A 33-count indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court charging members and associates of the Bonanno organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the Bonanno family) variously with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, assault in-aid-of racketeering, conspiracy to commit assault in-aid-of racketeering, threatening to commit a crime of violence in-aid-of racketeering, use and possession of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, bank fraud, illegal gambling, extortion, extortion conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Those defendants arrested earlier today in New York are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marilyn D. Go, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn. The case has been assigned to U.S. Senior District Judge Charles P. Sifton.
The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, New York Field Office.
As alleged in the indictment and detention memorandum filed today, Joseph Sammartino, aka “Sammy,” is a Bonanno captain and member of the Bonanno ruling panel; Anthony Sclafani, aka “Scal,” is a Bonanno captain; Joseph Loiacono, aka “Joe Lefty,” and Anthony Pipitone, aka “Little Anthony,” are Bonanno family acting captains; Frank Pastore, aka “Big Frank,” and Paul Spina, aka “Fat Paulie,” are Bonanno family soldiers; and Manny Bana, Peter DeFilippo, Frank DeRosa, Vito Pipitone, Joseph Spatola, and Natale Terzo are Bonanno family associates. The indictment is the result of a lengthy investigation by the FBI, which involved numerous law enforcement techniques, including consensual recordings, cooperating witnesses, confidential sources, and surveillances. The indictment and detention memorandum detail a pattern of alleged mafia violence and intimidation, including threats to murder victims of Bonanno family extortion schemes. For example, on one occasion when a loanshark victim fell behind in payments, Bonanno family captain Sclafani allegedly told him, “you’re lucky we don’t saw you in half and leave you in the woods.” The recordings also captured Bonanno family members and associates discussing their participation in a violent stabbing assault of two individuals in 2004 in Whitestone, Queens.
The indictment announced today is the latest in an ongoing investigation that has resulted in the prosecution of more than 125 members and associates of the Bonanno family in the Eastern District of New York. Since March 2002, four Bonanno family bosses or acting bosses—Joseph Massino, Anthony Urso, Vincent Basciano, and Michael Mancuso—have been convicted on racketeering and racketeering-related charges, which included murder or murder conspiracy as a racketeering act.
“Members of organized crime continue to victimize our communities with their brand of violence and other criminal activity,” stated U. Attorney Campbell. “We will not rest until we dismantle the entire Bonanno crime family and each of the other families of La Cosa Nostra.” Mr. Campbell praised the Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who led the government’s investigation.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Demarest stated, “The charges unsealed today are the culmination of another in a series of recent FBI investigations that put to lie the notion that violence is a thing of the past in organized crime. Today, as always, mob families are criminal enterprises bent on making money any way they can. As often as not, violence goes hand-in-hand with mobsters’ illegal schemes.”
If convicted, Bana, Frank DeRosa, Sebastian DeRosa, Loiacono, Lotito, Pastore, Anthony Pipitone, Vito Pipitone, Sammartino, Sclafani, Spatola, Frank Terzo, and Natale Terzo each face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment; DeFilippo faces a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment; and, based upon a prior felony information filed this morning, Spina faces mandatory life imprisonment.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole M. Argentieri, Gina M. Parlovecchio, and Duncan Levin.
The Defendants:
MANNY BANA
Age: 42
PETER DEFILIPPO
Age: 47
FRANK DEROSA
Age: 45
SEBASTIAN DEROSA
Age: 66
JOSEPH LOIACONO
Age: 64
RICHARD LOTITO
Age: 46
FRANK PASTORE
Age: 39
ANTHONY PIPITONE
Age: 37
VITO PIPITONE
Age: 28
JOSEPH SAMMARTINO
Age: 55
ANTHONY SCLAFANI
Age: 63
JOSEPH SPATOLA
Age: 33
PAUL SPINA
Age: 54
FRANK TERZO
Age: 24
NATALE TERZO
Age: 52
Friday, October 09, 2009
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Al Capone Reputed Hideout Purchased by Wisconsin Bank
The reputed hideout of infamous mobster Al Capone sold to Chippewa Valley Bank of Wisconsin for $2.6 million, according to CNN affiliate KBJR affiliate in Duluth, Minnesota.
Locals say mobster Al Capone used his family's Wisconsin property as a hideout.
The bank was the only bidder at the auction Thursday at the Sawyer County Courthouse in Wisconsin. The previous owners, Guy and Jean Houston, purchased it for $4.25 million in 1959, KBJR said.
The two-story stone lodge, tucked away on 407 acres in Couderay, Wisconsin, was owned by the Capone family in the 1920s.
The Houston family purchased the property in the 1950s and transformed it into a tourist spot. Visitors paid a few dollars for a walking tour of Capone's reputed hideout.
The property includes a 37-acre lake and eight-car garage.
There is no indication of what will happen to the property.
It holds enormous nostalgic value, bank Vice President Joe Kinnear said. After all, he noted, Al Capone's name is closely associated with Chicago, Illinois.
"This guy really has incredible fame power," said John Russick, senior curator at the Chicago History Museum. "He became this icon for a whole profession of underworld figures, and people are fascinated with that."
With his expensive suits, wide-brimmed fedora and cigar, the gangster who relished the media spotlight became the face of lawlessness during the Prohibition era.
From 1925 to 1931, Capone was Chicago's most notorious organized-crime boss. He ruthlessly relied on intimidation, bribes and violence, according to gangster lore.
Even some state and local law enforcement officers turned a blind eye when Capone's gang committed crimes, leaving the feds to chase him, historians say. But life as a crime kingpin brought a growing list of enemies, said Arthur J. Lurigio, a professor of criminology at Loyola University Chicago, who is also working on a documentary and book about organized crime in Chicago.
"He wanted to get away from his enemies," Lurigio explained. "He had already escaped death several times."
No one can say for certain whether Capone ever stayed in the Wisconsin lodge. Because he operated an illegal business, there are few written documents with clues on where he spent his time, historians say.
State University of New York at Oswego professor emeritus Luciano Iorizzo, who wrote "Al Capone: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)" in 2003, said he has never come across evidence that Capone visited the Wisconsin hideout
Henry Binford, a professor of history at Northwestern University, theorizes that the hideout was a stopover in the transportation of liquor to Chicago during Prohibition. It's rumored among locals that planes from Canada that were filled with alcohol docked on the small lake on the property.
"Being an ostensible businessman, he had a lot of channels of supply," Binford said, pointing out that the lodge is located close to the Canadian border.
Capone's illegal activities caught up with him in the 1930s. His most infamous mob war, the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago that killed seven rivals, further enticed federal agents to catch him. In 1931, he was convicted of tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz prison in California.
This summer, when the hideout tours were shut down, Leslie Strapon, assistant executive director of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce, said her office received hundreds of calls from disappointed tourists.
"Everyone is patiently waiting to see what's going to happen with the place," she said. "It would be nice if it fell into the hands of someone who was wiling to reopen and carry on the tradition."
Thanks to Stephanie Chen
Locals say mobster Al Capone used his family's Wisconsin property as a hideout.
The bank was the only bidder at the auction Thursday at the Sawyer County Courthouse in Wisconsin. The previous owners, Guy and Jean Houston, purchased it for $4.25 million in 1959, KBJR said.
The two-story stone lodge, tucked away on 407 acres in Couderay, Wisconsin, was owned by the Capone family in the 1920s.The Houston family purchased the property in the 1950s and transformed it into a tourist spot. Visitors paid a few dollars for a walking tour of Capone's reputed hideout.
The property includes a 37-acre lake and eight-car garage.
There is no indication of what will happen to the property.
It holds enormous nostalgic value, bank Vice President Joe Kinnear said. After all, he noted, Al Capone's name is closely associated with Chicago, Illinois.
"This guy really has incredible fame power," said John Russick, senior curator at the Chicago History Museum. "He became this icon for a whole profession of underworld figures, and people are fascinated with that."
With his expensive suits, wide-brimmed fedora and cigar, the gangster who relished the media spotlight became the face of lawlessness during the Prohibition era.
From 1925 to 1931, Capone was Chicago's most notorious organized-crime boss. He ruthlessly relied on intimidation, bribes and violence, according to gangster lore.
Even some state and local law enforcement officers turned a blind eye when Capone's gang committed crimes, leaving the feds to chase him, historians say. But life as a crime kingpin brought a growing list of enemies, said Arthur J. Lurigio, a professor of criminology at Loyola University Chicago, who is also working on a documentary and book about organized crime in Chicago.
"He wanted to get away from his enemies," Lurigio explained. "He had already escaped death several times."
No one can say for certain whether Capone ever stayed in the Wisconsin lodge. Because he operated an illegal business, there are few written documents with clues on where he spent his time, historians say.
State University of New York at Oswego professor emeritus Luciano Iorizzo, who wrote "Al Capone: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)" in 2003, said he has never come across evidence that Capone visited the Wisconsin hideout
Henry Binford, a professor of history at Northwestern University, theorizes that the hideout was a stopover in the transportation of liquor to Chicago during Prohibition. It's rumored among locals that planes from Canada that were filled with alcohol docked on the small lake on the property.
"Being an ostensible businessman, he had a lot of channels of supply," Binford said, pointing out that the lodge is located close to the Canadian border.
Capone's illegal activities caught up with him in the 1930s. His most infamous mob war, the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago that killed seven rivals, further enticed federal agents to catch him. In 1931, he was convicted of tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz prison in California.
This summer, when the hideout tours were shut down, Leslie Strapon, assistant executive director of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce, said her office received hundreds of calls from disappointed tourists.
"Everyone is patiently waiting to see what's going to happen with the place," she said. "It would be nice if it fell into the hands of someone who was wiling to reopen and carry on the tradition."
Thanks to Stephanie Chen
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Betty Loren-Maltese is Ready to Spill the Beans
After being released from prison and living in Las Vegas, former Illinois politician Betty Loren-Maltese is ready to spill the beans.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Reputed Mobster Joseph Merlino Ran Construction Firm Says Witness
Far from being the self-made man he says he is, Joseph N. Merlino was set up in the construction business by his father, a convicted Mafia killer, a retired federal corruption investigator testified yesterday.
Merlino and his mother are seeking a license that would permit their company, Bayshore Rebar of Pleasantville, to work in the Atlantic City casino industry.
Merlino admits that his father, Lawrence "Yogi," and his cousin Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino were mobsters. But he says Bayshore is free of mob influence and is unrelated to his father, who died in 2001 while in the witness protection program.
Ronald Chance, who investigated mob ties to the construction industry in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of Labor, said Bayshore was founded and run by the elder Merlino.
"Larry Merlino created Bayshore," Chance said. "Bayshore was the minority company of Larry Merlino."
Chance said Merlino listed his wife as the owner to get around requirements that a portion of some contracts be awarded to companies owned by women or minorities, and had his son on the payroll as well.
He testified during a hearing of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that Phyllis Merlino and Joseph N. Merlino were listed as company officers, but Lawrence Merlino was the real boss in the mid-1980s.
"Not one single person ever had any dealings with Joseph or Phyllis Merlino," Chance testified. "Their dealings were with Larry Merlino."
That testimony contradicted the Merlinos' claim of how Bayshore was founded - as a legitimate company free of any mob taint or influence from Lawrence Merlino.
The Merlinos' lawyer, John Donnelly, denied the truth of Chance's testimony.
"He's absolutely, unequivocally, dead wrong," Donnelly said. "It's already found to have been untrue by the Casino Control Commission."
Chance testified that his agency began investigating Lawrence Merlino in the 1980s after an ironworker whose wife had just given birth was hit with a $4,300 hospital bill. The worker went to his union to ask why the hospital said he had no insurance coverage, and was told to see a higher-up in the union, who in turn referred him to "the boss," Lawrence Merlino, Chance testified.
Confronting him at a work site in Atlantic City, Lawrence Merlino grabbed the worker by the throat, told him to open his mouth, stuck a gun inside it, and promised that he would kill the worker if he saw him again, Chance testified.
An investigation determined that Merlino's main company, Nat-Nat, had not been making required payments to a union benefits fund, Chance testified.
"That was the way Nat-Nat got all the jobs: because it wasn't making health and welfare payments," Chance said. Skipping the payments saved the company money and enabled it to underbid other competitors, he added.
The hearing is due to resume Friday.
Thanks to Wayne Parry
Merlino and his mother are seeking a license that would permit their company, Bayshore Rebar of Pleasantville, to work in the Atlantic City casino industry.
Merlino admits that his father, Lawrence "Yogi," and his cousin Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino were mobsters. But he says Bayshore is free of mob influence and is unrelated to his father, who died in 2001 while in the witness protection program.
Ronald Chance, who investigated mob ties to the construction industry in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of Labor, said Bayshore was founded and run by the elder Merlino.
"Larry Merlino created Bayshore," Chance said. "Bayshore was the minority company of Larry Merlino."
Chance said Merlino listed his wife as the owner to get around requirements that a portion of some contracts be awarded to companies owned by women or minorities, and had his son on the payroll as well.
He testified during a hearing of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that Phyllis Merlino and Joseph N. Merlino were listed as company officers, but Lawrence Merlino was the real boss in the mid-1980s.
"Not one single person ever had any dealings with Joseph or Phyllis Merlino," Chance testified. "Their dealings were with Larry Merlino."
That testimony contradicted the Merlinos' claim of how Bayshore was founded - as a legitimate company free of any mob taint or influence from Lawrence Merlino.
The Merlinos' lawyer, John Donnelly, denied the truth of Chance's testimony.
"He's absolutely, unequivocally, dead wrong," Donnelly said. "It's already found to have been untrue by the Casino Control Commission."
Chance testified that his agency began investigating Lawrence Merlino in the 1980s after an ironworker whose wife had just given birth was hit with a $4,300 hospital bill. The worker went to his union to ask why the hospital said he had no insurance coverage, and was told to see a higher-up in the union, who in turn referred him to "the boss," Lawrence Merlino, Chance testified.
Confronting him at a work site in Atlantic City, Lawrence Merlino grabbed the worker by the throat, told him to open his mouth, stuck a gun inside it, and promised that he would kill the worker if he saw him again, Chance testified.
An investigation determined that Merlino's main company, Nat-Nat, had not been making required payments to a union benefits fund, Chance testified.
"That was the way Nat-Nat got all the jobs: because it wasn't making health and welfare payments," Chance said. Skipping the payments saved the company money and enabled it to underbid other competitors, he added.
The hearing is due to resume Friday.
Thanks to Wayne Parry
Facebook Being Used to Recruit Teens into The Mafia
A new Facebook site inviting children into a Naples, Italy, crime syndicate allegedly could be linked to a recent wave of juvenile vandalism, officials said.
The site, which promises "plenty of work," claims to represent a new "Camorra gang made up of teenagers" in the Naples suburb of Pomigliano d'Arco, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday.
Police have yet to determine whether the site is real or a prank, while local officials fear the group may be behind recent vandalism, including the destruction of a playground, ANSA reported.
The site is one of hundreds on Facebook championing the mafia.
Earlier this year, Facebook removed some mafia-related content, including a page dedicated to Toto "The Beast" Riina, once known as the Cosa Nostra "boss of bosses," ANSA said. Riina's page had nearly 2,000 subscribers.
The thousands of people who join mafia Internet sites are "potential gangsters" who should be investigated, said Carlos Vizzini, an Italian crime envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Thanks to The Post Chronicle
The site, which promises "plenty of work," claims to represent a new "Camorra gang made up of teenagers" in the Naples suburb of Pomigliano d'Arco, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday.
Police have yet to determine whether the site is real or a prank, while local officials fear the group may be behind recent vandalism, including the destruction of a playground, ANSA reported.
The site is one of hundreds on Facebook championing the mafia.
Earlier this year, Facebook removed some mafia-related content, including a page dedicated to Toto "The Beast" Riina, once known as the Cosa Nostra "boss of bosses," ANSA said. Riina's page had nearly 2,000 subscribers.
The thousands of people who join mafia Internet sites are "potential gangsters" who should be investigated, said Carlos Vizzini, an Italian crime envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Thanks to The Post Chronicle
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