Philadelphia Mafia Takedown Recap

On Monday, a superseding federal grand jury indictment was announced charging 13 members and associates of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra (LCN) family with racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, illegal gambling, and witness tampering.

Eleven of the 13—including the reputed boss and underboss of the criminal enterprise—were arrested earlier that day in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Two of the subjects were already serving time in federal prison for previous convictions but managed to continue their racketeering activities from behind bars.

Alleged mob boss Joseph Ligambi rose through the ranks of the Philadelphia LCN crime family and took over at the helm after the 2001 incarceration of previous boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino on racketeering charges.

The indictment alleges that for more than a decade, Ligambi, underboss Joseph Massimino, and the others conspired to generate money through various crimes. For example, they reportedly operated illegal gambling businesses involving sports bookmaking and electronic gambling devices in places like bars, restaurants, convenience stories, and coffee shops…and pocketed the proceeds. Mafia families like the one in Philadelphia often make millions of dollars and traditionally use gambling proceeds as seed money for other crimes.

The defendants also offered “loans”—at exorbitant interest rates—to victims who knew there would be dire consequences if they failed to repay them within a certain time frame.

To carry out their crimes, the defendants often used actual or implied threats of violence against their victims. According to the indictment, some of the defendants used phrases like, “I’ll put a bullet in your head,” and, “Chop him up,” to threaten victims who weren’t repaying their loans. The defendants used their reputation for violence to intimidate and prevent victims and witnesses from cooperating with law enforcement.

The defendants also actively worked to conceal their illegal operations from law enforcement. For example, they used coded language over the phone, such as calling the electronic gambling devices “coffee machines.” They often took “walk and talks” where they would conduct covert conversations with each other while walking to and from a particular destination because they thought they couldn’t be intercepted. They also established companies that appeared to be legitimate but were actually created to launder money and conceal the illegal nature of their activities.

To collect the evidence needed for these indictments, this long-term investigation included undercover scenarios, court-authorized electronic surveillances, consensual recordings, and many hours of physical surveillance.

This particular case was a good example of law enforcement cooperation at its best—the Philadelphia Police Department, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey State Police, the Criminal Division of the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Labor all worked alongside the Philadelphia FBI, with additional assistance from the New Jersey Department of Corrections and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.  Prosecutors from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section are assisting the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as well.

This arrest of the reputed leadership of the Philadelphia LCN comes on the heels of the large mafia takedown in New York  earlier this year. And law enforcement efforts against the LCN, as well as other types of organized crime—international and domestic—will continue unabated.

Steve Wynn Shares Casino Owner's Handbook on Organized Crime

Gambling mogul Steve Wynn had fun with a question at a press conference Tuesday about allegations of organized crime in Macau, the world’s largest casino market.

“I know one thing–organized crime is illegal…And one should avoid participating in organized crime,” he said. “That’s the first page of the casino owner’s handbook…actually I didn’t go any further in the book. That’s where I left it right there,” he joked.

Turning more serious, he said Wynn Resorts Ltd. has an “extensive internal investigation process” to ensure it remains compliant with regulations in the U.S. and China. “We have former FBI agents and policemen from Hong Kong and China–a whole staff of people to check things up and have access to intelligence and things that us normal people wouldn’t necessarily know about.”

Mr. Wynn, Wynn Resorts’ chief executive, said the company and its Hong Kong-listed Wynn Macau Ltd. unit vet business partners including junket operators, the middlemen who recruit mostly mainland Chinese gamblers, lend them money and collect debts.

“All of this we did out of sheer common sense and understanding the business we’re in,” said Mr. Wynn following the annual general meeting for Wynn Macau. Mr. Wynn said that his compliance committee doesn’t report to him, but to Wynn Resorts board member and former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller.

Investigations into the casino industry have been on investors’ minds recently. A U.S. government probe of rival casino operator Las Vegas Sands for possible lack of compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has some investors and industry watchers concerned there could be a sector-wide probe on the way. (Las Vegas Sands has said it is cooperating with investigators and has denied allegations in a separate lawsuit the company believes sparked the investigation.) Last year, another Macau casino player, MGM Resorts International, sold its stake in a New Jersey casino after regulators there found the operator’s Macau partnership with a daughter of tycoon Stanley Ho troubling because of his alleged ties to organized crime. Mr. Ho and his family denied any such ties.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Saturday, Mr. Wynn said his company didn’t face any regulatory risk despite the increased scrutiny of some in the industry.

“We’ve never been investigated by anyone and have no risk of any kind whatsoever,” he said.

Thanks to Kate O'Keefe

Crime Beat Radio Show Releases Upcoming Program Schedule

Crime Beat: Issues, Controversies and Personalities from the Darkside has been programming since January 28 of this year and is currently averaging 60,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing.

Crime Beat is now pleased to announce its forthcoming schedule:

• May 26: Eric Forchion (AKA NJWeedman)
• Forchion,activist and Rastafarian, will discuss his historic legal brief in New Jersey's Burlington County Superior Court, his upcoming criminal trial and his long-running battle to make marijuana legal and to change the drug laws in the U.S. 
• June 2: Andrew DiDonato (Command Performance)
• DiDonato will reveal how he survived the Mob and led a street soldier’s life in the Gambino crime family
• June 9: Anthony DeStafano
• The crime author will discuss his just released book,Mob Killer: The Bloody Rampage of Charles Carneglia, Mafia Hit Man
• June 16: John Pappas,  Executive Director, Poker Player’s Alliance
• Pappas will discuss issues relating to Internet gambling
• June 23: Nathaniel Vinton and the co-authors from the New York Daily News will discuss their book, American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime
• June 30: The Serial killer
• Dan Zupansky, author of Trophy Kill: the Shall We Dance Murder, and Scott Bonn, serial killer expert and professor at Rutgers University, will discuss Zupansky’s book and the mind of the serial killer.
• July 7: David Albright
• Albright will discuss his latest book Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies

Vinny Gorgeous Begs Jury for Mercy

After a blood-soaked career as a New York mafia boss, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano found himself begging a jury Tuesday for something he rarely gave himself: mercy.

Jurors in Brooklyn federal court began hearing arguments on whether the convicted murderer and former boss of the Italian-American Bonanno crime family should be executed or spend the rest of his life in a top security prison.

A lawyer for Basciano, a 51-year-old famous for his sharp suits and swept-back, immaculate hair, made an emotional appeal, telling the jury to let his client die "in God's time and not man's."In several years' time, defense attorney Richard Jasper said in a dramatic whisper, jurors would be asked by their children how they acted "and you will be able to tell them: 'I chose life.'"Basciano was convicted last week for ordering the murder of a fellow wiseguy, Randolph Pizzolo. Unlike in usual cases where the judge sets the sentence, the jury in a capital case also has sentencing power.

Prosecutor Jack Dennehy described "the murderous rise to power" that took Basciano to the top of the Bonannos, one of New York's traditional five Cosa Nostra crime syndicates.

He said Basciano was involved in several mafia killings, both as trigger puller and the man who gave the orders -- "a man who wants to decide who lives and who dies."If Basciano were sent to prison, even without parole, he would continue to pull the strings, Dennehy argued. "He will not leave the Bonanno crime family behind in prison."Basciano's life and trial could be taken from the script of a brutal Hollywood mafia movie. A striking-looking man, he spent three decades thriving in the snake-pit of the Big Apple underworld.In court, he has fought equally hard to justify his infamous "Vinny Gorgeous" nickname. He complained several times at the outset about his poor access to clothes and he even borrowed the judge's tie so that he could look smart before jurors came in.

On Tuesday, the cool killer wore an olive green suit with a tie in forest colors and a white shirt. His silver-black hair was combed perfectly backward.With years of experience in the justice system, Basciano takes active part in his defense. He entered court carrying a box of documents and spent his time taking notes -- passing some along to his lawyers -- and shaking his head when Dennehy said he'd gone as far as plotting to murder women.

Dennehy said the fallen mob boss "poses a future danger to others" and had "earned the ultimate punishment, the punishment of death." But Jasper, his voice ranging from a near shout to intimate whispers, sought to tug jurors' consciences. For a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous. If not, Basciano will go to prison.

Jasper urged jurors against thinking that life in prison was a soft option. Basciano, he said, would be sent to the Supermax facility in a remote part of Colorado, a place "feared" by the hardest of the hard.There would be no second chance for Basciano, he said. "Vinny Basciano will come out of prison in a box."The dapper don act will be over too."No suits, no shirts, no ties, no 'Vinny Gorgeous,'" Jasper said. "The rest of his life in prison."

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Reputed Philly Mob Boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi Along with Alleged Underboss Joseph "Mousei" Massimino Among 12 Arrested

The reputed boss of the Philadelphia mob, his alleged lieutenant and 11 others were hit with federal racketeering and gambling charges in an indictment unsealed Monday that federal authorities said shows that violent organized crime remains a real-life menace.

Alleged mob leader Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, reputed underboss Joseph "Mousie" Massimino and the others ran illegal gambling operations and engaged in loan sharking, according to the 70-page indictment that described a "Godfather"-like world in which reputed mobsters used threats to kill or harm people to recoup business debts.

Eleven people, including Ligambi, were arrested Monday. The other two defendants were already in federal custody.

Ligambi, 72, pleaded not guilty during an initial appearance. His attorney, Joseph Santaguida, said the case against his client isn't strong and that he should be granted bail at a hearing later this week.

Massimino, 61, said in court that he didn't yet have an attorney. He has a bail hearing scheduled for Thursday. A judge also scheduled bail hearings for many of the other defendants this week.

The arrests were the largest action taken against Philadelphia's crime family in a decade.
"They used violence and the threat of violence to exert control over others," Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said at a news conference, noting that organized crime in Philadelphia had shown "a remarkable ability to reorganize and reinvent itself."

Ligambi, Massimino and the others provided video poker machines and other illegal gambling devices to bars, restaurants and convenience stores in and around Philadelphia, prosecutors said.

Ligambi, Massimino and another defendant tried to make the business appear legitimate to hide the money from the federal government, prosecutors said. Ligambi, Massimino and other defendants also "approved, supervised, and otherwise participated in extortions" to generate income for the enterprise and its members, the indictment said.

In one instance, between about 2002 and 2006, Massimino and another defendant extorted a bookmaker by demanding that the bookmaker provide "yearly tribute payments" to the Philadelphia La Casa Nostra in order to "avoid personal harm" and the disruption of business, the indictment said.

The indictment is also riddled with allegations of defendants threatening to kill or harm people who haven't paid their debts, including alleged threats to "put a bullet in your head" and to "chop him up." Massimino allegedly told one victim that he wouldn't "be able to hide anywhere in the U.S.," prosecutors allege.

"The defendants also used express and implied threats of physical violence and economic harm to instill fear in their victims and to preserve and sustain the enterprise," the indictment said.
U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said the arrests should serve as a warning that law enforcement hasn't forgotten about the Mafia.

"Today, we make clear that such activity will not be tolerated by my office and that La Cosa Nostra remains a priority for the Department of Justice," Memeger said.

Ligambi took over the Philadelphia mob after former boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino was convicted of racketeering in 2001, according to investigators. Merlino was later acquitted of a murder charge in 2004.

Ligambi was convicted in the 1985 gangland slaying of Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso and spent 10 years in prison before he was acquitted on retrial in 1997.

Merlino is currently serving a six-month term at a Florida halfway house after being released from federal prison in March.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Extradition of Genovese Family Soldier from Italy to Face Racketeering Charges for His Alleged Role in Two Murders and Other Crimes

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that EMILIO FUSCO was extradited from Italy to face racketeering and other charges in connection with his role as a made member of the Genovese organized crime family. FUSCO arrived in New York , and was arraigned in Manhattan federal court.

FUSCO was charged, along with co-defendants FELIX TRANGHESE, TY GEAS, FOTIOS GEAS, and ARTHUR NIGRO, in a superseding indictment (the “indictment”) unsealed in July 2010. TRANGHESE pled guilty in January 2011, and NIGRO, FOTIOS GEAS, and TY GEAS were convicted by a jury on April 1, 2011, of racketeering charges, multiple murder charges, and multiple extortion charges.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: “Emilio Fusco will finally face the justice he deserves—something that he never afforded his alleged victims.”

According to the indictment and testimony and evidence presented at the trial of FUSCO’s co-defendants:

FUSCO was a made member of the Genovese organized crime family, in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 2003, prior to being sentenced for an earlier racketeering conviction, FUSCO obtained a court document showing that Genovese family capo Adolfo Bruno had spoken with an FBI agent about FUSCO’s status in the Genovese family. Thereafter, Arthur Nigro, who was then an acting boss of the Genovese family, gave the order to murder Bruno. FUSCO and others conspired to carry out the murder, and Bruno was killed on November 23, 2003.

Less than three weeks before Bruno’s murder, FUSCO, along with another Genovese family soldier and two associates, murdered an individual named Gary Westerman to maintain and increase their position in the Genovese organized crime family and to prevent Westerman from providing information to law enforcement about crimes committed by members and associates of the Genovese organized crime family.

FUSCO is charged with one count each of racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, conspiring to commit extortion, extortion, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence on each racketeering count of life in prison, a maximum sentence on each extortion count of 20 years in prison, and a maximum sentence on the interstate travel count of five years in prison.

A conference in the case is scheduled before U.S. District Judge P. KEVIN CASTEL on June 17, 2011, at 12:00 p.m.

Sentencing for NIGRO, FOTIOS GEAS, and TY GEAS is scheduled for July 15, 2011, at 11:15 a.m. TRANGHESE is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15, 2011, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. BHARARA praised the efforts of the FBI’s New York Field Office, the FBI’s Springfield, Massachusetts, Resident Agency, and the Massachusetts State Police for their outstanding work in the ongoing investigation. He also thanked the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and the United States Marshals Service for their involvement in the extradition process.

This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys MARK LANPHER, ELIE HONIG, and DANIEL GOLDMAN are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The FBI's Behavioral Interview Program - Attempting to Understand Violent Offenders

The inmate’s wrist and leg shackles were removed and he was led into a small conference room to meet two special agents from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). The agents were there to conduct an interview into every aspect of the inmate’s life—from his earliest childhood experiences to the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of a preteen girl that sent him to prison for life without the possibility of parole.

Such interviews are part of an ongoing BAU program to understand the minds of violent offenders. The offender interview program is in keeping with BAU’s overall mission to provide behavioral-based support to federal, state, local, and international law enforcement agencies investigating time-sensitive crimes such as kidnappings and other violent offenses.

“We are never going to get the full and complete truth from offenders,” said one of the agents who conducted the interview. “But we gather all the information, the truth and the lies, and we learn from both.”

The insights from these consensual interviews are used for research and training, and they also have the potential to help investigators in the field. “The next time BAU responds to a child kidnapping case and a young person’s life is at stake,” the agent explained, “we can say, ‘we sat across from a guy who did something similar, and here’s what he told us.’ ”

Behavioral analysts have been popularized in television and movies as expert “profilers,” capable of comprehending and even anticipating the thoughts and actions of the worst criminal minds. In real life, the expertise acquired by BAU personnel takes years of training and investigative experience. Offender interviews are an invaluable part of that process.

“These are not investigative interviews to collect evidence or to determine guilt or innocence,” said one of the agents. “We already know the ‘how’ of the crime. Now we want to know ‘why.’ ”

Sitting in the small conference room across from the 31-year-old offender, the agents explained the ground rules. “There will be no tricks and no games,” they said. “We are going to talk about your life, including the murder. We want to know how you think about things and how you see things.”

There is nothing confrontational about the videotaped interview, which lasted for six hours. The offender—who consented to the meeting as part of a plea agreement to avoid the death penalty—talked openly, but perhaps not always truthfully.


“What they choose to share and disclose and what they choose not to disclose can be very revealing,” one of the agents said. “Sometimes it is difficult for them to face what they have done and to speak about it out loud.”

“From a behavioral standpoint,” the other agent said later, “we got a lot out of the interview.” Videotaped segments will be used by BAU staff when they train researchers, social workers, medical staff, and law enforcement personnel around the country about offenders who commit violent crimes against children.

“When you can illustrate a point by showing a video clip of the offender in his own words,” the agent said, “it is a very compelling teaching tool.”