A former state circuit judge in Arkansas pleaded guilty for accepting a bribe in exchange for reducing a negligence jury verdict against a Conway, Arkansas, company.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick C. Harris of the Eastern District of Arkansas made the announcement.
Michael A. Maggio, 53, of Conway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. A sentencing hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller of the Eastern District of Arkansas will be scheduled at a later date.
As part of his plea agreement, Maggio admitted that in 2013, he served as an elected circuit judge for the state of Arkansas, Twentieth Judicial District, Second Division, presiding over a civil matter in Faulkner County Circuit Court. The plaintiff in that matter, the estate of a decedent, filed a complaint alleging, among other things, that a company, its owner, and others had neglected and mistreated the decedent leading to the decedent’s death while the decedent was in their care. On May 16, 2013, a jury returned a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor, awarding damages against the sole-remaining defendant, the company, in the amount of $5.2 million. Approximately one month later, the company filed a motion for new trial or to reduce the amount of damages awarded by the jury to the plaintiff.
Maggio further admitted that he formally announced his candidacy for the Arkansas Court of Appeals on June 27, 2013, while the post-trial motions were pending. On July 10, 2013, Maggio entered an order reducing the verdict against the company to $1 million. Prior to that order, a fundraiser for Maggio’s campaign told Maggio that the company’s owner had committed money to support Maggio’s campaign. The fundraiser also communicated with Maggio regarding the pending post-trial motions. On July 9, 2013, the owner donated approximately $24,000 to Maggio’s campaign. As part of his plea, Maggio admitted that his decision to remit the judgment was improperly influenced by the donations that his campaign received from the company’s owner. Maggio further acknowledged that he attempted to delete text messages between the fundraiser and himself after the media became aware of the illicit contributions to his campaign.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Monday, January 12, 2015
Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia
From New York Times bestselling author and “one of the most respected crime reporters in the country”
, comes the inside story of the John Gotti and Gambino families, told through the unique vantage point of notorious mob hit-man John Alite, a close associate of Junior Gotti, who later testified against him.
Anastasia’s new book, Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia, is a very rare glimpse into the Gotti family, from an insider’s perspective through the figure of John Alite, who was Gotti Jr.’s friend and protector. Until now, no one has given up the kind of personal details about the Gottis — including the legendary “Gotti Rules” of leadership — that Anastasia has uncovered here, through his exclusive access to and interviews with mob-enforcer-turned-government-witness Alite
, comes the inside story of the John Gotti and Gambino families, told through the unique vantage point of notorious mob hit-man John Alite, a close associate of Junior Gotti, who later testified against him.Anastasia’s new book, Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia, is a very rare glimpse into the Gotti family, from an insider’s perspective through the figure of John Alite, who was Gotti Jr.’s friend and protector. Until now, no one has given up the kind of personal details about the Gottis — including the legendary “Gotti Rules” of leadership — that Anastasia has uncovered here, through his exclusive access to and interviews with mob-enforcer-turned-government-witness Alite
Friday, January 09, 2015
Joseph Caffarello Dies from Shot by Off-duty Police Officer
A clouted Rosemont man who came to local attention when he was photographed sleeping on the job as a tollway supervisor was shot and killed Wednesday in a domestic incident, officials said.
Joseph Caffarello, 31, was shot at noon on Scott Street just south of Granville Avenue, authorities said — the second homicide in less than a week in the normally quiet northwest suburb of just 4,000 residents, the Sun-Times is reporting.
An off-duty Rosemont police officer allegedly shot and killed Caffarello, so Rosemont turned the investigation over to the Illinois State Police, according to a news release from Rosemont police. The police officer, who has been on the job for four years, has been put on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
State police spokeswoman Monique Bond confirmed ISP was investigating but declined to provide details. Rosemont village spokesman Gary Mack said the shooting was a “domestic incident” that occurred in the street.
Caffarello was two years ago photographed on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times, sleeping on the job while he worked as an Illinois Tollway garage supervisor.
He'd twice previously been fired, only to win his job back, before underlings in 2013 finally secured his dismissal by photographing him asleep in his office. And he wasn't shy about bragging that he had clout that protected him, authorities said at the time. He was also accused of intimidating tollway employees and threatening to bring down the tollway's inspector general.
Caffarello “did threaten to get anyone who was opposing him, including me,” Tollway Inspector General James Wagner said in 2013. “There were reports from the employees that he referred to his clout being able to take care of him.”
Caffarello's attorney disputed the allegations, but Cafarello did have ties to people with mob or political connections, public records show.
Though Caffarello wasn't accused himself of being in the Mob, he once wrote that his uncle — the late mob street tax collector Anthony “Jeep” Daddino — had been like a father to him. Daddino has been described by the Chicago Crime Commission as an Outfit member who was friends with the first mayor of Rosemont, Donald Stephens, and was a village employee. Daddino also worked for the late, feared mob killer Frank “The German” Schweihs, court records show.
When Stephens died in 2007, Daddino was at the funeral and told the Sun-Times he “lost a very good friend.”
The following year, after Daddino died from cancer, Caffarello asked the tollway for bereavement leave — something normally reserved for the deaths of immediate relatives. “I consider my uncle immediate family due to the fact that he raised me from a baby,” Caffarello wrote in a letter to tollway officials. “I do not have a relationship with my father, and my uncle was the closes [sic] thing to a father.”
When he wasn't working at the tollway, Caffarello found work at D & P Construction, which has been tied to the family of reputed Chicago Outfit boss John DiFronzo.
Caffarello also was married to the daughter of the clerk of the village of Rosemont. In 2013, Caffarello became a father.
He said he was “screwed” by the tollway after he was fired the third time. Beyond that, he didn't want to discuss his dismissal with the Sun-Times in 2013, telling a reporter he was about to enjoy a dinner of orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe cooked by his mom, whom he described as “the best.”
Relatives could not be reached Wednesday.
Mack could not provide further details of the shooting.
Cafarello's murder is the second this year in the Northwest suburb, which until Friday had not seen a murder in more than a decade.
On Friday, a 14-year-old Des Plaines student was killed in what police said was a gang-related murder.
Mack said the cases are not related.
Thanks to Fox Chicago.
Joseph Caffarello, 31, was shot at noon on Scott Street just south of Granville Avenue, authorities said — the second homicide in less than a week in the normally quiet northwest suburb of just 4,000 residents, the Sun-Times is reporting.
An off-duty Rosemont police officer allegedly shot and killed Caffarello, so Rosemont turned the investigation over to the Illinois State Police, according to a news release from Rosemont police. The police officer, who has been on the job for four years, has been put on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
State police spokeswoman Monique Bond confirmed ISP was investigating but declined to provide details. Rosemont village spokesman Gary Mack said the shooting was a “domestic incident” that occurred in the street.
Caffarello was two years ago photographed on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times, sleeping on the job while he worked as an Illinois Tollway garage supervisor.
He'd twice previously been fired, only to win his job back, before underlings in 2013 finally secured his dismissal by photographing him asleep in his office. And he wasn't shy about bragging that he had clout that protected him, authorities said at the time. He was also accused of intimidating tollway employees and threatening to bring down the tollway's inspector general.
Caffarello “did threaten to get anyone who was opposing him, including me,” Tollway Inspector General James Wagner said in 2013. “There were reports from the employees that he referred to his clout being able to take care of him.”
Caffarello's attorney disputed the allegations, but Cafarello did have ties to people with mob or political connections, public records show.
Though Caffarello wasn't accused himself of being in the Mob, he once wrote that his uncle — the late mob street tax collector Anthony “Jeep” Daddino — had been like a father to him. Daddino has been described by the Chicago Crime Commission as an Outfit member who was friends with the first mayor of Rosemont, Donald Stephens, and was a village employee. Daddino also worked for the late, feared mob killer Frank “The German” Schweihs, court records show.
When Stephens died in 2007, Daddino was at the funeral and told the Sun-Times he “lost a very good friend.”
The following year, after Daddino died from cancer, Caffarello asked the tollway for bereavement leave — something normally reserved for the deaths of immediate relatives. “I consider my uncle immediate family due to the fact that he raised me from a baby,” Caffarello wrote in a letter to tollway officials. “I do not have a relationship with my father, and my uncle was the closes [sic] thing to a father.”
When he wasn't working at the tollway, Caffarello found work at D & P Construction, which has been tied to the family of reputed Chicago Outfit boss John DiFronzo.
Caffarello also was married to the daughter of the clerk of the village of Rosemont. In 2013, Caffarello became a father.
He said he was “screwed” by the tollway after he was fired the third time. Beyond that, he didn't want to discuss his dismissal with the Sun-Times in 2013, telling a reporter he was about to enjoy a dinner of orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe cooked by his mom, whom he described as “the best.”
Relatives could not be reached Wednesday.
Mack could not provide further details of the shooting.
Cafarello's murder is the second this year in the Northwest suburb, which until Friday had not seen a murder in more than a decade.
On Friday, a 14-year-old Des Plaines student was killed in what police said was a gang-related murder.
Mack said the cases are not related.
Thanks to Fox Chicago.
Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Edward Walsh, County Conservative Party Chairman, Charged with Scheme to Defraud Sheriff’s Office
Suffolk County Conservative Party Chairman Edward M. Walsh, Jr. was arrested on charges that he engaged in a scheme to steal wages for regular and overtime hours in connection with his employment with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office (“SCSO”). He was arraigned today before United States Magistrate Judge A. Kathleen Tomlinson at the federal courthouse in Central Islip.
The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).
As alleged in the criminal complaint, from January 2011 to April 2014, Walsh, a SCSO Correction Officer III Investigator, falsely represented to the SCSO that he had worked certain regular and overtime hours when, in fact, he did not. Contrary to his representations, Walsh was, among other things, playing golf, gambling at Foxwoods Casino, or performing work on behalf of the Suffolk County Conservative Party. In reliance on Walsh’s false representations, the SCSO paid Walsh approximately $80,000 in wages for regular and overtime hours he did not work. To conceal his scheme, Walsh allegedly lied to FBI agents, claiming that he worked flex time or was on the telephone regarding his work at the SCSO even while at the golf course.
“Instead of upholding the law, Edward Walsh abused his position and authority and robbed from taxpayers to fund his personal and political activities,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “We and our partners in the FBI will continue to root out government fraud wherever we find it.”
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Venizelos stated, “Mr. Walsh shook down county government for hours he never worked. In reality, he was often on the ninth hole practicing his putting, among other things. Mr. Walsh today finds himself in serious trouble with the law for allegedly defrauding Suffolk County.”
The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).
As alleged in the criminal complaint, from January 2011 to April 2014, Walsh, a SCSO Correction Officer III Investigator, falsely represented to the SCSO that he had worked certain regular and overtime hours when, in fact, he did not. Contrary to his representations, Walsh was, among other things, playing golf, gambling at Foxwoods Casino, or performing work on behalf of the Suffolk County Conservative Party. In reliance on Walsh’s false representations, the SCSO paid Walsh approximately $80,000 in wages for regular and overtime hours he did not work. To conceal his scheme, Walsh allegedly lied to FBI agents, claiming that he worked flex time or was on the telephone regarding his work at the SCSO even while at the golf course.
“Instead of upholding the law, Edward Walsh abused his position and authority and robbed from taxpayers to fund his personal and political activities,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “We and our partners in the FBI will continue to root out government fraud wherever we find it.”
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Venizelos stated, “Mr. Walsh shook down county government for hours he never worked. In reality, he was often on the ninth hole practicing his putting, among other things. Mr. Walsh today finds himself in serious trouble with the law for allegedly defrauding Suffolk County.”
Son of Gulf Cartel boss arrested in ammo-smuggling case
The son of one of the biggest Mexican drug lords to ever face justice in the United States has been arrested for allegedly trying to sneak military-grade ammunition south of the border.
Osiel Cardenas Jr., known as "Mini Osiel," appeared before a federal magistrate in Brownsville this week following his arrest by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
He is charged with attempting to smuggle almost 500 rifle bullets and "tactical weapons gear" in his black 2015 Cadillac Escalade. He was allegedly driving the luxury sport utility vehicle toward an international bridge that spans the Rio Grande and connects Brownsville with the Mexican city of Matamoros when he was stopped by the U.S. officers spot-checking traffic leaving the country, according to an affidavit filed in federal court to support his arrest.
Cardenas, who is a U.S. citizen, admitted that he knew about the bullets and that he was trying to smuggle them into Mexico, contends the federal agent who signed the affidavit.
Most ammunition and firearms are illegal for civilians in Mexico, but they are prized by organized-crime groups there who for years have been battling each other and government security forces. Texas, with its high concentration of gun stores, has been described by U.S. federal authorities as a steady ready source of Mexico's illegal weaponry.
His father, Osiel Cardenas, 47, was convicted in Houston in 2009 on an array of drug trafficking and money laundering charges in connection with being the chief leader of the Gulf Cartel. He is locked up in the so-called Supermax prison in Colorado, which is also home to such inmates as "Unabomber" Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski and Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols.
The younger Cardenas now faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, but would likely get far less time than that.
His lawyer, who also represented his father, did not respond to a request for comment. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, when Magistrate Judge Ignacio Torteya III is to decide if Cardenas should be temporarily released on bail pending trial.
His arrest marks perhaps the first time his name has been made public in connection with an international crime, but he is known by U.S. law enforcement officers to be trying to follow in this father's footsteps, said Mike Vigil, retired chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"He is what is referred to in Mexico as a narco junior," said Vigil, who is the author of "DEAL," a memoir of his 31-year career with the agency. "He has enlisted other narco juniors," as the adult children of drug traffickers are known,"to go along with him, and he loves to emulate his father," Vigil said. "He likes to drive around Matamoros and that area with an entourage like his father used to do."
The younger man's cousin, Rafael Cardenas, 41, was convicted in 2012 in Brownsville for being one of the cartel's new leaders and got 20 years. Osiel Cardenas Jr.'s uncle, Antonio Cardenas, was killed in 2010 a gun battle with the Mexican military.
The ammunition seized Friday in Brownsville is just a drop compared to the 26,157 rounds of ammunition seized last year in South Texas by Customs and Border Protection. "A lot of that is military grade ammunition," Vigil said. "He was certainly not taking that ammunition back to hunt deer or elk, but human beings."
Thanks to Dane Schiller.
Osiel Cardenas Jr., known as "Mini Osiel," appeared before a federal magistrate in Brownsville this week following his arrest by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
He is charged with attempting to smuggle almost 500 rifle bullets and "tactical weapons gear" in his black 2015 Cadillac Escalade. He was allegedly driving the luxury sport utility vehicle toward an international bridge that spans the Rio Grande and connects Brownsville with the Mexican city of Matamoros when he was stopped by the U.S. officers spot-checking traffic leaving the country, according to an affidavit filed in federal court to support his arrest.
Cardenas, who is a U.S. citizen, admitted that he knew about the bullets and that he was trying to smuggle them into Mexico, contends the federal agent who signed the affidavit.
Most ammunition and firearms are illegal for civilians in Mexico, but they are prized by organized-crime groups there who for years have been battling each other and government security forces. Texas, with its high concentration of gun stores, has been described by U.S. federal authorities as a steady ready source of Mexico's illegal weaponry.
His father, Osiel Cardenas, 47, was convicted in Houston in 2009 on an array of drug trafficking and money laundering charges in connection with being the chief leader of the Gulf Cartel. He is locked up in the so-called Supermax prison in Colorado, which is also home to such inmates as "Unabomber" Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski and Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols.
The younger Cardenas now faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, but would likely get far less time than that.
His lawyer, who also represented his father, did not respond to a request for comment. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, when Magistrate Judge Ignacio Torteya III is to decide if Cardenas should be temporarily released on bail pending trial.
His arrest marks perhaps the first time his name has been made public in connection with an international crime, but he is known by U.S. law enforcement officers to be trying to follow in this father's footsteps, said Mike Vigil, retired chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"He is what is referred to in Mexico as a narco junior," said Vigil, who is the author of "DEAL," a memoir of his 31-year career with the agency. "He has enlisted other narco juniors," as the adult children of drug traffickers are known,"to go along with him, and he loves to emulate his father," Vigil said. "He likes to drive around Matamoros and that area with an entourage like his father used to do."
The younger man's cousin, Rafael Cardenas, 41, was convicted in 2012 in Brownsville for being one of the cartel's new leaders and got 20 years. Osiel Cardenas Jr.'s uncle, Antonio Cardenas, was killed in 2010 a gun battle with the Mexican military.
The ammunition seized Friday in Brownsville is just a drop compared to the 26,157 rounds of ammunition seized last year in South Texas by Customs and Border Protection. "A lot of that is military grade ammunition," Vigil said. "He was certainly not taking that ammunition back to hunt deer or elk, but human beings."
Thanks to Dane Schiller.
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