# OperationPaperTiger Hitman Gerardo Salazar-Rodriguez Convicted on RICO and Murder Conspiracies with Brothers Julio and Manuel Leijasanchez

Three defendants are facing mandatory life imprisonment after a federal jury found them guilty of racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, and related crimes after a six-week trial in U.S. District Court. Two brothers, Julio and Manuel Leijasanchez, who operated a lucrative, black-market counterfeit identification document business in Chicago’s Little Village community for at least 15 years, were convicted along with Gerardo Salazar-Rodriguez, whom they directed to commit an execution-style murder in Mexico of a fledgling competitor. The murder plot was intended to prevent two former employees from starting a competing business and to maintain control over employees of their operation, which generated annual revenues of approximately $3 million.

Evidence at trial showed that Salazar-Rodriguez fired more than a dozen shots in killing one of the victims in his taxi cab near Mexico City in April 2007, and the jury heard transcripts of intercepted telephone conversations in which he boasted to the brothers after the murder. He also hunted for a second victim whom he believed was in Mexico at the time but who was actually in federal custody in Chicago. That intended victim, who pleaded guilty to fraudulent identification document charges, cooperated and testified as a government witness at trial.

After the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts, the trial ended when the jury returned special findings regarding the murder that raised the maximum penalty for racketeering conspiracy to life in prison. The murder in aid of racketeering conviction carries a mandatory life sentence for all three defendants. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer scheduled sentencing for September 12.

“This violent conspiracy went to great lengths to corner the fake document market in Chicago, going so far as to murder a rival vendor in order to protect their lucrative turf,” said Gary Hartwig, Special Agent in Charge of HSI in Chicago. “The guilty verdicts clearly demonstrate our unyielding resolve to dismantle the criminal organizations that perpetuate and profit from document fraud within our borders.”

The trial and convictions stem from Operation Paper Tiger, an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations agents, along with other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. In April 2007, the investigation resulted in charges against 24 defendants and the dismantling of the Leija-Sanchez fraudulent document organization that operated in and around the Little Village Discount Mall at West 26th and Albany in Chicago. Except for the three trial defendants and three fugitives, all of the remaining defendants were convicted.

Manuel Leija-Sanchez, 45, and Salazar-Rodriguez, 40, were arrested later in Mexico and were extradited to the United States in 2010 and 2011 to stand trial, together with Julio Leija-Sanchez, 37, who was arrested in Chicago in 2007. A third Leija-Sanchez brother, Pedro, 40, was also arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S in 2011. He pleaded guilty last August to racketeering conspiracy for operating the fraudulent ID ring with his brothers and is awaiting imposition of an agreed sentence of 20 years in prison, currently scheduled for March 13.

Evidence at trial showed that the three Leija-Sanchez brothers operated the bustling illegal business between 1993 and 2007. The Mexico-based organization was supervised by an overall leader living in Chicago, and the leadership position rotated among the Leija-Sanchez brothers. The organization sold as many as 100 sets of fraudulent identification documents each day, charging customers approximately $200 per “set,” consisting of a Social Security card and either an immigration “green card” or a state driver’s license.

Manuel and Julio Leija-Sanchez and Salazar-Rodriguez conspired to murder Guillermo Jimenez-Flores, also known as “Montes,” a former member of their organization who became a fledgling rival and was shot to death by Salazar-Rodriguez in Mexico in April 2007. The three trial defendants also were convicted of conspiracy to kill a second victim, Bruno Freddy Ramirez-Camela, whom they believed was in Mexico but was actually incarcerated in Chicago.

The convictions were announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He commended the years of hard work by HSI agents, who were joined in the investigation by the Chicago and Galveston, Texas Police Departments and the Chicago offices of the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The government of Mexico and Mexican law enforcement partners also provided significant assistance.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Nasser, Andrew Porter, and William Ridgway.

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Dimitry Vishnevetsky Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Causing Clients to Lose $1.6 Million in Fraud Scheme

A former Chicago investment advisor was sentenced yesterday to six years in federal prison for an investment fraud scheme that swindled clients, causing them to lose more than $1.6 million. The defendant, Dimitry Vishnevetsky, pleaded guilty last August to wire fraud and bank fraud, admitting that he misappropriated funds raised from investors for his own purposes, including to pay for such expenses as mortgage and car payments, travel and vacations, restaurant bills, athletic club dues, and to make trades for himself, while using additional investor funds to make Ponzi-type payments to clients.

Vishnevetsky, 34, of Chicago, was ordered to pay $1,684,763 in restitution, nearly all of it to a half-dozen investment clients, by U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo, who likened Vishnevetsky’s conduct to a financial storm that devastated the lives of his victims. Vishnevetsky was ordered to begin serving his sentence on May 28.

“This offense was entirely unnecessary,” the government argued at sentencing. “There was no good reason for this fraud, and the defendant, who was skilled in the world of finances, could have gotten a legitimate job. In fact, [he] obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration and attended the University of Oxford.”

According to the court records, Vishnevetsky offered and purported to sell investments, including investments in funds which promised to trade S&P Futures, and a fund that could trade in things such as equities, futures contracts, and commodities, as well as brokerage and management services for some investors, and promissory notes, through Hodges Trading LLC and Oxford Capital LLC, which he controlled. Three purported Oxford funds existed in name only, as did the promissory notes, which Vishnevetsky described as London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) adjusted notes.

Between September 2006 and March 2012, Vishnevetsky made false representations about the profitability of his prior and current trading, the use of the invested funds, the risks involved, the expected and actual returns on investments and trading, as well as false representations about the funds he purportedly traded. For example, Vishnevetsky created and provided some investors fraudulent trading results showing profits as high as 36 percent per year. In fact, any trades that Vishnevetsky actually made consistently resulted in losses, not profits.

The bank fraud conviction resulted from false statements Vishnevetsky made between 2007 and 2010 to Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust concerning his income and assets to cause the bank to issue, and later modify, two loans totaling approximately $519,500 to purchase a condominium in Chicago.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Stern.

The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which filed a companion civil enforcement lawsuit, assisted in the investigation.

The investigation falls under the umbrella of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit stopfraud.gov.

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Mario J. Rainone Convicted of Being a Felon in Poessession of Firearm

An Addison man was convicted by a federal jury of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The defendant, Mario J. Rainone, was found guilty following a two-day trial. The jury was empaneled on Monday before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber in Federal Court.

Rainone, 58, who was arrested in February 2009, remains in federal custody pending sentencing, which Judge Leinenweber scheduled for June 5. Based on Rainone’s status as an armed career criminal under federal law, the offense carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison. Rainone also faces a maximum fine of $250,000. The court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

Rainone was arrested by Addison police on state charges on February 12, 2009. A state search warrant was executed the next day at an apartment where Rainone was staying in the 1200 block of West Lake Street in the western suburb. A Smith & Wesson Model 19-3 .357 caliber revolver, along with personal papers and other belongings, were found in the nightstand in the bedroom used by Rainone, resulting in the federal firearms charge. The gun was stolen in October 2008, according to the original owner, who testified at trial.

A stipulation was entered at the trial that Rainone has a prior felony conviction. Federal law prohibits a convicted felon from possessing any firearm affecting interstate commerce.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amarjeet Bhachu and Michael Donovan. The verdict was announced Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the Addison Police Department.

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Gilbert Spiller, General with the Black P Stone Nation, Sentenced to 20 Years in the Federal Clink

A self-admitted high-ranking member of a Chicago street gang that operates in a south side neighborhood that he and his associates refer to as “Terror Town” was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. The defendant, Gilbert Spiller, holds the rank of “general” in the Black P Stone Nation street gang and has criminal convictions spanning two decades. He was arrested by the FBI and Chicago Police in October 2011 and pleaded guilty last September to two counts of selling crack cocaine and one count of illegally selling a firearm.

The sentence was imposed today by U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras in Federal Court.

Spiller, 37, admitted selling approximately 62.2 grams of crack cocaine on July 13, 2011, and approximately 59.2 grams of crack on July 21, 2011, to a confidential informant in the vicinity of the 7800 block of South Kingston Avenue.

On October 18, 2011, Spiller sold the same individual a loaded .40 caliber handgun, knowing that the individual was a felon on parole and had recently purchased crack from Spiller on two occasions and believing that the individual had a score to settle with rival gang members.

According to court documents, Spiller admitted that he first joined the Black P Stone Nation while he was in grade school. He was subsequently convicted of aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm, which arose from a drive-by shooting that killed one victim and wounded four others. He was later convicted of aggravated battery of a Chicago Police officer.

“As his life in the gang further hardened, he became involved in violent crime,” the government wrote in a sentencing argument. Spiller “admitted that he was involved in shooting at other people on five to 10 different occasions and believed that he hit the people he was aiming at in roughly half of these shootings.”

The government was represented by Matthew Burke. The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Garry McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. The investigation was conducted by the FBI/CPD Joint Task Force on gangs.

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Counterfeiting and Organized Crime

The report “Counterfeiting as an activity managed by transnational organized crime - The Italian case” was produced by UNICRI with the support of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (Direzione Generale Lotta alla Contraffazione).

The Report promotes a better understanding of the involvement of transnational criminal networks in counterfeiting activities. Given the strong interest espressed by the MiSE and the important role played by Italian criminal organizations in the counterfeiting trade, the existing situation on the Italian territory has been analysed as a case study. The research efforts led to the mapping of the involvement of criminal organizations in Italy, highlighting their connections to other criminal groups and the links that exist betwee counterfeiting and other illicit traffics managed by transnational criminal networks.

The analysis was aimed at:

• Identifying investigations, court cases, data and information that prove the involvement of organized crime in counterfeiting activities;
• Highlighting the transnationality of counterfeiting and the functioning of related criminal networks;
• Presenting the specific role played by counterfeiting in organized crime’s strategies as a significant source of funds and an effective money laundering mechanism;
• Examining investigations, court cases and data proving the interconnection between counterfeiting and other illicit traffics, such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling and human trafficking;

The analysis of the investigations and court cases confirmed the actual involvement of organized crime in different phases of the management of counterfeiting crimes in Italy. As for the production phase and the retrieval of raw materials, the information collected confirmed the prominent role played by Southeast Asia as a region of origin and export, mostly because of cost efficiency reasons. Ordering counterfeit products through online catalogues is also increasingly widespread within organized crime’s strategies. Nonetheless, these sourcing methods exist alongside with a local production of counterfeit goods that is still present in Italy and is mainly concentrated in the hinterland of Naples, in Lombardy and Tuscany.

One of the most interesting aspects highlighted by the report is the increasing penetration of counterfeit goods into the regular selling channels. It appears that while in many cases the sellers are informed about the real nature of the goods and they are partners in crime, in other cases they are themselves victims of organized crime, which often imposes the selling of counterfeit products as a form of extortion.

The analysis also outlined the important involvement of the Camorra and the main clans active in counterfeiting activities in both the South and North of the country. An increasing interest by the ‘Ndrangheta was also revealed, mainly concentrated in the area of the Gioia Tauro’s seaport. For what concerns Chinese criminal networks, their presence in Italy appears to be more and more “organized”, with a significative involvement mainly in counterfeiting as well as smuggling of illegal goods, illegal migration, extortion and money laundering. The investigations and court cases analysed show that Chinese organisations often operate in agreement and in cooperation with the Camorra.

The research will serve as a basis for the design of a more comprehensive strategy of the Italian government against counterfeiting and organized crime.

View the Report. (It's in Italian.)

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