We were a little too quick on the trigger to give traditional organized crime its last rites. And why not?
Over the past 20 years, armies of Goodfellas have ratted out their fellow mobsters. And the men who stuck with omerta? They’re in jail or rotting in a graveyard.
In some U.S. cities, the mob is nothing more than a bunch of old boys playing pinochle, kibitzing about the good old days. But from the 1920s to the 1980s, the mob was “bigger than U.S. Steel” in the words of underworld sage, Meyer Lansky. As American as apple pie.
Two stories over the past week ended the fiction the Mafia is toe-tagged in the morgue.
First, New York’s Five Families were abuzz — and somewhat fearful — at the release of Gene Gotti.
You know the name. The 71-year-old younger brother of John “The Teflon Don” Gotti was sprung after a 29-year jolt in the big house.
What law enforcement insiders told the New York Post is that it’s taken the Gambinos and others 20 years to recover from the disastrous John Gotti years. That era kicked off with a spectacular rubout of Gambino mob chief Paul “Big Paulie” Castellano in front of Manhattan’s Sparks Steakhouse in 1985.
John Gotti brought a lot of unwanted attention to the crime empires and the downward spiral began.
That meant heat and the late 20th-century implosion of the Mafia as we once knew it. But like the Viet Cong, just when you think it’s over, they pop out of a bush and put a cap where the sun don’t shine.
Gene Gotti’s return would set back the clock of criminality. “The Gambinos are running smoothly – gambling, pills, construction unions, etc.,” one law enforcement official told the New York Post. “The last thing they want is someone to put them back in papers and on TV.”
And it’s not just the American Mafia’s Big Apple heartland showing new signs of life.
In Canada, it appears a bloody, old-fashioned gang war is unfolding from Montreal to southern Ontario.
The latest salvo was a classic gangland-style hit on Hamilton real estate broker Albert “Al” Iavarone, 50, shot to death in the driveway of his Ancaster home two weeks ago. Iavarone didn’t have a criminal record and wasn’t a member but as mom cautioned, “careful of the company you keep.”
That emerged on Thursday as Hamilton cops announced they had made an arrest in the 2017 murders of mob prince Angelo Musitano and veterinary assistant Mila Barberi. Musitano had reportedly found God and had long gone straight. Barberi picked the wrong boyfriend, Saverio Serrano, 41, the son of mob figure Diego Serrano. He was wounded in the Vaughan attack.
Cops say Iavarone was close to two of the accused killers. Very close to one.
Police have repeatedly alluded to a power struggle among the established Calabrese clans in the GTA and newer ‘Ndràngheta upstarts. And there will be blood.
“Many ‘Ndrangheta cells in GTA and Italy are involved in a violent fight,” Dubro said.
“This is a big story of a major and very deadly Calabrian mob fight for coke territory and power in GTA/southern Ontario.”
Dubro adds that it’s all connected. He suggested an Iavarone relative may have pulled the trigger on Ang Musitano and it’s payback on drugs and a personal beef.
“There’s lots of moving parts in this mob war — a complex cast of characters from the GTA, Italy, USA, Mexico and Canada.”
Dead? Not by a long shot.
Thanks to Brad Hunter.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Joseph Datello of the Luchese Crime Family Pleads Guilty to Murder and Numerous Acts of Racketeering and Attempted Murder of a Witness
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JOSEPH DATELLO pled guilty before United States District Judge Cathy Seibel to numerous acts of racketeering, including attempting to kill a witness against him. In May 2017, DATELLO and 18 other members and associates of the Luchese Family of La Cosa Nostra were arrested and charged in a nine-count Indictment. Since the unsealing of the Indictment, DATELLO and 12 other defendants have pled guilty, and have been or will be sentenced by Judge Seibel.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Witness safety is paramount to ensuring the prosecution of criminal organizations. Thanks to the FBI’s Joint Organized Crime Task Force, who uncovered Datello’s crimes without risking the security of the witness, Datello now faces life in prison for threatening a federal witness.”
According to the plea agreement DATELLO signed as part of his guilty plea, his statements when pleading guilty, the allegations in the Indictment, and statements made in related court filings and proceedings:
In 2002, an individual (the “Witness”) who had been working with DATELLO and Steven L. Crea, a leader in the Luchese Family, provided information to state and federal authorities concerning DATELLO’s and Crea’s participation in racketeering activity. That information, and other evidence, led to the successful prosecution of DATELLO, Crea, and others. In October 2016, DATELLO learned information that he thought revealed the Witness’s current whereabouts. DATELLO travelled to what he believed was the Witness’s address and waited there, trying to find the Witness. Had DATELLO found the Witness, he intended, with the blessing of Crea, to kill the Witness.
Crea is also charged with attempting to have the Witness killed, and other crimes, and is scheduled to begin trial before Judge Seibel in 2019.
DATELLO, 67, of Staten Island, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, and as part of that plea admitted racketeering acts including the attempted murder of the Witness, narcotics trafficking, and collecting debts through the threat of violence. These crimes carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. DATELLO will be sentenced before Judge Seibel.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Witness safety is paramount to ensuring the prosecution of criminal organizations. Thanks to the FBI’s Joint Organized Crime Task Force, who uncovered Datello’s crimes without risking the security of the witness, Datello now faces life in prison for threatening a federal witness.”
According to the plea agreement DATELLO signed as part of his guilty plea, his statements when pleading guilty, the allegations in the Indictment, and statements made in related court filings and proceedings:
In 2002, an individual (the “Witness”) who had been working with DATELLO and Steven L. Crea, a leader in the Luchese Family, provided information to state and federal authorities concerning DATELLO’s and Crea’s participation in racketeering activity. That information, and other evidence, led to the successful prosecution of DATELLO, Crea, and others. In October 2016, DATELLO learned information that he thought revealed the Witness’s current whereabouts. DATELLO travelled to what he believed was the Witness’s address and waited there, trying to find the Witness. Had DATELLO found the Witness, he intended, with the blessing of Crea, to kill the Witness.
Crea is also charged with attempting to have the Witness killed, and other crimes, and is scheduled to begin trial before Judge Seibel in 2019.
DATELLO, 67, of Staten Island, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, and as part of that plea admitted racketeering acts including the attempted murder of the Witness, narcotics trafficking, and collecting debts through the threat of violence. These crimes carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. DATELLO will be sentenced before Judge Seibel.
Rahm Emanuel Undermines Frontline Officers with Rants of @Chicago_Police Code of Silence for Political Gain, Then Pays City Expert to Say It Does Not Exist
Under fire for how his administration handled the Laquan McDonald shooting, Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2015 gave an emotional speech before the Chicago City Council acknowledging a “code of silence” allowed police to cover up misconduct.
Since then, however, Emanuel’s Law Department on five separate occasions has fought police misconduct lawsuits with the help of a hired expert witness who has testified a widespread code of silence does not exist, according to an analysis of city records by the Better Government Association and NBC5 Investigates.
The city’s efforts ultimately proved futile, costing taxpayers nearly $70 million in judgments, settlements and legal fees in four of those cases. In addition, the city has paid the expert witness — former Irvine, California, deputy police chief Jeffrey J. Noble — more than $165,000 since Emanuel gave his speech.
Attorney Jeff Neslund successfully litigated one of the lawsuits on behalf of two brothers and a sister who were shot by a Chicago police officer at a party in the early-morning hours on New Year’s Day 2014. A jury awarded them $4.75 million.
“It’s intellectually dishonest to say one thing to the public but then in private litigation, to fight it tooth and nail, to hire experts and pay them an exorbitant amount of money to contest and deny what you’re saying publicly,” said Neslund, who also represented McDonald’s family.
Emanuel made the famous “code of silence” speech on Dec. 9, 2015, just weeks after a Cook County judge forced the mayor’s administration to release dashcam video from the October 2014 showing Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times on the city’s Southwest Side.
“The problem is sometimes referred to as the thin blue line,” Emanuel said in his speech before a crowded council chambers and broadcast live across the city. “The problem is other times referred to as the code of silence. It is this tendency to ignore. It is the tendency to deny. It is the tendency in some cases to cover up the bad actions of a colleague or colleagues. No officer should be allowed to behave as if they are above the law just because they are responsible for upholding the law.”
Noble, who has written extensively about policing and the code of silence, subsequently minimized these remarks in a separate police misconduct case, testifying that Emanuel’s speech represented the mayor’s “personal belief” but was inconsistent with what Noble learned in his review of city police practices. “He spoke as a mayor,” Noble said. “He’s an elected official, so he speaks — he speaks on behalf of the people that he’s an elected official, sure.”
On the same day the dashcam video was released, Cook County prosecutors filed murder charges against Van Dyke, whose trial is ongoing at the criminal courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue. Before Emanuel’s administration fought the video’s release, the mayor signed off on a $5 million city payment to McDonald’s family even though family members had not filed a lawsuit.
The video’s release sparked government and political upheaval across the city, including waves of protests, a federal investigation into Chicago policing, an overhaul of how the city conducts internal police misconduct probes and Emanuel’s firing of Garry McCarthy as police superintendent.
McCarthy is planning to run for mayor next year. Emanuel, meanwhile, dropped out of running for a third term in a bombshell announcement just days before Van Dyke’s trial started.
Emanuel administration officials said there was no inconsistency between Emanuel's comments and Noble’s testimony.
“The reports and testimony provided by Mr. Noble reflect his conclusions in individual cases and his testimony does not contradict the mayor’s statement regarding a code of silence,” according to a statement from Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey. “Any suggestion that it does is simply posturing by plaintiffs’ attorneys as part of an attempt to litigate through the media instead of the courts.”
McCaffrey pointed to testimony Noble gave in another case where he highlighted that Emanuel never stated in his speech that the code of silence was “widespread or pervasive.”
“It is my opinion that there is no evidence of a widespread pattern, practice or custom of CPD officers engaging in a code of silence to the extent that an officer would believe they could engage in a constitutional violation with impunity,” Noble wrote.
Noble declined to comment for this story.
Nationwide, Noble has either testified, filed written reports or provided sworn depositions in more than 100 police misconduct cases. In many of those cases he has worked on behalf of cities or police departments, but he also has worked for attorneys representing plaintiffs suing police.
In one high-profile case, Noble served as an expert witness for the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer in November 2014 while playing with a pellet gun on a playground. But in Chicago, Noble has consistently worked as an expert for the city, which records show has paid him more than $328,000 over the past eight years. In all, he has weighed in on at least 26 police misconduct lawsuits on behalf of the city, including the five that involved code of silence allegations after Emanuel decried the problem in his 2015 speech, city records show.
On behalf of the plaintiffs, Chicago-based law firm Loevy & Loevy litigated several of these lawsuits. Attorney Matt Topic works for the law firm and is the outside general counsel for the BGA. Topic was not involved in any of the police misconduct cases and did not assist the BGA/NBC5 in the reporting of this story.
Before Emanuel’s speech, Noble on at least four separate occasions denied the existence of a code of silence in acting on the city’s behalf. One instance involved a lawsuit filed by Karolina Obrycka, a Northwest Side bartender who in 2007 was severely beaten by an off-duty Chicago police officer. Noble also contributed to the city’s defense of a lawsuit brought by Madison Hobley, a former death row inmate who claimed former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and others tortured him into confessing.
City records show Noble is generally paid an hourly rate of $245 plus $2,750 for every day he provides expert testimony in depositions or trials. In addition, the city covers the costs of Noble’s airfare and lodging, according to invoices obtained through an open-records request.
One of Noble’s most recent cases was the civil trial of Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly, who a jury ruled used his service weapon to shoot his friend Michael LaPorta in the back of the head. The shooting occurred at Kelly’s home in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood after the two men had spent the night drinking at area bars.
LaPorta’s attorneys argued the code of silence played a key role behind Kelly’s actions because the officer felt emboldened to act with impunity and wasn’t seriously punished for prior misdeeds by his police bosses.
When the case went to trial in 2017, Noble took the stand on behalf of the city and denied the existence of a widespread code of silence.
He defined the term as a form of “social solidarity” where groups of people “try to protect others by failing to report what is obvious misconduct.” He said the police department discourages code of silence behavior because the city has policies that require officers to be truthful and to report misconduct. As evidence, he noted that more than 70 police officers were disciplined or resigned from 2008 to 2013 for breaking these rules.
In court papers filed by the city responding to LaPorta’s claims, Emanuel qualified the comment he made in his speech about the code of silence. Emanuel said those comments were based on his “own general belief and understanding,” and not “knowledge or information” he gained as mayor.
At the end of the trial, on Oct. 26, 2017, a jury ruled in LaPorta’s favor, awarding him a $44.7 million judgment. While the jury did not reach a unanimous decision on the code of silence issue, it did determine the police department had pervasive problems identifying misconduct, as well as investigating and disciplining some officers. A federal judge recently upheld the judgment and also ordered the city to pay an additional $2.5 million in legal fees.
One of LaPorta's attorneys, Antonio Romanucci, said in an interview with the Better Government Association and NBC-5 that contradictory messaging is an attempt to “pull the wool over the community’s eyes.”
“There is no question that in my opinion the community message that the mayor gives is different than the message that is given in a courtroom and the experts that it hires to testify when its officers commit misdeeds,” he said.
Noble also filed a report in a code of silence lawsuit against the city after a drunken off-duty homicide detective, Joseph Frugoli, in 2009 slammed his SUV into the back of a car pulled over on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Two men inside the car died.
Attorneys representing the families of the victims raised a code of silence argument in the case, alleging Frugoli thought he could drink and drive without legal consequences because his fellow officers had previously protected him. During the trial, the lawyers for the families specifically highlighted Emanuel’s comments about the code of silence being pervasive in his department. But in his report for the city in the case, Noble declared it was not at all pervasive.
’“The code of silence may exist at some level in all police agencies and when it does manifest it contributes immensely to incidents of abuse of citizens by the police,” Noble wrote in March 2016. “However, the fact that a few officers have engaged in a code of silence does not amount to an unwritten policy, practice or custom within the agency itself.”
Frugoli was eventually convicted of aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of a fatal accident and was sentenced to eight years in prison. The city settled the lawsuit and has paid $15 million to the men’s families.
Kevin Conway, an attorney who represented one of the families, said Noble’s report was in keeping with a broader legal strategy Conway has seen many times from the city’s Law Department.
“I think the city had a party line,” Conway said. “It was part of the party line.”
Thanks to Casey Toner.
Since then, however, Emanuel’s Law Department on five separate occasions has fought police misconduct lawsuits with the help of a hired expert witness who has testified a widespread code of silence does not exist, according to an analysis of city records by the Better Government Association and NBC5 Investigates.
The city’s efforts ultimately proved futile, costing taxpayers nearly $70 million in judgments, settlements and legal fees in four of those cases. In addition, the city has paid the expert witness — former Irvine, California, deputy police chief Jeffrey J. Noble — more than $165,000 since Emanuel gave his speech.
Attorney Jeff Neslund successfully litigated one of the lawsuits on behalf of two brothers and a sister who were shot by a Chicago police officer at a party in the early-morning hours on New Year’s Day 2014. A jury awarded them $4.75 million.
“It’s intellectually dishonest to say one thing to the public but then in private litigation, to fight it tooth and nail, to hire experts and pay them an exorbitant amount of money to contest and deny what you’re saying publicly,” said Neslund, who also represented McDonald’s family.
Emanuel made the famous “code of silence” speech on Dec. 9, 2015, just weeks after a Cook County judge forced the mayor’s administration to release dashcam video from the October 2014 showing Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times on the city’s Southwest Side.
“The problem is sometimes referred to as the thin blue line,” Emanuel said in his speech before a crowded council chambers and broadcast live across the city. “The problem is other times referred to as the code of silence. It is this tendency to ignore. It is the tendency to deny. It is the tendency in some cases to cover up the bad actions of a colleague or colleagues. No officer should be allowed to behave as if they are above the law just because they are responsible for upholding the law.”
Noble, who has written extensively about policing and the code of silence, subsequently minimized these remarks in a separate police misconduct case, testifying that Emanuel’s speech represented the mayor’s “personal belief” but was inconsistent with what Noble learned in his review of city police practices. “He spoke as a mayor,” Noble said. “He’s an elected official, so he speaks — he speaks on behalf of the people that he’s an elected official, sure.”
On the same day the dashcam video was released, Cook County prosecutors filed murder charges against Van Dyke, whose trial is ongoing at the criminal courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue. Before Emanuel’s administration fought the video’s release, the mayor signed off on a $5 million city payment to McDonald’s family even though family members had not filed a lawsuit.
The video’s release sparked government and political upheaval across the city, including waves of protests, a federal investigation into Chicago policing, an overhaul of how the city conducts internal police misconduct probes and Emanuel’s firing of Garry McCarthy as police superintendent.
McCarthy is planning to run for mayor next year. Emanuel, meanwhile, dropped out of running for a third term in a bombshell announcement just days before Van Dyke’s trial started.
Emanuel administration officials said there was no inconsistency between Emanuel's comments and Noble’s testimony.
“The reports and testimony provided by Mr. Noble reflect his conclusions in individual cases and his testimony does not contradict the mayor’s statement regarding a code of silence,” according to a statement from Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey. “Any suggestion that it does is simply posturing by plaintiffs’ attorneys as part of an attempt to litigate through the media instead of the courts.”
McCaffrey pointed to testimony Noble gave in another case where he highlighted that Emanuel never stated in his speech that the code of silence was “widespread or pervasive.”
“It is my opinion that there is no evidence of a widespread pattern, practice or custom of CPD officers engaging in a code of silence to the extent that an officer would believe they could engage in a constitutional violation with impunity,” Noble wrote.
Noble declined to comment for this story.
Nationwide, Noble has either testified, filed written reports or provided sworn depositions in more than 100 police misconduct cases. In many of those cases he has worked on behalf of cities or police departments, but he also has worked for attorneys representing plaintiffs suing police.
In one high-profile case, Noble served as an expert witness for the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer in November 2014 while playing with a pellet gun on a playground. But in Chicago, Noble has consistently worked as an expert for the city, which records show has paid him more than $328,000 over the past eight years. In all, he has weighed in on at least 26 police misconduct lawsuits on behalf of the city, including the five that involved code of silence allegations after Emanuel decried the problem in his 2015 speech, city records show.
On behalf of the plaintiffs, Chicago-based law firm Loevy & Loevy litigated several of these lawsuits. Attorney Matt Topic works for the law firm and is the outside general counsel for the BGA. Topic was not involved in any of the police misconduct cases and did not assist the BGA/NBC5 in the reporting of this story.
Before Emanuel’s speech, Noble on at least four separate occasions denied the existence of a code of silence in acting on the city’s behalf. One instance involved a lawsuit filed by Karolina Obrycka, a Northwest Side bartender who in 2007 was severely beaten by an off-duty Chicago police officer. Noble also contributed to the city’s defense of a lawsuit brought by Madison Hobley, a former death row inmate who claimed former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and others tortured him into confessing.
City records show Noble is generally paid an hourly rate of $245 plus $2,750 for every day he provides expert testimony in depositions or trials. In addition, the city covers the costs of Noble’s airfare and lodging, according to invoices obtained through an open-records request.
One of Noble’s most recent cases was the civil trial of Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly, who a jury ruled used his service weapon to shoot his friend Michael LaPorta in the back of the head. The shooting occurred at Kelly’s home in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood after the two men had spent the night drinking at area bars.
LaPorta’s attorneys argued the code of silence played a key role behind Kelly’s actions because the officer felt emboldened to act with impunity and wasn’t seriously punished for prior misdeeds by his police bosses.
When the case went to trial in 2017, Noble took the stand on behalf of the city and denied the existence of a widespread code of silence.
He defined the term as a form of “social solidarity” where groups of people “try to protect others by failing to report what is obvious misconduct.” He said the police department discourages code of silence behavior because the city has policies that require officers to be truthful and to report misconduct. As evidence, he noted that more than 70 police officers were disciplined or resigned from 2008 to 2013 for breaking these rules.
In court papers filed by the city responding to LaPorta’s claims, Emanuel qualified the comment he made in his speech about the code of silence. Emanuel said those comments were based on his “own general belief and understanding,” and not “knowledge or information” he gained as mayor.
At the end of the trial, on Oct. 26, 2017, a jury ruled in LaPorta’s favor, awarding him a $44.7 million judgment. While the jury did not reach a unanimous decision on the code of silence issue, it did determine the police department had pervasive problems identifying misconduct, as well as investigating and disciplining some officers. A federal judge recently upheld the judgment and also ordered the city to pay an additional $2.5 million in legal fees.
One of LaPorta's attorneys, Antonio Romanucci, said in an interview with the Better Government Association and NBC-5 that contradictory messaging is an attempt to “pull the wool over the community’s eyes.”
“There is no question that in my opinion the community message that the mayor gives is different than the message that is given in a courtroom and the experts that it hires to testify when its officers commit misdeeds,” he said.
Noble also filed a report in a code of silence lawsuit against the city after a drunken off-duty homicide detective, Joseph Frugoli, in 2009 slammed his SUV into the back of a car pulled over on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Two men inside the car died.
Attorneys representing the families of the victims raised a code of silence argument in the case, alleging Frugoli thought he could drink and drive without legal consequences because his fellow officers had previously protected him. During the trial, the lawyers for the families specifically highlighted Emanuel’s comments about the code of silence being pervasive in his department. But in his report for the city in the case, Noble declared it was not at all pervasive.
’“The code of silence may exist at some level in all police agencies and when it does manifest it contributes immensely to incidents of abuse of citizens by the police,” Noble wrote in March 2016. “However, the fact that a few officers have engaged in a code of silence does not amount to an unwritten policy, practice or custom within the agency itself.”
Frugoli was eventually convicted of aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of a fatal accident and was sentenced to eight years in prison. The city settled the lawsuit and has paid $15 million to the men’s families.
Kevin Conway, an attorney who represented one of the families, said Noble’s report was in keeping with a broader legal strategy Conway has seen many times from the city’s Law Department.
“I think the city had a party line,” Conway said. “It was part of the party line.”
Thanks to Casey Toner.
MS-13 Gang Member and Illegal Alien Pleads Guilty to Racketeering and Quadruple Murder
Freiry Martinez, a member of the Herndon City Locos Salvatruchas clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in connection with his participation in the April 11, 2017 murders of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos. The guilty plea was entered before United States District Judge Joseph F. Bianco.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Geraldine Hart, Commissioner, Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD), and Patrick J. Ryder, Commissioner, Nassau County Police Department (NCPD), announced the guilty plea.
Martinez, who is now 17 years old and was 15 years and 11 months old at the time of the April 11 murders, initially was charged by a juvenile information that was filed under seal in the Eastern District of New York on July 10, 2017. Martinez fled from New York to Virginia and later to Maryland after the April 11 murders, and remained a fugitive until November 21, 2017, when he was arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland. Martinez, an illegal alien from El Salvador, subsequently was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and removed to the Eastern District of New York in custody by the United States Marshals Service. Following the government’s application to transfer Martinez to adult status for prosecution, the motion was granted today by Judge Bianco.
“Prosecution by prosecution, defendant by defendant, we are dismantling the MS-13 through an effort that will not end until they are ended,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue. “The unwavering resolve of the Eastern District, the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force and all our law enforcement partners will bring justice for the victims and the perpetrators alike.” Mr. Donoghue extended his sincere appreciation to the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Montgomery County Police Department and Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office for assisting in this investigation.
“Most 15-year-olds are worried about a chemistry test at school or making the football team, not plotting a grotesque attack and murder of four other teenagers,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “Our work with our law enforcement partners on the FBI Long Island Gang Task Force is proof a combined and concentrated effort to combat the evil that is MS-13 will work to stop more senseless murders. We want to assure the community we won’t let up in our pursuit of rounding up these gang members and stopping them from terrorizing neighborhoods on Long Island.”
“This guilty plea is a result of the dedicated work and collaboration of the Suffolk County Police Department, the Long Island Gang Task Force and the Eastern District,” stated SCPD Commissioner Hart. “We applaud the effort of prosecutors to ensure that Martinez would be tried as an adult to face the stiffest penalties possible. The deaths of these four young men committed at the hands of MS-13 gang members is incomprehensible and we hope today’s plea will send a clear message to gang members that we will not waver or tire from our commitment to dismantle gangs in Suffolk County. It is our hope that holding these perpetrators accountable will bring some measure of comfort and healing to the victims’ friends and families.”
“Due to the exceptional work by all of the law enforcement investigators involved and their agencies, Defendant Freiry Martinez will not be able to terrorize our communities and residents any longer,” stated NCPD Commissioner Ryder. “We have four families that have lost loved ones to the hands of MS-13 in these brutal and senseless killings. Rest assured, we will continue to engage this violence with our zero tolerance approach and will continue to remove these offenders from our streets.”
According to court filings and statements by the defendant at the guilty plea proceeding, on the evening of April 11, 2017, two female associates of the MS-13 lured five young men, including the four victims, to a community park in Central Islip at the direction of Martinez and other MS-13 members. The MS-13 members believed the victims to be members of a rival gang who were disrespectful toward the MS-13. Martinez and several MS-13 members and associates met in a wooded area behind the park where they distributed weapons, discussed the plan to kill the victims and then awaited their arrival. Once the female MS-13 associates arrived at the park, they led the victims to a wooded area and sent the MS-13 members a text message describing their location. Pursuant to their previously devised plan, Martinez and the other MS-13 members and associates surrounded the victims and killed Llivicura, Lopez, Tigre and Villalobos using machetes, knives and wooden clubs. The fifth intended victim escaped. After the attack, Martinez and his associates dragged the victims’ bodies to a more secluded spot and fled. The victims’ bodies were discovered the following evening.
When sentenced, Martinez faces a maximum of life in prison. Upon completion of his sentence, he faces deportation from the United States.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Geraldine Hart, Commissioner, Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD), and Patrick J. Ryder, Commissioner, Nassau County Police Department (NCPD), announced the guilty plea.
Martinez, who is now 17 years old and was 15 years and 11 months old at the time of the April 11 murders, initially was charged by a juvenile information that was filed under seal in the Eastern District of New York on July 10, 2017. Martinez fled from New York to Virginia and later to Maryland after the April 11 murders, and remained a fugitive until November 21, 2017, when he was arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland. Martinez, an illegal alien from El Salvador, subsequently was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and removed to the Eastern District of New York in custody by the United States Marshals Service. Following the government’s application to transfer Martinez to adult status for prosecution, the motion was granted today by Judge Bianco.
“Prosecution by prosecution, defendant by defendant, we are dismantling the MS-13 through an effort that will not end until they are ended,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue. “The unwavering resolve of the Eastern District, the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force and all our law enforcement partners will bring justice for the victims and the perpetrators alike.” Mr. Donoghue extended his sincere appreciation to the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Montgomery County Police Department and Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office for assisting in this investigation.
“Most 15-year-olds are worried about a chemistry test at school or making the football team, not plotting a grotesque attack and murder of four other teenagers,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “Our work with our law enforcement partners on the FBI Long Island Gang Task Force is proof a combined and concentrated effort to combat the evil that is MS-13 will work to stop more senseless murders. We want to assure the community we won’t let up in our pursuit of rounding up these gang members and stopping them from terrorizing neighborhoods on Long Island.”
“This guilty plea is a result of the dedicated work and collaboration of the Suffolk County Police Department, the Long Island Gang Task Force and the Eastern District,” stated SCPD Commissioner Hart. “We applaud the effort of prosecutors to ensure that Martinez would be tried as an adult to face the stiffest penalties possible. The deaths of these four young men committed at the hands of MS-13 gang members is incomprehensible and we hope today’s plea will send a clear message to gang members that we will not waver or tire from our commitment to dismantle gangs in Suffolk County. It is our hope that holding these perpetrators accountable will bring some measure of comfort and healing to the victims’ friends and families.”
“Due to the exceptional work by all of the law enforcement investigators involved and their agencies, Defendant Freiry Martinez will not be able to terrorize our communities and residents any longer,” stated NCPD Commissioner Ryder. “We have four families that have lost loved ones to the hands of MS-13 in these brutal and senseless killings. Rest assured, we will continue to engage this violence with our zero tolerance approach and will continue to remove these offenders from our streets.”
According to court filings and statements by the defendant at the guilty plea proceeding, on the evening of April 11, 2017, two female associates of the MS-13 lured five young men, including the four victims, to a community park in Central Islip at the direction of Martinez and other MS-13 members. The MS-13 members believed the victims to be members of a rival gang who were disrespectful toward the MS-13. Martinez and several MS-13 members and associates met in a wooded area behind the park where they distributed weapons, discussed the plan to kill the victims and then awaited their arrival. Once the female MS-13 associates arrived at the park, they led the victims to a wooded area and sent the MS-13 members a text message describing their location. Pursuant to their previously devised plan, Martinez and the other MS-13 members and associates surrounded the victims and killed Llivicura, Lopez, Tigre and Villalobos using machetes, knives and wooden clubs. The fifth intended victim escaped. After the attack, Martinez and his associates dragged the victims’ bodies to a more secluded spot and fled. The victims’ bodies were discovered the following evening.
When sentenced, Martinez faces a maximum of life in prison. Upon completion of his sentence, he faces deportation from the United States.
Monday, September 24, 2018
Gangster Disciple and Member of #BlackOutSquad Sentenced to 30 Years Imprisonment for Racketeering Conspiracy and Gun Violence
A Gangster Disciples gang member was sentenced to 360 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for participating in a racketeering conspiracy and for using, and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
U. S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant of the Western District of Tennessee, Special Agent in Charge M.A. Myers of the FBI’s Memphis Division and Special Agent in Charge Marcus Watson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Memphis Field Division, made the announcement.
Tommy Earl Champion, Jr., aka "Duct Tape," 29, of Jackson Tennessee, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. Champion previously pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said, "Dismantlement of criminal gangs is a top priority of the Department of Justice, and this case represents the collaborative efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement to target and remove a significant violent participant in the Gangster Disciples organization. "Duct Tape" is now stuck with a 30-year sentence for his violent crimes. We are taking the fight to the gangs in West Tennessee, and we are relentless in our resolve."
According to the indictment, the Gangster Disciples is a highly organized national gang active in more than 35 states. The scope of the Gangster Disciples’ crimes is wide-ranging and consistent throughout its national operation. The gang protects its power through threats, intimidation and violence, including murder, attempted murder, assault and obstruction of justice. The Gangster Disciples promotes its enterprise through member-only activities and provides financial and other support to members charged with or incarcerated for gang-related offenses.
According to court documents, Champion was a member of the Gangster Disciples and served on the gang’s "blackout squads" and "security teams." Champion was responsible for carrying out violent acts, including attempted murder, witness and victim intimidation, and assault, at the direction of senior Gangster Disciples leaders. Champion also participated in the other criminal activities of the Gangster Disciples enterprise, including narcotics distribution and weapons possession.
In addition to the racketeering conspiracy count, Champion was sentenced for using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, which, according to the indictment, occurred on June 12, 2014 in Jackson. The indictment states that the crime of violence was attempted murder, and that Champion and other gang members committed the crime for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing their position in the Gangster Disciple enterprise. There were seven victims of this attempted murder noted in the indictment. Champion had previously pleaded guilty on April 2.
U. S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant of the Western District of Tennessee, Special Agent in Charge M.A. Myers of the FBI’s Memphis Division and Special Agent in Charge Marcus Watson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Memphis Field Division, made the announcement.
Tommy Earl Champion, Jr., aka "Duct Tape," 29, of Jackson Tennessee, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. Champion previously pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said, "Dismantlement of criminal gangs is a top priority of the Department of Justice, and this case represents the collaborative efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement to target and remove a significant violent participant in the Gangster Disciples organization. "Duct Tape" is now stuck with a 30-year sentence for his violent crimes. We are taking the fight to the gangs in West Tennessee, and we are relentless in our resolve."
According to the indictment, the Gangster Disciples is a highly organized national gang active in more than 35 states. The scope of the Gangster Disciples’ crimes is wide-ranging and consistent throughout its national operation. The gang protects its power through threats, intimidation and violence, including murder, attempted murder, assault and obstruction of justice. The Gangster Disciples promotes its enterprise through member-only activities and provides financial and other support to members charged with or incarcerated for gang-related offenses.
According to court documents, Champion was a member of the Gangster Disciples and served on the gang’s "blackout squads" and "security teams." Champion was responsible for carrying out violent acts, including attempted murder, witness and victim intimidation, and assault, at the direction of senior Gangster Disciples leaders. Champion also participated in the other criminal activities of the Gangster Disciples enterprise, including narcotics distribution and weapons possession.
In addition to the racketeering conspiracy count, Champion was sentenced for using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, which, according to the indictment, occurred on June 12, 2014 in Jackson. The indictment states that the crime of violence was attempted murder, and that Champion and other gang members committed the crime for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing their position in the Gangster Disciple enterprise. There were seven victims of this attempted murder noted in the indictment. Champion had previously pleaded guilty on April 2.
Manche Boy #Mafia has 8th Member Sentenced to Prison on Conspiracy Charges
U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington has sentenced Aeon L. Graham (23, Tampa) to six years and nine months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and aggravated identity theft. Graham pleaded guilty on June 12, 2018.
According to court documents and statements made in open court, between at least 2015 and 2017, Graham and others affiliated with “Manche Boy Mafia” or “MBM” organization conspired to commit credit card fraud and identity theft in the Tampa Bay area. To facilitate the scheme, the conspirators purchased stolen credit and debit card account numbers online from various websites, some of which used bitcoin as their currency. They then purchased or stole reloadable gift cards and used machines to emboss the stolen account numbers and their own names on to the front of these altered gift cards, thereby producing counterfeit credit cards. The conspirators then used these counterfeit credit cards at various retailers around the Tampa Bay area to purchase gift cards and electronics, which they either kept or sold for cash.
Investigators determined that these individuals had engaged in hundreds of successful transactions with counterfeit credit cards, and had possessed and used thousands of stolen account numbers from individuals across the United States. In total, Graham was held responsible for more than $600,000 in intended or attempted purchases with counterfeit credit cards and stolen account information.
According to court documents and statements made in open court, between at least 2015 and 2017, Graham and others affiliated with “Manche Boy Mafia” or “MBM” organization conspired to commit credit card fraud and identity theft in the Tampa Bay area. To facilitate the scheme, the conspirators purchased stolen credit and debit card account numbers online from various websites, some of which used bitcoin as their currency. They then purchased or stole reloadable gift cards and used machines to emboss the stolen account numbers and their own names on to the front of these altered gift cards, thereby producing counterfeit credit cards. The conspirators then used these counterfeit credit cards at various retailers around the Tampa Bay area to purchase gift cards and electronics, which they either kept or sold for cash.
Investigators determined that these individuals had engaged in hundreds of successful transactions with counterfeit credit cards, and had possessed and used thousands of stolen account numbers from individuals across the United States. In total, Graham was held responsible for more than $600,000 in intended or attempted purchases with counterfeit credit cards and stolen account information.
Friday, September 21, 2018
Man Pleads Guilty to Impersonating a Mobster and Extorting Over $4 Million in Wide-ranging Plan
Tony John Evans, 30, formerly of New York, N.Y., pled guilty extortion related to a wide-ranging scheme that caused a Maryland man to embezzle more than $4 million from his employer in Washington, D.C., announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Evans pled guilty before the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of interference with interstate commerce by extortion and aiding and abetting and causing an act to be done. Judge Sullivan scheduled sentencing for Jan. 24, 2019. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and potential financial penalties. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Evans faces an estimated range of 57 to 71 months in prison and a fine of up to $200,000.
Evans and several members of his family were indicted in April 2018.
In his plea agreement, Evans admitted that from November 2016 through April 2017, he worked with several individuals to extort and defraud others out of money, precious metals, and luxury merchandise. As part of the scheme, he pretended to be a mobster in order to get a Maryland man to provide him and his fellow conspirators with money, luxury goods, and gold. Evans threatened to harm the man and his family if payments were not made.
As a result of Evans and other conspirators’ actions, the man embezzled more than $4 million from his employer in the District of Columbia over a three-month period for the purpose of providing it to Evans and the other conspirators. Towards the end of the conspiracy, the man delivered more than $1 million in gold—which he had purchased with embezzled funds—to a hotel in New York. Evans admitted that he retrieved the gold bars, delivered them to other individuals, and sold several of the bars to a gold dealer in New York in exchange for cash.
In October 2017, the FBI executed a search warrant on Evans’s safe deposit box at a bank in New York. The safe deposit box contained gold and expensive jewelry, including luxury watches and diamonds. As part of his plea agreement, Evans agreed to forfeit his rights to all of the items recovered from the safe deposit box. He also surrendered two additional one-kilogram gold bars to the FBI, along with a Rolex watch, which he purchased with criminal proceeds.
Charges against five co-defendants remain pending.
In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Liu and Assistant Director in Charge McNamara commended the work of those who investigated the case from the FBI’s Washington Field Office. They expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Lucas, who is assisting with forfeiture issues, Paralegal Specialists Brittany Phillips and Joshua Fein, former Paralegal Specialists Jessica Mundi and Kristy Penny, and Forensic Accountant Bryan Snitselaar.
Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Kent and Kondi Kleinman, who investigated and are prosecuting the case.
Evans pled guilty before the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of interference with interstate commerce by extortion and aiding and abetting and causing an act to be done. Judge Sullivan scheduled sentencing for Jan. 24, 2019. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and potential financial penalties. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Evans faces an estimated range of 57 to 71 months in prison and a fine of up to $200,000.
Evans and several members of his family were indicted in April 2018.
In his plea agreement, Evans admitted that from November 2016 through April 2017, he worked with several individuals to extort and defraud others out of money, precious metals, and luxury merchandise. As part of the scheme, he pretended to be a mobster in order to get a Maryland man to provide him and his fellow conspirators with money, luxury goods, and gold. Evans threatened to harm the man and his family if payments were not made.
As a result of Evans and other conspirators’ actions, the man embezzled more than $4 million from his employer in the District of Columbia over a three-month period for the purpose of providing it to Evans and the other conspirators. Towards the end of the conspiracy, the man delivered more than $1 million in gold—which he had purchased with embezzled funds—to a hotel in New York. Evans admitted that he retrieved the gold bars, delivered them to other individuals, and sold several of the bars to a gold dealer in New York in exchange for cash.
In October 2017, the FBI executed a search warrant on Evans’s safe deposit box at a bank in New York. The safe deposit box contained gold and expensive jewelry, including luxury watches and diamonds. As part of his plea agreement, Evans agreed to forfeit his rights to all of the items recovered from the safe deposit box. He also surrendered two additional one-kilogram gold bars to the FBI, along with a Rolex watch, which he purchased with criminal proceeds.
Charges against five co-defendants remain pending.
In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Liu and Assistant Director in Charge McNamara commended the work of those who investigated the case from the FBI’s Washington Field Office. They expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Lucas, who is assisting with forfeiture issues, Paralegal Specialists Brittany Phillips and Joshua Fein, former Paralegal Specialists Jessica Mundi and Kristy Penny, and Forensic Accountant Bryan Snitselaar.
Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Kent and Kondi Kleinman, who investigated and are prosecuting the case.
The Origins of the Cornbread Mafia: A Memoir of Sorts
On a September night in 1978
, Muhammad Ali would attempt to reclaim his title from Leon Spinks in one of the greatest heavyweight matches of all-time. That same night, a crew of over twenty-five country boys from in and around central Kentucky, known as “The Cornbread Mafia” would pull off one of their many outrageous exploits by attempting to reclaim a huge marijuana field that had been seized by local law enforcement.
Although “The Cornbread Mafia” is legendary in Central Kentucky, most people do not know the true origins of the iconic group. Now comes the author’s first-hand account of how this term was coined and the many escapades they encountered along the way. This author was actually there, living the events, and tells his unbelievable true story of how a group of small-town country boys began a pot growing operation in the early 1970s which would become the biggest home grown marijuana operation in U.S. history.
The Origins of the Cornbread Mafia: A Memoir of Sorts.
, Muhammad Ali would attempt to reclaim his title from Leon Spinks in one of the greatest heavyweight matches of all-time. That same night, a crew of over twenty-five country boys from in and around central Kentucky, known as “The Cornbread Mafia” would pull off one of their many outrageous exploits by attempting to reclaim a huge marijuana field that had been seized by local law enforcement.Although “The Cornbread Mafia” is legendary in Central Kentucky, most people do not know the true origins of the iconic group. Now comes the author’s first-hand account of how this term was coined and the many escapades they encountered along the way. This author was actually there, living the events, and tells his unbelievable true story of how a group of small-town country boys began a pot growing operation in the early 1970s which would become the biggest home grown marijuana operation in U.S. history.
The Origins of the Cornbread Mafia: A Memoir of Sorts.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
6 Members of Canta Ranas, Linked to Mexican Mafia, Convicted by Operation Frog Legs
Six people who authorities say are linked to the violent, Mexican Mafia-linked street gang known as the Canta Ranas Organization have been convicted of racketeering and drug trafficking charges, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
The criminal convictions were handed down in two jury trials. The Cantas Ranas primarily operate in Santa Fe Springs and Whittier, and those convicted range from ages 56 to 25.
“This dangerous organization caused misery in several communities by regularly engaging in acts of violence, drug trafficking and other criminal acts,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement from the DOJ.
Four of the defendants were convicted in a trial that ended on Aug. 27 and the other two were convicted this week. They all face maximum possible sentences of life in federal prison, with four facing minimum prison terms of 10 years and one facing a minimum of five years.
A senior member of the Canta Ranas gang known as “Boxer,” 56-year-old Enrique Holguin, is already currently serving a life sentence for murder. He was convicted in the August trial.
According to federal prosecutors, Holguin was in direct communication with the gang’s leader, David Gavaldon, who is also a member of the Mexican Mafia. Holguin played a key role in carrying out the gang’s activities by setting up a group of Mexican Mafia-affiliated inmates for controlling illegal activities — called a “mesa” — at the California Institute for Men in Chino, prosecutors said.
He was also convicted in the attempted assault of a fellow inmate at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. The inmate being targeted was believed to be an informant for law enforcement, prosecutors said. For that crime, Holguin was found guilty of committing a violent act in aid of racketeering.
The other three gang members convicted in the August trial are 31-year-old Donald Goulet, also known as “Wacky,” 33-year-old Emanuel Higuera, who’s also known as “Blanco” and 25-year-old Juan Nila.
Goulet was described by federal prosecutors as a “foot soldier” who committed violent crimes, trafficked drugs and collected extortionate “taxes” on behalf of the Canta Ranas and Gavaldon himself. He was also involved with helping Gavaldon spread the gang’s territory into the Riverside area, prosecutors said.
During one home invasion robbery committed with a co-conspirator, Goulet tied up the victims with duct tape at gun point as the pair ransacked the home, according to federal prosecutors. For all the crimes, Goulet was found guilty of conspiracy racketeering charges, along with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Meanwhile, Higuera was actually part of another gang called the Brown Brotherhood, which was also controlled by Gavaldon, according to prosecutors. But he was convicted of trafficking drugs on behalf of the Canta Ranas. Along with racketeering charges, he was found guilty of methamphetamine-related offenses — including one that involved him attempting to assault law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.
Nila pleaded guilty to racketeering and drug trafficking conspiracy charges on the second day of the August trial. That trial ended after three weeks of testimony.
The trial that ended this week delivered convictions against 40-year-old Monica Rodriguez, also known as “Smiley,” and Alexis Jaimez, 30, who is also known as “Lex,” according to prosecutors.
Acting as the “eyes and ears on the street” for Cantas Ranas gang leader Gavaldon, Rodriguez was a so-called secretary for him, federal prosecutors said in a news release. She was seen asking Gavaldon to order the death of another gang member in video that was shown to the jury, prosecutors said. At the time, she was meeting with Gavaldon while he was housed at Pelican Bay State Prison, the only supermax prison in California.
Jaimez was described as a “foot soldier” by federal prosecutors, who said she was involved in a gang-related assault that left the victim with permanent, severe injuries. Evidence of her involvement in that assault was presented at trial. Prosecutors also said she was also part of a “failed scheme to smuggle drugs into a California state prison.”
All of the defendant are expected to be sentenced later this year by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner.
The convictions stem from a federal grand jury indictment that charged 48 defendants in June 2016. There’s still another 38 defendants, and beginning in November, they will all be scheduled to go to trial in groups.
The larger case is the result of Operation “Frog Legs,” a three-year investigation that seized dozens of firearms and pounds of narcotics including methamphetamine. The various agencies involved in assisting that investigation include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the IRS, the Whittier Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Southern California Drug Task Force — which is led by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The criminal convictions were handed down in two jury trials. The Cantas Ranas primarily operate in Santa Fe Springs and Whittier, and those convicted range from ages 56 to 25.
“This dangerous organization caused misery in several communities by regularly engaging in acts of violence, drug trafficking and other criminal acts,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement from the DOJ.
Four of the defendants were convicted in a trial that ended on Aug. 27 and the other two were convicted this week. They all face maximum possible sentences of life in federal prison, with four facing minimum prison terms of 10 years and one facing a minimum of five years.
A senior member of the Canta Ranas gang known as “Boxer,” 56-year-old Enrique Holguin, is already currently serving a life sentence for murder. He was convicted in the August trial.
According to federal prosecutors, Holguin was in direct communication with the gang’s leader, David Gavaldon, who is also a member of the Mexican Mafia. Holguin played a key role in carrying out the gang’s activities by setting up a group of Mexican Mafia-affiliated inmates for controlling illegal activities — called a “mesa” — at the California Institute for Men in Chino, prosecutors said.
He was also convicted in the attempted assault of a fellow inmate at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. The inmate being targeted was believed to be an informant for law enforcement, prosecutors said. For that crime, Holguin was found guilty of committing a violent act in aid of racketeering.
The other three gang members convicted in the August trial are 31-year-old Donald Goulet, also known as “Wacky,” 33-year-old Emanuel Higuera, who’s also known as “Blanco” and 25-year-old Juan Nila.
Goulet was described by federal prosecutors as a “foot soldier” who committed violent crimes, trafficked drugs and collected extortionate “taxes” on behalf of the Canta Ranas and Gavaldon himself. He was also involved with helping Gavaldon spread the gang’s territory into the Riverside area, prosecutors said.
During one home invasion robbery committed with a co-conspirator, Goulet tied up the victims with duct tape at gun point as the pair ransacked the home, according to federal prosecutors. For all the crimes, Goulet was found guilty of conspiracy racketeering charges, along with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Meanwhile, Higuera was actually part of another gang called the Brown Brotherhood, which was also controlled by Gavaldon, according to prosecutors. But he was convicted of trafficking drugs on behalf of the Canta Ranas. Along with racketeering charges, he was found guilty of methamphetamine-related offenses — including one that involved him attempting to assault law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.
Nila pleaded guilty to racketeering and drug trafficking conspiracy charges on the second day of the August trial. That trial ended after three weeks of testimony.
The trial that ended this week delivered convictions against 40-year-old Monica Rodriguez, also known as “Smiley,” and Alexis Jaimez, 30, who is also known as “Lex,” according to prosecutors.
Acting as the “eyes and ears on the street” for Cantas Ranas gang leader Gavaldon, Rodriguez was a so-called secretary for him, federal prosecutors said in a news release. She was seen asking Gavaldon to order the death of another gang member in video that was shown to the jury, prosecutors said. At the time, she was meeting with Gavaldon while he was housed at Pelican Bay State Prison, the only supermax prison in California.
Jaimez was described as a “foot soldier” by federal prosecutors, who said she was involved in a gang-related assault that left the victim with permanent, severe injuries. Evidence of her involvement in that assault was presented at trial. Prosecutors also said she was also part of a “failed scheme to smuggle drugs into a California state prison.”
All of the defendant are expected to be sentenced later this year by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner.
The convictions stem from a federal grand jury indictment that charged 48 defendants in June 2016. There’s still another 38 defendants, and beginning in November, they will all be scheduled to go to trial in groups.
The larger case is the result of Operation “Frog Legs,” a three-year investigation that seized dozens of firearms and pounds of narcotics including methamphetamine. The various agencies involved in assisting that investigation include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the IRS, the Whittier Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Southern California Drug Task Force — which is led by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Monday, September 17, 2018
"You cannot believe in God and be Mafiosi" - Pope Francis @Pontifex
Pope Francis has urged mafia members to stop blaspheming against God and to embrace love and service. He was paying homage to Father Giuseppe Puglisi who was shot dead by the mafia in Sicily 25 years ago.
The Pope warned the "brothers and sisters" that they could not "believe in God and be Mafiosi" - a reference to the fact that many mafia members are regular worshippers. Pope Francis has previously called for the excommunication of mobsters.
On Saturday morning, the Pope addressed the faithful at Palermo's Piazza Europa and will later visit Puglisi's parish in the working-class neighbourhood of Brancaccio.
The priest was renowned for working with young people to keep them away from drugs and the mafia.
The Pope said Sicily needed "men and women of love, not men and women 'of honour'", referring to the code mobsters use to define themselves.
"A person who is a Mafioso does not live as a Christian because with his life he blasphemes against the name of God," Pope Francis said, before pleading: "Change, brothers and sisters! Stop thinking about yourselves and your money... Convert yourselves to the real God."
Father Puglisi was shot dead on the doorstep of his home on his birthday, 15 September, in 1993. His murder came at a time when mafia violence against opponents of their influence was of particularly grave concern.
Puglisi was declared a "martyr" who was "killed by hatred of the faith" by Pope Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI in 2012. He was beatified five years ago. Beatification is the penultimate step to sainthood in the Catholic Church.
Last month, Pope Francis visited Ireland where he asked for forgiveness for members of the Catholic Church who "kept quiet" about clerical child sex abuse.
Thanks to BBC.
The Pope warned the "brothers and sisters" that they could not "believe in God and be Mafiosi" - a reference to the fact that many mafia members are regular worshippers. Pope Francis has previously called for the excommunication of mobsters.
On Saturday morning, the Pope addressed the faithful at Palermo's Piazza Europa and will later visit Puglisi's parish in the working-class neighbourhood of Brancaccio.
The priest was renowned for working with young people to keep them away from drugs and the mafia.
The Pope said Sicily needed "men and women of love, not men and women 'of honour'", referring to the code mobsters use to define themselves.
"A person who is a Mafioso does not live as a Christian because with his life he blasphemes against the name of God," Pope Francis said, before pleading: "Change, brothers and sisters! Stop thinking about yourselves and your money... Convert yourselves to the real God."
Father Puglisi was shot dead on the doorstep of his home on his birthday, 15 September, in 1993. His murder came at a time when mafia violence against opponents of their influence was of particularly grave concern.
Puglisi was declared a "martyr" who was "killed by hatred of the faith" by Pope Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI in 2012. He was beatified five years ago. Beatification is the penultimate step to sainthood in the Catholic Church.
Last month, Pope Francis visited Ireland where he asked for forgiveness for members of the Catholic Church who "kept quiet" about clerical child sex abuse.
Thanks to BBC.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Cadillac Frank Salemme, Former Mafia Don, Faces Life Sentence for 1993 Murder of Steven DiSarro
Twenty-five years after South Boston nightclub owner Steven DiSarro was strangled and buried in an unmarked grave, a former Mafia don and a local plumber are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for the slaying.
Former New England Mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, 85, and Paul M. Weadick, 63, face mandatory life sentences for killing DiSarro in 1993 to prevent him from cooperating in a federal investigation targeting the mobster and his son.
After the pair were convicted in June, DiSarro’s son, Nick, said he was grateful to the jury for giving his family justice after so many years. “This is the end of such a long road,” he said. “To close this book is just a really important step for our family.”
The convictions followed a five-week trial in US District Court in Boston that was a flashback to a bygone era, when the Italian La Cosa Nostra and James “Whitey” Bulger’s Irish mob were the region’s most feared criminal groups.
DiSarro was a businessman who bought the Channel, a now defunct rock ‘n’ roll club on Necco Street, in the early 1990s. Salemme and his son had a hidden interest in the club and were being targeted by federal and state investigators at the time.
On May 10, 1993, DiSarro, a 43-year-old father of five, disappeared after his wife saw him climb into an SUV outside their Westwood home. His whereabouts were a mystery until the FBI found his remains two years ago, buried behind an old mill in Providence.
Salemme, who became a government witness himself six years after the killing of DiSarro, was in the federal witness protection program when DiSarro’s hidden grave was discovered in 2016, leading to his arrest.
The government’s star witness during the trial was Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders. He testified that he dropped by Salemme’s Sharon home on May 10, 1993, and saw Salemme’s son, Frank, strangling DiSarro while Weadick held his legs and Salemme looked on.
Salemme’s son died in 1995.
Flemmi said Salemme told him that he knew DiSarro had been approached by federal agents and feared he would cooperate in a federal investigation targeting him and his son.
Two former Rhode Island mobsters, brothers Robert DeLuca and Joseph DeLuca, testified that they helped bury DiSarro’s body after Salemme personally delivered it to Providence. Last month, Robert DeLuca was sentenced to 5½ years in prison for lying to investigators about DiSarro’s murder when he initially began cooperating with authorities in 2011. He only revealed details of the crime after a drug dealer led authorities to DiSarro’s remains.
Salemme is one of Boston’s last old-school mobsters, a criminal turned federal witness whose many former associates are now dead or in prison.
He survived the gang wars of the 1960s — a decade during which he admittedly killed eight people and was convicted of maiming an Everett lawyer by blowing up his car.
He spent nearly 16 years in prison for that attempted murder and became a “made man” after his release in 1988. The following year, he was shot in the chest and leg outside a Saugus pancake house by a renegade mob faction and survived to become boss of the New England Patriarca crime family.
In 1995, Salemme was indicted in a sweeping federal racketeering case, along with Bulger, Flemmi, and others. Four years later, after learning that Bulger and Flemmi were longtime FBI informants, Salemme began cooperating with the government and helped send retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. to prison.
He was admitted to the federal witness protection program and was living in Atlanta as Richard Parker when his past came back to haunt him. The discovery of DiSarro’s hidden grave in 2016 led to Salemme’s arrest for murder.
Thanks to Shelley Murphy.
Former New England Mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, 85, and Paul M. Weadick, 63, face mandatory life sentences for killing DiSarro in 1993 to prevent him from cooperating in a federal investigation targeting the mobster and his son.
After the pair were convicted in June, DiSarro’s son, Nick, said he was grateful to the jury for giving his family justice after so many years. “This is the end of such a long road,” he said. “To close this book is just a really important step for our family.”
The convictions followed a five-week trial in US District Court in Boston that was a flashback to a bygone era, when the Italian La Cosa Nostra and James “Whitey” Bulger’s Irish mob were the region’s most feared criminal groups.
DiSarro was a businessman who bought the Channel, a now defunct rock ‘n’ roll club on Necco Street, in the early 1990s. Salemme and his son had a hidden interest in the club and were being targeted by federal and state investigators at the time.
On May 10, 1993, DiSarro, a 43-year-old father of five, disappeared after his wife saw him climb into an SUV outside their Westwood home. His whereabouts were a mystery until the FBI found his remains two years ago, buried behind an old mill in Providence.
Salemme, who became a government witness himself six years after the killing of DiSarro, was in the federal witness protection program when DiSarro’s hidden grave was discovered in 2016, leading to his arrest.
The government’s star witness during the trial was Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders. He testified that he dropped by Salemme’s Sharon home on May 10, 1993, and saw Salemme’s son, Frank, strangling DiSarro while Weadick held his legs and Salemme looked on.
Salemme’s son died in 1995.
Flemmi said Salemme told him that he knew DiSarro had been approached by federal agents and feared he would cooperate in a federal investigation targeting him and his son.
Two former Rhode Island mobsters, brothers Robert DeLuca and Joseph DeLuca, testified that they helped bury DiSarro’s body after Salemme personally delivered it to Providence. Last month, Robert DeLuca was sentenced to 5½ years in prison for lying to investigators about DiSarro’s murder when he initially began cooperating with authorities in 2011. He only revealed details of the crime after a drug dealer led authorities to DiSarro’s remains.
Salemme is one of Boston’s last old-school mobsters, a criminal turned federal witness whose many former associates are now dead or in prison.
He survived the gang wars of the 1960s — a decade during which he admittedly killed eight people and was convicted of maiming an Everett lawyer by blowing up his car.
He spent nearly 16 years in prison for that attempted murder and became a “made man” after his release in 1988. The following year, he was shot in the chest and leg outside a Saugus pancake house by a renegade mob faction and survived to become boss of the New England Patriarca crime family.
In 1995, Salemme was indicted in a sweeping federal racketeering case, along with Bulger, Flemmi, and others. Four years later, after learning that Bulger and Flemmi were longtime FBI informants, Salemme began cooperating with the government and helped send retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. to prison.
He was admitted to the federal witness protection program and was living in Atlanta as Richard Parker when his past came back to haunt him. The discovery of DiSarro’s hidden grave in 2016 led to Salemme’s arrest for murder.
Thanks to Shelley Murphy.
A MS-13 Gangster Sentenced in RICO Conspiracy Involving Murder of 16 Year Old
An MS-13 gangster was sentenced in federal court in Boston for racketeering conspiracy involving the murder of a 16-year-old boy in East Boston.
Rigoberto Mejia, a/k/a “Ninja,” 32, a Salvadoran national, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 330 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Mejia will be subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence. In April 2018, Mejia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, more commonly referred to as RICO conspiracy.
During the multi-year investigation of MS-13, Mejia was identified as a “homeboy,” or full member, of MS-13’s Trece Locos Salvatrucha (TLS) clique. Evidence further showed that on Jan. 10, 2016, Mejia and three other MS-13 members murdered a 16-year-old boy whom they believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang. Mejia’s alleged co-conspirators stabbed the victim multiple times while Mejia shot the victim.
Mejia is one of 49 defendants who have been convicted as part of this ongoing prosecution. Sixteen of those defendants, including Mejia, have been held responsible for racketeering conspiracy involving murder. Forty of the 49 convictions, including Mejia, were the result of guilty pleas prior to trial. Nine other defendants were convicted after trial.
Rigoberto Mejia, a/k/a “Ninja,” 32, a Salvadoran national, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 330 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Mejia will be subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence. In April 2018, Mejia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, more commonly referred to as RICO conspiracy.
During the multi-year investigation of MS-13, Mejia was identified as a “homeboy,” or full member, of MS-13’s Trece Locos Salvatrucha (TLS) clique. Evidence further showed that on Jan. 10, 2016, Mejia and three other MS-13 members murdered a 16-year-old boy whom they believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang. Mejia’s alleged co-conspirators stabbed the victim multiple times while Mejia shot the victim.
Mejia is one of 49 defendants who have been convicted as part of this ongoing prosecution. Sixteen of those defendants, including Mejia, have been held responsible for racketeering conspiracy involving murder. Forty of the 49 convictions, including Mejia, were the result of guilty pleas prior to trial. Nine other defendants were convicted after trial.
MS-13 "Homeboy" Sentenced to Prison for RICO Conspiracy Involving Murder
An MS-13 member was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for racketeering conspiracy involving the murder of a 16-year-old boy in East Boston.
Rigoberto Mejia, a/k/a “Ninja,” 32, a Salvadoran national, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 330 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Mejia will be subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence. In April 2018, Mejia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, more commonly referred to as RICO conspiracy.
During the multi-year investigation of MS-13, Mejia was identified as a “homeboy,” or full member, of MS-13’s Trece Locos Salvatrucha (TLS) clique. Evidence further showed that on Jan. 10, 2016, Mejia and three other MS-13 members murdered a 16-year-old boy whom they believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang. Mejia’s alleged co-conspirators stabbed the victim multiple times while Mejia shot the victim.
Mejia is one of 49 defendants who have been convicted as part of this ongoing prosecution. Sixteen of those defendants, including Mejia, have been held responsible for racketeering conspiracy involving murder. Forty of the 49 convictions, including Mejia, were the result of guilty pleas prior to trial. Nine other defendants were convicted after trial.
Rigoberto Mejia, a/k/a “Ninja,” 32, a Salvadoran national, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 330 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Mejia will be subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence. In April 2018, Mejia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, more commonly referred to as RICO conspiracy.
During the multi-year investigation of MS-13, Mejia was identified as a “homeboy,” or full member, of MS-13’s Trece Locos Salvatrucha (TLS) clique. Evidence further showed that on Jan. 10, 2016, Mejia and three other MS-13 members murdered a 16-year-old boy whom they believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang. Mejia’s alleged co-conspirators stabbed the victim multiple times while Mejia shot the victim.
Mejia is one of 49 defendants who have been convicted as part of this ongoing prosecution. Sixteen of those defendants, including Mejia, have been held responsible for racketeering conspiracy involving murder. Forty of the 49 convictions, including Mejia, were the result of guilty pleas prior to trial. Nine other defendants were convicted after trial.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb Found Guilty of the Murder of Robert Franks in Chicago in #CrimeofTheCentury #OnThisDay
On May 21, 1924, two brilliant, wealthy, Chicago teenagers attempted to commit the perfect crime just for the thrill of it. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped 14-year-old Bobby Franks, bludgeoned him to death in a rented car, and then dumped Franks' body in a distant culvert.
Although they thought their plan was foolproof, Leopold and Loeb made a number of mistakes that led police right to them. The subsequent trial, featuring famous attorney Clarence Darrow, made headlines and was often referred to as "the trial of the century."
Who Were Leopold and Loeb?
Nathan Leopold was brilliant. He had an IQ of over 200 and excelled at school. By age 19, Leopold had already graduated from college and was in law school. Leopold was also fascinated with birds and was considered an accomplished ornithologist. However, despite being brilliant, Leopold was very awkward socially.
Richard Loeb was also very intelligent, but not to the same caliber as Leopold. Loeb, who had been pushed and guided by a strict governess, had also been sent to college at a young age. However, once there, Loeb did not excel; instead, he gambled and drank. Unlike Leopold, Loeb was considered very attractive and had impeccable social skills.
It was at college that Leopold and Loeb became close friends. Their relationship was both stormy and intimate. Leopold was obsessed with the attractive Loeb. Loeb, on the other hand, liked having a loyal companion on his risky adventures.
The two teenagers, who had become both friends and lovers, soon began committing small acts of theft, vandalism, and arson. Eventually, the two decided to plan and commit the "perfect crime."
Planning the Murder
It is debated as to whether it was Leopold or Loeb who first suggested they commit the "perfect crime," but most believe it was Loeb. No matter who suggested it, both boys participated in the planning of it.
The plan was simple: rent a car under an assumed name, find a wealthy victim (preferably a boy since girls were more closely watched), kill him in the car with a chisel, then dump the body in a culvert.
Even though the victim was to be killed immediately, Leopold and Loeb planned on extracting a ransom from the victim's family. The victim's family would receive a letter instructing them to pay $10,000 in "old bills," which they would later be asked to throw from a moving train.
Interestingly, Leopold and Loeb spent a lot more time on figuring out how to retrieve the ransom than on who their victim was to be. After considering a number of specific people to be their victim, including their own fathers, Leopold and Loeb decided to leave the choice of victim up to chance and circumstance.
The Murder
On May 21, 1924, Leopold and Loeb were ready to put their plan into action. After renting a Willys-Knight automobile and covering its license plate, Leopold and Loeb needed a victim.
Around 5 o'clock, Leopold and Loeb spotted 14-year-old Bobby Franks, who was walking home from school.
Loeb, who knew Bobby Franks because he was both a neighbor and a distant cousin, lured Franks into the car by asking Franks to discuss a new tennis racket (Franks loved to play tennis). Once Franks had climbed into the front seat of the car, the car took off.
Within minutes, Franks was struck several times in the head with a chisel, dragged from the front seat into the back, and then had a cloth shoved down his throat. Lying limply on the floor of the back seat, covered with a rug, Franks died from suffocation. (It is believed that Leopold was driving and Loeb was in the back seat and was thus the actual killer, but this remains uncertain.)
Dumping the Body
As Franks lay dying or dead in the backseat, Leopold and Loeb drove toward a hidden culvert in the marshlands near Wolf Lake, a location known to Leopold because of his birding expeditions. On the way, Leopold and Loeb stopped twice. Once to strip Franks' body of clothing and another time to buy dinner.
Once it was dark, Leopold and Loeb found the culvert, shoved Franks' body inside the drainage pipe and poured hydrochloric acid on Franks' face and genitals to obscure the body's identity.
On their way home, Leopold and Loeb stopped to call the Franks' home that night to tell the family that Bobby had been kidnapped. They also mailed the ransom letter.
They thought they had committed the perfect murder. Little did they know that by the morning, Bobby Franks' body had already been discovered and the police were quickly on the way to discovering his murderers.
Mistakes and Arrest
Despite having spent at least six months planning this "perfect crime," Leopold and Loeb made a lot of mistakes. The first of which was the disposal of the body.
Leopold and Loeb thought that the culvert would keep the body hidden until it had been reduced to a skeleton. However, on that dark night, Leopold and Loeb didn't realize that they had placed Franks' body with the feet sticking out of the drainage pipe. The following morning, the body was discovered and quickly identified.
With the body found, the police now had a location to start searching.
Near the culvert, the police found a pair of glasses, which turned out to be specific enough to be traced back to Leopold. When confronted about the glasses, Leopold explained that the glasses must have fallen out of his jacket when he fell during a birding excavation. Although Leopold's explanation was plausible, the police continued to look into Leopold's whereabouts. Leopold said he had spent the day with Loeb.
It didn't take long for Leopold and Loeb's alibis to break down. It was discovered that Leopold's car, which they had said they had driven around all day in, had been actually been at home all day. Leopold's chauffeur had been fixing it.
On May 31, just ten days after the murder, both 18-year-old Loeb and 19-year-old Leopold confessed to the murder.
Leopold and Loeb's Trial
The young age of the victim, the brutality of the crime, the wealth of the participants, and the confessions, all made this murder front page news.
With the public decidedly against the boys and an extremely large amount of evidence tying the boys to the murder, it was almost certain that Leopold and Loeb were going to receive the death penalty.
Fearing for his nephew's life, Loeb's uncle went to famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow (who would later participate in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial) and begged him to take the case. Darrow was not asked to free the boys, for they were surely guilty; instead, Darrow was asked to save the boys' lives by getting them life sentences rather than the death penalty. Darrow, a long-time advocate against the death penalty, took the case.
On July 21, 1924, the trial against Leopold and Loeb began. Most people thought Darrow would plead them not guilty by reason of insanity, but in a surprising last minute twist, Darrow had them plead guilty.
With Leopold and Loeb pleading guilty, the trial would no longer require a jury because it would become a sentencing trial. Darrow believed that it would be harder for one man to live with the decision to hang Leopold and Loeb than it would be for twelve who would share the decision. The fate of Leopold and Loeb was to rest solely with Judge John R. Caverly.
The prosecution had over 80 witnesses that presented the cold-blooded murder in all its gory details. The defense focused on psychology, especially the boys' upbringing.
On August 22, 1924, Clarence Darrow gave his final summation. It lasted approximately two hours and is considered one of the best speeches of his life.
After listening to all the evidence presented and thinking carefully on the matter, Judge Caverly announced his decision on September 19, 1924. Judge Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to jail for 99 years for kidnapping and for the rest of their natural lives for murder. He also recommended that they never be eligible for parole.
The Deaths of Leopold and Loeb
Leopold and Loeb were originally separated, but by 1931 they were again close. In 1932, Leopold and Loeb opened a school in the prison to teach other prisoners.
On January 28, 1936, 30-year-old Loeb was attacked in the shower by his cellmate. He was slashed over 50 times with a straight razor and died of his wounds.
Leopold stayed in prison and wrote an autobiography, Life plus 99 Years. After spending 33 years in prison, 53-year-old Leopold was paroled in March of 1958 and moved to Puerto Rico, where he married in 1961.
Leopold died on August 30, 1971 from a heart attack at age 66.
Thanks to Jennifer Rosenberg.
Although they thought their plan was foolproof, Leopold and Loeb made a number of mistakes that led police right to them. The subsequent trial, featuring famous attorney Clarence Darrow, made headlines and was often referred to as "the trial of the century."
Who Were Leopold and Loeb?
Nathan Leopold was brilliant. He had an IQ of over 200 and excelled at school. By age 19, Leopold had already graduated from college and was in law school. Leopold was also fascinated with birds and was considered an accomplished ornithologist. However, despite being brilliant, Leopold was very awkward socially.
Richard Loeb was also very intelligent, but not to the same caliber as Leopold. Loeb, who had been pushed and guided by a strict governess, had also been sent to college at a young age. However, once there, Loeb did not excel; instead, he gambled and drank. Unlike Leopold, Loeb was considered very attractive and had impeccable social skills.
It was at college that Leopold and Loeb became close friends. Their relationship was both stormy and intimate. Leopold was obsessed with the attractive Loeb. Loeb, on the other hand, liked having a loyal companion on his risky adventures.
The two teenagers, who had become both friends and lovers, soon began committing small acts of theft, vandalism, and arson. Eventually, the two decided to plan and commit the "perfect crime."
Planning the Murder
It is debated as to whether it was Leopold or Loeb who first suggested they commit the "perfect crime," but most believe it was Loeb. No matter who suggested it, both boys participated in the planning of it.
The plan was simple: rent a car under an assumed name, find a wealthy victim (preferably a boy since girls were more closely watched), kill him in the car with a chisel, then dump the body in a culvert.
Even though the victim was to be killed immediately, Leopold and Loeb planned on extracting a ransom from the victim's family. The victim's family would receive a letter instructing them to pay $10,000 in "old bills," which they would later be asked to throw from a moving train.
Interestingly, Leopold and Loeb spent a lot more time on figuring out how to retrieve the ransom than on who their victim was to be. After considering a number of specific people to be their victim, including their own fathers, Leopold and Loeb decided to leave the choice of victim up to chance and circumstance.
The Murder
On May 21, 1924, Leopold and Loeb were ready to put their plan into action. After renting a Willys-Knight automobile and covering its license plate, Leopold and Loeb needed a victim.
Around 5 o'clock, Leopold and Loeb spotted 14-year-old Bobby Franks, who was walking home from school.
Loeb, who knew Bobby Franks because he was both a neighbor and a distant cousin, lured Franks into the car by asking Franks to discuss a new tennis racket (Franks loved to play tennis). Once Franks had climbed into the front seat of the car, the car took off.
Within minutes, Franks was struck several times in the head with a chisel, dragged from the front seat into the back, and then had a cloth shoved down his throat. Lying limply on the floor of the back seat, covered with a rug, Franks died from suffocation. (It is believed that Leopold was driving and Loeb was in the back seat and was thus the actual killer, but this remains uncertain.)
Dumping the Body
As Franks lay dying or dead in the backseat, Leopold and Loeb drove toward a hidden culvert in the marshlands near Wolf Lake, a location known to Leopold because of his birding expeditions. On the way, Leopold and Loeb stopped twice. Once to strip Franks' body of clothing and another time to buy dinner.
Once it was dark, Leopold and Loeb found the culvert, shoved Franks' body inside the drainage pipe and poured hydrochloric acid on Franks' face and genitals to obscure the body's identity.
On their way home, Leopold and Loeb stopped to call the Franks' home that night to tell the family that Bobby had been kidnapped. They also mailed the ransom letter.
They thought they had committed the perfect murder. Little did they know that by the morning, Bobby Franks' body had already been discovered and the police were quickly on the way to discovering his murderers.
Mistakes and Arrest
Despite having spent at least six months planning this "perfect crime," Leopold and Loeb made a lot of mistakes. The first of which was the disposal of the body.
Leopold and Loeb thought that the culvert would keep the body hidden until it had been reduced to a skeleton. However, on that dark night, Leopold and Loeb didn't realize that they had placed Franks' body with the feet sticking out of the drainage pipe. The following morning, the body was discovered and quickly identified.
With the body found, the police now had a location to start searching.
Near the culvert, the police found a pair of glasses, which turned out to be specific enough to be traced back to Leopold. When confronted about the glasses, Leopold explained that the glasses must have fallen out of his jacket when he fell during a birding excavation. Although Leopold's explanation was plausible, the police continued to look into Leopold's whereabouts. Leopold said he had spent the day with Loeb.
It didn't take long for Leopold and Loeb's alibis to break down. It was discovered that Leopold's car, which they had said they had driven around all day in, had been actually been at home all day. Leopold's chauffeur had been fixing it.
On May 31, just ten days after the murder, both 18-year-old Loeb and 19-year-old Leopold confessed to the murder.
Leopold and Loeb's Trial
The young age of the victim, the brutality of the crime, the wealth of the participants, and the confessions, all made this murder front page news.
With the public decidedly against the boys and an extremely large amount of evidence tying the boys to the murder, it was almost certain that Leopold and Loeb were going to receive the death penalty.
Fearing for his nephew's life, Loeb's uncle went to famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow (who would later participate in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial) and begged him to take the case. Darrow was not asked to free the boys, for they were surely guilty; instead, Darrow was asked to save the boys' lives by getting them life sentences rather than the death penalty. Darrow, a long-time advocate against the death penalty, took the case.
On July 21, 1924, the trial against Leopold and Loeb began. Most people thought Darrow would plead them not guilty by reason of insanity, but in a surprising last minute twist, Darrow had them plead guilty.
With Leopold and Loeb pleading guilty, the trial would no longer require a jury because it would become a sentencing trial. Darrow believed that it would be harder for one man to live with the decision to hang Leopold and Loeb than it would be for twelve who would share the decision. The fate of Leopold and Loeb was to rest solely with Judge John R. Caverly.
The prosecution had over 80 witnesses that presented the cold-blooded murder in all its gory details. The defense focused on psychology, especially the boys' upbringing.
On August 22, 1924, Clarence Darrow gave his final summation. It lasted approximately two hours and is considered one of the best speeches of his life.
After listening to all the evidence presented and thinking carefully on the matter, Judge Caverly announced his decision on September 19, 1924. Judge Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to jail for 99 years for kidnapping and for the rest of their natural lives for murder. He also recommended that they never be eligible for parole.
The Deaths of Leopold and Loeb
Leopold and Loeb were originally separated, but by 1931 they were again close. In 1932, Leopold and Loeb opened a school in the prison to teach other prisoners.
On January 28, 1936, 30-year-old Loeb was attacked in the shower by his cellmate. He was slashed over 50 times with a straight razor and died of his wounds.
Leopold stayed in prison and wrote an autobiography, Life plus 99 Years. After spending 33 years in prison, 53-year-old Leopold was paroled in March of 1958 and moved to Puerto Rico, where he married in 1961.
Leopold died on August 30, 1971 from a heart attack at age 66.
Thanks to Jennifer Rosenberg.
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodard is Officially Released Tomorrow #Crazytown
THE INSIDE STORY ON PRESIDENT TRUMP, AS ONLY BOB WOODWARD CAN TELL IT
With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward
, one of the most revered and well-respected journalists in American history, reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.
Fear: Trump in the White House, is the most intimate portrait of a sitting president ever published during the president’s first years in office.
The book details aides of Trump as they try to deal with Trump's behavior. According to the book, aides took papers off of his desk to prevent him from signing them. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly referred to Trump as an "idiot" and "unhinged", while Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Trump has the understanding of "a fifth or sixth grader," and John M. Dowd, formerly Trump's personal lawyer, called him "a fucking liar" telling Trump he would wear an "orange jump suit" if he agreed to testify to Robert Mueller in the Special Counsel investigation.
The book is based on hundreds of hours of recorded interviews with firsthand sources, contemporaneous meeting notes, files, documents and personal diaries".
With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward
, one of the most revered and well-respected journalists in American history, reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.Fear: Trump in the White House, is the most intimate portrait of a sitting president ever published during the president’s first years in office.
The book details aides of Trump as they try to deal with Trump's behavior. According to the book, aides took papers off of his desk to prevent him from signing them. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly referred to Trump as an "idiot" and "unhinged", while Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Trump has the understanding of "a fifth or sixth grader," and John M. Dowd, formerly Trump's personal lawyer, called him "a fucking liar" telling Trump he would wear an "orange jump suit" if he agreed to testify to Robert Mueller in the Special Counsel investigation.
The book is based on hundreds of hours of recorded interviews with firsthand sources, contemporaneous meeting notes, files, documents and personal diaries".
Is Donald Trump the Head of a Crime Family and Does He Believe that He is Superior to Us?
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, reporter and researcher David Cay Johnston said during an MSNBC panel discussion Sunday that the president’s superiority isn’t a recent occurrence. Apparently, the president has felt everyone is below him for quite some time.
When it came to discussing Bob Woodard’s new book, Johnston opened up about his personal experience in dealing with the man
. “Woodward’s book basically confirms everything I wrote about in my 2016 book, The Making of Donald Trump,” Johnston said. “He’s appallingly ignorant, lies all the time, he’s the head of a crime family, and Donald really believes that he is superior to the rest of us.”
Johnston said that there is a reason that Trump frequently attack’s people’s intelligence or calls them “dumb.”
“Because he believes we’re all idiots and fools and he alone is the person competent to run the country, which should help us to understand how totally incapable he is of carrying out the job and why so many people talked to Woodward,” he said.
Host Ayman Mohyeldin noted that Trump dismissed the book because the comments don’t sound like him. Johnston called it nonsense, saying it sounded exactly like Trump.
The panel also spoke about the interview with Omarosa Manigault-Newman on the network Sunday, in which she claimed the use of the #TFA hashtag was frequently used in text conversations in the White House. The acronym stands for “Twenty-Fifth Amendment,” something an anonymous New York Times op-ed writer said was discussed among cabinet members. Johnston said that it didn’t make sense for anyone to try to invoke the 25th Amendment.
When it came to discussing Bob Woodard’s new book, Johnston opened up about his personal experience in dealing with the man
. “Woodward’s book basically confirms everything I wrote about in my 2016 book, The Making of Donald Trump,” Johnston said. “He’s appallingly ignorant, lies all the time, he’s the head of a crime family, and Donald really believes that he is superior to the rest of us.”Johnston said that there is a reason that Trump frequently attack’s people’s intelligence or calls them “dumb.”
“Because he believes we’re all idiots and fools and he alone is the person competent to run the country, which should help us to understand how totally incapable he is of carrying out the job and why so many people talked to Woodward,” he said.
Host Ayman Mohyeldin noted that Trump dismissed the book because the comments don’t sound like him. Johnston called it nonsense, saying it sounded exactly like Trump.
The panel also spoke about the interview with Omarosa Manigault-Newman on the network Sunday, in which she claimed the use of the #TFA hashtag was frequently used in text conversations in the White House. The acronym stands for “Twenty-Fifth Amendment,” something an anonymous New York Times op-ed writer said was discussed among cabinet members. Johnston said that it didn’t make sense for anyone to try to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Gene Gotti, Brother of Mafia Godfather John Gotti, to Be Released from Prison
If the late John Gotti’s long-jailed brother finds the 21st-century Mafia unrecognizable later this month, he knows where the blame lies.
Gene Gotti
, behind bars since 1989 for running a multi-million dollar heroin distribution ring, is set for a Sept. 15 release from the Federal Correctional Institution in Pollock, La. The Long Island father of three, now 71, wore a white jogging suit and cracked wise about his upcoming prison time when surrendering in the last millennium at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse.
Back in the ’80s heyday of his immaculately-dressed older brother and the Gambino family, FBI bugs captured Gene discussing topics from drug dealing to hiding illegal cash to changes in mob hierarchy.
The recordings of the Gambino capo and his mob associates became the first damaging domino to fall for the family in 1983, setting in motion the demise of their criminal empire.
What remains is a faint whisper of the roar that followed the ascension to boss of John (Dapper Don) Gotti, who took over after ordering the Dec. 16, 1985, mob assassination of predecessor “Big Paul” Castellano — in part to save his smack-dealing sibling’s life.
“What is Genie coming home to?” mused one long-retired Gambino family hand and Gotti contemporary. “There’s nothing left.”
When Gene Gotti started his 50-year prison bid, George H.W. Bush was in year one at the White House, an earthquake rocked the Bay Area World Series and the lip-syncing duo Milli Vanilli topped the charts.
Gene Gotti was convicted at his third federal drug-dealing trial, with jury tampering cited for a mistrial in the first one and a hung jury in the second. He and brother John were also cleared in a 1987 federal racketeering case where a juror was bribed.
Angel Gotti, Gene’s niece and the daughter of John, expects her uncle to find his footing in freedom.
“My uncle has been away 29 years so I'm sure he will be spending all his time with his wife, kids and grandchildren,” Angel told the Daily News.
Gene became one of five Gotti brothers to embrace “The Life” of organized crime. Though John emerged as the top gun, Gene earned his own spurs and became a valued mobster.
“He was a bona-fide wiseguy,” said ex-FBI agent Bruce Mouw, former head of the agency’s Gambino squad. “He wasn’t there because of his brother. He made it on his own.” But bona fide wiseguys are hard to find in 2018. Big brother John is dead 16 years, and sibling Peter appears destined to die behind bars, too. John’s namesake son Junior Gotti quit the mob after doing time for a strip club shakedown; he then survived four prosecutions that ended in mistrials. The Gotti crew’s Bergin Hunt & Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens, is gone, replaced by the Lords of Stitch and Print custom embroidery shop.
Even the Mafia “brand” is down: The recently-released movie with John Travolta playing the “Teflon Don” grossed a mere $4.3 million — hardly “Godfather” numbers.
“The American Mafia has a recruitment problem: Who the hell wants to be a member?” said mob expert Howard Abadinsky, professor of criminal justice at St. John’s.
The new generation is filled with wanna-bes “who have either seen too many Mafia movies or losers who do not have the smarts or ambition for legitimate opportunity,” he added.
The older generation was not always a Mensa meeting, either — and Gene Gotti was Example A.
By the early 1980s, Gene was partnered with pals John Carneglia and Angelo Ruggiero in a lucrative heroin operation that ignored a Mafia edict against dope dealing. Gambino boss Castellano imposed a death penalty for violators, worried that drug convictions with lengthy jail terms provided an incentive for mobsters to rat out the family’s top echelon.
Gotti and his cohorts not only ignored the decree, they were caught discussing their drug dealing on an FBI bug planted in Ruggiero’s home. “Dial any seven numbers and it's 50/50 Angelo will pick up the phone,” a disgusted Carneglia later observed of his chatty cohort.
For Mouw, the recordings that led to Gene Gotti’s August 1983 arrest altered the landscape for the feds and the felons under their watch. “Without those conversations, a lot of things could have changed,” he said.
Instead, Castellano was soon pressing the Gotti faction for the damning tapes turned over by prosecutors as part of pre-trial discovery. The boss’ demand was greeted with excuses and delays, until Castellano was whacked 10 days before Christmas outside a Midtown steakhouse.
Decades later, it’s too late to change anything — including Gene’s decision to reject a plea deal that might have freed him after just seven years in prison.
“His brother John said no,” recalled Mouw. “He and Carneglia, they would have been home 20 years ago.”
The past is the past. What does the future hold for Gene Gotti?
“That’s the big question,” said Mouw. “Are you going to retire and enjoy your grandchildren? Or are you going to get active, and return to jail?"
Thanks to Larry McShane.
Gene Gotti
, behind bars since 1989 for running a multi-million dollar heroin distribution ring, is set for a Sept. 15 release from the Federal Correctional Institution in Pollock, La. The Long Island father of three, now 71, wore a white jogging suit and cracked wise about his upcoming prison time when surrendering in the last millennium at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse.Back in the ’80s heyday of his immaculately-dressed older brother and the Gambino family, FBI bugs captured Gene discussing topics from drug dealing to hiding illegal cash to changes in mob hierarchy.
The recordings of the Gambino capo and his mob associates became the first damaging domino to fall for the family in 1983, setting in motion the demise of their criminal empire.
What remains is a faint whisper of the roar that followed the ascension to boss of John (Dapper Don) Gotti, who took over after ordering the Dec. 16, 1985, mob assassination of predecessor “Big Paul” Castellano — in part to save his smack-dealing sibling’s life.
“What is Genie coming home to?” mused one long-retired Gambino family hand and Gotti contemporary. “There’s nothing left.”
When Gene Gotti started his 50-year prison bid, George H.W. Bush was in year one at the White House, an earthquake rocked the Bay Area World Series and the lip-syncing duo Milli Vanilli topped the charts.
Gene Gotti was convicted at his third federal drug-dealing trial, with jury tampering cited for a mistrial in the first one and a hung jury in the second. He and brother John were also cleared in a 1987 federal racketeering case where a juror was bribed.
Angel Gotti, Gene’s niece and the daughter of John, expects her uncle to find his footing in freedom.
“My uncle has been away 29 years so I'm sure he will be spending all his time with his wife, kids and grandchildren,” Angel told the Daily News.
Gene became one of five Gotti brothers to embrace “The Life” of organized crime. Though John emerged as the top gun, Gene earned his own spurs and became a valued mobster.
“He was a bona-fide wiseguy,” said ex-FBI agent Bruce Mouw, former head of the agency’s Gambino squad. “He wasn’t there because of his brother. He made it on his own.” But bona fide wiseguys are hard to find in 2018. Big brother John is dead 16 years, and sibling Peter appears destined to die behind bars, too. John’s namesake son Junior Gotti quit the mob after doing time for a strip club shakedown; he then survived four prosecutions that ended in mistrials. The Gotti crew’s Bergin Hunt & Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens, is gone, replaced by the Lords of Stitch and Print custom embroidery shop.
Even the Mafia “brand” is down: The recently-released movie with John Travolta playing the “Teflon Don” grossed a mere $4.3 million — hardly “Godfather” numbers.
“The American Mafia has a recruitment problem: Who the hell wants to be a member?” said mob expert Howard Abadinsky, professor of criminal justice at St. John’s.
The new generation is filled with wanna-bes “who have either seen too many Mafia movies or losers who do not have the smarts or ambition for legitimate opportunity,” he added.
The older generation was not always a Mensa meeting, either — and Gene Gotti was Example A.
By the early 1980s, Gene was partnered with pals John Carneglia and Angelo Ruggiero in a lucrative heroin operation that ignored a Mafia edict against dope dealing. Gambino boss Castellano imposed a death penalty for violators, worried that drug convictions with lengthy jail terms provided an incentive for mobsters to rat out the family’s top echelon.
Gotti and his cohorts not only ignored the decree, they were caught discussing their drug dealing on an FBI bug planted in Ruggiero’s home. “Dial any seven numbers and it's 50/50 Angelo will pick up the phone,” a disgusted Carneglia later observed of his chatty cohort.
For Mouw, the recordings that led to Gene Gotti’s August 1983 arrest altered the landscape for the feds and the felons under their watch. “Without those conversations, a lot of things could have changed,” he said.
Instead, Castellano was soon pressing the Gotti faction for the damning tapes turned over by prosecutors as part of pre-trial discovery. The boss’ demand was greeted with excuses and delays, until Castellano was whacked 10 days before Christmas outside a Midtown steakhouse.
Decades later, it’s too late to change anything — including Gene’s decision to reject a plea deal that might have freed him after just seven years in prison.
“His brother John said no,” recalled Mouw. “He and Carneglia, they would have been home 20 years ago.”
The past is the past. What does the future hold for Gene Gotti?
“That’s the big question,” said Mouw. “Are you going to retire and enjoy your grandchildren? Or are you going to get active, and return to jail?"
Thanks to Larry McShane.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Why Does a Career Russian Organized Crime Expert Bruce Ohr Upset Donald Trump So Much?
Followers of President Donald Trump’s personal Twitter feed know him as a frequent critic of the U.S. Justice Department. Although his favorite targets remain special counsel Robert Mueller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, lately the president has pushed another, rather unknown name into his crosshairs: Bruce Ohr.
Here, we’ve saved you a lot of Googling.
Who is Bruce Ohr
?
Ohr has been with the Department of Justice (or “Justice” Department, as per the president) for nearly three decades. He started as a prosecutor in New York before transferring to Washington, D.C., where he was eventually named associate deputy attorney general.
His focus is international organized crime ― particularly Russian organized crime. Colleagues and family members told The New York Times he has an upstanding reputation as “a scrupulous government official.” CNN reported that Ohr was viewed as “a consummate government servant.”
In certain posts, Trump called him a “creep” and a “disgrace.”
Ohr was demoted in December 2017. In a statement provided to Fox News at the time, a Justice Department official suggested he was doing too much ― “wear[ing] two hats” ― and the new role will allow him to focus back on organized crime.
Is that all?
Not quite. Ohr knows Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the Trump dossier, because Steele once worked for the FBI as a “confidential human source” over an unspecified time. (The agency kept the receipts.) Ohr communicated with him as a Justice Department official.
When Steele shared information with Mother Jones magazine shortly before the 2016 election, reportedly out of frustration, the FBI stopped using him as a source. But Ohr continued to talk to him and pass his information along to the FBI, even though he wasn’t officially involved with any investigation pertaining to Trump.
The so-called Nunes memo ― a much-hyped document authored by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ― claims Steele told Ohr he really, really did not want Trump elected president.
Additionally, Ohr is married to Nellie Ohr, who formerly worked for Fusion GPS, the company that used funding from Democrats to compile a dossier containing several appalling claims about Trump. He didn’t initially tell Justice Department leadership about the scope of his wife’s work or his continued interactions with Steele.
Why does this matter?
Thanks to his wife and to Steele, Ohr is loosely connected to the Russia investigation. For that he has found himself at the center of a theorized anti-Trump conspiracy. (Phrases such as “RIGGED!,” “WITCH HUNT!” and “Fake Dossier” tend to materialize in the president’s complaints about him on Twitter.)
On Tuesday, Republicans in the House brought him in for a closed-door interview about his contacts with Steele. He was also questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee in December 2017.
To the right, Ohr’s behavior taints the Russia investigation into possible coordination between that nation and Trump’s campaign. But the idea misses one big point: The Russia investigation didn’t start because of the Trump dossier. It was prompted by the actions of George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser.
What could Trump do to him?
The president could revoke Ohr’s security clearance, as he has threatened to do in recent weeks. That would make it pretty hard for Ohr to do his job.
To fire Ohr, Trump would have to lean on Sessions, an ostensible Trump supporter in the doghouse for recusing himself from overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Why is this all coming up now?
Conservative media have seized on the Ohr story, implying that the Russia investigation was born out of partisan prejudice. The president’s channel of choice, Fox News, is particularly preoccupied with it lately, and Trump has on multiple occasions cited the news outlet’s coverage in his tweets.
Thanks to Sara Boboltz.
Here, we’ve saved you a lot of Googling.
Who is Bruce Ohr
?Ohr has been with the Department of Justice (or “Justice” Department, as per the president) for nearly three decades. He started as a prosecutor in New York before transferring to Washington, D.C., where he was eventually named associate deputy attorney general.
His focus is international organized crime ― particularly Russian organized crime. Colleagues and family members told The New York Times he has an upstanding reputation as “a scrupulous government official.” CNN reported that Ohr was viewed as “a consummate government servant.”
In certain posts, Trump called him a “creep” and a “disgrace.”
Ohr was demoted in December 2017. In a statement provided to Fox News at the time, a Justice Department official suggested he was doing too much ― “wear[ing] two hats” ― and the new role will allow him to focus back on organized crime.
Is that all?
Not quite. Ohr knows Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the Trump dossier, because Steele once worked for the FBI as a “confidential human source” over an unspecified time. (The agency kept the receipts.) Ohr communicated with him as a Justice Department official.
When Steele shared information with Mother Jones magazine shortly before the 2016 election, reportedly out of frustration, the FBI stopped using him as a source. But Ohr continued to talk to him and pass his information along to the FBI, even though he wasn’t officially involved with any investigation pertaining to Trump.
The so-called Nunes memo ― a much-hyped document authored by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ― claims Steele told Ohr he really, really did not want Trump elected president.
Additionally, Ohr is married to Nellie Ohr, who formerly worked for Fusion GPS, the company that used funding from Democrats to compile a dossier containing several appalling claims about Trump. He didn’t initially tell Justice Department leadership about the scope of his wife’s work or his continued interactions with Steele.
Why does this matter?
Thanks to his wife and to Steele, Ohr is loosely connected to the Russia investigation. For that he has found himself at the center of a theorized anti-Trump conspiracy. (Phrases such as “RIGGED!,” “WITCH HUNT!” and “Fake Dossier” tend to materialize in the president’s complaints about him on Twitter.)
On Tuesday, Republicans in the House brought him in for a closed-door interview about his contacts with Steele. He was also questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee in December 2017.
To the right, Ohr’s behavior taints the Russia investigation into possible coordination between that nation and Trump’s campaign. But the idea misses one big point: The Russia investigation didn’t start because of the Trump dossier. It was prompted by the actions of George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser.
What could Trump do to him?
The president could revoke Ohr’s security clearance, as he has threatened to do in recent weeks. That would make it pretty hard for Ohr to do his job.
To fire Ohr, Trump would have to lean on Sessions, an ostensible Trump supporter in the doghouse for recusing himself from overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Why is this all coming up now?
Conservative media have seized on the Ohr story, implying that the Russia investigation was born out of partisan prejudice. The president’s channel of choice, Fox News, is particularly preoccupied with it lately, and Trump has on multiple occasions cited the news outlet’s coverage in his tweets.
Thanks to Sara Boboltz.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Vishal Savla, Chicago Financial Advisor, Pleads Guilty of Fraud for Swindling Investors Out of Millions
A Chicago financial advisor who told clients that a “fat finger” trading error caused major losses to their investments admitted in federal court that he actually lost all of their funds through poor trading.
VISHAL SAVLA, 37, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Savla operated VCAP LLC, a Chicago investment fund that purported to trade in equities, options and futures contracts.
The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sunil Harjani.
Savla admitted in a plea agreement that from 2014 to earlier this year, he raised approximately $2.3 million from investors on the promise of substantial returns. VCAP was largely unsuccessful during that time, losing approximately 96% in 2014 and more than 99% in the first eleven months of 2016. Savla continued to solicit and accept investments, and he sent clients phony account statements that fraudulently showed large profits instead of heavy losses, the plea agreement states. At one point in December 2016, according to the plea agreement, Savla falsely represented to clients that he accidentally committed a “fat finger trade” – an error when entering a trade online – that caused VCAP to decline by approximately 90% in a single day. Savla admitted in the plea agreement that there was no such error, and that trading losses had caused the decline.
In addition to the losses incurred by investors, Savla’s plea agreement acknowledges that he borrowed funds from family and friends to help repay VCAP investors. One family member, after being told by Savla about the purported “fat finger” mistake, loaned Savla $500,000, the plea agreement states. Savla used this money to partially repay some of the VCAP investors.
Savla also admitted in his plea agreement that he spent approximately $260,000 of investor funds for his own personal benefit, including living expenses. VCAP did not have any cumulative trading profits that allowed for these withdrawals.
Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle set sentencing for Jan. 9, 2019, at 10:00 a.m.
VISHAL SAVLA, 37, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Savla operated VCAP LLC, a Chicago investment fund that purported to trade in equities, options and futures contracts.
The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sunil Harjani.
Savla admitted in a plea agreement that from 2014 to earlier this year, he raised approximately $2.3 million from investors on the promise of substantial returns. VCAP was largely unsuccessful during that time, losing approximately 96% in 2014 and more than 99% in the first eleven months of 2016. Savla continued to solicit and accept investments, and he sent clients phony account statements that fraudulently showed large profits instead of heavy losses, the plea agreement states. At one point in December 2016, according to the plea agreement, Savla falsely represented to clients that he accidentally committed a “fat finger trade” – an error when entering a trade online – that caused VCAP to decline by approximately 90% in a single day. Savla admitted in the plea agreement that there was no such error, and that trading losses had caused the decline.
In addition to the losses incurred by investors, Savla’s plea agreement acknowledges that he borrowed funds from family and friends to help repay VCAP investors. One family member, after being told by Savla about the purported “fat finger” mistake, loaned Savla $500,000, the plea agreement states. Savla used this money to partially repay some of the VCAP investors.
Savla also admitted in his plea agreement that he spent approximately $260,000 of investor funds for his own personal benefit, including living expenses. VCAP did not have any cumulative trading profits that allowed for these withdrawals.
Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle set sentencing for Jan. 9, 2019, at 10:00 a.m.
Monday, August 27, 2018
American Capitalism Made Donald Trump, Not the Mafia
President Trump’s ruminations after the criminal conviction of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and the guilty plea entered by his former personal attorney Michael Cohen have been likened to that of a mafia boss. “With Mob-Tinged Vocabulary, President Evokes His Native New York” read The New York Times White House memo headline Friday.
No doubt, Trump’s references to “rats” and former insiders “flipping” on him creates the sense he orbits in a solar system of self-interest, outside the bounds of our criminal justice system that’s defined by absolute values of right and wrong. But Trump’s amoral alignment that has him flying "above the law" is not just one we can ascribe to organized crime but to how we police American capitalism itself.
This is no trivial matter, since Trump is the first President that has been bestowed upon our republic by the business world and with the ever-exploding costs of campaigns, certainly likely not to be the last. And it is easy to understand from Trump’s previous brushes with law enforcement how he would now come away annoyed with how he and his associates are being treated.
For up until now, Trump’s battles with the government as a businessman were ones that were civil in nature, where government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission or the Security Exchange Commission made allegations, and his lawyers negotiated a resolution with Trump, perhaps paying a fine, but with Trump not having to admit any wrongdoing.
This regulatory deference to capital, corporations and the people who run them is baked into our system and repeatedly comes to the rescue of serial offenders like Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, who have ruthlessly preyed upon the public, paid their fines and gone on to prosper.
Even though these laws often have criminal penalties attached to them, they are rarely invoked. By the time the former government regulators-turned pricey white-collar defense lawyers get done, the penalties are hardly a speed bump.
Shoplifters trying to score dinner go to jail. But if your heist is really, really big like millions of foreclosed homes, our politicians go golfing with you and ask you for campaign cash. The bigger you think, the greedier your ambition, and the bigger your bank account, the more our jurisprudence has your back.
Back in 2002 the SEC issued a cease and desist order against Trump’s Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. for issuing a “fraudulent” press release that gave the public and investors the “false and misleading impression that his company had exceeded earning expectations through operational improvements, when in fact it had not.”
“Trump Hotels consented to the issuance of the Commission’s order without admitting or denying the Commission’s findings,” the SEC said in a press release. “The Commission also found that Trump Hotels, through the conduct of its chief executive officer, its chief financial officer and its treasurer, violated the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act by knowingly or recklessly issuing a materially misleading press release.”
There was no fine, just whatever punishment the markets might exact in how it priced the stock.
At the time of the alleged violations, Trump was chairman of the company. He issued a statement that he had “great respect for" the SEC and its chairman, Harvey Pitt and that he was “very happy that this all worked out."
It was all very civil.
Back in the summer of 1986, Trump ran afoul of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act, which requires the disclosure of mergers or acquisitions to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice so those agencies can insure the transactions will not negatively impact national commerce or have anti-trust implications.
In 1988 the FTC charged that “in two separate transactions, Trump acquired stock in Holiday Corp. and Bally Manufacturing Corp. through Bear Stearns in an amount well beyond the dollar threshold at which he should have filed pre-merger notifications with the FTC and DOJ. Trump eventually made the appropriate filings but not within the time frame established by the HSR Act.”
Trump paid a $750,000 fine, but of course the FTC press release had the business boilerplate, “This judgment is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by Trump that he violated the law.”
"I firmly believe that I was in full compliance with the Hart, Scott, Rodino Act reporting requirements,’’ Trump said in a statement, adding he only agreed to the settlement ''to avoid protracted litigation with the Federal Government over a highly technical disagreement between the F.T.C. and the business community.''
Generations of enabling American corporations and characters like Donald Trump to get away with their self-dealing has left us with vast wealth and income inequality that only grows wider.
They bought the law, so there is no great equalizer.
No, we can’t blame Donald Trump on the mafia. He is a product of no-holds barred American capitalism where the law is only for the unincorporated little people.
Thanks to Bob Hennelly.
No doubt, Trump’s references to “rats” and former insiders “flipping” on him creates the sense he orbits in a solar system of self-interest, outside the bounds of our criminal justice system that’s defined by absolute values of right and wrong. But Trump’s amoral alignment that has him flying "above the law" is not just one we can ascribe to organized crime but to how we police American capitalism itself.
This is no trivial matter, since Trump is the first President that has been bestowed upon our republic by the business world and with the ever-exploding costs of campaigns, certainly likely not to be the last. And it is easy to understand from Trump’s previous brushes with law enforcement how he would now come away annoyed with how he and his associates are being treated.
For up until now, Trump’s battles with the government as a businessman were ones that were civil in nature, where government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission or the Security Exchange Commission made allegations, and his lawyers negotiated a resolution with Trump, perhaps paying a fine, but with Trump not having to admit any wrongdoing.
This regulatory deference to capital, corporations and the people who run them is baked into our system and repeatedly comes to the rescue of serial offenders like Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, who have ruthlessly preyed upon the public, paid their fines and gone on to prosper.
Even though these laws often have criminal penalties attached to them, they are rarely invoked. By the time the former government regulators-turned pricey white-collar defense lawyers get done, the penalties are hardly a speed bump.
Shoplifters trying to score dinner go to jail. But if your heist is really, really big like millions of foreclosed homes, our politicians go golfing with you and ask you for campaign cash. The bigger you think, the greedier your ambition, and the bigger your bank account, the more our jurisprudence has your back.
Back in 2002 the SEC issued a cease and desist order against Trump’s Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. for issuing a “fraudulent” press release that gave the public and investors the “false and misleading impression that his company had exceeded earning expectations through operational improvements, when in fact it had not.”
“Trump Hotels consented to the issuance of the Commission’s order without admitting or denying the Commission’s findings,” the SEC said in a press release. “The Commission also found that Trump Hotels, through the conduct of its chief executive officer, its chief financial officer and its treasurer, violated the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act by knowingly or recklessly issuing a materially misleading press release.”
There was no fine, just whatever punishment the markets might exact in how it priced the stock.
At the time of the alleged violations, Trump was chairman of the company. He issued a statement that he had “great respect for" the SEC and its chairman, Harvey Pitt and that he was “very happy that this all worked out."
It was all very civil.
Back in the summer of 1986, Trump ran afoul of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act, which requires the disclosure of mergers or acquisitions to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice so those agencies can insure the transactions will not negatively impact national commerce or have anti-trust implications.
In 1988 the FTC charged that “in two separate transactions, Trump acquired stock in Holiday Corp. and Bally Manufacturing Corp. through Bear Stearns in an amount well beyond the dollar threshold at which he should have filed pre-merger notifications with the FTC and DOJ. Trump eventually made the appropriate filings but not within the time frame established by the HSR Act.”
Trump paid a $750,000 fine, but of course the FTC press release had the business boilerplate, “This judgment is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by Trump that he violated the law.”
"I firmly believe that I was in full compliance with the Hart, Scott, Rodino Act reporting requirements,’’ Trump said in a statement, adding he only agreed to the settlement ''to avoid protracted litigation with the Federal Government over a highly technical disagreement between the F.T.C. and the business community.''
Generations of enabling American corporations and characters like Donald Trump to get away with their self-dealing has left us with vast wealth and income inequality that only grows wider.
They bought the law, so there is no great equalizer.
No, we can’t blame Donald Trump on the mafia. He is a product of no-holds barred American capitalism where the law is only for the unincorporated little people.
Thanks to Bob Hennelly.
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