When is credit-card theft a good thing? When the culprits might otherwise be killing you.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says national gangs like the Bloods and Crips are becoming more sophisticated, turning to white-collar financial crime and cyber attacks that threaten Corporate America and, well, everyone.
The evolving criminal schemes, which include mortgage fraud, counterfeiting, bank and credit card fraud and identity theft, are attractive because they are much less risky than traditional gang-related crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and robbery, and have the potential to yield much greater profits, according to a new national gang threat assessment from the FBI.
“In sort of a macro-sense, if they are hacking into people’s computers rather than killing them in cold blood, that’s a good thing, in some respects,” said Jonathan Armstrong, a partner at Duane Morris who practices Internet law. However, these gangs, which also include the Latin Kings, Aryan Brotherhood and Texas Syndicate, are growing in size, with membership up 30% to 1.4 million compared with 2009, and the FBI says they are becoming more dangerous.
“Gangs are more adaptable, organized, sophisticated, and opportunistic, exploiting new and advanced technology as a means to recruit, communicate discretely, target their rivals, and perpetuate their criminal activity,” the FBI said.
This heightened threat among U.S. gangs brings to light the increased volume of financial crimes and hacking seen across all industries over the last few years, which have already cost corporations, retailers and innocent people billions of dollars. “It’s an issue and I think it’s one that’s definitely accelerating,” Armstrong said. “I think we ought to be worried.”
Financial crime has picked up significantly over the last few years amid financial turmoil and technological advances. Ponzi and other high-yield investment fraud schemes surged when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged from a high of 14,164 in October 2007 to 6,547 in March 2009, the FBI said in its 2009 Financial Crimes Report.
While authorities have cracked down, the development of new schemes, such as securities market manipulation via cyber intrusion, has put fraud on the rise, the FBI said. From 2004 through 2009, fraud investigations increased by 33%, bringing losses associated with those schemes into the billions of dollars.
Of course, U.S. street gangs aren’t at the crux of financial crime in the U.S. just yet, which is typically led by professionals and swindlers within the banking system or high-tech cyber hackers. However, the gangs’ sophistication offers yet another impediment to authorities trying to suffocate white-collar crime and a sign these groups may continue to evolve into high-yielding complex schemes, forming much more lucrative enterprises.
Gangs such as the Bloods, Crips and La Nuestra Familia that are undertaking white-collar crime are recruiting members that possess the necessary high-tech skill sets, according to the FBI.
Some that run these criminal gangs could run corporations,” Armstrong said. “They push out less profitable businesses and build up the more profitable (ones), just as a corporation would.”
The FBI says gang members are exploiting vulnerabilities in the banking and mortgage industries for profit. They are turning to counterfeit and identity theft, using methods such as skimming to steal account numbers from ATMs or retail card readers.
Mortgage fraud is also on the rise, and gangs, such as the Gangster Disciples, are purchasing properties with the intent to receive seller assistance loans, only to retain proceeds from the loans or co mingle illicit funds through mortgage payments.
In April 2009, members of the Bloods in San Diego were charged with mortgage fraud, and in August 2010, members of the Black Guerilla Family in Maryland used pre-paid retail debit cards as virtual currency inside Maryland to buy drugs and further the gangs’ interests, according to the FBI.
“Wall Street has a brilliant system for pushing money around the world. So does organized crime,” Armstrong said, liking the underground profit-driving activities to an “underworld banking system.”
Earlier this month, authorities in New York arrested more than 100 service-sector employees in the city and dismantled five separate criminal enterprises operating out of Queens in a multi-million dollar counterfeiting scheme. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had said that while those crimes weren't holdups at gunpoint, the impact on victims was just as bad.
Robert Rebhan, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who later directed a credit card fraud prevention program for American Express (AXP: 52.10, +0.29, +0.56%), notes that those are the kind of stunts, which are less risky and more profitable than traditional street crimes, that gangs are likely pursuing.
“If I have dirty money from a drug steal I need the underwater market to clean it up, so I might only get 20% return,” Armstrong said. “But if I can make it credit card fraud, then I can probably get better than a 20% return rate, particularly if I can use the compromised credit card to buy real goods and turn over those goods on an auction site.”
Cyber criminals typically steal a smaller amount of money from a large number of victims. Since, credit card companies and banks aren’t reporting minor counterfeiting cases to the Federal Trade Commission, it becomes the responsibility of victims.
Rebhan, who is a financial crimes expert, says 95% of those are never reported – making web-based fraud tougher to identity. “It’s not a critical step in recovering your identity - it’s a pain,” he said. “So when you hear crime is down – don’t believe that’s true of financial crimes.”
U.S street gangs are likely a ways off from operating botnets and siphoning massive funds from corporations, Rebhan said, noting the FBI is probably using “cyber crime” in a broader sense. However, criminal groups are becoming increasingly savvy and embracing advanced technology to enhance operations, according to the FBI.
Gangs are using social networking like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to recruit new members and communicate globally and more discreetly without the proximity once needed for communication. “The proliferation of social networking websites has made gang activity more prevalent and lethal—moving gangs from the streets into cyber space,” the FBI said.
Many also use the Internet to carry out crimes such as computer hacking, cyber attacks and phishing schemes, which are used to illegally acquire personal information such as usernames, passwords and credit card information. But besides the attractive profits, gangs are also finding the web more enticing because of the less-stringent punishment faced by cyber criminals, at least compared with robbery and murder. Where a robbery can lead to a seven-year sentence, counterfeiting or identity fraud using the web could lead to just a few months of jail time, Rebhan said.
Of course, there are some exceptions, including Tien Truong Nguyen, who was sentenced last year to more than 12 years in prison for his role in a phishing scam that impacted more than 38,000 victims, and Albert Gonzalez, who was sentenced to 20 years for the Heartland Payment Systems (HPY: 21.62, +0.37, +1.74%) data breach. But for the most part, catching and punishing cyber criminals takes a certain skill set that many in law enforcement and judiciaries just don’t have yet, the experts say. Because of that, white-collar crime is slated to grow among street gangs.
“There’s no formal education given to the judiciary on cyber crimes – the jury is perplexed by these crimes and the judge is also – (they) don’t have a clue of bytes, bits or how malware is written,” Rebhan said.
Thanks to Jennifer Booton
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero
A new portrait of John F. Kennedy based on interviews with those who knew him best, by Chris Matthews, bestselling Kennedy expert and host of Hardball.
By following the journey of Jack Kennedy’s life from his school days to the White House, through war and illness and his greatest triumphs, Chris Matthews brings us much closer to the man Jack Kennedy really was.
We know so much about President John F. Kennedy, yet even his wife Jacqueline described him as “that elusive man.” To MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, Kennedy has long been both an avatar and a puzzle, a beacon and a conundrum. “Whenever I spot the name in print, I stop to read. Anytime I’ve ever met a person who knew him—someone who was there with JFK in real time—I crave hearing their first-person narrative.”
For years, Matthews has been collecting those stories. In Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, the bestselling author and Kennedy expert has woven those firsthand encounters with JFK into a great American Bildungsroman, telling the tale of how Kennedy grew from a child of privilege into a war hero and finally President of the United States, all the while coping with a life-threatening disease.
“In searching for Jack Kennedy my own way,” Matthews writes, “I found a fighting prince never free from pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father’s son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know.”
By following the journey of Jack Kennedy’s life from his school days to the White House, through war and illness and his greatest triumphs, Chris Matthews brings us much closer to the man Jack Kennedy really was.
We know so much about President John F. Kennedy, yet even his wife Jacqueline described him as “that elusive man.” To MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, Kennedy has long been both an avatar and a puzzle, a beacon and a conundrum. “Whenever I spot the name in print, I stop to read. Anytime I’ve ever met a person who knew him—someone who was there with JFK in real time—I crave hearing their first-person narrative.”
For years, Matthews has been collecting those stories. In Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, the bestselling author and Kennedy expert has woven those firsthand encounters with JFK into a great American Bildungsroman, telling the tale of how Kennedy grew from a child of privilege into a war hero and finally President of the United States, all the while coping with a life-threatening disease.
“In searching for Jack Kennedy my own way,” Matthews writes, “I found a fighting prince never free from pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father’s son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know.”
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Mark Polchan Sentenced to 60 Years in Prison
Mark Polchan — a high-ranking member of the Outlaws motorcycle club who was also the righthand man to a Chicago mob boss — was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison for helping run a group of criminals who robbed jewelry stores and bombed a business in Berwyn.
Polchan, 43, looked at one of his attorneys, his eyes wide, after U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman handed down the prison sentence. “Every dollar he made had a victim,” Guzman said of Polchan, who ran a pawn shop in Cicero that the judge said was “the epicenter” of the organized criminal enterprise.
Polchan was a career criminal who treated his family well but was in the business of “terrorizing the rest of us,” the judge said.
Polchan oversaw a group of men who robbed jewelry stores and also arranged for the bombing of a Berwyn storefront that was competing with a video-poker business run by reputed Cicero mob boss Michael Sarno, who is to be sentenced next month.
Polchan’s attorneys argued that he wasn’t a leader of the organization and that much of the testimony against him at trial was from unreliable informants — arguments the judge rejected.
Polchan declined to make a statement. “Your honor, I was gonna say some things, but I’m kind of overwhelmed by some of the things I heard,” Polchan said, after a description of his wrongdoing by federal prosecutor Amarjeet S. Bhachu. “I can’t do it.”
In handing down the sentence, Guzman said, “the public needs to be protected from Mr. Polchan and the idea that organized criminal activity might be worth something, might be worth doing.” The case was investigated by the ATF, the FBI and the IRS.
Polchan will likely spend more time in prison than his boss, Sarno, given the way the men were charged. When Sarno is sentenced Nov. 18, he can face a maximum prison sentence of 25 years, much less than Polchan.
Polchan was charged first in the case, and by the time the federal investigation was wrapped up against Sarno, the statute of limitations for the Berwyn bombing had expired, so Sarno couldn’t be charged with that crime. Polchan’s conviction on the bombing charge alone guaranteed him a minimum prison sentence of 30 years, a fate Sarno will not face.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Polchan, 43, looked at one of his attorneys, his eyes wide, after U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman handed down the prison sentence. “Every dollar he made had a victim,” Guzman said of Polchan, who ran a pawn shop in Cicero that the judge said was “the epicenter” of the organized criminal enterprise.
Polchan was a career criminal who treated his family well but was in the business of “terrorizing the rest of us,” the judge said.
Polchan oversaw a group of men who robbed jewelry stores and also arranged for the bombing of a Berwyn storefront that was competing with a video-poker business run by reputed Cicero mob boss Michael Sarno, who is to be sentenced next month.
Polchan’s attorneys argued that he wasn’t a leader of the organization and that much of the testimony against him at trial was from unreliable informants — arguments the judge rejected.
Polchan declined to make a statement. “Your honor, I was gonna say some things, but I’m kind of overwhelmed by some of the things I heard,” Polchan said, after a description of his wrongdoing by federal prosecutor Amarjeet S. Bhachu. “I can’t do it.”
In handing down the sentence, Guzman said, “the public needs to be protected from Mr. Polchan and the idea that organized criminal activity might be worth something, might be worth doing.” The case was investigated by the ATF, the FBI and the IRS.
Polchan will likely spend more time in prison than his boss, Sarno, given the way the men were charged. When Sarno is sentenced Nov. 18, he can face a maximum prison sentence of 25 years, much less than Polchan.
Polchan was charged first in the case, and by the time the federal investigation was wrapped up against Sarno, the statute of limitations for the Berwyn bombing had expired, so Sarno couldn’t be charged with that crime. Polchan’s conviction on the bombing charge alone guaranteed him a minimum prison sentence of 30 years, a fate Sarno will not face.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Rudy "The Chin" Fratto Pleads Guilty
“The Chin” has migraines.
It’s no wonder why Rudolph “Rudy The Chin” Fratto, 67, a reputed Chicago mobster, takes medicine for the crippling headaches.
Just a few months after he was released from prison for tax evasion, he pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Chicago to another crime — mail fraud for taking part in a scheme to rig bids for forklift contracts for trade shows at McCormick Place.
Fratto won one contract but couldn’t produce any forklifts, so the scheme made no money.
Still, Fratto is likely going to be sentenced to prison, from 18 to 24 months in February.
Despite all this stress, Fratto has been migraine-free recently, he told a federal judge Thursday afternoon. “But you haven’t had a migraine in the last few days?” U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber asked. “No, remarkably,” Fratto said.
In January 2005, Fratto met a consultant to a general contractor who set up trade shows at McCormick Place. The consultant was in debt to a Chicago attorney and mobsters in Cleveland after they invested in the consultant’s business, which failed.
Fratto offered to help the consultant with the debt but also wanted inside information on the forklift bids. Fratto was unaware that the consultant was already cooperating with the FBI and secretly recording conversations with him and others.
As it became clear to Fratto in 2008 that the feds were investigating him over bid rigging, he expressed confidence that he wouldn’t get caught, as long as everyone kept their mouths shut. Fratto worried out loud that the FBI could be bugging his phone but mentioned he was using payphones. He told the consultant to take the 5th Amendment if he was questioned before a federal grand jury.
“The only thing they could say is that we rigged the bid,” Fratto predicted. “How they gonna prove that?”
Outside court Thursday, the usually chatty Fratto, who once referred to himself as a “reputed good guy,” had no comment.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
It’s no wonder why Rudolph “Rudy The Chin” Fratto, 67, a reputed Chicago mobster, takes medicine for the crippling headaches.
Just a few months after he was released from prison for tax evasion, he pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Chicago to another crime — mail fraud for taking part in a scheme to rig bids for forklift contracts for trade shows at McCormick Place.
Fratto won one contract but couldn’t produce any forklifts, so the scheme made no money.
Still, Fratto is likely going to be sentenced to prison, from 18 to 24 months in February.
Despite all this stress, Fratto has been migraine-free recently, he told a federal judge Thursday afternoon. “But you haven’t had a migraine in the last few days?” U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber asked. “No, remarkably,” Fratto said.
In January 2005, Fratto met a consultant to a general contractor who set up trade shows at McCormick Place. The consultant was in debt to a Chicago attorney and mobsters in Cleveland after they invested in the consultant’s business, which failed.
Fratto offered to help the consultant with the debt but also wanted inside information on the forklift bids. Fratto was unaware that the consultant was already cooperating with the FBI and secretly recording conversations with him and others.
As it became clear to Fratto in 2008 that the feds were investigating him over bid rigging, he expressed confidence that he wouldn’t get caught, as long as everyone kept their mouths shut. Fratto worried out loud that the FBI could be bugging his phone but mentioned he was using payphones. He told the consultant to take the 5th Amendment if he was questioned before a federal grand jury.
“The only thing they could say is that we rigged the bid,” Fratto predicted. “How they gonna prove that?”
Outside court Thursday, the usually chatty Fratto, who once referred to himself as a “reputed good guy,” had no comment.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
ABC7 Chicago Investigative Report to Be Used by Feds in Michael Sarno Sentencing
Federal prosecutors are preparing to throw the book at Chicago mob boss Michael Sarno, using a page from an I-Team story.
In this Intelligence Report: Why the government's argument for a maximum sentence relies on something reported on ABC7.
Heading into Friday's sentencing, we have two very different portraits of Mike Sarno. He is either a good, family man and helpful member of the community, as his lawyers would have you believe, or he is a heavyweight mob boss with a ruthless management style as the government describes him.
Monday, U.S. prosecutors submitted to the court a 2003 I-Team report to support their argument that Sarno be sentenced to the longest possible term in prison.
ABC7's broadcast in June 2003 focused on a restructuring of the Chicago mob ordered by imprisoned outfit leader James Marcello. "Little Jimmy," as he is still known, was doing time for racketeering, gambling violations and extortion, and still running the outfit's business from the barbed-wire Hilton.
Included in the June 3, 2003, I-Team report was this information about who had been tapped to oversee the Chicago outfit: "This mob heavyweight, 350-pound Michael 'Fat Boy' Sarno, whom Marcello has just installed, according to U.S. law enforcement source."
Nine days later, 250 miles away, behind the walls of a penitentiary in Michigan, James Marcello and his brother Mickey discussed the I-Team's report.
JAMES MARCELLO: "How did they get a copy of the indictment? The motion?"
In recently released undercover FBI Marcello quizzes his brother on how the I-Team got its information.
MICHAEL MARCELLO: "Yea and ah, put together a new crew with the Trucker..."
A hand sign for a sizable waistline, according to prosecutors, is meant to indicate Michael Sarno, whose girth precedes him. Authorities say the gist of the jailhouse chatter: Sarno is connected to the top guy.
Based on his organized crime stature, this Friday, the government will ask that Sarno's sentence be enhanced to 25 years.
He was convicted last December with four other men of bombing a Berwyn video poker company that was competing with the mob. They were also found guilty in a string of outfit jewel heists.
In a separate filing Monday, defense attorneys dispute the contention that Sarno is a crime boss. They have submitted 100 letters from Sarno's friends, neighbors and relatives that portray him as a good family man and a fine American. They also cite his numerous health problems that they say could be compromised by a lengthy stay in prison.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
In this Intelligence Report: Why the government's argument for a maximum sentence relies on something reported on ABC7.
Heading into Friday's sentencing, we have two very different portraits of Mike Sarno. He is either a good, family man and helpful member of the community, as his lawyers would have you believe, or he is a heavyweight mob boss with a ruthless management style as the government describes him.
Monday, U.S. prosecutors submitted to the court a 2003 I-Team report to support their argument that Sarno be sentenced to the longest possible term in prison.
ABC7's broadcast in June 2003 focused on a restructuring of the Chicago mob ordered by imprisoned outfit leader James Marcello. "Little Jimmy," as he is still known, was doing time for racketeering, gambling violations and extortion, and still running the outfit's business from the barbed-wire Hilton.
Included in the June 3, 2003, I-Team report was this information about who had been tapped to oversee the Chicago outfit: "This mob heavyweight, 350-pound Michael 'Fat Boy' Sarno, whom Marcello has just installed, according to U.S. law enforcement source."
Nine days later, 250 miles away, behind the walls of a penitentiary in Michigan, James Marcello and his brother Mickey discussed the I-Team's report.
JAMES MARCELLO: "How did they get a copy of the indictment? The motion?"
In recently released undercover FBI Marcello quizzes his brother on how the I-Team got its information.
MICHAEL MARCELLO: "Yea and ah, put together a new crew with the Trucker..."
A hand sign for a sizable waistline, according to prosecutors, is meant to indicate Michael Sarno, whose girth precedes him. Authorities say the gist of the jailhouse chatter: Sarno is connected to the top guy.
Based on his organized crime stature, this Friday, the government will ask that Sarno's sentence be enhanced to 25 years.
He was convicted last December with four other men of bombing a Berwyn video poker company that was competing with the mob. They were also found guilty in a string of outfit jewel heists.
In a separate filing Monday, defense attorneys dispute the contention that Sarno is a crime boss. They have submitted 100 letters from Sarno's friends, neighbors and relatives that portray him as a good family man and a fine American. They also cite his numerous health problems that they say could be compromised by a lengthy stay in prison.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
2010 Statistics on Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted
According to information released by the FBI, 56 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year; 72 officers died in accidents while performing their duties; and 53,469 officers were assaulted in the line of duty. The 2010 edition of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted released today provides comprehensive tabular data about these incidents and brief narratives describing the fatal attacks.
Felonious Deaths
The 56 felonious deaths occurred in 22 states and Puerto Rico. The number of officers feloniously killed in 2010 increased by eight compared with the 2009 figure (48 officers). The five- and 10-year comparisons show an increase of eight felonious deaths compared with the 2006 figure (48 officers), and a decrease of 14 deaths compared with data from 2001 (70 officers).
Officer Profiles: Among the officers who were feloniously killed, the average age was 38 years. The victim officers had served in law enforcement for an average of 10 years at the time of the fatal incidents. Fifty-four of the victim officers were male, and two were female. Forty-eight of the officers were white, seven were black, and one was Asian/Pacific Islander.
Circumstances: Of the 56 officers feloniously killed, 15 were ambushed; 14 of the slain officers were involved in arrest situations; eight were investigating suspicious persons/circumstances; seven were performing traffic stops/pursuits; six were answering disturbance calls; three were involved in tactical situations (e.g., high-risk entry); two were conducting investigative activity such as surveillance, searches, or interviews; and one officer was killed while transporting or maintaining custody of prisoners.
Weapons: Offenders used firearms to kill 55 of the 56 victim officers. Of these 55 officers, 38 were slain with handguns, 15 with rifles, and two with shotguns. One officer was killed with a vehicle used as a weapon.
Regions: Twenty-two of the felonious deaths occurred in the South, 18 in the West, 10 in the Midwest, and three in the Northeast. Three of the deaths took place in Puerto Rico.
Suspects: Law enforcement agencies identified 69 alleged assailants in connection with the 56 felonious line-of-duty deaths. Fifty-seven of the assailants had prior criminal arrests, and 19 of the offenders were under judicial supervision at the time of the felonious incidents.
Accidental Deaths
Of the 72 law enforcement officers killed in accidents while performing their duties in 2010, the majority of them (45 officers) were killed in automobile accidents. The number of accidental line-of-duty deaths was up 24 from the 2009 total (48 officers).
Assaults
In 2010, 53,469 law enforcement officers were assaulted while performing their duties. Of the officers assaulted, 26.1 percent suffered injuries. The largest percentage of victim officers (33.0 percent) were assaulted while responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.). Assailants used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) in 81.8 percent of the incidents, firearms in 3.4 percent of incidents, and knives or other cutting instruments in 1.7 percent of the incidents. Other types of dangerous weapons were used in 13.1 percent of assaults.
Felonious Deaths
The 56 felonious deaths occurred in 22 states and Puerto Rico. The number of officers feloniously killed in 2010 increased by eight compared with the 2009 figure (48 officers). The five- and 10-year comparisons show an increase of eight felonious deaths compared with the 2006 figure (48 officers), and a decrease of 14 deaths compared with data from 2001 (70 officers).
Officer Profiles: Among the officers who were feloniously killed, the average age was 38 years. The victim officers had served in law enforcement for an average of 10 years at the time of the fatal incidents. Fifty-four of the victim officers were male, and two were female. Forty-eight of the officers were white, seven were black, and one was Asian/Pacific Islander.
Circumstances: Of the 56 officers feloniously killed, 15 were ambushed; 14 of the slain officers were involved in arrest situations; eight were investigating suspicious persons/circumstances; seven were performing traffic stops/pursuits; six were answering disturbance calls; three were involved in tactical situations (e.g., high-risk entry); two were conducting investigative activity such as surveillance, searches, or interviews; and one officer was killed while transporting or maintaining custody of prisoners.
Weapons: Offenders used firearms to kill 55 of the 56 victim officers. Of these 55 officers, 38 were slain with handguns, 15 with rifles, and two with shotguns. One officer was killed with a vehicle used as a weapon.
Regions: Twenty-two of the felonious deaths occurred in the South, 18 in the West, 10 in the Midwest, and three in the Northeast. Three of the deaths took place in Puerto Rico.
Suspects: Law enforcement agencies identified 69 alleged assailants in connection with the 56 felonious line-of-duty deaths. Fifty-seven of the assailants had prior criminal arrests, and 19 of the offenders were under judicial supervision at the time of the felonious incidents.
Accidental Deaths
Of the 72 law enforcement officers killed in accidents while performing their duties in 2010, the majority of them (45 officers) were killed in automobile accidents. The number of accidental line-of-duty deaths was up 24 from the 2009 total (48 officers).
Assaults
In 2010, 53,469 law enforcement officers were assaulted while performing their duties. Of the officers assaulted, 26.1 percent suffered injuries. The largest percentage of victim officers (33.0 percent) were assaulted while responding to disturbance calls (family quarrels, bar fights, etc.). Assailants used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) in 81.8 percent of the incidents, firearms in 3.4 percent of incidents, and knives or other cutting instruments in 1.7 percent of the incidents. Other types of dangerous weapons were used in 13.1 percent of assaults.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
William Anthony Degironemo, Reputed Chicago Outfit Operative, Pleads Guilty to Mail Fraud
A co-defendant of a man reputed to be a top operative for the Chicago Outfit pleaded guilty Thursday in the rigging of contracts to supply forklifts for two trade shows at McCormick Place.
William Anthony Degironemo, 67, an Inverness resident who operated MidStates Equipment Rental and Sales, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors will move to dismiss a charge of making a false statement to a federal agency and will recommend that Degironemo be sentenced to up to 21 months in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 16.
Degironemo and Rudy Fratto, a Darien resident and reputed mob lieutenant nicknamed "the Chin," were charged in 2010 after they were accused of using confidential information about competitors' bids to undercut the competition and win the contracts.
A consultant who owed $350,000 to organized-crime figures in Cleveland allegedly gave the information to Fratto in exchange for Fratto's offer to intervene with the Ohio mobsters, according to court documents.
Fratto's trial is scheduled to begin next month.
William Anthony Degironemo, 67, an Inverness resident who operated MidStates Equipment Rental and Sales, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors will move to dismiss a charge of making a false statement to a federal agency and will recommend that Degironemo be sentenced to up to 21 months in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 16.
Degironemo and Rudy Fratto, a Darien resident and reputed mob lieutenant nicknamed "the Chin," were charged in 2010 after they were accused of using confidential information about competitors' bids to undercut the competition and win the contracts.
A consultant who owed $350,000 to organized-crime figures in Cleveland allegedly gave the information to Fratto in exchange for Fratto's offer to intervene with the Ohio mobsters, according to court documents.
Fratto's trial is scheduled to begin next month.
$1.6 Trillion Reported to Have Been Laundered by Organized Crime World-wide
Criminals may have laundered around $1.6 trillion in 2009, one fifth of that coming from the illicit drug trade, according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The $1.6 trillion represents 2.7 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, says the agency. This figure is in line with the range of two to five per cent of global GDP previously established by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to estimate the scale of money-laundering.
The report, entitled Estimating illicit financial flows resulting from drug trafficking and other transnational organized crimeAll criminal proceeds, excluding tax evasion, would amount to some $2.1 trillion or 3.6 per cent of GDP in 2009, according to the report., also says that the “interception rate” for anti-money-laundering efforts at the global level remains low.
Globally, it appears that much less than one per cent of illicit financial flows are currently being seized and frozen.
“Tracking the flows of illicit funds generated by drug trafficking and organized crime and analysing how they are laundered through the world’s financial systems remain daunting tasks,” stated UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, who launched the report today in Marrakech, Morocco, during the week-long meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Corruption.
The report points out that “dirty money” promotes bribery and corruption, finances insurgency and, in some cases, terrorist activities. It also destabilizes and deters legitimate enterprise, foreign investment and development.
All criminal proceeds, excluding tax evasion, would amount to some $2.1 trillion or 3.6 per cent of GDP in 2009, according to the report. Of this total, the proceeds of transnational organized crime, such as drug trafficking, counterfeiting, human trafficking and small arms smuggling, would amount to 1.5 per cent of global GDP, 70 per cent of which would likely have been laundered through the financial system.
The illicit drugs trade, which accounts for half of all transnational organized crime proceeds and one fifth of all crime proceeds, is the most profitable sector, UNODC notes.
The report focused on the market for cocaine, probably the most lucrative illicit drug for transnational criminal groups. Traffickers’ gross profits from the cocaine trade stood at around $84 billion in 2009.
While Andean coca farmers earned about $1 billion, the bulk of the income generated was in North America ($35 billion) and in West and Central Europe ($26 billion). Close to two thirds of that total may have been laundered in 2009.
The findings suggest that most cocaine-related profits are laundered in North America and in Europe. The main destination to process cocaine money from other subregions is probably the Caribbean.
The report says that for drug-related crime, there tends to be a significant “re-investment” of illicit funds into drug trafficking operations which have major negative implications for society at large.
Once illegal money has entered the global and financial markets, notes UNODC, it becomes much harder to trace its origins, and the laundering of ill-gotten gains may perpetuate a cycle of crime and drug trafficking.
“UNODC’s challenge is to work within the UN system and with Member States to help build the capacity to track and prevent money-laundering, strengthen the rule of law and prevent these funds from creating further suffering,” said Mr. Fedotov.
The $1.6 trillion represents 2.7 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, says the agency. This figure is in line with the range of two to five per cent of global GDP previously established by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to estimate the scale of money-laundering.
The report, entitled Estimating illicit financial flows resulting from drug trafficking and other transnational organized crimeAll criminal proceeds, excluding tax evasion, would amount to some $2.1 trillion or 3.6 per cent of GDP in 2009, according to the report., also says that the “interception rate” for anti-money-laundering efforts at the global level remains low.
Globally, it appears that much less than one per cent of illicit financial flows are currently being seized and frozen.
“Tracking the flows of illicit funds generated by drug trafficking and organized crime and analysing how they are laundered through the world’s financial systems remain daunting tasks,” stated UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, who launched the report today in Marrakech, Morocco, during the week-long meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Corruption.
The report points out that “dirty money” promotes bribery and corruption, finances insurgency and, in some cases, terrorist activities. It also destabilizes and deters legitimate enterprise, foreign investment and development.
All criminal proceeds, excluding tax evasion, would amount to some $2.1 trillion or 3.6 per cent of GDP in 2009, according to the report. Of this total, the proceeds of transnational organized crime, such as drug trafficking, counterfeiting, human trafficking and small arms smuggling, would amount to 1.5 per cent of global GDP, 70 per cent of which would likely have been laundered through the financial system.
The illicit drugs trade, which accounts for half of all transnational organized crime proceeds and one fifth of all crime proceeds, is the most profitable sector, UNODC notes.
The report focused on the market for cocaine, probably the most lucrative illicit drug for transnational criminal groups. Traffickers’ gross profits from the cocaine trade stood at around $84 billion in 2009.
While Andean coca farmers earned about $1 billion, the bulk of the income generated was in North America ($35 billion) and in West and Central Europe ($26 billion). Close to two thirds of that total may have been laundered in 2009.
The findings suggest that most cocaine-related profits are laundered in North America and in Europe. The main destination to process cocaine money from other subregions is probably the Caribbean.
The report says that for drug-related crime, there tends to be a significant “re-investment” of illicit funds into drug trafficking operations which have major negative implications for society at large.
Once illegal money has entered the global and financial markets, notes UNODC, it becomes much harder to trace its origins, and the laundering of ill-gotten gains may perpetuate a cycle of crime and drug trafficking.
“UNODC’s challenge is to work within the UN system and with Member States to help build the capacity to track and prevent money-laundering, strengthen the rule of law and prevent these funds from creating further suffering,” said Mr. Fedotov.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Michael Sarno Could Face 25 Years in Prison
The Chicago mob’s “Large Guy” could take a big fall — if federal prosecutors get their way.
Prosecutors are providing a detailed look at reputed Cicero mob boss Michael “The Large Guy” Sarno’s ties to organized crime in a new court filing as they ask a federal judge to sentence Sarno to the maximum possible prison sentence — 25 years behind bars.
Sarno was convicted in December of racketeering conspiracy and illegal gambling and is set to be sentenced Friday in federal court in Chicago. The conviction is Sarno’s third for mob crimes — and one that could put him in prison until his 70s.
Federal prosecutor Amar-jeet S. Bhachu describes Sarno as a career criminal who began his Outfit work in 1975. Prosecutors write “it is obvious that he does not care about the law.
“His interest today still lies with taking what he wants for himself and other members of organized crime . . .”
Sarno was convicted at trial with four other men in which prosecutors described a slew of crimes, including a bombing of a Berwyn company in competition with the mob’s video poker business along with a burglary ring that targeted jewelry stores.
Sarno ordered the bombing of the Berwyn business and controlled the burglary ring, prosecutors said.
Sarno began running the Outfit’s Cicero crew after the disappearance of mobster Anthony Zizzo in 2006, who is presumed to have been murdered, although his body has never been found.
Sarno, who at his biggest has tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, has several mob nicknames, including “Big Mike,” “Large” and “Fat Ass.” When he was a free man, Sarno often was seen with his close friend, Salvatore Cataudella, convicted in a juice loan case. The pair was dubbed “Mutt and Jeff.”
They were referred to by the nicknames in a secretly recorded conversation between Chicago mob boss James Marcello and his half-brother Michael Marcello in 2003.
An attorney for Sarno could not be reached Sunday, but a former lawyer for him has disputed the characterization of Sarno by federal prosecutors and the FBI’s informants.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Prosecutors are providing a detailed look at reputed Cicero mob boss Michael “The Large Guy” Sarno’s ties to organized crime in a new court filing as they ask a federal judge to sentence Sarno to the maximum possible prison sentence — 25 years behind bars.
Sarno was convicted in December of racketeering conspiracy and illegal gambling and is set to be sentenced Friday in federal court in Chicago. The conviction is Sarno’s third for mob crimes — and one that could put him in prison until his 70s.
Federal prosecutor Amar-jeet S. Bhachu describes Sarno as a career criminal who began his Outfit work in 1975. Prosecutors write “it is obvious that he does not care about the law.
“His interest today still lies with taking what he wants for himself and other members of organized crime . . .”
Sarno was convicted at trial with four other men in which prosecutors described a slew of crimes, including a bombing of a Berwyn company in competition with the mob’s video poker business along with a burglary ring that targeted jewelry stores.
Sarno ordered the bombing of the Berwyn business and controlled the burglary ring, prosecutors said.
Sarno began running the Outfit’s Cicero crew after the disappearance of mobster Anthony Zizzo in 2006, who is presumed to have been murdered, although his body has never been found.
Sarno, who at his biggest has tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, has several mob nicknames, including “Big Mike,” “Large” and “Fat Ass.” When he was a free man, Sarno often was seen with his close friend, Salvatore Cataudella, convicted in a juice loan case. The pair was dubbed “Mutt and Jeff.”
They were referred to by the nicknames in a secretly recorded conversation between Chicago mob boss James Marcello and his half-brother Michael Marcello in 2003.
An attorney for Sarno could not be reached Sunday, but a former lawyer for him has disputed the characterization of Sarno by federal prosecutors and the FBI’s informants.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Mob Museum Now The National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement
Nothing personal, Las Vegas. It's just business.
The Mob Museum is now known as the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement -- swapping its original Las Vegas title for one more reflective of its content, museum officials said.
The museum, which is scheduled to open Feb. 14, 2012, to coincide with the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, will tell the story of organized crime as it affected the entire country, not just Las Vegas.
That isn't to say Sin City's mob stories are lessened in any way, said Jonathan Ullman, the museum's executive director. Prominent mob figures had a higher profile in other cities nationwide, including Chicago and New York.
"You really cannot tell this story without addressing larger national content," Ullman said. "We cover Prohibition, immigration and the evolution of the criminal justice system. We believe our name should reflect our status as a world-class museum and a foremost venue for an informal education on this subject matter."
The name change is showcased on the museum's website, themobmuseum.org. The decision was finalized in August and "embraced by representatives at the city, the museum board and other key stakeholders," Ullman added.
"We hope it's not perceived as a slight on anyone in the local community," he said. "There's a great deal of community pride in this venue."
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who used to work as an attorney representing reputed organized crime figures and was involved in bringing the museum to the area, said he welcomed the change. "It should be more expansive," Goodman said. "I think it should be called the international museum. As we got into this whole project, we saw this is an international story of folks coming from foreign lands into the United States as immigrants and becoming a part of what was referred to as organized crime."
Goodman added that no one should consider the change negatively. "This is a great thing," he said.
The $42 million Mob Museum will be dedicated to the history of organized crime and the law enforcement that hunted mobsters for decades. It is expected to draw 600,000 visitors annually once it opens at 300 Stewart Ave.
The Depression-era building is a historic former federal courthouse and post office included on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places.
The Mob Museum is now known as the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement -- swapping its original Las Vegas title for one more reflective of its content, museum officials said.
The museum, which is scheduled to open Feb. 14, 2012, to coincide with the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, will tell the story of organized crime as it affected the entire country, not just Las Vegas.
That isn't to say Sin City's mob stories are lessened in any way, said Jonathan Ullman, the museum's executive director. Prominent mob figures had a higher profile in other cities nationwide, including Chicago and New York.
"You really cannot tell this story without addressing larger national content," Ullman said. "We cover Prohibition, immigration and the evolution of the criminal justice system. We believe our name should reflect our status as a world-class museum and a foremost venue for an informal education on this subject matter."
The name change is showcased on the museum's website, themobmuseum.org. The decision was finalized in August and "embraced by representatives at the city, the museum board and other key stakeholders," Ullman added.
"We hope it's not perceived as a slight on anyone in the local community," he said. "There's a great deal of community pride in this venue."
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who used to work as an attorney representing reputed organized crime figures and was involved in bringing the museum to the area, said he welcomed the change. "It should be more expansive," Goodman said. "I think it should be called the international museum. As we got into this whole project, we saw this is an international story of folks coming from foreign lands into the United States as immigrants and becoming a part of what was referred to as organized crime."
Goodman added that no one should consider the change negatively. "This is a great thing," he said.
The $42 million Mob Museum will be dedicated to the history of organized crime and the law enforcement that hunted mobsters for decades. It is expected to draw 600,000 visitors annually once it opens at 300 Stewart Ave.
The Depression-era building is a historic former federal courthouse and post office included on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Roberto Saviano, Author of Naples Mafia Book "Gomorrah", Wins PEN/Pinter International Writer of Courage Award.
Italian writer Roberto Saviano, who has lived under police protection since penning 2006 bestseller "Gomorrah" about Naples' mafia, has won the PEN/Pinter International Writer of Courage Award.
Saviano, 32, shares the award with Briton David Hare, who is perhaps best known for his work about British institutions.
Each year a British writer is honored with the PEN/Pinter award, established in 2009 by literary and human rights organization PEN in memory of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, alongside another writer who has been persecuted for expressing his or her beliefs.
"Roberto Saviano took on the Neopolitan mafia, first in the novel Gomorrah and then in the film made from it," playwright Hare said at an awards ceremony in London on Monday.
"He did so at great risk to his own safety. My hope in sharing my prize with him is that a measure of recognition from PEN may, in however small a way, make his life easier."
Saviano, now living in hiding following threats to his life, sent a message expressing gratitude.
"When you feel that so many need to see, to know and to change, and not just to be entertained or comforted, then it is worth it to carry on writing," he said in a statement released by organizers.
Saviano, 32, shares the award with Briton David Hare, who is perhaps best known for his work about British institutions.
Each year a British writer is honored with the PEN/Pinter award, established in 2009 by literary and human rights organization PEN in memory of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, alongside another writer who has been persecuted for expressing his or her beliefs.
"Roberto Saviano took on the Neopolitan mafia, first in the novel Gomorrah and then in the film made from it," playwright Hare said at an awards ceremony in London on Monday.
"He did so at great risk to his own safety. My hope in sharing my prize with him is that a measure of recognition from PEN may, in however small a way, make his life easier."
Saviano, now living in hiding following threats to his life, sent a message expressing gratitude.
"When you feel that so many need to see, to know and to change, and not just to be entertained or comforted, then it is worth it to carry on writing," he said in a statement released by organizers.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
John Gotti Movie Starring John Travolta is Placed on Hold
John Travolta’s upcoming movie about the notorious Gotti family has been put on hold due to financial issues, according to a report.
The Hollywood actor is due to star as late Mafia boss John Gotti, who died in prison in 2002, in upcoming movie Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father, alongside his real-life wife Kelly Preston and Al Pacino.
Filming is slated to begin in January ahead of a 2012 release date, but a new report suggests production has been put on hold. Showbiz411.com reports work on the project has come to a halt and won’t resume until more financing is secured.
A source tells the website, “If (producer) Marc Fiore doesn’t come up with money this week, and doesn’t show that more is coming, and that he’s really secured financing, it could all fall apart.”
The film’s producers are also facing a legal battle with Goodfellas star Joe Pesci, who is suing bosses at Fiore Films over allegations he was offered a $3 million deal to play Angelo Ruggiero, an associate of Gotti, but was later told he would be given a smaller part.
The Hollywood actor is due to star as late Mafia boss John Gotti, who died in prison in 2002, in upcoming movie Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father, alongside his real-life wife Kelly Preston and Al Pacino.
Filming is slated to begin in January ahead of a 2012 release date, but a new report suggests production has been put on hold. Showbiz411.com reports work on the project has come to a halt and won’t resume until more financing is secured.
A source tells the website, “If (producer) Marc Fiore doesn’t come up with money this week, and doesn’t show that more is coming, and that he’s really secured financing, it could all fall apart.”
The film’s producers are also facing a legal battle with Goodfellas star Joe Pesci, who is suing bosses at Fiore Films over allegations he was offered a $3 million deal to play Angelo Ruggiero, an associate of Gotti, but was later told he would be given a smaller part.
Monday, October 10, 2011
CRIME BEAT RADIO SHOW’S UPCOMING PROGRAM FEATURES HENRY HILL, LEGENDARY FORMER WISE GUY AND GOODFELLA
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Wise Guy, Nicholas Pileggi’s true crime masterpiece and a book that has been described as “the best book on organized crime ever written.” Wise Guy chronicles the life of legendary former gangster Henry Hill, the working-class Brooklyn kid who grew up to live the highs and lows of the gangster’s life. Hill’s story became the basis for GoodFellas, Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill, the narrator, famously says, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
CRIME BEAT: ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES AND PERSONALITIES FROM THE DARKSIDE on the Artist First World Radio Network is pleased to announce that on October 13th at 8 pm. EST, Henry Hill will be a special featured guest. Mr. Hill will discuss his former life inside the Mob, the book and the film, as well his current life and activities.
CRIME BEAT: ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES AND PERSONALITIES FROM THE DARKSIDE on the Artist First World Radio Network is pleased to announce that on October 13th at 8 pm. EST, Henry Hill will be a special featured guest. Mr. Hill will discuss his former life inside the Mob, the book and the film, as well his current life and activities.
Sunday, October 09, 2011
The Chicago Way Ideas Week Tour
There's this thrill running up my leg — and I haven't had it too often — but it sure has been tingling like mad ever since I heard about Chicago Ideas Week.
According to the website, "Chicago Ideas Week will bring the world's top speakers, together with Chicago's best thinkers, to create an ecosystem of innovation, exploration and intellectual recreation."
Excellent. Bring a bunch of politicians to Chicago, have them mix with Chicago politicians, feed them, and then encourage them to make speeches about how smart they are, and if that's not an ecosystem, I don't know what is.
"Meet the Press" is in town to help kick off the week on Sunday. Former President Bill Clinton will be hanging around, so you'll probably see him prowling the Viagra Triangle. But the highlight will be Monday's fantastic tour (only 15 bucks) by former Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago's fabulous Millennium Park, though I prefer to call it Billennium Park, since it cost about $50 million an acre. Sadly, Daley's tour is not open to the media.
Daley is expected to explain how he created the park, and how great it is. The prospect got me so tingly, I wanted to contribute to this "ecosystem" of ideas. And eureka, I think I've found it:
The Chicago Way Ideas Week Tour.
Daley could begin by opening it up to the media, particularly the "Meet the Press" crowd and other foreign correspondents. They'd rather hear Daley/Obama mouthpiece David Axelrod entertain them with songs of hope and change, but it's time the national media understood the Chicago Way.
The tour would begin at the park's Clout Cafe — Park Grill — where Daley's political adviser Tim Degnan somehow became an investor. Another investor was Daley's friend and fashionista, trucking boss Fred Bruno Barbara, who once, according to federal testimony, served as driver to Chicago mob boss Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra.
Once we fill up on those bland Clout Cafe chicken sandwiches, we could set off on our tour. First thing would be to stand before that gigantic $40 million silver bean, and look deep inside of it, to see all the wonders:
Like Chicago's budget drowning in $600 million or more of red ink, and all those contracts to cronies over the decades that sopped up the cash, all those hungry parking meters, and all those kids who drop out of school each year.
Stare further into the bean and you'd see businesses that received city development bucks and kicked into former first lady Maggie Daley's After School Matters charity, and all those cops who still aren't on the street because all the money is gone.
Daley could point out the city sewers that were inspected by President Barack Obama's political godfather, former state Senate President Emil Jones, who is now chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. Jones spent decades as a political double dipper, crafting legislation and also inspecting city sewers. But legend has it that during all those years of sewer inspecting, Jones never smudged his camel-hair coat. Not even once.
We'd then drive down to Kenwood, to the president's home, the one that convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko helped him with, and then back across the city, to the federal criminal courts, where Rezko's confidant, Republican boss Big Bill Cellini, is standing trial on corruption charges.
After that stop, we'd need some sunshine and a happy place, and you know where we could find it? Stearns Quarry Park.
The quarry was in Bridgeport, at 29th and Halsted streets, a few blocks from the mayor's home, and it was where, decade after decade, city trucking bosses would dump their construction debris.
There was nothing illegal per se about the dumping. What was illegal was all the bribery and other crimes committed by city officials and trucking bosses in the city's infamous Hired Truck program. So City Hall covered up the quarry, to erase our political memory. And it worked.
"Today," proclaims the Park District website, "visitors to Stearns Quarry Park can go fishing in a pond that retains old quarry walls; stroll along a wetland area that drains into the pond; watch for birds and other wildlife attracted by the site's vast range of native plants; fly kites in an open meadow; or take in the views of the cityscape."
Ponds. Kite flying. Meadows. Nice.
Later, Daley might want to take the "Meet the Press" panel to Division Street. There in 2004, a slight, 5-foot-3-inch, 125-pound David Koschman, age 21, was reportedly slugged by Daley's muscular nephew, Richard J. Vanecko, 6-3, 230 pounds.
Koschman died, there were no charges, and according to the Sun-Times, the files went missing, the Rush Street police detail didn't see anything, and nobody knows nothing.
Official Chicago doesn't have any idea what happened, even during Ideas Week.
Thanks to John Kass
According to the website, "Chicago Ideas Week will bring the world's top speakers, together with Chicago's best thinkers, to create an ecosystem of innovation, exploration and intellectual recreation."
Excellent. Bring a bunch of politicians to Chicago, have them mix with Chicago politicians, feed them, and then encourage them to make speeches about how smart they are, and if that's not an ecosystem, I don't know what is.
"Meet the Press" is in town to help kick off the week on Sunday. Former President Bill Clinton will be hanging around, so you'll probably see him prowling the Viagra Triangle. But the highlight will be Monday's fantastic tour (only 15 bucks) by former Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago's fabulous Millennium Park, though I prefer to call it Billennium Park, since it cost about $50 million an acre. Sadly, Daley's tour is not open to the media.
Daley is expected to explain how he created the park, and how great it is. The prospect got me so tingly, I wanted to contribute to this "ecosystem" of ideas. And eureka, I think I've found it:
The Chicago Way Ideas Week Tour.
Daley could begin by opening it up to the media, particularly the "Meet the Press" crowd and other foreign correspondents. They'd rather hear Daley/Obama mouthpiece David Axelrod entertain them with songs of hope and change, but it's time the national media understood the Chicago Way.
The tour would begin at the park's Clout Cafe — Park Grill — where Daley's political adviser Tim Degnan somehow became an investor. Another investor was Daley's friend and fashionista, trucking boss Fred Bruno Barbara, who once, according to federal testimony, served as driver to Chicago mob boss Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra.
Once we fill up on those bland Clout Cafe chicken sandwiches, we could set off on our tour. First thing would be to stand before that gigantic $40 million silver bean, and look deep inside of it, to see all the wonders:
Like Chicago's budget drowning in $600 million or more of red ink, and all those contracts to cronies over the decades that sopped up the cash, all those hungry parking meters, and all those kids who drop out of school each year.
Stare further into the bean and you'd see businesses that received city development bucks and kicked into former first lady Maggie Daley's After School Matters charity, and all those cops who still aren't on the street because all the money is gone.
Daley could point out the city sewers that were inspected by President Barack Obama's political godfather, former state Senate President Emil Jones, who is now chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. Jones spent decades as a political double dipper, crafting legislation and also inspecting city sewers. But legend has it that during all those years of sewer inspecting, Jones never smudged his camel-hair coat. Not even once.
We'd then drive down to Kenwood, to the president's home, the one that convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko helped him with, and then back across the city, to the federal criminal courts, where Rezko's confidant, Republican boss Big Bill Cellini, is standing trial on corruption charges.
After that stop, we'd need some sunshine and a happy place, and you know where we could find it? Stearns Quarry Park.
The quarry was in Bridgeport, at 29th and Halsted streets, a few blocks from the mayor's home, and it was where, decade after decade, city trucking bosses would dump their construction debris.
There was nothing illegal per se about the dumping. What was illegal was all the bribery and other crimes committed by city officials and trucking bosses in the city's infamous Hired Truck program. So City Hall covered up the quarry, to erase our political memory. And it worked.
"Today," proclaims the Park District website, "visitors to Stearns Quarry Park can go fishing in a pond that retains old quarry walls; stroll along a wetland area that drains into the pond; watch for birds and other wildlife attracted by the site's vast range of native plants; fly kites in an open meadow; or take in the views of the cityscape."
Ponds. Kite flying. Meadows. Nice.
Later, Daley might want to take the "Meet the Press" panel to Division Street. There in 2004, a slight, 5-foot-3-inch, 125-pound David Koschman, age 21, was reportedly slugged by Daley's muscular nephew, Richard J. Vanecko, 6-3, 230 pounds.
Koschman died, there were no charges, and according to the Sun-Times, the files went missing, the Rush Street police detail didn't see anything, and nobody knows nothing.
Official Chicago doesn't have any idea what happened, even during Ideas Week.
Thanks to John Kass
Friday, October 07, 2011
GC-Global Capital Attempting to Foreclose on The Las Vegas Mob Experience
The hits just keep on coming at the Las Vegas Mob Experience, where a lender is now trying to foreclose on its property including artifacts provided by mob family members.
The lender, GC-Global Capital Corp. of Toronto, charged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that it’s entitled to foreclose after The Experience defaulted on debt and GC-Global was defrauded by Mob Experience developer Jay Bloom – though Bloom claims he’s the one who was victimized when he was induced under false pretenses to give up control of The Experience this summer.
GC-Global says in the lawsuit that in January it was approached by Bloom a few months before the attraction opened and that by April 4, GC-Global had obtained $3.189 million in loans that had initially been made by several individual investors to the experience.
These loans were secured by property owned by a Bloom company called the Mafia Collection LLC and GC-Global claims in the lawsuit it has a first lien position "in all personal property of Mafia Collection and all proceeds therefrom, which includes all of the artifacts and exhibits used for the Mob Experience."
The suit says the Mob Experience’s parent company, Murder Inc., defaulted on the $3.189 million in debt and asks the court to require the defendants – Murder Inc., Bloom and three Bloom companies – to show cause "why the collateral should not be delivered to the plaintiff."
It also asks for "a writ of possession directing the sheriff of Clark County, Nev., to seize the collateral from those locations where there is probable cause to believe it is located or will be found."
Murder Inc., which is now controlled by former Bloom partner Louis Ventre, has not yet responded to the suit. But it’s expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization soon as it faces not just the GC-Global lawsuit, but lawsuits filed by creditors including contractors that built the tourist attraction at the Tropicana resort on the Las Vegas Strip. On top of that, the Mob Experience is $500,000 behind in rent owed the Tropicana.
As was seen in the bankruptcy of Eva Longoria’s Beso restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip, the outcome of which was determined by Beso landlord Crystals, Mob Experience contractors as secured lien-holding creditors and landlord the Tropicana likely will control the fate of the attraction at that location going forward.
GC-Global is represented in Wednesday’s lawsuit by attorneys with the Las Vegas law firm Kaempfer Crowell Renshaw Gronauer & Fiorentino.
Those attorneys said in the suit that after GC-Global obtained the Mob Experience loans and was told in June that the Mob Experience couldn’t make the loan payments, it learned "defendants, through Bloom, had either negligently or intentionally made numerous misrepresentations concerning the defendants and the Mob Experience."
"Bloom stated that there were no outstanding amounts due and owing to contractors for the tenant improvements at the Tropicana," the lawsuit said. "The actual amount due and owing to such contractors was in excess of $4.5 million."
It is expected that Bloom will deny such allegations in his pending response.
"Moreover, it became known that Bloom and the other defendants were commingling funds with questionable accounting practices, which included Bloom using the defendants’ funds for his individual expenses (including $50,000 for a down payments on his house purchase)," the lawsuit charged. Bloom has already denied similar allegations by Vion and Strategic in his responses to their litigation.
"Bloom controlled virtually every aspect of the accounting process, and thus could commingle funds with his other enterprises at will, without being detected," the lawsuit charges. "It became known that Bloom made many payments to (his company) Eagle Group which were used for unrelated LLC companies that Bloom controlled."
Bloom in other lawsuits has denied allegations that he looted the company and says Ventre is the one who has looted the company since taking over this summer – charges denied by Ventre.
GC-Global in its lawsuit reiterated assertions that when it was learned the Mob Experience couldn’t pay its bills this summer, Bloom gave up 95 percent of his interest in Murder Inc. under an arrangement in which investors agreed to pump an additional $160,000 into the company to keep the doors open.
Wednesday’s lawsuit says this was because "no investors or creditors of the defendants would agree to attempt to salvage the Mob Experience unless and until Bloom relinquished any and all control over the Mob Experience."
Bloom, however, insists he put 95 percent of his stake in Murder Inc. into escrow as part of a deal in which an additional $5 million would be raised for the attraction, something that never happened.
Wednesday’s lawsuit says that after Bloom left the experience, GC-Global entered into a forbearance agreement with Murder Inc. agreeing not to file suit or foreclose on its collateral.
That agreement expired Sept. 24 and with Murder Inc. still in default, Wednesday’s foreclosure lawsuit was filed.
The suit raises the question of who actually controls some of the Mob Experience artifacts, charging: "Bloom indicated that all of the artifacts were paid for and held free and clear. That representation also turned out to be false. Bloom declined to disclose to the plaintiff, prior to the funding, that other entities or parties may hold the same security in the collateral as the plaintiff." Bloom has already denied similar arguments by Vion and Strategic in his answers in that accusation.
Wednesday’s lawsuit lifts to at least 11 the number of suits filed in the past year over the Mob Experience finances and to six the number naming Bloom personally as a defendant.
Attorneys for Bloom, his wife Carolyn Farkas and four Bloom companies, in the meantime, filed court papers Tuesday complaining that two creditors of the attraction, Vion Operations LLC and Strategic Funding Source Inc., have been using Ventre in a scheme to place Murder Inc. into bankruptcy.
Such a bankruptcy, Bloom’s attorneys complained, would strip Murder Inc. note holders of their interests in the company.
Vion and Strategic in August sued bloom over a deal in which they funded the attraction with $3.1 million as part of a $4 million receivables factoring deal. Under this contract, Vion and Strategic are entitled to 10 percent of the company’s receipts over time up to $4 million.
Bloom’s attorneys said in court papers Tuesday this lawsuit is improper as there has been no breach of the factoring agreement in which Vion and Strategic Funding have already received nearly $86,000 of the $4 million, representing all of their entitlement under their factoring agreement, according to Bloom, and therefore Bloom says there is no breach by Bloom or the other defendants as alleged by Vion and Strategic.
Bloom’s attorneys complained Murder Inc. was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit as part of the plot to put the experience into bankruptcy, because if Murder Inc. had been sued, a bankruptcy would stay the litigation against it.
"Despite failing to name the actual party to the agreements – Murder Inc. – as a defendant, plaintiffs are placing all of the blame on Bloom in is personal capacity for the alleged breach of these agreements, omitting from their claim both the actual parties to the agreement and their agent, Ventre, as co-guarantor," Tuesday’s court filing charged.
Bloom’s attorneys reiterated their charge that as part of their scheming together with Ventre, Vion and Strategic Funding submitted a "fraudulent email" to the court as an exhibit aimed at discrediting Bloom’s choice of a Canadian company to take over management of the attraction.
This allegation was denied by Vion and Strategic Funding, whose attorneys said that what looks like an altered email was actually the result of a simple cut-and-paste error, although Bloom has said the section of the e-mail deleted was from the middle of the e-mail's contents, not the top or bottom, making it unclear how a cut and paste could cause such an "inadvertent" modification as Vion and Strategic suggest.
It’s unclear if this false email charge will gain any traction as it wasn’t commented on last week by Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman during a hearing in which she ordered that an accounting of the experience be performed to help her sort out the charges and countercharges in the case and decide if Ventre should be removed as manager.
Despite the lawsuits, infighting among investors and the possibility of a bankruptcy, the Mob Experience remains open at the Tropicana in a scaled-down format with the museum portion open but the interactive part closed.
Thanks to Steve Green
The lender, GC-Global Capital Corp. of Toronto, charged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that it’s entitled to foreclose after The Experience defaulted on debt and GC-Global was defrauded by Mob Experience developer Jay Bloom – though Bloom claims he’s the one who was victimized when he was induced under false pretenses to give up control of The Experience this summer.
GC-Global says in the lawsuit that in January it was approached by Bloom a few months before the attraction opened and that by April 4, GC-Global had obtained $3.189 million in loans that had initially been made by several individual investors to the experience.
These loans were secured by property owned by a Bloom company called the Mafia Collection LLC and GC-Global claims in the lawsuit it has a first lien position "in all personal property of Mafia Collection and all proceeds therefrom, which includes all of the artifacts and exhibits used for the Mob Experience."
The suit says the Mob Experience’s parent company, Murder Inc., defaulted on the $3.189 million in debt and asks the court to require the defendants – Murder Inc., Bloom and three Bloom companies – to show cause "why the collateral should not be delivered to the plaintiff."
It also asks for "a writ of possession directing the sheriff of Clark County, Nev., to seize the collateral from those locations where there is probable cause to believe it is located or will be found."
Murder Inc., which is now controlled by former Bloom partner Louis Ventre, has not yet responded to the suit. But it’s expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization soon as it faces not just the GC-Global lawsuit, but lawsuits filed by creditors including contractors that built the tourist attraction at the Tropicana resort on the Las Vegas Strip. On top of that, the Mob Experience is $500,000 behind in rent owed the Tropicana.
As was seen in the bankruptcy of Eva Longoria’s Beso restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip, the outcome of which was determined by Beso landlord Crystals, Mob Experience contractors as secured lien-holding creditors and landlord the Tropicana likely will control the fate of the attraction at that location going forward.
GC-Global is represented in Wednesday’s lawsuit by attorneys with the Las Vegas law firm Kaempfer Crowell Renshaw Gronauer & Fiorentino.
Those attorneys said in the suit that after GC-Global obtained the Mob Experience loans and was told in June that the Mob Experience couldn’t make the loan payments, it learned "defendants, through Bloom, had either negligently or intentionally made numerous misrepresentations concerning the defendants and the Mob Experience."
"Bloom stated that there were no outstanding amounts due and owing to contractors for the tenant improvements at the Tropicana," the lawsuit said. "The actual amount due and owing to such contractors was in excess of $4.5 million."
It is expected that Bloom will deny such allegations in his pending response.
"Moreover, it became known that Bloom and the other defendants were commingling funds with questionable accounting practices, which included Bloom using the defendants’ funds for his individual expenses (including $50,000 for a down payments on his house purchase)," the lawsuit charged. Bloom has already denied similar allegations by Vion and Strategic in his responses to their litigation.
"Bloom controlled virtually every aspect of the accounting process, and thus could commingle funds with his other enterprises at will, without being detected," the lawsuit charges. "It became known that Bloom made many payments to (his company) Eagle Group which were used for unrelated LLC companies that Bloom controlled."
Bloom in other lawsuits has denied allegations that he looted the company and says Ventre is the one who has looted the company since taking over this summer – charges denied by Ventre.
GC-Global in its lawsuit reiterated assertions that when it was learned the Mob Experience couldn’t pay its bills this summer, Bloom gave up 95 percent of his interest in Murder Inc. under an arrangement in which investors agreed to pump an additional $160,000 into the company to keep the doors open.
Wednesday’s lawsuit says this was because "no investors or creditors of the defendants would agree to attempt to salvage the Mob Experience unless and until Bloom relinquished any and all control over the Mob Experience."
Bloom, however, insists he put 95 percent of his stake in Murder Inc. into escrow as part of a deal in which an additional $5 million would be raised for the attraction, something that never happened.
Wednesday’s lawsuit says that after Bloom left the experience, GC-Global entered into a forbearance agreement with Murder Inc. agreeing not to file suit or foreclose on its collateral.
That agreement expired Sept. 24 and with Murder Inc. still in default, Wednesday’s foreclosure lawsuit was filed.
The suit raises the question of who actually controls some of the Mob Experience artifacts, charging: "Bloom indicated that all of the artifacts were paid for and held free and clear. That representation also turned out to be false. Bloom declined to disclose to the plaintiff, prior to the funding, that other entities or parties may hold the same security in the collateral as the plaintiff." Bloom has already denied similar arguments by Vion and Strategic in his answers in that accusation.
Wednesday’s lawsuit lifts to at least 11 the number of suits filed in the past year over the Mob Experience finances and to six the number naming Bloom personally as a defendant.
Attorneys for Bloom, his wife Carolyn Farkas and four Bloom companies, in the meantime, filed court papers Tuesday complaining that two creditors of the attraction, Vion Operations LLC and Strategic Funding Source Inc., have been using Ventre in a scheme to place Murder Inc. into bankruptcy.
Such a bankruptcy, Bloom’s attorneys complained, would strip Murder Inc. note holders of their interests in the company.
Vion and Strategic in August sued bloom over a deal in which they funded the attraction with $3.1 million as part of a $4 million receivables factoring deal. Under this contract, Vion and Strategic are entitled to 10 percent of the company’s receipts over time up to $4 million.
Bloom’s attorneys said in court papers Tuesday this lawsuit is improper as there has been no breach of the factoring agreement in which Vion and Strategic Funding have already received nearly $86,000 of the $4 million, representing all of their entitlement under their factoring agreement, according to Bloom, and therefore Bloom says there is no breach by Bloom or the other defendants as alleged by Vion and Strategic.
Bloom’s attorneys complained Murder Inc. was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit as part of the plot to put the experience into bankruptcy, because if Murder Inc. had been sued, a bankruptcy would stay the litigation against it.
"Despite failing to name the actual party to the agreements – Murder Inc. – as a defendant, plaintiffs are placing all of the blame on Bloom in is personal capacity for the alleged breach of these agreements, omitting from their claim both the actual parties to the agreement and their agent, Ventre, as co-guarantor," Tuesday’s court filing charged.
Bloom’s attorneys reiterated their charge that as part of their scheming together with Ventre, Vion and Strategic Funding submitted a "fraudulent email" to the court as an exhibit aimed at discrediting Bloom’s choice of a Canadian company to take over management of the attraction.
This allegation was denied by Vion and Strategic Funding, whose attorneys said that what looks like an altered email was actually the result of a simple cut-and-paste error, although Bloom has said the section of the e-mail deleted was from the middle of the e-mail's contents, not the top or bottom, making it unclear how a cut and paste could cause such an "inadvertent" modification as Vion and Strategic suggest.
It’s unclear if this false email charge will gain any traction as it wasn’t commented on last week by Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman during a hearing in which she ordered that an accounting of the experience be performed to help her sort out the charges and countercharges in the case and decide if Ventre should be removed as manager.
Despite the lawsuits, infighting among investors and the possibility of a bankruptcy, the Mob Experience remains open at the Tropicana in a scaled-down format with the museum portion open but the interactive part closed.
Thanks to Steve Green
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Where's Robert P. “Bobby” DeLuca Sr.
Where’s Bobby?
That’s the question that has been on the minds of mobsters, law-enforcement officials and followers of organized crime since four mobsters and mob associates were indicted last week on federal racketeering and extortion charges for shaking down several strip clubs and collecting $25,000 from a woman they threatened at work. But the indictment makes no mention of Robert P. “Bobby” DeLuca Sr., a major player in the New England La Cosa Nostra for more than three decades.
In papers filed in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors noted that “made members” of the mob have cooperated with them in their investigation, and they have and will continue to rely on them in the prosecution of Edward C. Lato and Alfred “Chippy” Scivola Jr., made members of the New England mob, along with mob associates Raymond “Scarface” Jenkins and Albino “Albie” Folcarelli.
“During the course of this investigation, the FBI has developed additional witnesses, including formally initiated or made members of the New England La Cosa Nostra, who will testify that the [mob] exists, and will further testify about the activities of its members,” the papers say.
The prosecutors, William Ferland and Sam Nazzaro, also wrote that “these witnesses” will testify about the secret mob initiation ceremony in which the “made men” take a blood oath of loyalty to omerta, otherwise known as La Cosa Nostra’s code of silence. Part of the oath requires the mobsters to engage in acts of violence, including murder, when called upon by ranking members of the criminal enterprise.
DeLuca is an expert on mob initiations. In 1989, he was one of several mobsters, including then-mob boss Raymond J. “Junior” Patriarca, whom the FBI captured on tape during an induction ceremony in a house outside of Boston. DeLuca was one of the mobsters who, that day, became a “made man,” or full-fledged member of La Cosa Nostra.
The recording was the first time the FBI had ever recorded a mob induction, and it has been played at countless mob trials to show that the Mafia does indeed exist.
DeLuca’s star rose quickly in the mob. Once a small-time hood, the now-inducted wiseguy hitched his wagon to Boston-based mob boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme. But the high times were short-lived. In 1996, DeLuca was sentenced to 10½ years in federal prison for his role in the shakedown of Paulie Calenda, a Cranston businessman and mob associate.
The jury was convinced at the colorful trial, featuring sobbing strippers, mob informants and gangland thugs, that Gerard T. Ouimette, a feared mob enforcer, threatened Calenda for a $125,000 extortion payment. The panel also concluded that Ouimette was acting under orders from DeLuca.
The court papers filed last week do not identify the cooperating mob witnesses in the recent sweep, but they have fueled plenty of speculation that DeLuca has switched allegiances and is now working for his longtime nemesis: the Justice Department.
It’s ironic that some believe DeLuca is now a government informant, an accusation he cast about 10 years ago against fellow mobster Anthony M. “The Saint” St. Laurent Sr.
The indignity of being called a turncoat so infuriated St. Laurent that he solicited a Taunton, Mass., man to kill DeLuca. St. Laurent, 70, who is in a wheelchair and has been seriously ill for more than a decade, was charged and convicted of orchestrating the murder-for-hire scheme. He was just sentenced to seven years in federal prison.
At a recent news conference announcing the indictment and arrests, Peter F. Neronha, the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, refused to identify DeLuca or anyone else as witnesses for the government. Instead, he said, that he would only discuss what was in the indictment.
Jim Martin, Neronha’s spokesman, issued a standard “no comment” to a series of questions about DeLuca.
Is DeLuca cooperating in the federal investigation? Has he joined the federal witness protection program? Are the federal authorities concerned about the safety of the mobster, his wife and two small children?
“No comment,” he said.
The same questions were posed to state police Supt. Steven G. O’Donnell, a longtime mob investigator who has tracked DeLuca’s criminal activities for more than 20 years.
“I can’t tell you if he’s cooperating or not,” he said. “I have no concerns for Bobby’s safety or anybody’s safety” who chooses a life of organized crime. “That’s the world they live in.”
In North Providence, there is no sign of DeLuca, his wife, Gina, a former hairdresser, or their two young children. At first, nobody thought much about not seeing him around. Each summer, he would travel to Saratoga Springs in August for the annual horse races, but this summer he never returned to his old haunts.
In June 2009, Gina DeLuca bought the large, 4,746-square-foot colonial-style house for $340,000 from Christina Schadone, wife of Rep. Gregory J. Schadone, D-North Providence. On Aug. 1, less than two months ago, the house next to Greystone Elementary School, was placed on the market for $335,000.
The furniture has been cleared out and little more remains than steel-brushed appliances and a chandelier in the front foyer.
Paul M. Martellini, the acting police chief in North Providence, said he knew that the mobster lived at the address, but his department has received no reports of foul play involving the DeLucas. He checked the department records and said that police responded to the house on the morning of July 1 for a false alarm. At the time, he said, the family was living there.
“We have had no contact with him other than the alarm,” Martellini said. “We didn’t know that he hasn’t been around.”
After DeLuca wrapped up his federal prison sentence, he returned to Rhode Island and spent a few years in the state prison system.
Over the past six years, DeLuca, now 66, has worked at the SideBar & Grill, a small restaurant and nightclub at the corner of Dorrance and Pine streets. The establishment’s owner is lawyer Artin H. Coloian, once a top aide to ex-Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.
Coloian hired DeLuca back in 2006 when he was in a work-release program at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He remained a fixture at the restaurant after he completed his prison sentence. He was often seen hanging out with Coloian or puffing a cigar as the two strolled down Dorrance Street.
Coloian, who has defended DeLuca in the past, insisted that his client is not cooperating with the federal authorities, but he refused to say whether he’s still employed at his restaurant.
“I’m not obligated to tell you who my employees are or are not,” he said, adding that he would not disclose the last time he saw the mobster.
Thanks to W. Zachary Malinowski
That’s the question that has been on the minds of mobsters, law-enforcement officials and followers of organized crime since four mobsters and mob associates were indicted last week on federal racketeering and extortion charges for shaking down several strip clubs and collecting $25,000 from a woman they threatened at work. But the indictment makes no mention of Robert P. “Bobby” DeLuca Sr., a major player in the New England La Cosa Nostra for more than three decades.
In papers filed in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors noted that “made members” of the mob have cooperated with them in their investigation, and they have and will continue to rely on them in the prosecution of Edward C. Lato and Alfred “Chippy” Scivola Jr., made members of the New England mob, along with mob associates Raymond “Scarface” Jenkins and Albino “Albie” Folcarelli.
“During the course of this investigation, the FBI has developed additional witnesses, including formally initiated or made members of the New England La Cosa Nostra, who will testify that the [mob] exists, and will further testify about the activities of its members,” the papers say.
The prosecutors, William Ferland and Sam Nazzaro, also wrote that “these witnesses” will testify about the secret mob initiation ceremony in which the “made men” take a blood oath of loyalty to omerta, otherwise known as La Cosa Nostra’s code of silence. Part of the oath requires the mobsters to engage in acts of violence, including murder, when called upon by ranking members of the criminal enterprise.
DeLuca is an expert on mob initiations. In 1989, he was one of several mobsters, including then-mob boss Raymond J. “Junior” Patriarca, whom the FBI captured on tape during an induction ceremony in a house outside of Boston. DeLuca was one of the mobsters who, that day, became a “made man,” or full-fledged member of La Cosa Nostra.
The recording was the first time the FBI had ever recorded a mob induction, and it has been played at countless mob trials to show that the Mafia does indeed exist.
DeLuca’s star rose quickly in the mob. Once a small-time hood, the now-inducted wiseguy hitched his wagon to Boston-based mob boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme. But the high times were short-lived. In 1996, DeLuca was sentenced to 10½ years in federal prison for his role in the shakedown of Paulie Calenda, a Cranston businessman and mob associate.
The jury was convinced at the colorful trial, featuring sobbing strippers, mob informants and gangland thugs, that Gerard T. Ouimette, a feared mob enforcer, threatened Calenda for a $125,000 extortion payment. The panel also concluded that Ouimette was acting under orders from DeLuca.
The court papers filed last week do not identify the cooperating mob witnesses in the recent sweep, but they have fueled plenty of speculation that DeLuca has switched allegiances and is now working for his longtime nemesis: the Justice Department.
It’s ironic that some believe DeLuca is now a government informant, an accusation he cast about 10 years ago against fellow mobster Anthony M. “The Saint” St. Laurent Sr.
The indignity of being called a turncoat so infuriated St. Laurent that he solicited a Taunton, Mass., man to kill DeLuca. St. Laurent, 70, who is in a wheelchair and has been seriously ill for more than a decade, was charged and convicted of orchestrating the murder-for-hire scheme. He was just sentenced to seven years in federal prison.
At a recent news conference announcing the indictment and arrests, Peter F. Neronha, the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, refused to identify DeLuca or anyone else as witnesses for the government. Instead, he said, that he would only discuss what was in the indictment.
Jim Martin, Neronha’s spokesman, issued a standard “no comment” to a series of questions about DeLuca.
Is DeLuca cooperating in the federal investigation? Has he joined the federal witness protection program? Are the federal authorities concerned about the safety of the mobster, his wife and two small children?
“No comment,” he said.
The same questions were posed to state police Supt. Steven G. O’Donnell, a longtime mob investigator who has tracked DeLuca’s criminal activities for more than 20 years.
“I can’t tell you if he’s cooperating or not,” he said. “I have no concerns for Bobby’s safety or anybody’s safety” who chooses a life of organized crime. “That’s the world they live in.”
In North Providence, there is no sign of DeLuca, his wife, Gina, a former hairdresser, or their two young children. At first, nobody thought much about not seeing him around. Each summer, he would travel to Saratoga Springs in August for the annual horse races, but this summer he never returned to his old haunts.
In June 2009, Gina DeLuca bought the large, 4,746-square-foot colonial-style house for $340,000 from Christina Schadone, wife of Rep. Gregory J. Schadone, D-North Providence. On Aug. 1, less than two months ago, the house next to Greystone Elementary School, was placed on the market for $335,000.
The furniture has been cleared out and little more remains than steel-brushed appliances and a chandelier in the front foyer.
Paul M. Martellini, the acting police chief in North Providence, said he knew that the mobster lived at the address, but his department has received no reports of foul play involving the DeLucas. He checked the department records and said that police responded to the house on the morning of July 1 for a false alarm. At the time, he said, the family was living there.
“We have had no contact with him other than the alarm,” Martellini said. “We didn’t know that he hasn’t been around.”
After DeLuca wrapped up his federal prison sentence, he returned to Rhode Island and spent a few years in the state prison system.
Over the past six years, DeLuca, now 66, has worked at the SideBar & Grill, a small restaurant and nightclub at the corner of Dorrance and Pine streets. The establishment’s owner is lawyer Artin H. Coloian, once a top aide to ex-Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.
Coloian hired DeLuca back in 2006 when he was in a work-release program at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He remained a fixture at the restaurant after he completed his prison sentence. He was often seen hanging out with Coloian or puffing a cigar as the two strolled down Dorrance Street.
Coloian, who has defended DeLuca in the past, insisted that his client is not cooperating with the federal authorities, but he refused to say whether he’s still employed at his restaurant.
“I’m not obligated to tell you who my employees are or are not,” he said, adding that he would not disclose the last time he saw the mobster.
Thanks to W. Zachary Malinowski
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Ken Burns: Prohbition
Ken Burns: Prohibition
is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.
The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality. Thugs became celebrities, responsible authority was rendered impotent. Social mores in place for a century were obliterated. Especially among the young, and most especially among young women, liquor consumption rocketed, propelling the rest of the culture with it: skirts shortened. Music heated up. America's Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp.
Prohibition turned law-abiding citizens into criminals, made a mockery of the justice system, caused illicit drinking to seem glamorous and fun, encouraged neighborhood gangs to become national crime syndicates, permitted government officials to bend and sometimes even break the law, and fostered cynicism and hypocrisy that corroded the social contract all across the country. With Prohibition in place, but ineffectively enforced, one observer noted, America had hardly freed itself from the scourge of alcohol abuse – instead, the "drys" had their law, while the "wets" had their liquor.
The story of Prohibition's rise and fall is a compelling saga that goes far beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum runners, flappers, and speakeasies, to reveal a complicated and divided nation in the throes of momentous transformation. The film raises vital questions that are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago – about means and ends, individual rights and responsibilities, the proper role of government and finally, who is — and who is not — a real American.
is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality. Thugs became celebrities, responsible authority was rendered impotent. Social mores in place for a century were obliterated. Especially among the young, and most especially among young women, liquor consumption rocketed, propelling the rest of the culture with it: skirts shortened. Music heated up. America's Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp.
Prohibition turned law-abiding citizens into criminals, made a mockery of the justice system, caused illicit drinking to seem glamorous and fun, encouraged neighborhood gangs to become national crime syndicates, permitted government officials to bend and sometimes even break the law, and fostered cynicism and hypocrisy that corroded the social contract all across the country. With Prohibition in place, but ineffectively enforced, one observer noted, America had hardly freed itself from the scourge of alcohol abuse – instead, the "drys" had their law, while the "wets" had their liquor.
The story of Prohibition's rise and fall is a compelling saga that goes far beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum runners, flappers, and speakeasies, to reveal a complicated and divided nation in the throes of momentous transformation. The film raises vital questions that are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago – about means and ends, individual rights and responsibilities, the proper role of government and finally, who is — and who is not — a real American.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Las Vegas Dinner with Real Mobsters
If you've ever wondered whether retired gangsters such as Henry Hill and Frank Cullotta know which fork to use at dinner, here's a chance to find out at point-blank range.
Next Tuesday, Hill and Cullotta will join their pal Tony Montana for a good old Italian feast at the restaurant inside the Royal Resort on Convention Center Drive. Tickets to what the mob wishes was their last supper are on sale at the hotel.
For Hill, who turned on his former compatriots in the Lucchese crime family in a life story that later became the subject of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas," the dinner is a chance to get together with friends, entertain some mob aficionados and make a little scratch in the process. No longer in the Witness Protection Program, he lives quietly in Southern California and spends much of his day painting and drawing. And maybe looking over his shoulder once in a while.
The motivation for the dinner is simple. Even a retired wiseguy has to earn a living -- and a legal one, unless he wants to return to prison.
"No. 1, I kind of enjoy it," Hill says. "I like to sit down with some of my fans, tell stories and let them get up close and personal with me. I don't get rich, but it pays my gas money to Vegas and back.
"It's a legitimate hustle."
For years as a loyal member of Lucchese capo Paul Vario's crew, Hill would have sprinted from legitimate work. He was too busy committing a long list of felonies, serving prison time and generally living the life of successful mob associate. Even after he testified against his old friends, he had difficulty staying out of trouble. But he has obviously slowed down as he has gotten older. He is 68 and has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. In the Witness Protection Program, he also had difficulty earning a legal living. Federal authorities weren't keen on him surfacing for book signings and spaghetti dinners with fascinated fans.
"I was forbidden to do it by the Witness Protection people and the FBI," he says. "But I had to earn a living."
And unless you're an undertaker, there aren't a lot of square employment possibilities for guys with expertise in burying bodies.
His celebrity as a former hoodlum not only helps keep a roof over his head, it's taking him to the Sands convention center in October for a signing at the World Gaming Expo. Later this year, he'll meet fans in England.
He also gets to Las Vegas to play the slots. But times have changed for the former big-tipping gangster. He mostly plays quarters and observes wryly that it's a long way between drink comps at some Strip properties that cater to high rollers.
Cullotta, meanwhile, is the former Anthony Spilotro pal and admitted killer who eventually testified against his childhood friend. The fact Spilotro was looking to eliminate him might have been a motivating factor for Cullotta.
Of the three, Montana has remained most under the radar. The former Chicago Outfit and Spilotro associate is also the former proprietor of a dandy Italian restaurant at the Boulder City Hotel. Montana knows his marinara as well as he knows his mobsters.
Hill says of his new running mates in organized-crime marketing, "We're like the Three Amigos."
You know, only with felony records.
Speaking of felonious fellows, I hear former Gambino soldier Andrew DiDonato, also the author of a tell-all biography, will make an appearance at the mobster meatball fest.
While some locals will surely be repulsed by the concept, Hill notes, "A lot of people are fascinated with it. They're fans. To tell you the truth, I enjoy meeting them and seeing them have a good time."
Between his painting and public appearances, Hill sounds like he's finally found his niche outside the underworld.
"What can I say?" he says. "It keeps me out of trouble."
Thanks to John L. Smith
Next Tuesday, Hill and Cullotta will join their pal Tony Montana for a good old Italian feast at the restaurant inside the Royal Resort on Convention Center Drive. Tickets to what the mob wishes was their last supper are on sale at the hotel.
For Hill, who turned on his former compatriots in the Lucchese crime family in a life story that later became the subject of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas," the dinner is a chance to get together with friends, entertain some mob aficionados and make a little scratch in the process. No longer in the Witness Protection Program, he lives quietly in Southern California and spends much of his day painting and drawing. And maybe looking over his shoulder once in a while.
The motivation for the dinner is simple. Even a retired wiseguy has to earn a living -- and a legal one, unless he wants to return to prison.
"No. 1, I kind of enjoy it," Hill says. "I like to sit down with some of my fans, tell stories and let them get up close and personal with me. I don't get rich, but it pays my gas money to Vegas and back.
"It's a legitimate hustle."
For years as a loyal member of Lucchese capo Paul Vario's crew, Hill would have sprinted from legitimate work. He was too busy committing a long list of felonies, serving prison time and generally living the life of successful mob associate. Even after he testified against his old friends, he had difficulty staying out of trouble. But he has obviously slowed down as he has gotten older. He is 68 and has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. In the Witness Protection Program, he also had difficulty earning a legal living. Federal authorities weren't keen on him surfacing for book signings and spaghetti dinners with fascinated fans.
"I was forbidden to do it by the Witness Protection people and the FBI," he says. "But I had to earn a living."
And unless you're an undertaker, there aren't a lot of square employment possibilities for guys with expertise in burying bodies.
His celebrity as a former hoodlum not only helps keep a roof over his head, it's taking him to the Sands convention center in October for a signing at the World Gaming Expo. Later this year, he'll meet fans in England.
He also gets to Las Vegas to play the slots. But times have changed for the former big-tipping gangster. He mostly plays quarters and observes wryly that it's a long way between drink comps at some Strip properties that cater to high rollers.
Cullotta, meanwhile, is the former Anthony Spilotro pal and admitted killer who eventually testified against his childhood friend. The fact Spilotro was looking to eliminate him might have been a motivating factor for Cullotta.
Of the three, Montana has remained most under the radar. The former Chicago Outfit and Spilotro associate is also the former proprietor of a dandy Italian restaurant at the Boulder City Hotel. Montana knows his marinara as well as he knows his mobsters.
Hill says of his new running mates in organized-crime marketing, "We're like the Three Amigos."
You know, only with felony records.
Speaking of felonious fellows, I hear former Gambino soldier Andrew DiDonato, also the author of a tell-all biography, will make an appearance at the mobster meatball fest.
While some locals will surely be repulsed by the concept, Hill notes, "A lot of people are fascinated with it. They're fans. To tell you the truth, I enjoy meeting them and seeing them have a good time."
Between his painting and public appearances, Hill sounds like he's finally found his niche outside the underworld.
"What can I say?" he says. "It keeps me out of trouble."
Thanks to John L. Smith
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