said. "He has a relationship with his former wife as well."
Buretta explained that the government wasn't trying to limit either woman's time with Basciano.
But he said every no-contact visit - Basciano and his visitor are separated by a mesh screen - must be monitored by an FBI agent.
"It's just a question of manpower," Buretta said.
Angela Basciano got an uncontested divorce in Bronx Supreme Court one month after her hubby was convicted of racketeering and murder in 2006.
But they're still in touch - just like Kalb and the 10-year-old love child she had with Basciano.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis - targeted on an alleged hit list seized at the jail - was asked if Basciano could have another break.
"Can he have a contact visit so he can give his son a new year's hug? It's a human request," Jasper said.
Garaufis said the marshals are in charge of security and he would not tell them what to do but would ask.
"I certainly, as a parent, sympathize with the request," he said.
The marshals nixed the hug.
Outside her Rockland County home, Kalb declined to talk about her quality time with Vinny Gorgeous.
"I've got no idea what happened in court. I've got nothing to do with that," she snapped.

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