Mob-Con 2013 - First Ever Mob Convention at the Palace Station @PalaceStationLV

Former gangsters and G-Men will come face-to-face in Las Vegas once again — on decidedly more amicable terms — at the first-ever Mob Convention at Palace Station from Sept. 7-8.

The event, presented by former mobster Frank Cullotta and Las Vegas-based businessman Robert George Allen and sponsored by the Mob Attraction at the Tropicana, brings together former crime family members, lawmen, true-crime writers, historians and entertainers for two days of panel discussions, Q+A sessions, meet-and-greets, memorabilia auctions, vendors and more.

Featured guests include Cullotta (of the Chicago Outfit and Hole in the Wall Gang), Tony Montana (Chicago Outfit), Andrew DiDonato (Gambino Family), Frank Calabrese Jr. (Chicago Outfit), Kenji Gallo (Columbo Family), Dennis Arnoldy (FBI), Vito Colucci (law enforcement), Denny Griffin (law enforcement and author), Warren Hull (author), Gary Magnesen (FBI), Gary Jenkins (law enforcement), Ronald Fino (FBI/CIA) and Cathy Scott (author). More guests are to be announced.

“Las Vegas is the ideal city to host Mob-Con,” Allen said in a statement. “People are fascinated about the Mob and, without the Mob, Las Vegas would not be what it is today. Mob-Con is giving the general public unprecedented access to the individuals who were a part of this history.”

Registration for the conference is $195 and includes a 4-hour historical Mob tour of Las Vegas. Tickets can be purchased through the Mob-Con website.

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Owner of @HardcorePawn Les Gold, @LesHCP Provides Business Wisdom From a Pawnbroker in New Book

Businesses these days talk a lot about figuring out what the customer wants. Well, here's your first lesson: the customer doesn't know what he wants. This book is going to show you how to convince him he wants the thing you're selling.

Les Gold has been in business since age twelve, when he started selling used golf clubs from his dad's basement. Now he owns Detroit's biggest pawnshop, American Jewelry and Loan, and is the star of the hit reality TV show "Hardcore Pawn."

As a third-generation pawnbroker, Gold grew up in the business, dealing with cus-tomers who could be unruly and violent as often as they were friendly. He became good at selling just about anything and at buying items for what they were worth. Although he started at his family's small pawnshop, he has now expanded into a fifty-thousand-square-foot former bowling alley, making a thousand deals a day.

On any given day, he could be taking a vin-tage car in to pawn or chasing down a thief who's just stolen a gold chain from the store. No business school in the world can teach you as much about buying, selling, negotiating, managing employees, dealing with customers, advertising, tracking trends, and predicting the economy's ups and downs.

In this entertaining, honest book, Gold takes you inside some of his weirdest, wacki-est deals and steals. From the monkey his dad once took in to pawn to the deal Gold made for a stripper pole, he has no boundaries for what he considers to be part of his business--and neither should you.

You will learn: How to tell an emotional story when you're selling--and take emotion out of the transaction when you're buying. Why judging your customers before you know them can kill a potential deal. How to deal with risk, both mental and physical. How to communicate with employees (even if they're your own kids). Why investing in relationships with your community is time well spent. Why your business should never be limited by what others tell you it should be.

No place in the world prepares you better for the working world than a pawnshop, and Les Gold takes you inside his shop to share what he's learned from fifty-five years in the most interesting job in the world.

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Rocco Lazazzaro Sentenced to More Than Four Years in Prison for #Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud

A man who conspired with a former controller to embezzle millions from the company that owned or developed the Residences at MGM, Town Square shopping center, Turnberry Place, Turnberry Towers, and the Stirling Club in Las Vegas was sentenced to 51 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay approximately $3.7 million in restitution, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Rocco Lazazzaro, 55, of Las Vegas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro. Lazazzaro pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to his guilty plea agreement, from about May 17, 2007 to about January 12, 2012, Lazazzaro and Hope Ippoliti, 51, the former controller for Turnberry Associates, conspired to steal more than $3.7 million from Turnberry and its affiliates.

“Through this embezzlement scheme, Mr. Lazazzaro and Ms. Ippoliti victimized not only Turnberry Associates in the amount of $5.6 million but caused irreparable harm and financial damage to the many victims and business entities employed and supported by Turnberry Associates,” said United States Attorney Bogden. “It is truly sad that the greed and self-indulgent criminal conduct of Mr. Lazazzaro continues to result in harm to so many other innocent victims.”

Ippoliti created fund transfer requests containing false information that the funds were intended for business-related purposes when she and Lazazzaro actually intended to withdraw the funds for personal use. Ippoliti faxed or e-mailed the fund transfer requests from Nevada to Turnberry Associates in Florida to cause the transfer of funds into Bank of America accounts over which she had signatory authority. Ippoliti and Lazazzaro deposited and cashed checks and cashier’s checks drawn on Bank of America bank accounts belonging to Turnberry Associates and its affiliates.

The total losses to Turnberry Associates and its affiliates are a total of $5.6 million. According to Lazazzaro’s guilty plea agreement, he was directly involved in causing approximately $3.7 million of those losses. The sentencing memorandum filed by the government states that Lazazzaro used the stolen monies for gambling and drug use.

Lazarro has four prior felony convictions and numerous misdemeanor convictions, many of which involved violence or threats of violence against others through the use or threatened use of fire, knives, or blunt objects. In 1986, while on probation for a 1980 felony grand theft conviction, he was convicted of committing five robberies in addition to vicious assaults and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. He was discharged from parole one year before committing the Turnberry embezzlement crimes.

Ippoliti pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud resulting in total losses of $5.6 million and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 19, 2013, at 9:00 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro.

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Joseph Morrill Pleads Guilty to Federal Armed Robbery and Firearms Charges

United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty, II announced today that Joseph Morrill, 23, of South Portland, Maine, pled guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland before Judge D. Brock Hornby to federal armed robbery and firearms charges.

According to court records and evidence introduced at the plea hearing, on September 21, 2012, a Glock pistol and a badge belonging to a law enforcement detective were stolen from a motor vehicle in South Portland. On April 17, 2013, Morrill used the pistol to rob a Cumberland Farms store in South Portland absconding with $182 in cash. On April 22, 2013, Morrill used the pistol to rob a TD Bank branch in South Portland absconding with $5,612 in cash. On June 14, 2013, agents seized the handgun during the execution of a federal search warrant at a residence in South Portland.

Morrill faces up to 30 years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for robbing Cumberland Farms, up to 25 years’ imprisonment, and a $250,000 fine for robbing TD Bank, a consecutive sentence of between seven years and life imprisonment for using the stolen pistol during and in relation to the TD Bank robbery and up to 10 years for possessing the stolen firearm.

He will be sentenced after completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the United States Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the South Portland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Shauna Quinn Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud

United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Shauna Quinn, 44, of Rockland, Maine, pled guilty in United States District Court before Judge George Z. Singal to a bank fraud charge.

According to court records, the defendant worked at Rockland Savings Bank in Rockland, Maine, as a collections manager. Between July 2008 and June 2011, she created home equity lines of credit and a share loan in the names of her family members and had more than $400,000 in funds improperly withdrawn from those loans.

A forensic review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the unauthorized activity posted under defendant’s teller ID number for the period from July 2008 to June 2011 revealed that the defendant misappropriated more than $400,000 through improper advances on loans and lines of credit that were not authorized by the bank and agreed to by the borrower. The defendant perpetrated the scheme by increasing the authorized amounts of lines of credit without approval, changing customers’ mail addresses without consent, improperly posting transactions, and creating fictitious loan documents. The fraud was concealed by the defendant who used loan advances to make payments on other loans in order to keep them current.

Quinn faces a sentence of up to 30 years of imprisonment and a fine of up to twice the gain or loss. She will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the United States Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

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