Busted! Riveting Stories Of Tax Evasion And Fraud By An IRS Insider

Tax evasion and fraud do not discriminate and can be perpetrated by anyone – from middle-class Americans to high profile celebrities starting with Al Capone, Willie Nelson, and continuing more recently with Wesley Snipes.

Bruce Bronstein is making a name for himself as a master storyteller in his four novels that tell riveting accounts of tax evasion and fraud and what it takes to go after the perpetrators. His lengthy career with the IRS, handling some of the country’s most complex and controversial cases, provides the backdrop for Bronstein’s compelling stories. His novels, a perfect blend of humor, crime and the inner workings of the IRS and our legal system, make for a read not easy to put down.

Stan, a corrupt tax lawyer, subject to disciplinary action for failing to meet the standard of conduct expected of tax practitioners, is involved in the death of an IRS agent. The agent’s death, which has been staged to look like an accident, is at the center of Bronstein’s first book Nondisclosable. When IRS officials find circumstantial evidence in the dead agent’s audit files that incriminate the lawyer, it’s rendered useless because they can’t disclose the information. Although police lack the hard evidence needed to solve the mystery, the IRS is prepared to extract revenge against the lawyer – who soon finds himself embroiled in a variety of criminal conspiracies. Forced to face legendary agent Louie Lipschitz, the lawyer fears there is no escape in sight…

Full Disclosure, Bronstein’s second book, shows the corrupt lawyer going to prison at the same time the department is prosecuting another case that involves the largest individual tax cheat in history. Before the case is concluded, it leads to yet another tax case that implicates a man who was once the most powerful person in the U.S. The consequences of the investigation take a deadly turn and potential witnesses suffer a horrible fate. To ensure the prosecution is successful, law enforcement officials must take extreme measures and make tough decisions that have them deal-making with a notorious figure. Full Disclosure takes readers on a roller-coaster ride through our criminal justice system, showing how the unpredictability of one case can impact another seemingly unrelated case in an ironic twist of fate.

Imagine a bribery conspiracy, fraud, abuse of power and illicit sex – now imagine it’s taking place within the IRS! In Den of Thieves, the third novel by Bronstein, a shocking discovery is made that undermines the integrity of the IRS when its own employees, responsible for the administration of the nation’s tax laws, are found to be manipulating the system in a plot so ingenious only one intrepid IRS agent can solve the mystery. As Lipschitz, their fearless agent, finds himself matching wits with a brilliant sociopath currently behind bars, it’s not certain that even he can overcome all the challenges placed in his path.

Due for release this summer, Reversal of Justice finds Erica Whitman plotting revenge against the federal government due to her imprisonment for her role in a conspiracy to defraud the IRS. As she schemes to have her conviction overturned, Erica is also planning a diabolical strategy that she believes will guarantee her instant wealth while helping her extract revenge on federal prosecutors. While the Justice Department and IRS officials once again deal with an ingenious and calculating criminal mastermind, more colorful characters surface that challenge the authority of the IRS. Meanwhile, the police are forced to deal with murder contracts placed on the head of Louie Lipschitz, who has incurred the wrath of more than a few of these characters.

Bruce Bronstein is a former IRS Tax Law Specialist who also worked in the Appeals Division where he handled some of the largest and most complex cases in the country. His 30 years of experience specializing in civil fraud cases brings distinct authenticity to his novels and takes the subject of tax controversy to new levels. Drawing five star reviews on Amazon.com, his informative and witty novels explore how controversial tax issues are handled by the various functions within the IRS and our legal system.

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Chicago Mob Wives Episode 2 Sneak Peek

Get More: Mob Wives Chicago, Mob Wives Chicago

In case you’ve ever wondered what the real aftermath of a reality TV fight is, turn your attention to Nora Schweihs of Mob Wives Chicago, who finds one of the telltale signs of a catfight lying on the ground after Pia and Christina went at it last week. The fights might be real on this show, but as we learn from the clip, not all of the hair is.

Mob Wives Chicago airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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Chicago Is My F—ing Town - Episode 1 of Mob Wives Chicago

If you ever thought that the mob was just Staten Island, think again. “The mob is Chicago. It’s in the pavement, it’s everywhere,” Renee Fecarotta Russo explains in the first moments of Mob Wives Chicago. This is where the mob began.Now that we know Chicago is where is began, let’s meet the ladies.

Renee is the niece of Big John Fecarotta, an alleged enforcer for the mob who was gunned down in 1986, shot in the back by his best friend.

Before he died, he treated Renee like a princess, and that’s just how Renee treats her own daughters, Giana who’s 20 years old (damn, Renee, you look good for the mom of a 20-year-old!) and Isabella, age 10. Giana’s father is in prison and has been for thirteen years, and unlike the women from Staten Island, making prison visits is not a priority. “I haven’t visited him this whole time, and I never want to see him again,” she says. Giana wants to know her dad though, and Renee can’t stand the idea that she wants to visit a man who was not only convicted of murder, but who was never there for her as a dad. “This guy is so horrible that I really don’t want him near my daughter.” Giana disagrees.

Nora Schweihs
Nora knows Chicago is a corrupt town and explains that the stuff we’ve seen on The Sopranos is kid stuff compared to what happens on a day-to-day in Chicago. Nora’s dad is Frank “The German” Schweihs, who is the most notorious hit man in Chicago. Just don’t insinuate that he killed Marilyn Monroe, because Nora will stab you. “Mind your own business and shut the f— up about my dad,” seems to be Nora’s motto. Nora was best friends with her dad. She still might be, his whereabouts are currently unknown. Though he was presumed to have passed away in prison, the day of the funeral, the funeral director called her family and told them that the FBI confiscated his body. She’s absolutely tortured by the fact that she was never able to say goodbye to the man she loved. After a decade in Florida, Nora moved back to Chicago and plans to find out just what happened to her dad. Reality shows don’t have nearly enough mystery, so here’s to hoping Nora’s story finds some resolution, because now I’m dying to know what happened to her dad, too.

Pia Rizza
Vince Rizza was a crooked Chicago cop turned government informant. His daughter, Pia, is not a fan of rats and considers him an embarrassment to her family. She’s had to live with the stigma of having a cooperator in the family, and admits that, when asked about her father, she tells people he’s dead. Pia’s a single mom who works at a strip club which she’s totally fine with, but Nora looks down on. “She’s so much better than working at the strip club,” Nora says. “It’s just a job,” Pia says. A job that brings in thousands of dollars a night, sometimes.

Nora feels comfortable enough talking about Pia’s job though because they go way back and their families have history and they’re like sisters. Which also gives Pia the freedom to tell us that “Nora gets a bad rap because a lot of people think she’s f—ing nuts.” I look forward to seeing that side of her. But for now, Nora just wants Pia to get her life together and find a more respectable profession. Pia takes offense to that notion.

Renee doesn’t know Pia that well, but she feels the same way about the stripping (“What she does is an embarrassment…Get off the pole.”) and to boot, she’s heard that Pia is a goumada, a mistress to several married men.

Renee admits to being judgmental, but what she really should have said was she is Judge Judy, Judge Wapner, and Judge Joe Brown all rolled into one. She can’t stand Pia’s profession, she knows Pia’s father is a rat and thinks that’s a disgrace. “Obviously this girl has no integrity,” Renee tells Nora. Do I sense our first beef of the season?

Norah just wants to have a nice girls’ night out with all the women so they can get to know each other, and suggests that maybe Pia will grown on Renee. “Like mold?” Renee asks. But before girls night happens, Pia’s cousin Anthony calls her to tell her he saw Nora out at a club, and Nora was talking smack about Pia. Sounds like Renee’s judgmental ways rubbed off, because Anthony says Nora was calling her a b—h and a whore. “Nobody talks s— about me,” Pia says. Oooh, it’s actually a race to see whose beef will blossom first this season!

Before that can happen, we meet Christina Scoleri. Born and bred in Little Italy, Christina grew up a fighter who’s used to watching her back. Christina’s father is a burglar for the mob. Though she’s loyal to her dad, she’s “definitely not the girl to take over the family business,” she says. After a ten-year marriage, she’s recently divorced but still living with her ex-husband. “I know it’s a little weird.” I mean, okay, it is a little weird, but whats weirder is that no one in Christina’s family knows they’re divorced, not even her nine-year-old daughter who lives with them. Well, we know where Christina’s Mob Wives salary is going to go, paying off the years of therapy her daughter’s going to need to figure out this situation. Christina knows she needs to get out though, that’s for sure.

Pia is Christina’s friend and has been for over ten years, and Christina doesn’t really know the other women. Pia tells Christina the things her cousin heard Nora saying, specifically that she’s a “c—t,” and Christina can’t believe it but advises Pia to address it “in a nice way first” before raising fists. Christina sounds wiser by the minute, also saying that the issue should be addressed before the girls’ night out so it’s not tense for everyone.

Rounding out the pack is Leah Desimone, another native of Little Italy, a self-professed chubby-chaser, and a woman whose father kept his mob indiscretions hidden from her view. Leah still lives at home with her father, so in case you thought Christina had the weirdest living situation of the bunch, she’s got some competition. “I don’t wanna leave my father!” Leah says.

She’s connected to the gang through Christina, as they both grew up on the same street, but she knows who the other girls are. Christina tells Leah about the Pia-Nora drama and Leah sums up the situation by saying “Nora and Pia are two balloon-heads. I’ve never seen a friendship like this before in my life.”

Leah is going to be absent from girls’ night because she’ll be out of town, and that means we won’t have access to her running commentary and Italian slang for a scene or two, which bums me out. What the crap is a bazzarelle? Because my Google translator isn’t finding it. Leah says it’s best that she’s not there though, because she will throw down if necessary, and anything can trigger her.

On to girls night… Nora is the only person who’s looking at this thing optimistically. She wants everyone to hang out, have a good time, meet one another. But no one else is psyched because of what they’ve heard, or think they’ve heard through the Chicago grapevine.

“Are the girls late or are we early?” Renee asks, and Nora mentions that Pia’s usually late. “That’s disrespectful,” Renee says, and already it feels like trouble’s brewing. Poor Pia has no idea how Renee feels because she tells us “I like Renee, I think she’s a fun girl.”

When Pia and Christina arrive, so far so good. Hugs all around! But then Pia starts talking about some unsavory behavior, like the time she was in Florida and drank a pitcher and a half of mojitos, and Renee looks at her like she wants to drown her in an above-ground pool full of mojitos. And if her dirty looks weren’t enough to make Pia feel unwelcome, Renee broaches the subject of Pia’s father being a rat, and Pia explains that her father was a rat but that she is nothing like him. Renee doesn’t push the envelope, but she also doesn’t warn to Pia, even after that reassurance.
We already have two potential beefs in the room, but now we get a third once Christina brings up the topic of Nora’s dad being a hit man. No one ever told Christina that this subject was off-limits, apparently. “What would make you bring such a sore subject into such a happy moment?” Nora asks. “My dad didn’t kill any-f—ing-body.”

“Nora’s in f—ing la la land about what her dad used to do,” Christina tells us. Again, loving Christina’s to-the-point honesty. I wonder if it will come back to bite her? (This is also the same women who admits “I could drink, like, a kegger of shots!” during the night. I also wonder if that will come back to bite her.)
Renee notices that Christina is like halfway through her kegger of shots and she’s like “Slow down, killer!” But the moment we assumed would happen finally happens, Pia tells the girls “I have to address something.”

“I have to tell Nora about what I heard.” Pia tells Nora what her cousin told her, and Nora’s response is very lawyer-y. “Tell him to get it on tape, and then I’ll believe what I said,” she says, basically talking in circles because I don’t really know what she means. “It’s hearsay.” Finally she tells Pia “I never said it.”
“I don’t know if Nora called Pia a whore, but I wouldn’t blame her if she did,” Renee says. “If it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck…quack quack.”

Nora and Pia actually talk things out and kiss, and Nora says “Love you, drop it.” Beef number one seems to actually be squashed, which seems miraculous.

Christina’s not dropping anything though. “You guys should have addressed this the next day,” she tells Pia, sticking to her guns of nipping drama in the bud. Except that she has no clue that she’s starting beef number three. Christina and her kegger of shots are losing control and she keeps pushing everyone’s buttons over an issue that’s already been resolved, and no one knows why. Judging from her face, I don’t even know if she knows why.

She holds fast to the notion that since Pia confided in her about this issue, it’s now her business, and she doesn’t like the way it was resolved after all.

“Shut the f— up!” Pia tells Christina. “Are you my friend or are you not my friend? Right now I don’t think you’re my friend!” she yells, getting up off her couch. “All of a sudden Christina’s like a raging junkyard dog.”

Christina tosses her drink at Nora who stepped in to separate them, and hell breaks loose. “This is completely out of control,” Renee says, as security tries to pry the women apart, but they are fused together at the hair extensions by now.

Once the dust clears, Renee still finds a way to place the blame on Pia, saying “Pia she just has no class. She’s just a piece of s—.”

Introductions are complete, welcome to the world of Mob Wives Chicago.

Thanks to Elizabeth Black

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19 Imperial Gangsters Arrested

Nineteen Chicago-area men, many suspected members or associates of the of the Imperial Gangsters street gang, were arrested Tuesday by FBI special agents and Chicago Police officers assigned to the FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs, culminating a nearly three-year long investigation that targeted illicit drug and firearms sales in and around the Humboldt park area on Chicago’s near northwest side.

Tuesday’s arrests were announced by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who was joined by Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD); Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney; Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General; and Michael Witz, Chief of the Franklin Park Police Department.

Some of the charges were contained in 12 separate criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, which were unsealed yesterday and which charged 13 current or former Chicago-area residents with distribution of a controlled substance or violating federal firearms laws. Six others were charged with violating state drug or firearms laws in charges filed in Cook County and Whiteside County Circuit Court.

According to the federal complaints, between December 2009 and May 2012, eight defendants identified below intentionally distributed a controlled substance, either cocaine or heroin, in amounts ranging from 28 to 62 grams. Five others, also identified below and all of whom have prior felony convictions, are alleged to have possessed various makes and models of firearms, both handguns and assault type rifles between December 2009 and November 2011.

The investigation leading to the charges announced today was conducted by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs, which is comprised of FBI special agents and officers from the Chicago Police Department. Officers from the Franklin Park Police Department and the Sterling Police Department also assisted. The charges announced today are part of an ongoing and coordinated effort by the FBI and CPD’s Organized Crime Bureau and Gang Investigations Division to identify those responsible for supplying illicit drugs and firearms to Chicago’s criminal element, which are often used in street violence.

Investigators made extensive use of undercover and controlled purchases of illegal narcotics and firearms and court-authorized electronic surveillance of telephones utilized by some of the defendants in this case, both of which helped lead to the filing of the charges announced today. During the course of the investigation, over a kilogram of crack cocaine, over 250 grams of powder cocaine and approximately 125 grams of heroin were recovered. In addition, 31 firearms, approximately $4,000 in cash and three vehicles were seized.

In announcing the charges, Mr. Grant reaffirmed a commitment to investigate and prosecute those who engage in activities that threaten our communities. “Yesterday’s arrests should serve as a warning to those who persist in endangering our communities through the sale of drugs and guns. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to find you, to hold you accountable, and to make our neighborhoods safe for the many innocent residents who often pay a huge price for the acts of a few.”

“The street gang targeted in this mission is a violent, organized criminal organization with a history of violence in our city, including the shooting of a Chicago Police officer,” said Superintendent McCarthy. “This investigation especially highlights the entrenched relationship between gangs, guns, and drugs, and demonstrates that the Chicago Police and our federal law enforcement partners are committed to confronting and eradicating the problem,” he added.

Regarding the combined efforts that led to the charges, Attorney General Madigan said, “These arrests demonstrate how effective coordination between law enforcement agencies at all levels can produce significant results in fighting drug dealing and gang activity.”

Those arrested yesterday who were charged with violating federal drug laws are identified as:

• Victor Arroyo, age 30, 2333 North Ashland, Chicago
• Richard Cruz, age 29, 2831 North Kostner, Chicago
• Jose Hernandez, age 40, 4351 West Palmer, Chicago
• Faisal Khan, age 26, 2202 North Rockwell, Chicago
• Oscar Montanez, age 33, 2710 South Lombard, Berwyn
• Rogelio Perez, age 37, 4840 West Henderson, Chicago
• Sergio Sanchez, age 25, 1643 North Parkside, Chicago
• Lawrence Wade, age 41, 0 South 041 Page Street, Winfield

Those arrested yesterday who were charged federally with felon-in-possession of a firearm are identified as:

• Jaime Corral, age 32, 880 Joyce, Leyden Township
• Lazaro Corral, age 29, 920 North Roberta Avenue, Melrose Park
• Martin Murillo, age 29, 2433 West Arthington, Chicago
• Miguel Pedraza, age 30, 1935 North Central Park Avenue, Chicago
• Ismael Velasquez, 31, 2139 North Keystone, Chicago

Those arrested on state charges are identified as:

• Julio Collaza, age 42, 5918 West Waveland, Chicago
• Craig Hartman, age 26, 1507 East 14th Street, Sterling
• Elvis Lebron, age 39, 2528 N. Linder, Chicago
• Ramon Marrero, age 31, 4321 South Paulina, Chicago
• Catalino Soto, age 55, 5729 South Trumbull, Chicago
• Francisco Wolf, age 32, 23 King Arthur Court, Northlake

Those arrested on federal charges appeared yesterday before Magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan in Chicago, at which time they were formally charged. All were ordered held until their next scheduled court appearances. If convicted, those charged with possession of on excess of 50 grams of crack cocaine face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ incarceration; those charged with possession of in excess of five grams of crack cocaine face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ incarceration; and those charged with felon-in-possession of a firearm face a possible sentence of up to 10 years’ incarceration.

Those arrested on state charges were scheduled to appear in bond court at dates and times to be determined. If convicted, they face possible sentences of up to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The public is reminded that a 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.

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Henry Hill, Mobster from Goodfellas Fame, Dies

Henry Hill, the famed mobster turned FBI informant whose life story was documented in the book "Wiseguy"- upon which Martin Scorsese's 1990 gangster epic "Goodfellas" was based - has died at the age of 69.

Hill died at a Los Angeles hospital of an undisclosed illness on Tuesday, Nate Caserta, the son of Hill's fiancé Lisa Schinelli Casterta, confirmed.

"[His] heart just stopped. He had been sick for a long time," Nate Caserta told ABC News.

"I will never be the same. I lost someone I cared about a lot . Someone who loved my family and helped me a lot with life," Nate Caserta wrote in a post on Facebook. "You truly lived a life no one could live. You touched so many peoples lifes. Your spirit lives forever with me."

Caserta told ABC News that his family was talking about Hill's smoking problem while his health deteriorated.

Hill was famously associated with New York's Lucchese crime family throughout the 1960s and into the 1980s. He began his life of crime at the age of 11 while growing up on the working class East New York section of Brooklyn by running errands for Paul Vario, a captain in the Lucchese family.

"It's an intoxicating lifestyle that sucks you in. Then you get too scared, and too in love with the money, to leave," Hill told "Good Morning America" in 2004. "All people do is fear you - and that's intoxicating. It's a strange lifestyle."

Hill completed his first major robbery when he and Thomas DeSimone - who was portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas" - famously robbed Air France of a shipment of $420,000 in April of 1967.

In the 1970s Hill spent six years in prison after he was found guilty of extortion. While in prison, with the help of his wife Karen, Hill still managed to operate outside the law by smuggling drugs and food. He was eventually released early in 1978 for being a model prisoner.

Hill became an FBI informant following a 1980 arrest on a narcotics-trafficking charge, and testimony he delivered led to 50 arrests.

Hill, his wife Karen and their two children entered the witness protection program and changed their names. They were relocated to several locations in Omaha, Neb., Independence, Ky., and Redmond, Wash.

Hill and his wife were expelled from the program in the early 1990s following several arrests on narcotics-related charge. The couple soon divorced. Later he relocated to Malibu and began dating Lisa Caserta, began to sell his own artwork on eBay, and made frequent guest appearances on "The Howard Stern Show".

In 2010, Hill was inducted in the Museum of the American Gangster in New York City.

Ray Liota portrayed Hill in "Goodfellas," which was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi published the book "Wiseguy" in 1986.

Thanks to Kevin Dolak.

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