An indictment was filed charging Albert Fisher, 76, of Quakertown, PA, with conspiring to defraud fraternities, sororities and fraternity alumni associations at Lehigh University, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. The defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, and five counts of subscribing to false tax returns.
Fisher and Person #1 operated Fraternity Management Association (“FMA”), located in Bethlehem, PA, and allegedly created a fictitious consulting company, “Fisher and Associates,” which had FMA as its sole client. During the period charged, Person #1 was the Executive Director of FMA while Fisher was employed by FMA as both a full-time employee and as an independent contractor for Fisher and Associates. According to the indictment, between 2009 and 2013, Fisher and FMA’s Executive Director conspired to take money, as payment for future services, that was intended to pay for the operations and upkeep of the fraternities and sororities which included food services and the financial management of expenses. Instead of paying for future services, Fisher and the Executive Director allegedly misappropriated at least $1,461,777.96 in funds from FMA and the victim fraternities which he and the Executive Director used for their own personal purposes, including purchases of goods and services, vacation expenses, home furnishings, and designer clothing. Fisher allegedly lied to the victims about the money that was entrusted to FMA. When FMA ceased operations during the Spring of 2014, Fisher and the Executive Director caused an additional $990,157.41 in expenses for the fraternities, sororities and other victims, including Lehigh University, when the victims had to pay for operations and upkeep of the fraternities.
It is further alleged that Fisher filed tax returns for tax years 2009 to 2013 which failed to report $614,398 in income, which included the defendant’s personal expenses that were paid by FMA and consulting fees authorized by the Executive Director and paid on behalf of FMA.
If convicted, Fisher faces a maximum possible sentence of 50 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, restitution, a possible fine, and a $700 special assessment.
Friday, April 08, 2016
Wednesday, April 06, 2016
Vladimir Putin Orders Creation of National Guard to Fight Organized Crime and Terrorism
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that a National Guard be created in Russia under the auspices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The guard will fight terrorism and organized crime.
“We have made a decision to create a new federal executive body within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, namely the National Guard," the president said Tuesday.
The National Guard "will be fighting terrorism, organized crime, all in close cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They will also continue to perform the functions which are currently carried out by riot police units, SWAT, etc.,” he added.
The National Guard will be formed out of existing Interior Ministry troops. “We thought about how to improve [the work of law enforcement] in all areas, including those related to fighting terrorism, to organized crime and illicit drug trafficking,” Putin said.
The statement came as Putin met Interior Minister Viktor Kolokoltsev, head of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov, and the commander of the interior troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Viktor Zolotov.
Viktor Zolotov, ex-commander of the Internal Troops and former head of the President's personal security service, has been appointed as the leader of the new structure, with orders to report directly to the president, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.
He also drew attention to the fact that Zolotov “has grand experience in [the work of] special forces. This is a very good basis for managing a body such as the National Guard.”
The National Guard will not perform field investigation activities, but they will be involved in fighting terrorism within the country, he added. It is not yet clear, however, whether these troops will be taking part in counter-terrorism operations abroad, according to the spokesman.
Peskov said that the National Guard will work to protect public safety and order along with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Peskov added that the changes in the structure of internal troops do not mean a loss of confidence in them, stressing that the move is aimed at improving their combat capabilities and increasing their effectiveness.
The creation of the new department will require improving the existing legal regulatory framework, as well as setting up ties with other agencies dealing with state security, especially the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, for coordination, he added.
No increase in staffing will be needed, according to Peskov. Moreover, “a combination of merging the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the allocation of internal troops into the National Guard will optimize the entire structure,” he explained.
State Duma representatives have welcomed the President’s decision. Michael Starshinov, head of the inter-factional group on the interaction of civil society with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, considers the creation of the National Guard the State’s response to the current challenges. “I can only support the president's decision, because it corresponds with the logic of reforming the judicial system in general and the Ministry of Interior in particular. This step, of course, is also a response to modern challenges and threats, primarily from the international terrorism” Starshinov told reporters.
The deputy chairman of the Duma committee on security and corruption control, Andrey Lugovoy, expressed his hope for positive changes from the creation of the new structure. “The fact that the internal forces will obtain new duties – fighting against organized crime and terrorism – I would expect that the effect of this will be positive,” Lugovoy said.
Franz Klintsevich, first Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, noted the National Guard will not have to answer to a long hierarchy of superiors, which will make decision-making easier and faster. “[The National Guard will] possess the maximum resources to fight terrorism, including the best forces from the Interior Ministry troops – the people, as they say, proven in combat. It will be endowed with ample powers laid down by federal law [and] will be able to make decisions quickly, without wasting time on all sorts of coordination.”
State Duma deputy from the party 'Spravedlivaya Rossiya' Tatyana Moskalkova also welcomed the news, predicting great improvement to the effectiveness of internal troops.
“The task of combating crime involves the use of specific tools, which are owned by internal troops. [Internal troops] use this special knowledge and special tools to deal with the most dangerous criminal manifestations, such as terrorism, hostage taking, hijacking and riots. The forming of the National Guard is a step toward strengthening the structure [of security forces] and finding new solutions to these security problems,” she said.
“We have made a decision to create a new federal executive body within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, namely the National Guard," the president said Tuesday.
The National Guard "will be fighting terrorism, organized crime, all in close cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They will also continue to perform the functions which are currently carried out by riot police units, SWAT, etc.,” he added.
The National Guard will be formed out of existing Interior Ministry troops. “We thought about how to improve [the work of law enforcement] in all areas, including those related to fighting terrorism, to organized crime and illicit drug trafficking,” Putin said.
The statement came as Putin met Interior Minister Viktor Kolokoltsev, head of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov, and the commander of the interior troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Viktor Zolotov.
Viktor Zolotov, ex-commander of the Internal Troops and former head of the President's personal security service, has been appointed as the leader of the new structure, with orders to report directly to the president, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.
He also drew attention to the fact that Zolotov “has grand experience in [the work of] special forces. This is a very good basis for managing a body such as the National Guard.”
The National Guard will not perform field investigation activities, but they will be involved in fighting terrorism within the country, he added. It is not yet clear, however, whether these troops will be taking part in counter-terrorism operations abroad, according to the spokesman.
Peskov said that the National Guard will work to protect public safety and order along with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Peskov added that the changes in the structure of internal troops do not mean a loss of confidence in them, stressing that the move is aimed at improving their combat capabilities and increasing their effectiveness.
The creation of the new department will require improving the existing legal regulatory framework, as well as setting up ties with other agencies dealing with state security, especially the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, for coordination, he added.
No increase in staffing will be needed, according to Peskov. Moreover, “a combination of merging the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the allocation of internal troops into the National Guard will optimize the entire structure,” he explained.
State Duma representatives have welcomed the President’s decision. Michael Starshinov, head of the inter-factional group on the interaction of civil society with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, considers the creation of the National Guard the State’s response to the current challenges. “I can only support the president's decision, because it corresponds with the logic of reforming the judicial system in general and the Ministry of Interior in particular. This step, of course, is also a response to modern challenges and threats, primarily from the international terrorism” Starshinov told reporters.
The deputy chairman of the Duma committee on security and corruption control, Andrey Lugovoy, expressed his hope for positive changes from the creation of the new structure. “The fact that the internal forces will obtain new duties – fighting against organized crime and terrorism – I would expect that the effect of this will be positive,” Lugovoy said.
Franz Klintsevich, first Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, noted the National Guard will not have to answer to a long hierarchy of superiors, which will make decision-making easier and faster. “[The National Guard will] possess the maximum resources to fight terrorism, including the best forces from the Interior Ministry troops – the people, as they say, proven in combat. It will be endowed with ample powers laid down by federal law [and] will be able to make decisions quickly, without wasting time on all sorts of coordination.”
State Duma deputy from the party 'Spravedlivaya Rossiya' Tatyana Moskalkova also welcomed the news, predicting great improvement to the effectiveness of internal troops.
“The task of combating crime involves the use of specific tools, which are owned by internal troops. [Internal troops] use this special knowledge and special tools to deal with the most dangerous criminal manifestations, such as terrorism, hostage taking, hijacking and riots. The forming of the National Guard is a step toward strengthening the structure [of security forces] and finding new solutions to these security problems,” she said.
$100,000 Reward for Mexican Citizen, Brenda Delgado, Just the 9th Woman Placed on FBI's Most Wanted Fugitive List
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the addition of Brenda Delgado to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Delgado is being sought for allegedly orchestrating the murder-for-hire of dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher in Dallas, Texas.
On September 2, 2015, the victim was found deceased from a gunshot wound in the parking garage of her apartment complex. Based on investigative efforts by the Dallas Police Department, Delgado is suspected of hiring two alleged co-conspirators to facilitate the murder. Both co-conspirators have been arrested and are currently in custody. Delgado is believed to have fled the country shortly after being interviewed by investigators.
Delgado has been charged with capital murder for her alleged crime, and a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas on October 7, 2015. Delgado is a Mexican citizen, born Brenda Berenice Delgado Reynaga, on June 18, 1982. She is described as a Hispanic female, 5’5” tall, 145 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She has a butterfly tattoo on the small of her back. Delgado has ties to Mexico, and investigators strongly believe she may currently be residing there.
The search for Delgado is being coordinated by the Dallas FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force, which is composed of FBI special agents and detectives from the Dallas and Garland Police Departments. Given that Delgado’s alleged crime involved the use of a firearm, she should be considered armed and dangerous.
“The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program is one of the most powerful tools we have to apprehend our country’s most dangerous criminals,” said Joseph Campbell, assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Community visibility and awareness of the program brings the eyes and ears of citizens around the world into the effort, which leads to the capture of these criminals.”
Thomas M. Class, Sr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, said, “Brenda Delgado was able to effectively manipulate everyone she involved in her calculated scheme. Although she didn’t pull the trigger herself, she is still responsible for the murder of Dr. Kendra Hatcher, and through international publicity and a significant reward offering, we intend to find her and to bring her to justice.”
Robert Sherwin, deputy chief of the Dallas Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Division, said, “The evidence against Brenda Delgado has been gathered, the case has been filed by our detectives, a grand jury has indicted her, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest. What is left to do is to bring her to justice and have her answer for this crime that shocked our community. I am thankful to Kendra’s family for their strength and for all of the individuals involved in adding Brenda Delgado to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.”
Delgado is the 506th person and the ninth woman to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, which was established in March 1950. Since then, 474 fugitives have been apprehended or located, 156 of them as a result of citizen cooperation.
A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for any information leading directly to the arrest of Delgado. Individuals with information concerning Delgado should take no action themselves but are asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Tips can also be submitted online at https://tips.fbi.gov. For possible sightings outside the United States, please contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The FBI’s Dallas Field Office can be reached at 972-559-5000. Additional information concerning Delgado, including her wanted poster and the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, can be found by visiting the FBI’s website at https://www.fbi.gov.
On September 2, 2015, the victim was found deceased from a gunshot wound in the parking garage of her apartment complex. Based on investigative efforts by the Dallas Police Department, Delgado is suspected of hiring two alleged co-conspirators to facilitate the murder. Both co-conspirators have been arrested and are currently in custody. Delgado is believed to have fled the country shortly after being interviewed by investigators.
Delgado has been charged with capital murder for her alleged crime, and a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas on October 7, 2015. Delgado is a Mexican citizen, born Brenda Berenice Delgado Reynaga, on June 18, 1982. She is described as a Hispanic female, 5’5” tall, 145 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She has a butterfly tattoo on the small of her back. Delgado has ties to Mexico, and investigators strongly believe she may currently be residing there.
The search for Delgado is being coordinated by the Dallas FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force, which is composed of FBI special agents and detectives from the Dallas and Garland Police Departments. Given that Delgado’s alleged crime involved the use of a firearm, she should be considered armed and dangerous.
“The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program is one of the most powerful tools we have to apprehend our country’s most dangerous criminals,” said Joseph Campbell, assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Community visibility and awareness of the program brings the eyes and ears of citizens around the world into the effort, which leads to the capture of these criminals.”
Thomas M. Class, Sr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, said, “Brenda Delgado was able to effectively manipulate everyone she involved in her calculated scheme. Although she didn’t pull the trigger herself, she is still responsible for the murder of Dr. Kendra Hatcher, and through international publicity and a significant reward offering, we intend to find her and to bring her to justice.”
Robert Sherwin, deputy chief of the Dallas Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Division, said, “The evidence against Brenda Delgado has been gathered, the case has been filed by our detectives, a grand jury has indicted her, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest. What is left to do is to bring her to justice and have her answer for this crime that shocked our community. I am thankful to Kendra’s family for their strength and for all of the individuals involved in adding Brenda Delgado to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.”
Delgado is the 506th person and the ninth woman to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, which was established in March 1950. Since then, 474 fugitives have been apprehended or located, 156 of them as a result of citizen cooperation.
A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for any information leading directly to the arrest of Delgado. Individuals with information concerning Delgado should take no action themselves but are asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Tips can also be submitted online at https://tips.fbi.gov. For possible sightings outside the United States, please contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The FBI’s Dallas Field Office can be reached at 972-559-5000. Additional information concerning Delgado, including her wanted poster and the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, can be found by visiting the FBI’s website at https://www.fbi.gov.
An Offer We Can't Refuse - the Love/Hate Affair of the Mafia Mystique
The Mafia Mystique, Italian-Americans have love/hate affair with the dark side of their heritage.
Years ago
, writing about the legacy of Mario Puzo, I said, "If there is a God and he is indeed Catholic, then Puzo is burning in hell." Before The Godfather was published in 1969, historians of organized crime in the 20th century told us that some major stars of the modern mob had names like Arnold Rothstein, Owney Madden, and Logan and Fred Billingsley. After The Godfather, the only major crime figures who got any attention were the ones whose names ended in vowels.
Thanks to this myth-mongering hack, Frank Sinatra will forever be remembered as the man who, through his fictional counterpart, Johnny Fontaine, crooned I Have But One Heart at his godfather's daughter's wedding. It is now taken for fact that Sinatra owed his comeback and hence his success not to his talent but to the Mafia; apparently they held guns to the heads of people, forcing them to buy all those Sinatra albums.
The provocative and lively An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America, by George De Stefano, a journalist and cultural critic whose work can be most often read in The Nation, has convinced me that I've been too tough on Puzo. The Godfather, the book and the movie, did, after all, succeed in reviving interest in Italian-American culture at a time when it appeared to be fading into the suburban landscape. I can only speak for members of my father's family, who rather enjoyed the attention and even reveled in the idea that they might actually be a bit feared because of their name.
For De Stefano, as for many of our generation, Francis Ford Coppola's film was an epiphany. The gay Baby Boomer son of a Neapolitan auto mechanic and a Sicilian housewife, De Stefano, by the time he was in college, had drifted far from his parents' world: "The Stones' Sticky Fingers was on my stereo and a Black Panther poster adorned my dorm room wall. My identity was radical hippie freak. My ethnic background was just that, background."
An Offer We Can't Refuse invites Italian-Americans of all backgrounds to the family table to discuss the issues of how mob-related movies and television shows have affected the very notion of what their heritage still means in the 21st century.
It's a big table. At the head is Richard Gambino, whose 1974 book Blood of My Blood -- The Dilemma of Italian-Americans was the first serious work of nonfiction written on the subject; sitting in the middle are Gay Talese, Nicholas Gage, and nearly every other prominent, second-generation Italian-American journalist; and fighting for attention down at the end of the table are third-generation would-be personas importante such as Maria Laurino, Maria Russo, Bill Tonelli, and, in the interests of full disclosure, me (I am quoted twice by De Stefano). As you can imagine, it's one heck of a noisy table.
The principal topic of discussion is not so much the Mafia, whose power most experts seem to feel is dwindling, as the Mafia's mystique. But as journalist Anthony Mancini puts it, "It's just too good a myth to abandon."
The best movies and shows about mobsters and their families -- Coppola's Godfather movies, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, The Sopranos, the late, lamented cult TV series Wise Guy -- were never really about the mob anyway; they were always about the vicissitudes of Italian-American family life and the perils of maintaining tradition in the face of assimilation, a metaphor for the American immigrant experience.
As a Russian neighbor of mine put it, "I never really thought The Godfather was about crime. I thought it was about the part where Don Corleone tells Michael he wanted something better for him than he had had."
These shows provide an answer to why the people who gave the world Dante, da Vinci, Boccaccio, Verdi and Rossini have produced so few literary artists in this country. Their grandparents might have come here without being able to write in their own language, much less English, but Coppola, Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Quentin Tarantino and several others have used their experiences to give the world the poetry that their ancestors couldn't. Don Corleone gave Michael something better after all.
But, says De Stefano, "Consider another possibility. Italian-Americans owe their high visibility in American popular culture in large measure to the very gangster image so many deplore. If the mafioso as cultural archetype were to become extinct, might Italian Americans themselves drop off the radar screen?"
In other words, if the Mafia myth peters out, does that mean the end of the Italian-American as a protagonist in our popular culture?
It's a dicey question, but after careful consideration De Stefano answers with a resounding "no." The Mafia myth, he steadfastly maintains, cannot be the last word: "Ethnicity remains a riveting, complicated drama of American life, and popular art that illuminates its workings still is needed. Italian America still has many more stories to tell."
Thanks to Allen Barra
Years ago
, writing about the legacy of Mario Puzo, I said, "If there is a God and he is indeed Catholic, then Puzo is burning in hell." Before The Godfather was published in 1969, historians of organized crime in the 20th century told us that some major stars of the modern mob had names like Arnold Rothstein, Owney Madden, and Logan and Fred Billingsley. After The Godfather, the only major crime figures who got any attention were the ones whose names ended in vowels.Thanks to this myth-mongering hack, Frank Sinatra will forever be remembered as the man who, through his fictional counterpart, Johnny Fontaine, crooned I Have But One Heart at his godfather's daughter's wedding. It is now taken for fact that Sinatra owed his comeback and hence his success not to his talent but to the Mafia; apparently they held guns to the heads of people, forcing them to buy all those Sinatra albums.
The provocative and lively An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America, by George De Stefano, a journalist and cultural critic whose work can be most often read in The Nation, has convinced me that I've been too tough on Puzo. The Godfather, the book and the movie, did, after all, succeed in reviving interest in Italian-American culture at a time when it appeared to be fading into the suburban landscape. I can only speak for members of my father's family, who rather enjoyed the attention and even reveled in the idea that they might actually be a bit feared because of their name.
For De Stefano, as for many of our generation, Francis Ford Coppola's film was an epiphany. The gay Baby Boomer son of a Neapolitan auto mechanic and a Sicilian housewife, De Stefano, by the time he was in college, had drifted far from his parents' world: "The Stones' Sticky Fingers was on my stereo and a Black Panther poster adorned my dorm room wall. My identity was radical hippie freak. My ethnic background was just that, background."
An Offer We Can't Refuse invites Italian-Americans of all backgrounds to the family table to discuss the issues of how mob-related movies and television shows have affected the very notion of what their heritage still means in the 21st century.
It's a big table. At the head is Richard Gambino, whose 1974 book Blood of My Blood -- The Dilemma of Italian-Americans was the first serious work of nonfiction written on the subject; sitting in the middle are Gay Talese, Nicholas Gage, and nearly every other prominent, second-generation Italian-American journalist; and fighting for attention down at the end of the table are third-generation would-be personas importante such as Maria Laurino, Maria Russo, Bill Tonelli, and, in the interests of full disclosure, me (I am quoted twice by De Stefano). As you can imagine, it's one heck of a noisy table.
The principal topic of discussion is not so much the Mafia, whose power most experts seem to feel is dwindling, as the Mafia's mystique. But as journalist Anthony Mancini puts it, "It's just too good a myth to abandon."
The best movies and shows about mobsters and their families -- Coppola's Godfather movies, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, The Sopranos, the late, lamented cult TV series Wise Guy -- were never really about the mob anyway; they were always about the vicissitudes of Italian-American family life and the perils of maintaining tradition in the face of assimilation, a metaphor for the American immigrant experience.
As a Russian neighbor of mine put it, "I never really thought The Godfather was about crime. I thought it was about the part where Don Corleone tells Michael he wanted something better for him than he had had."
These shows provide an answer to why the people who gave the world Dante, da Vinci, Boccaccio, Verdi and Rossini have produced so few literary artists in this country. Their grandparents might have come here without being able to write in their own language, much less English, but Coppola, Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Quentin Tarantino and several others have used their experiences to give the world the poetry that their ancestors couldn't. Don Corleone gave Michael something better after all.
But, says De Stefano, "Consider another possibility. Italian-Americans owe their high visibility in American popular culture in large measure to the very gangster image so many deplore. If the mafioso as cultural archetype were to become extinct, might Italian Americans themselves drop off the radar screen?"
In other words, if the Mafia myth peters out, does that mean the end of the Italian-American as a protagonist in our popular culture?
It's a dicey question, but after careful consideration De Stefano answers with a resounding "no." The Mafia myth, he steadfastly maintains, cannot be the last word: "Ethnicity remains a riveting, complicated drama of American life, and popular art that illuminates its workings still is needed. Italian America still has many more stories to tell."
Thanks to Allen Barra
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