Chicago Gangster Arrested in Wisconsin

Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrest of DANIEL BONILLA, age 26, whose last known address was 2544 North Harding in Chicago. BONILLA was arrested on November 2, 2009, by members of the Milwaukee U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. BONILLA had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt, coordinated by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs (JTFG) since October of 2008, when he was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago with violation of Federal drug laws.

BONILLA, an alleged member of the Spanish Cobras street gang, was among 30 gang members and associates charged last year as the result of an investigation, codenamed “Operation Snake Charmer”. His arrest earlier this week was the result of an anonymous tip to the Chicago Office of the FBI. The tipster indicated that he/she had seen BONILLA’s wanted flyer on the internet and knew of his whereabouts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He was arrested without incident.

BONILLA was transported back to Chicago, where he appeared in U.S. District Court to face charges. He is being held without bond until his next scheduled court appearance.

The Milwaukee U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force is comprised of Special Agents from the FBI; U.S. Marshals; Officers of the Milwaukee Police Department; and Deputies from the Milwaukee and Waukesha County Sheriff’s Departments.

The public is reminded that a criminal complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law

Tweet

Muslim Mafia Authors Barred From Publishing Documents

A federal judge yesterday granted a request by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to block the authors of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America from publishing any of the documents taken by Chris Gaubatz while he was posing as an intern during a "counterintelligence operation" for the book.

Separately, Muslim Mafia author Dave Gaubatz and his son Chris are now being represented by the lawyer who represented shock jock Michael Savage in his 2007 copyright infringement suit against CAIR. We'll have more on this soon.

Besides barring publication of the docs, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered in her opinion yesterday that the authors return to CAIR any of the files that contain donor, attorney-client, or confidential employee information. She ruled CAIR is likely to succeed in its claim that Gaubatz violated the confidentiality agreement that CAIR alleges he signed when he became an intern at the group's Washington office.

"This is the first step," CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper tells TPMmuckraker. "This is going to be a long legal battle and we won the first skirmish." He adds that CAIR has not yet received the documents, and that it is mulling further legal action on issues including defamation.

Kollar-Kotelly writes in her opinion:

The Court shall therefore GRANT CAIR's request for a temporary restraining order enjoining Defendants from making any use, disclosure or publication of any (a) document (including emails and other electronic documents) or copy thereof obtained by Defendant Chris Gaubatz from CAIR's offices or facilities, or (b) recording (or copy thereof), whether audio or video, of meetings or of conversations involving CAIR officials or employees.

Of course Muslim Mafia, published last month by WorldNetDaily, makes use of those documents and sparked a request by four House Republicans for an investigation into alleged Muslim intern spying on Capitol Hill. And it's worth noting that at least a few of the documents are already in wide circulation, including a CAIR "strategy" memo released by the members of Congress.

Kollar-Kotelly also writes in her ruling that the information she has seen suggests Gaubatz took information from CAIR -- including, they say, 12,000 pages of internal files -- unlawfully:

[T]he record now before the Court supports a finding that Defendants have unlawfully obtained access to, and have already caused repeated public disclosure of, material containing CAIR's proprietary, confidential and privileged information. Although Defendants have not yet appeared before the Court in person, CAIR has provided sworn declarations detailing apparent admissions made by Defendant Paul David Gaubatz in his book, Muslim Mafia, in which he admits that his son, Defendant Chris Gaubatz, obtained an internship with CAIR under the "nom de guerre" of "David Marshall," and "routinely load[ed] the trunk of his car with boxes of sensitive [CAIR] documents and deliver[ed] them into the custody of investigative project P. David Gaubatz who in turn stockpiled them at his office in Richmond, Virginia."

Gaubatz told WND that research for the book "was conducted professionally and legally."

Thanks to Justin Elliot

Tweet

Victoria Gotti Explodes in Court with Profane Tirade

She's one bad mother.

Mob matriarch Victoria Gotti unleashed a foul-mouthed fusillade at a federal judge Wednesday, exploding in fury as he booted a purportedly pro-defense juror.

"F----- animals!" screamed the seething mother of defendant John A. (Junior) Gotti. "They're railroading you! They're doing to you what they did to your father!"

Junior Gotti turned from the defense table to soothe his mother, but the wife of late mobster John (Dapper Don) Gotti ignored her 45-year-old son - and escalated her profane tirade.

"They're doing to you what they did to your father," the volatile Mafia mom ranted. "You f------ liar! You bastard!"

Junior interrupted: "I can deal with it. I'm okay. Don't worry about it. I'm fine." But his mother kept blasting with both barrels.

"They're the gangsters, right there!" she yelled. "The f------ gangsters! You son of a bitches! Put your own sons in there. You bastards!"

Federal Judge Kevin Castel was in the middle of dismissing contentious juror No. 7 when Victoria Gotti - who has a history of histrionics - sprung from her seat in full maternal meltdown.

She was hustled from the courtroom by three of her children before a scowling Castel continued, cutting loose the pro-defense juror. Prosecutors had sought her dismissal.

He also dismissed No. 7's nemesis, juror No. 11. The jury was out of the courtroom when Castel made his ruling - and when Victoria Gotti erupted.

"I don't know the source of the friction between the two jurors," Castel concluded after Victoria Gotti left. "It may be that one is a difficult personality or that both are difficult.

"Accordingly, I am striking both jurors."

The blowup came as the defense was wrapping up its case in Gotti's fourth racketeering trial in five years. The first three ended with hung juries and mistrials.

The jury rift opened last week, after a letter to the judge from an anonymous fellow panelist.

The juror ratted out No. 7, a 34-year-old mail carrier, as sweet on defense lawyer Charles Carnesi and giving her "undivided attention" to the defense case.

The letter raised hopes in the Gotti camp of a fourth mistrial. Then more problems emerged this week, with juror No. 11 accusing No. 7 of taunting her.

Castel attempted to calm the divided jury with sweet talk and sweets - a jar of Twizzlers. Neither worked. And nothing could calm Victoria Gotti, who had verbally assaulted Castel after a hearing in May.

"Why don't you hang him now?" she asked sarcastically at the time. "These are the good guys? God help us!"

Three years ago, in another Junior trial, she shouted at a federal prosecutor. "Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" she snapped.

Thanks to Alison Gendar and Larry McShane.

Tweet

Mafia Wars is Profitable

At least one company is making money off of social networking. The game developer behind 'FarmVille' and 'Mafia Wars' has seen its web-based games take off – and deliver profits.

On any given day 500,000 tractors are sold on the Internet. But don't start buying stock in John Deere or Caterpillar just yet. These are $20 "virtual" tractors that belong to the 50 million players of FarmVille, the largest and fastest-growing social game on the Internet.

Social games are free online applications accessed through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. If you've spent any time on either site you're probably familiar with titles such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Caf World. All three games, which rank among the top five games played daily on Facebook, were developed by San Francisco-based Zynga, one of the tech sector's most talked-about companies these days.

Behind the buzz: Annual revenue at the two-year-old firm is likely to surpass $100 million this year, prompting speculation that the company — backed by the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and PayPal cofounder-turned-investor Peter Thiel — will soon go public. The software company also has managed to do something that other hot online brands such as Twitter and Facebook have not: Zynga has found a way to make social networking profitable.

Zynga was founded in 2007 by Mark Pincus, 43, who also started social-networking site Tribe.net and software company SupportSoft (SPRT), which eventually went public. (The name Zynga is a misspelled tribute to his deceased American bulldog, Zinga.) While many of his Web 3.0 peers rely on advertising and sponsorship for revenue, Pincus makes its money by getting gamers to buy virtual goods, like tractor fuel or land in the case of FarmVille, that enable players to build bigger farms at a faster rate.

By developing games on social networks, Zynga is able to capitalize on the viral nature of the platform. (Zynga estimates it has 70 million monthly unique visitors.) Gamers can invite friends to join them in the game, and they can send updates on their progress to their friends, stoking interest.

Once hooked, Pincus says, players spend real money on virtual goods to help them advance to higher levels — thereby enriching Zynga. And although playing requires only short spurts of time, the game never ends, as Zynga's designers keep adding levels so that players come back for more.

"For me it's just relaxing and fun. I don't have to think hard about it, and I can do it while watching TV," explains Lauren Kohn, 37, a mother of three in San Jose who has spent more than $100 on virtual goods since she started playing FarmVille four months ago.

Pincus won't reveal his margins, but he acknowledges that the company has been profitable every month since September 2007.

By contrast, Twitter doesn't even have meaningful sales, and Facebook only recently claimed to be cash-flow positive. And if online reports are to be believed, Zynga spends millions each year marketing itself on Facebook, thereby providing the social-networking site with a chunk of its revenue. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

Thanks to Jessica Shambora

Tweet

Jury Infighting at the Gotti Trial?

There's more infighting on the Gotti jury than at a gangland sitdown - and they're not even deliberating yet!

A tattling juror revealed the bad blood in a letter to the judge - ratting out a foul-mouthed, lunch-stealing fellow juror who isn't in a hurry to convict the mob scion.

"She announced that we the jurors better be prepared to be deliberating until after the Christmas holiday because ... she is not going to allow any f------ body to rush her," the two-page letter said.

The missive - signed "A Concerned Juror" - also accused juror No. 7 of ogling "defense attorney Mr. Charles Carneglia," apparently confusing defense lawyer Charles Carnesi with mob hit man Charles Carneglia.

The seventh juror allegedly found him "very handsome" and gave her "undivided attention" to the defense team, the letter said.

The mixup brought laughter from the defense table. "Hey, Frank," Gotti said to radio producer Frank Morano out of the jury's earshot. "The juror thinks the guy who represents me is a five-time murderer! What shot do I have?"

The letter contained other complaints about juror No. 7:

- She loudly announced plans for a book "regarding sitting in a jury room with jurors and their f------ attitude."

- She constantly spewed obscenities.

- She charged a takeout order of fried calamari to the court's tab when the panel visited a local restaurant.

Gotti supporters said juror No. 7 seemed to be an independent spirit but called for Judge Kevin Castel to give the letter writer the heave-ho. Castel did neither - but he did interview each panel member about the allegation that the juror, a 34-year-old postal worker, violated orders and yapped about the trial.

The judge asked each of the 16 jurors whether juror No. 7 had violated her oath by talking about the case, reading about it or getting information from outside sources.

"Maybe," said one juror, a 52-year-old retired teacher. "I think if someone talks to her about it on the outside, they may bring information to her about what they heard."

The judge did not ask who wrote the letter, and it was unclear if it might lead to a fourth mistrial in the federal racketeering case against Gotti.

The letter wasn't the only surprise yesterday: A woman called Castel's chambers to say she was approached by people saying, "John Gotti is on your side!" Out of the jury's presence, Castel asked the U.S. marshals to speak with the woman, who left her name and number, but dismissed it as a prank.

Thanks to Alison Gendar and Larry McShane

Tweet