Donald Trump tapped a man to be a senior business adviser to his real-estate empire even after the man's past involvement in a major mafia-linked stock fraud scheme had become publicly known, according to Associated Press interviews and a review of court records.
Portions of Trump's relationship with Felix Sater, a convicted felon and government informant, have been previously known. Trump worked with the company where Sater was an executive, Bayrock Group LLC, after it rented office space from the Trump Organization as early as 2003. Sater's criminal history was effectively unknown to the public at the time, because a judge kept the relevant court records secret and Sater altered his name.
When Sater's criminal past and mafia links came to light in 2007, Trump distanced himself from Sater. But less than three years later, Trump renewed his ties with Sater. Sater presented business cards describing himself as a senior adviser to Donald Trump, and he had an office on the same floor as Trump's own office in New York's Trump Tower, The Associated Press learned through interviews and court records.
Trump said during an AP interview on Wednesday that he recalled only bare details of Sater. "Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it," Trump said, referring questions about Sater to his staff. "I'm not that familiar with him."
According to Trump lawyer Alan Garten, Sater's role was to prospect for high-end real estate deals for the Trump Organization. The arrangement lasted six months, Garten said.
The revelation about Sater's role is significant because of its timing and directness, and marks the first time the Trump Organization has acknowledged publicly that Sater worked for Trump after the disclosures of Sater's criminal background. Trump has said that among his secrets of success is that he surrounds himself with the "best and most serious people" and with "people you can trust."
Sater never had an employment agreement or formal contract with the Trump Organization and did not close any deals for Trump, Garten said.
"He was trying to restart his life," Garten said. "I believe he was regretful of things that happened in the past."
Trump did not know the details of Sater's cooperation with the government when Sater came in-house in 2010, Garten said. But Garten noted that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch praised Sater's cooperation with the federal government, when senators asked about him during her confirmation hearings early this year. She said Sater cooperated against his mafia stock fraud co-defendants and assisted the government on unspecified national security matters.
"If Mr. Sater was good enough for the government to work with, I see no reason why he wasn't good enough for Mr. Trump," Garten said.
He pleaded guilty in 1998 to one count of racketeering for his role in a $40 million stock fraud scheme involving the prominent Genovese and Bonanno crime families, according to court records. Prosecutors called the operation a pump-and-dump scheme, in which insiders manipulate the price of obscure stocks and then sell them to hapless investors at inflated prices. Five years earlier, a New York State court had sentenced Sater to more than a year in prison for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass.
Sater declined to discuss his work with Trump. "Obviously a Donald-and-the-bad-guy piece is not interesting for me to participate in," Sater wrote in an email to AP. His lawyer, Robert Wolf, said information about Sater in public records and lawsuits obtained by the AP was defamatory. He credited Sater's stint as a government cooperator with potentially saving American military lives, although he did not provide details. Wolf told the AP to write about Sater's past "at your own risk" but did not cite specific concerns.
After his 1998 racketeering conviction, Sater spent more than a decade as an informant on the mafia and on national security-related matters. Federal prosecutors kept even the existence of Sater's racketeering case out of publicly available court records for 14 years.
During that time, Sater launched a luxury real estate development career. Sealed court records prevented potential customers or partners from learning about his past association with organized crime. Sater altered his name, to Satter, and became a top executive in Bayrock, a development firm that partnered with Trump on the Trump Soho high-rise hotel in Manhattan and other branded luxury real estate deals.
Civil lawsuits have alleged that Bayrock engaged in a pattern of misconduct during Sater's tenure, sometimes involving potential Trump projects. Bayrock's attorney told AP the firm did not mislead anyone about Sater's past and denied any misconduct.
The firm has not yet responded to a version of the complaint refiled in U.S. court last month.
Trump's lawyer, Garten, said Trump had no knowledge of alleged improprieties at Bayrock or reason to believe that Sater was a major stakeholder in Bayrock's projects. Trump only learned of Sater's troubled past when The New York Times reported details in December 2007. In the article, Trump distanced himself from Sater, saying: "I didn't really know him very well."
Garten said Trump had no further interactions with Sater at Bayrock following the revelations of his criminal history. But a new relationship was formed in 2010 when Trump offered Sater office space and a chance to round up new business possibilities for the Trump Organization.
"The guy's been in business a long time, he's got a lot of contacts," Garten said of Sater.
Thanks to Fox News.
Friday, December 04, 2015
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Sivasubramani Rajaram Indicted for Lying to Federal Grand Jury Investigating Possible Hiring Violations in Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office
A Glenview man who was hired by the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office after purportedly loaning $15,000 to a company controlled by the Clerk’s husband lied under oath when testifying about it before a grand jury, according to a federal indictment announced today.
In August 2014, SIVASUBRAMANI RAJARAM purportedly loaned $15,000 to Goat Masters Corporation, whose president was the husband of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk. The following month, Rajaram was hired by the Clerk’s Office as a level four Senior Clerk. Rajaram had previously worked in the Clerk’s Office but had been living in India for several years.
On or about Oct. 1, 2015, Rajaram testified before a federal grand jury that was conducting an investigation of possible criminal violations in connection with the purchasing of jobs and promotions within the Clerk’s Office. During his testimony, Rajaram said he had not spoken to the Circuit Court Clerk after his 2014 hiring. He also testified he had only spoken to another high-ranking employee of the Clerk’s Office “three or four times” since returning to Chicago from India, and that the conversations were not by phone.
The indictment alleges that both statements were false. According to the indictment, Rajaram spoke with both the Clerk and the high-ranking employee after being re-hired in 2014. His conversations with the high-ranking employee occurred dozens of times via cell phone, according to the indictment.
The indictment was returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Rajaram, 48, of Glenview, was charged with one count of making false declarations before a grand jury. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The Court has not yet scheduled an arraignment hearing.
The indictment was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney; Patrick M. Blanchard, Cook County Inspector General; and Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
In August 2014, SIVASUBRAMANI RAJARAM purportedly loaned $15,000 to Goat Masters Corporation, whose president was the husband of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk. The following month, Rajaram was hired by the Clerk’s Office as a level four Senior Clerk. Rajaram had previously worked in the Clerk’s Office but had been living in India for several years.
On or about Oct. 1, 2015, Rajaram testified before a federal grand jury that was conducting an investigation of possible criminal violations in connection with the purchasing of jobs and promotions within the Clerk’s Office. During his testimony, Rajaram said he had not spoken to the Circuit Court Clerk after his 2014 hiring. He also testified he had only spoken to another high-ranking employee of the Clerk’s Office “three or four times” since returning to Chicago from India, and that the conversations were not by phone.
The indictment alleges that both statements were false. According to the indictment, Rajaram spoke with both the Clerk and the high-ranking employee after being re-hired in 2014. His conversations with the high-ranking employee occurred dozens of times via cell phone, according to the indictment.
The indictment was returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Rajaram, 48, of Glenview, was charged with one count of making false declarations before a grand jury. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The Court has not yet scheduled an arraignment hearing.
The indictment was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney; Patrick M. Blanchard, Cook County Inspector General; and Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Former St. Thomas More Priest Sentenced to Prison for Stealing Money from Parish
Edward Belczak, 70, the former priest of St. Thomas More Church in Troy, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for stealing $572,775 from his parish, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced.
McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division and Chief Gary Mayer of the Troy Police Department.
During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow
, Belczak was sentenced to 27 months in prison and a two year term of supervised release based on his plea of guilty to mail fraud for devising and executing a scheme to steal and divert $572,775.32 from St. Thomas More Church over several years, and then creating yearly false financial reports that were mailed to the Archdiocese of Detroit that concealed his theft and diversion of the money for his own benefit.
At the time of his plea, Belczak admitted that in March 2005, he used $109,570.80 from St. Thomas More’s bank account to pay the down payment on a Wellington, Florida condominium. According to court records, in April and May 2006, Belczak diverted two checks totaling $420,200 payable to St. Thomas More from the estate of a deceased parishioner. In order to conceal his illegal conduct, Belczak opened an unauthorized business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak” and deposited both checks into that account. Belczak used most of the money bequeathed to St. Thomas More for his own personal use, benefit and enrichment. From May 2008 through May 2012, a St. Thomas More parishioner donated money each year to the church, totaling $43,000, for the needs of the church. Each year, Belczak deposited the check made payable to St. Thomas More into the business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak.”
In addition to the custodial sentence, the funds on deposit in Belczak’s Merrill Lynch and TD Ameritrade accounts and his Florida condominium were forfeited. Belczak also was ordered to pay restitution of $572,775.32 to St. Thomas More.
“Father Belczak’s crime was not an isolated incident or a momentary lapse of judgment, but an orchestrated scheme perpetrated over time to defraud the people he claimed to serve. It is a sad day when someone in a position of trust betrays that relationship, but it is important to ensure that no one is above the law,” McQuade said. “This sentence demonstrates that individuals will be held accountable when they steal significant sums of money that are entrusted to them.”
“The actions taken by Mr. Belczak represent a shocking betrayal of the faith and trust the public places in our clergy”, said Special Agent in Charge Gelios. “Secular or otherwise, the FBI is committed to the investigation of anyone who abuses their position for personal gain.”
McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division and Chief Gary Mayer of the Troy Police Department.
During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow
, Belczak was sentenced to 27 months in prison and a two year term of supervised release based on his plea of guilty to mail fraud for devising and executing a scheme to steal and divert $572,775.32 from St. Thomas More Church over several years, and then creating yearly false financial reports that were mailed to the Archdiocese of Detroit that concealed his theft and diversion of the money for his own benefit.At the time of his plea, Belczak admitted that in March 2005, he used $109,570.80 from St. Thomas More’s bank account to pay the down payment on a Wellington, Florida condominium. According to court records, in April and May 2006, Belczak diverted two checks totaling $420,200 payable to St. Thomas More from the estate of a deceased parishioner. In order to conceal his illegal conduct, Belczak opened an unauthorized business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak” and deposited both checks into that account. Belczak used most of the money bequeathed to St. Thomas More for his own personal use, benefit and enrichment. From May 2008 through May 2012, a St. Thomas More parishioner donated money each year to the church, totaling $43,000, for the needs of the church. Each year, Belczak deposited the check made payable to St. Thomas More into the business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak.”
In addition to the custodial sentence, the funds on deposit in Belczak’s Merrill Lynch and TD Ameritrade accounts and his Florida condominium were forfeited. Belczak also was ordered to pay restitution of $572,775.32 to St. Thomas More.
“Father Belczak’s crime was not an isolated incident or a momentary lapse of judgment, but an orchestrated scheme perpetrated over time to defraud the people he claimed to serve. It is a sad day when someone in a position of trust betrays that relationship, but it is important to ensure that no one is above the law,” McQuade said. “This sentence demonstrates that individuals will be held accountable when they steal significant sums of money that are entrusted to them.”
“The actions taken by Mr. Belczak represent a shocking betrayal of the faith and trust the public places in our clergy”, said Special Agent in Charge Gelios. “Secular or otherwise, the FBI is committed to the investigation of anyone who abuses their position for personal gain.”
Chicanery in Chicago?
This week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago sacrificed police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in order to save himself, as anger raged about the killing of Laquan McDonald in what read to many as a politically motivated effort to cover up video of that killing.
As John Kass of the Chicago Tribune put it regarding the firing of McCarthy: “City Hall protects the Queen Bee to keep the honey flowing. It isn’t personal. It’s business.” But that whole hive is ablaze. Emanuel many not be able to save himself. Everything about the killing of McDonald over 400 days ago, including the slithering about of Chicago officials in their efforts to suppress video of his murder, stinks to high heaven. There is the $5 million settlement with the family, the timing of that settlement, the strenuous efforts to keep the tape from public view, the long delay in charging the officer who did the shooting.
It all makes one ask: How much is the life of a teenager worth? To what length would officials go to bury visual evidence that he had been shot down in the street like a dog? Are officials so desperately afraid of losing their jobs that they would conceal details about the loss of a boy’s life?
Professor Bernard E. Harcourt of Columbia argued this week in a New York Times Op-Ed that many of the city leaders had a motive to cover up the shooting: “Mayor Emanuel was fighting for re-election in a tight race. Superintendent McCarthy wanted to keep his job.” Furthermore, the Cook County prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, “needed the good will of the police union for her coming re-election campaign and probably wished to shield the police officers who bring her cases and testify in court.” But as Harcourt noted: “None of that alters the fact that these actions have impeded the criminal justice system and, in the process, Chicago’s leaders allowed a first-degree murder suspect, now incarcerated pending bail, to remain free for over a year on the city’s payroll.” But more than having people in power lose their jobs, someone has to take a long, hard look at Chicago’s police review process, which I would posit, if it were functioning properly, would have had some bearing on this case and on many before it. It has to be determined whether the system is indeed broken, so that there will be fewer McDonalds in the future.
The N.A.A.C.P. issued a statement this week calling for a “Justice Department Review of all Chicago police oversight agencies,” and tried to detail the scope of the problem:
“A 2008 study by a University of Chicago law professor found more than 10,000 complaints were filed against officers from 2002 to 2004 alone — more than any city in the country. Only 19 of the 10,000 complaints resulted in significant disciplinary action, and complaints were dismissed without interviewing the officer in 85 percent of cases.”
The statement continued:
“The Independent Police Review Authority, (IPRA) was created to be an independent agency that investigates police shootings and misconduct cases. Currently, this process isn’t truly independent because cases are sent back to Chicago Police Department to approve. The process needs to provide IPRA with true independent authority with referral rights to an independent prosecutor.”
To fully understand the depths of the problem on a human level, take the July findings by the Chicago public radio station WBEZ. The station reported at the time:
“A Chicago investigator who determined that several civilian shootings by police officers were unjustified was fired after resisting orders to reverse those findings, according to internal records of his agency obtained by WBEZ.”
The fired investigator was Lorenzo Davis, himself a former police commander who had served in the Chicago Police Department for 23 years and held a law degree. His firing was announced to staff by Scott M. Ando, who had been promoted by Emanuel to chief administrator of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority.
As WBEZ reported:
“Davis’s termination came less than two weeks after top IPRA officials, evaluating Davis’s job performance, accused him of ‘a clear bias against the police’ and called him ‘the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to O.I.S.,’ as officer-involved shootings are known in the agency.”
According to the station:
“Davis says he helped investigate more than a dozen shootings by police at the agency. He says his superiors had no objections when his team recommended exonerating officers. The objections came, he says, after each finding that a shooting was unjustified. He says there were six of those cases.”
Davis told the station, “I did not like the direction the Police Department had taken.” He continued, “It appeared that officers were doing whatever they wanted to do. The discipline was no longer there.”
Something is amiss in the Windy City. Police officers “doing whatever they wanted to do” with no worry about repercussions or accountability? That is the very nature of corruption and abuse of power. The federal government will have no choice but to step in if it cares at all about public confidence in the local officials in America’s third largest city.
Thanks to Charles M. Blow.
As John Kass of the Chicago Tribune put it regarding the firing of McCarthy: “City Hall protects the Queen Bee to keep the honey flowing. It isn’t personal. It’s business.” But that whole hive is ablaze. Emanuel many not be able to save himself. Everything about the killing of McDonald over 400 days ago, including the slithering about of Chicago officials in their efforts to suppress video of his murder, stinks to high heaven. There is the $5 million settlement with the family, the timing of that settlement, the strenuous efforts to keep the tape from public view, the long delay in charging the officer who did the shooting.
It all makes one ask: How much is the life of a teenager worth? To what length would officials go to bury visual evidence that he had been shot down in the street like a dog? Are officials so desperately afraid of losing their jobs that they would conceal details about the loss of a boy’s life?
Professor Bernard E. Harcourt of Columbia argued this week in a New York Times Op-Ed that many of the city leaders had a motive to cover up the shooting: “Mayor Emanuel was fighting for re-election in a tight race. Superintendent McCarthy wanted to keep his job.” Furthermore, the Cook County prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, “needed the good will of the police union for her coming re-election campaign and probably wished to shield the police officers who bring her cases and testify in court.” But as Harcourt noted: “None of that alters the fact that these actions have impeded the criminal justice system and, in the process, Chicago’s leaders allowed a first-degree murder suspect, now incarcerated pending bail, to remain free for over a year on the city’s payroll.” But more than having people in power lose their jobs, someone has to take a long, hard look at Chicago’s police review process, which I would posit, if it were functioning properly, would have had some bearing on this case and on many before it. It has to be determined whether the system is indeed broken, so that there will be fewer McDonalds in the future.
The N.A.A.C.P. issued a statement this week calling for a “Justice Department Review of all Chicago police oversight agencies,” and tried to detail the scope of the problem:
“A 2008 study by a University of Chicago law professor found more than 10,000 complaints were filed against officers from 2002 to 2004 alone — more than any city in the country. Only 19 of the 10,000 complaints resulted in significant disciplinary action, and complaints were dismissed without interviewing the officer in 85 percent of cases.”
The statement continued:
“The Independent Police Review Authority, (IPRA) was created to be an independent agency that investigates police shootings and misconduct cases. Currently, this process isn’t truly independent because cases are sent back to Chicago Police Department to approve. The process needs to provide IPRA with true independent authority with referral rights to an independent prosecutor.”
To fully understand the depths of the problem on a human level, take the July findings by the Chicago public radio station WBEZ. The station reported at the time:
“A Chicago investigator who determined that several civilian shootings by police officers were unjustified was fired after resisting orders to reverse those findings, according to internal records of his agency obtained by WBEZ.”
The fired investigator was Lorenzo Davis, himself a former police commander who had served in the Chicago Police Department for 23 years and held a law degree. His firing was announced to staff by Scott M. Ando, who had been promoted by Emanuel to chief administrator of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority.
As WBEZ reported:
“Davis’s termination came less than two weeks after top IPRA officials, evaluating Davis’s job performance, accused him of ‘a clear bias against the police’ and called him ‘the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to O.I.S.,’ as officer-involved shootings are known in the agency.”
According to the station:
“Davis says he helped investigate more than a dozen shootings by police at the agency. He says his superiors had no objections when his team recommended exonerating officers. The objections came, he says, after each finding that a shooting was unjustified. He says there were six of those cases.”
Davis told the station, “I did not like the direction the Police Department had taken.” He continued, “It appeared that officers were doing whatever they wanted to do. The discipline was no longer there.”
Something is amiss in the Windy City. Police officers “doing whatever they wanted to do” with no worry about repercussions or accountability? That is the very nature of corruption and abuse of power. The federal government will have no choice but to step in if it cares at all about public confidence in the local officials in America’s third largest city.
Thanks to Charles M. Blow.
Wednesday, December 02, 2015
Sinatra: The Chairman
Just in time for the Chairman’s centennial
, the endlessly absorbing sequel to James Kaplan’s bestselling Frank: The Voice—finally the definitive biography that Frank Sinatra, justly termed “The Entertainer of the Century,” deserves and requires. Like Peter Guralnick on Elvis, Kaplan goes behind the legend to give us the man in full, in his many guises and aspects: peerless singer, (sometimes) powerful actor, business mogul, tireless lover, and associate of the powerful and infamous.
In 2010’s Frank: The Voice, James Kaplan, in rich, distinctive, compulsively readable prose, told the story of Frank Sinatra’s meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of live performance and screen. The story of “Ol’ Blue Eyes” continues with Sinatra: The Chairman, picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954 and had reestablished himself as the top recording artist in music. Frank’s life post-Oscar was incredibly dense: in between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures (movie production, the restaurant business, even prizefighter management) alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.
, the endlessly absorbing sequel to James Kaplan’s bestselling Frank: The Voice—finally the definitive biography that Frank Sinatra, justly termed “The Entertainer of the Century,” deserves and requires. Like Peter Guralnick on Elvis, Kaplan goes behind the legend to give us the man in full, in his many guises and aspects: peerless singer, (sometimes) powerful actor, business mogul, tireless lover, and associate of the powerful and infamous.
In 2010’s Frank: The Voice, James Kaplan, in rich, distinctive, compulsively readable prose, told the story of Frank Sinatra’s meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of live performance and screen. The story of “Ol’ Blue Eyes” continues with Sinatra: The Chairman, picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954 and had reestablished himself as the top recording artist in music. Frank’s life post-Oscar was incredibly dense: in between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures (movie production, the restaurant business, even prizefighter management) alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.
U.S. @SecretService Officer, Assigned to the @WhiteHouse, Indicted for Attempting to Send Obscene Images to a Minor
A federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, indicted a resident of Church Hill, Maryland, on one count of attempting to transfer obscene materials to a minor, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III of the District of Delaware announced today.
Lee Robert Moore, 37, was employed by the U.S. Secret Service-Uniformed Division and was assigned to the White House at the time of his arrest. Moore was arrested on Nov. 9, 2015, and has remained in custody since that time.
According to the indictment and court documents filed in the case, Moore allegedly maintained a profile on the social media application “Meet24,” which provides a mobile-based platform for exchanging digital images, as well as voice and text messages. Delaware State Police Detectives with the Delaware Child Predator Task Force created a profile on this site, posing as a 14-year-old girl, with whom Moore allegedly engaged in a number of online chat sessions, via the “Meet24” and “Kik” mobile apps over a two-month period, including while Moore was at work. A number of the online chats allegedly between Moore and the supposed female minor were sexual in nature and, on several occasions, Moore allegedly sent pictures of himself, including one depicting his penis.
Lee Robert Moore, 37, was employed by the U.S. Secret Service-Uniformed Division and was assigned to the White House at the time of his arrest. Moore was arrested on Nov. 9, 2015, and has remained in custody since that time.
According to the indictment and court documents filed in the case, Moore allegedly maintained a profile on the social media application “Meet24,” which provides a mobile-based platform for exchanging digital images, as well as voice and text messages. Delaware State Police Detectives with the Delaware Child Predator Task Force created a profile on this site, posing as a 14-year-old girl, with whom Moore allegedly engaged in a number of online chat sessions, via the “Meet24” and “Kik” mobile apps over a two-month period, including while Moore was at work. A number of the online chats allegedly between Moore and the supposed female minor were sexual in nature and, on several occasions, Moore allegedly sent pictures of himself, including one depicting his penis.
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Uncle Rahmmy Fires @Chicago_Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy as Fall Guy in #LaquanMcDonald Shooting
Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the city's police superintendent Tuesday, a week after the release of a dash-cam video that showed a white Chicago officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times.
Emanuel called a news conference to announce the dismissal of Garry McCarthy, who only days ago insisted to reporters that the mayor had his "back."
The mayor praised McCarthy's leadership of the force but called it an "undeniable fact" that the public's trust in the police has eroded. "Now is the time for fresh eyes and leadership," Emanuel said.
Protesters have been calling for McCarthy's dismissal in response to the handling of the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old who was killed in October 2014.
The city released video of the shooting only after a judge ordered it to be made public. The release set off several days of largely peaceful protests. Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder.
Emanuel introduced McCarthy as his pick to lead the department in May 2011, replacing former FBI agent Jody Weis, who was unpopular with many rank-and-file officers who claimed Weis did not stand behind them.
McCarthy rose through the ranks of New York City's police department and was police director in Newark, New Jersey, when he was hired in Chicago. At the time he promised he would "have the cops' backs."
Emanuel praised him for knowing how to run a large police force and said the city needed "a leader with Garry's depth of experience and a track record for delivering results."
In New York, McCarthy rose from patrolman to an executive position and was involved in rescue and recovery efforts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks before taking the job in New Jersey. But his time in Newark was not without challenges or complaints.
The NAACP in New Jersey said McCarthy was more concerned about improving the safety of downtown Newark than of its neighborhoods. The American Civil Liberties Union complained that Newark police were plagued with problems from lax internal oversight to issues of excessive force during arrests.
In Chicago, the silent video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street. He appears to veer away from two officers as they emerge from a vehicle, drawing their guns. Van Dyke opens fire from close range and continues firing after McDonald crumples to the ground.
Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has said the 3-inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle.
Defense attorney Dan Herbert says his client feared for his life, acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story.
Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the $150,000 required of his $1.5 million bail.
Emanuel called a news conference to announce the dismissal of Garry McCarthy, who only days ago insisted to reporters that the mayor had his "back."
The mayor praised McCarthy's leadership of the force but called it an "undeniable fact" that the public's trust in the police has eroded. "Now is the time for fresh eyes and leadership," Emanuel said.
Protesters have been calling for McCarthy's dismissal in response to the handling of the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old who was killed in October 2014.
The city released video of the shooting only after a judge ordered it to be made public. The release set off several days of largely peaceful protests. Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder.
Emanuel introduced McCarthy as his pick to lead the department in May 2011, replacing former FBI agent Jody Weis, who was unpopular with many rank-and-file officers who claimed Weis did not stand behind them.
McCarthy rose through the ranks of New York City's police department and was police director in Newark, New Jersey, when he was hired in Chicago. At the time he promised he would "have the cops' backs."
Emanuel praised him for knowing how to run a large police force and said the city needed "a leader with Garry's depth of experience and a track record for delivering results."
In New York, McCarthy rose from patrolman to an executive position and was involved in rescue and recovery efforts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks before taking the job in New Jersey. But his time in Newark was not without challenges or complaints.
The NAACP in New Jersey said McCarthy was more concerned about improving the safety of downtown Newark than of its neighborhoods. The American Civil Liberties Union complained that Newark police were plagued with problems from lax internal oversight to issues of excessive force during arrests.
In Chicago, the silent video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street. He appears to veer away from two officers as they emerge from a vehicle, drawing their guns. Van Dyke opens fire from close range and continues firing after McDonald crumples to the ground.
Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has said the 3-inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle.
Defense attorney Dan Herbert says his client feared for his life, acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story.
Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the $150,000 required of his $1.5 million bail.
The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House
The explosive story of the Republican Party's intensely dramatic and fractious efforts to find its way back to unity and national dominance.
After the 2012 election
, the GOP was in the wilderness. Lost and in disarray. And doggedly determined to do whatever it took to get back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
McKay Coppins has had unparalleled access to Republican presidential candidates, power brokers, lawmakers, and Tea Party leaders. Based on more than 300 interviews, The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House, is the book that opens up the party like never before: the deep passions, larger-than-life personalities, and dagger-sharp power plays behind the scenes.
In wildly colorful scenes, this exclusive look into the Republican Party at a pivotal moment in its history follows a cast of its rising stars, establishment figures, and loudmouthed insurgents--Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, Scott Walker, and dozens of others--as they battle over the future of the party and its path to the presidency.
After the 2012 election
, the GOP was in the wilderness. Lost and in disarray. And doggedly determined to do whatever it took to get back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.McKay Coppins has had unparalleled access to Republican presidential candidates, power brokers, lawmakers, and Tea Party leaders. Based on more than 300 interviews, The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House, is the book that opens up the party like never before: the deep passions, larger-than-life personalities, and dagger-sharp power plays behind the scenes.
In wildly colorful scenes, this exclusive look into the Republican Party at a pivotal moment in its history follows a cast of its rising stars, establishment figures, and loudmouthed insurgents--Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, Scott Walker, and dozens of others--as they battle over the future of the party and its path to the presidency.
Monday, November 30, 2015
U.S. Marshals Offer Deals on #CyberMonday - Public encouraged to shop fed auctions; proceeds returned to crime victims
On “Cyber Monday,” U.S. Marshals continue to work for victims of crime by asking the public to consider placing a bid on unique items for sale in online auctions of forfeited assets that were seized during the course of two significant criminal investigations. Net proceeds will be returned to victims of the fraud-related crimes.
The first auction that closes on Dec. 1, includes assets seized from Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, who in 2012 was convicted of stealing more than $53.7 million over two decades from the city where she was employed. She is serving a nearly 20-year federal prison sentence. More than 390 lots are being auctioned, to include 150 belt buckles.
The second online auction includes a wine collection of approximately 2,800 bottles seized from prominent wine dealer Rudy Kurniawan, who is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence following his conviction on fraud-related charges. The online auction of 537 lots closes on Dec. 8. Another online auction of approximately 1,900 bottles of wine will run from Dec. 1 - 15.
“Cyber Monday is generally thought to be the start of the online holiday shopping season,” said Jason Wojdylo, Chief Inspector of the U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Division. “We would like to encourage shoppers who are already online in search of bargains to consider stopping by our auction website to bid on forfeited assets.”
“Make no mistake,” said Wojdylo.“these online auctions are designed to generate proceeds from ill-gotten gains to give back to victims.”
To access USMS online auctions, go to http://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/sales.htm.
The first auction that closes on Dec. 1, includes assets seized from Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, who in 2012 was convicted of stealing more than $53.7 million over two decades from the city where she was employed. She is serving a nearly 20-year federal prison sentence. More than 390 lots are being auctioned, to include 150 belt buckles.
The second online auction includes a wine collection of approximately 2,800 bottles seized from prominent wine dealer Rudy Kurniawan, who is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence following his conviction on fraud-related charges. The online auction of 537 lots closes on Dec. 8. Another online auction of approximately 1,900 bottles of wine will run from Dec. 1 - 15.
“Cyber Monday is generally thought to be the start of the online holiday shopping season,” said Jason Wojdylo, Chief Inspector of the U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Division. “We would like to encourage shoppers who are already online in search of bargains to consider stopping by our auction website to bid on forfeited assets.”
“Make no mistake,” said Wojdylo.“these online auctions are designed to generate proceeds from ill-gotten gains to give back to victims.”
To access USMS online auctions, go to http://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/sales.htm.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet
Spirits are all the rage today
. Two-thirds of Americans drink, whether they enjoy higher priced call brands or more moderately priced favorites. From fine dining and piano bars to baseball games and backyard barbeques, drinks are part of every social occasion.
In The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, Garrett Peck explores the often-contradictory social history of alcohol in America, from the end of Prohibition in 1933 to the twenty-first century. For Peck, Repeal left American society wondering whether alcohol was a consumer product or a controlled substance, an accepted staple of social culture or a danger to society. Today the legal drinking age, binge drinking, the neoprohibitionist movement led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald that rejected discriminatory curbs on wine sales, the health benefits of red wine, advertising, and other issues remain highly contested.
Based on primary research, including hundreds of interviews with those on all sidesùclergy, bar and restaurant owners, public health advocates, citizen crusaders, industry representatives, and moreùas well as secondary sources, The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, provides a panoramic assessment of alcohol in American culture. Traveling through the California wine country, the beer barrel backroads of New England and Pennsylvania, and the blue hills of Kentucky's bourbon trail, Peck places the concerns surrounding alcohol use within the broader context of American history, religious traditions, and governance.
Society is constantly evolving, and so are our drinking habits. Cutting through the froth and discarding the maraschino cherries, The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, examines the modern American temperament toward drink amid the $189-billion-dollar-a-year industry that defines itself by the production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
. Two-thirds of Americans drink, whether they enjoy higher priced call brands or more moderately priced favorites. From fine dining and piano bars to baseball games and backyard barbeques, drinks are part of every social occasion.
In The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, Garrett Peck explores the often-contradictory social history of alcohol in America, from the end of Prohibition in 1933 to the twenty-first century. For Peck, Repeal left American society wondering whether alcohol was a consumer product or a controlled substance, an accepted staple of social culture or a danger to society. Today the legal drinking age, binge drinking, the neoprohibitionist movement led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald that rejected discriminatory curbs on wine sales, the health benefits of red wine, advertising, and other issues remain highly contested.
Based on primary research, including hundreds of interviews with those on all sidesùclergy, bar and restaurant owners, public health advocates, citizen crusaders, industry representatives, and moreùas well as secondary sources, The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, provides a panoramic assessment of alcohol in American culture. Traveling through the California wine country, the beer barrel backroads of New England and Pennsylvania, and the blue hills of Kentucky's bourbon trail, Peck places the concerns surrounding alcohol use within the broader context of American history, religious traditions, and governance.
Society is constantly evolving, and so are our drinking habits. Cutting through the froth and discarding the maraschino cherries, The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, examines the modern American temperament toward drink amid the $189-billion-dollar-a-year industry that defines itself by the production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Ted Koppel's Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath
In this New York Times bestselling investigation, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be devastating, and that the United States is shockingly unprepared.
Imagine a blackout lasting not days
, but weeks or months. Tens of millions of people over several states are affected. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before.
It isn’t just a scenario. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation’s three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure—and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon. Several nations hostile to the United States could launch such an assault at any time. In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors—from “hacktivists” to terrorists—have the capability as well. “It’s not a question of if,” says Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin, “it’s a question of when.”
And yet, as Koppel makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid. The current Secretary of Homeland Security suggests keeping a battery-powered radio.
In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands. Among the nation’s estimated three million “preppers,” we meet one whose doomsday retreat includes a newly excavated three-acre lake, stocked with fish, and a Wyoming homesteader so self-sufficient that he crafted the thousands of adobe bricks in his house by hand. We also see the unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking company – the fruits of a long tradition of anticipating the worst. But how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive?
With urgency and authority, one of our most renowned journalists examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe that is all but inevitable.
Imagine a blackout lasting not days
, but weeks or months. Tens of millions of people over several states are affected. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before.
It isn’t just a scenario. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation’s three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure—and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon. Several nations hostile to the United States could launch such an assault at any time. In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors—from “hacktivists” to terrorists—have the capability as well. “It’s not a question of if,” says Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin, “it’s a question of when.”
And yet, as Koppel makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid. The current Secretary of Homeland Security suggests keeping a battery-powered radio.
In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands. Among the nation’s estimated three million “preppers,” we meet one whose doomsday retreat includes a newly excavated three-acre lake, stocked with fish, and a Wyoming homesteader so self-sufficient that he crafted the thousands of adobe bricks in his house by hand. We also see the unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking company – the fruits of a long tradition of anticipating the worst. But how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive?
With urgency and authority, one of our most renowned journalists examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe that is all but inevitable.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Chicago Police Officer #JasonVanDyke Charged with Murder in Shooting of Black Teen
A white Chicago police officer was charged Tuesday with murder in the 2014 fatal shooting of a black teenager, as the city prepares to release a squad-car video of the incident amid concerns that it will spark protests.
The state's attorney's office said in a news release that Jason Van Dyke, who shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014, has been charged with first degree murder.
The judge in the case had ruled that the video, described by some as graphic and deeply disturbing, must be made public by Wednesday -- but sources told the New York Times that its release could come as early as Tuesday afternoon.
“In accordance with the judge’s ruling, the city will release the video by Nov. 25, which we hope will provide prosecutors time to expeditiously bring their investigation to a conclusion so Chicago can begin to heal,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last week, according to the newspaper.
People who have seen the video told The Associated Press that it shows McDonald armed with a small knife and walking away from officers. Van Dyke opens fire from about 15 feet and keeps shooting after the teen falls to the ground.
Police say McDonald, who was found with PCP in his system at the time of his death, was behaving erratically and was refusing to listen to police commands to drop the knife, the Chicago Tribune reports.
An autopsy says McDonald was shot at least twice in the back. Dan Herbert, a lawyer for Officer Van Dyke, said the 14-year police veteran believed the shooting was justified because he feared for his safety, the New York Times reported.
Fox 32 reported that some investigators were brought to the point of tears after seeing the video.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said state police are working with Chicago officials to ensure people remain safe following the release of the video. Rauner said the video is "very troubling" and that he expects public reaction to be "strong." But he said he hopes and believes the response will be "thoughtful and peaceful."
He declined to say whether he's deployed additional troopers to Chicago or put the Illinois National Guard on standby.
"This officer didn't uphold the law, he took the law into his own hands," Emanuel said, adding that he had not seen the video. "[He] didn't build the trust that we would want to see, and wasn't about providing safety and security, so at every point he violated what we entrusted him.”
Ministers, community leaders and others worry the images could lead to the kind of unrest seen in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after police-involved deaths. Emanuel called together a number of community leaders Monday to appeal for help in keeping the city calm. But some said after the meeting that city officials waited too long to get them involved -- more than a year after McDonald was shot.
"You had this tape for a year and you are only talking to us now because you need our help keeping things calm," one of the ministers, Corey Brooks, said after the meeting.
A judge last week ordered the Police Department to release the squad car dashcam footage by Wednesday after the city refused to do so for several months, saying the investigations into the shooting weren't complete. The FBI and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office are investigating.
Ira Acree, who described the meeting with Emanuel as "very tense, very contentious," said the mayor expressed concerns about the prospect of any demonstrations getting out of control.
Another minister who attended, Jedidiah Brown, said emotions were running so high that there would be no stopping major protests once the video is released.
Earlier Monday, Emanuel's office characterized the discussion as something "we regularly do on important topics." But Acree and another minister, Marshall Hatch, said it is a rare occurrence.
"We have been trying to meet with the mayor since the beginning of the year to talk about community relations and his staff asks for a letter and says, `We'll get back to you,' but they never do," Acree said before going to City Hall for the discussion.
Hatch added: "This has the feeling of them scrambling."
Acree and Hatch said blacks in the city are upset about the shooting and because city officials and the Police Department refused for several months to release the video until ordered to do so by a judge. They said people also are angry because the officer, though stripped of his police powers, has been assigned to desk duty and not fired.
"They had the opportunity to be a good example and a model across the country on how to improve police and community relations and they missed it," Acree said.
The Police Department said placing an officer on desk duty after a shooting is standard procedure and that it is prohibited from doing anything more during the investigations.
The Chicago police also moved late Monday to discipline a second officer who had shot and killed an unarmed black woman in 2012 in another incident causing tensions between the department and minority communities. Superintendent Garry McCarthy recommended firing Officer Dante Servin for the shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd, saying Servin showed "incredibly poor judgment" even though a jury had acquitted him of involuntary manslaughter and other charges last April.
Thanks to Fox News.
The state's attorney's office said in a news release that Jason Van Dyke, who shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014, has been charged with first degree murder.
The judge in the case had ruled that the video, described by some as graphic and deeply disturbing, must be made public by Wednesday -- but sources told the New York Times that its release could come as early as Tuesday afternoon.
“In accordance with the judge’s ruling, the city will release the video by Nov. 25, which we hope will provide prosecutors time to expeditiously bring their investigation to a conclusion so Chicago can begin to heal,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last week, according to the newspaper.
People who have seen the video told The Associated Press that it shows McDonald armed with a small knife and walking away from officers. Van Dyke opens fire from about 15 feet and keeps shooting after the teen falls to the ground.
Police say McDonald, who was found with PCP in his system at the time of his death, was behaving erratically and was refusing to listen to police commands to drop the knife, the Chicago Tribune reports.
An autopsy says McDonald was shot at least twice in the back. Dan Herbert, a lawyer for Officer Van Dyke, said the 14-year police veteran believed the shooting was justified because he feared for his safety, the New York Times reported.
Fox 32 reported that some investigators were brought to the point of tears after seeing the video.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said state police are working with Chicago officials to ensure people remain safe following the release of the video. Rauner said the video is "very troubling" and that he expects public reaction to be "strong." But he said he hopes and believes the response will be "thoughtful and peaceful."
He declined to say whether he's deployed additional troopers to Chicago or put the Illinois National Guard on standby.
"This officer didn't uphold the law, he took the law into his own hands," Emanuel said, adding that he had not seen the video. "[He] didn't build the trust that we would want to see, and wasn't about providing safety and security, so at every point he violated what we entrusted him.”
Ministers, community leaders and others worry the images could lead to the kind of unrest seen in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after police-involved deaths. Emanuel called together a number of community leaders Monday to appeal for help in keeping the city calm. But some said after the meeting that city officials waited too long to get them involved -- more than a year after McDonald was shot.
"You had this tape for a year and you are only talking to us now because you need our help keeping things calm," one of the ministers, Corey Brooks, said after the meeting.
A judge last week ordered the Police Department to release the squad car dashcam footage by Wednesday after the city refused to do so for several months, saying the investigations into the shooting weren't complete. The FBI and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office are investigating.
Ira Acree, who described the meeting with Emanuel as "very tense, very contentious," said the mayor expressed concerns about the prospect of any demonstrations getting out of control.
Another minister who attended, Jedidiah Brown, said emotions were running so high that there would be no stopping major protests once the video is released.
Earlier Monday, Emanuel's office characterized the discussion as something "we regularly do on important topics." But Acree and another minister, Marshall Hatch, said it is a rare occurrence.
"We have been trying to meet with the mayor since the beginning of the year to talk about community relations and his staff asks for a letter and says, `We'll get back to you,' but they never do," Acree said before going to City Hall for the discussion.
Hatch added: "This has the feeling of them scrambling."
Acree and Hatch said blacks in the city are upset about the shooting and because city officials and the Police Department refused for several months to release the video until ordered to do so by a judge. They said people also are angry because the officer, though stripped of his police powers, has been assigned to desk duty and not fired.
"They had the opportunity to be a good example and a model across the country on how to improve police and community relations and they missed it," Acree said.
The Police Department said placing an officer on desk duty after a shooting is standard procedure and that it is prohibited from doing anything more during the investigations.
The Chicago police also moved late Monday to discipline a second officer who had shot and killed an unarmed black woman in 2012 in another incident causing tensions between the department and minority communities. Superintendent Garry McCarthy recommended firing Officer Dante Servin for the shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd, saying Servin showed "incredibly poor judgment" even though a jury had acquitted him of involuntary manslaughter and other charges last April.
Thanks to Fox News.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy died almost half a century ago--yet because of his extraordinary promise and untimely death, his star still resonates strongly. On the anniversary of his assassination
, celebrated political scientist and analyst Larry J. Sabato--himself a teenager in the early 1960s and inspired by JFK and his presidency--explores the fascinating and powerful influence he has had over five decades on the media, the general public, and especially on each of his nine presidential successors.
A recent Gallup poll gave JFK the highest job approval rating of any of those successors, and millions remain captivated by his one thousand days in the White House. For all of them, and for those who feel he would not be judged so highly if he hadn't died tragically in office, The Kennedy Half-Century will be particularly revealing. Sabato reexamines JFK's assassination using heretofore unseen information to which he has had unique access, then documents the extraordinary effect the assassination has had on Americans of every modern generation through the most extensive survey ever undertaken on the public's view of a historical figure. The full and fascinating results, gathered by the accomplished pollsters Peter Hart and Geoff Garin, paint a compelling portrait of the country a half-century after the epochal killing. Just as significantly, Sabato shows how JFK's presidency has strongly influenced the policies and decisions--often in surprising ways--of every president since.
Among the hundreds of books devoted to JFK, The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy, stands apart for its rich insight and original perspective. Anyone who reads it will appreciate in new ways the profound impact JFK's short presidency has had on our national psyche.
, celebrated political scientist and analyst Larry J. Sabato--himself a teenager in the early 1960s and inspired by JFK and his presidency--explores the fascinating and powerful influence he has had over five decades on the media, the general public, and especially on each of his nine presidential successors.
A recent Gallup poll gave JFK the highest job approval rating of any of those successors, and millions remain captivated by his one thousand days in the White House. For all of them, and for those who feel he would not be judged so highly if he hadn't died tragically in office, The Kennedy Half-Century will be particularly revealing. Sabato reexamines JFK's assassination using heretofore unseen information to which he has had unique access, then documents the extraordinary effect the assassination has had on Americans of every modern generation through the most extensive survey ever undertaken on the public's view of a historical figure. The full and fascinating results, gathered by the accomplished pollsters Peter Hart and Geoff Garin, paint a compelling portrait of the country a half-century after the epochal killing. Just as significantly, Sabato shows how JFK's presidency has strongly influenced the policies and decisions--often in surprising ways--of every president since.
Among the hundreds of books devoted to JFK, The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy, stands apart for its rich insight and original perspective. Anyone who reads it will appreciate in new ways the profound impact JFK's short presidency has had on our national psyche.
Friday, November 20, 2015
All Six N.C. Wyeth Paintings Recovered by FBI to be Displayed at @PtldMuseumofArt
The FBI, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine, and the Portland Police Department are proud to announce the successful recovery of the remaining two N.C. Wyeth paintings that were stolen from a Portland, Maine businessman in 2013. The paintings are identified as “The Encounter on Freshwater Cliff” and “Go Dutton, and That Right Speedily.” To date, no reward money has been requested and no additional arrests have been made. However, the FBI’s investigation into the theft remains active and ongoing.
The FBI recovered both of the paintings on Friday, October 9, 2015
, when a third party surrendered them to retired FBI agent Jim Siracusa in the greater Boston area. That individual, who wishes to remain anonymous, directed Mr. Siracusa to turn the artwork over to the FBI, which for months has been aggressively working towards its successful recovery.
Both paintings were found in good condition inside cardboard boxes and in their original frames.
The four other paintings that were stolen were recovered by the FBI in Los Angeles last December.
The criminal investigation into the robbery was initiated in June 2013 after the Portland Police Department requested the FBI’s assistance in investigating the theft of six N.C. Wyeth paintings. It is believed to be one of the most significant thefts in the history of the state of Maine.
In November 2014, after a lengthy investigation, the FBI in Portland requested assistance from the FBI in Los Angeles after it obtained information indicating the stolen paintings had been transported to that area. In December, the FBI’s Los Angeles Division recovered four of the paintings at a pawnshop in Beverly Hills. To date, three individuals, Lawrence Estrella, Oscar Leroy Roberts, and Dean Coroniti, have been charged in connection with this investigation.
Estrella, 65, of Worcester, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property on February 20, 2015. He was sentenced in the United States District Court in Portland, Maine to 92 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. According to court records, Estrella transported four of the six stolen paintings to California in an effort to sell them. Law enforcement officers in California located his vehicle in the parking lot of a hotel in North Hollywood. Estrella’s room at the hotel was searched and a firearm was located, but no paintings were found.
Roberts, 37, of North Hollywood, California, the man who used the stolen paintings to secure a loan from the Beverly Hills pawn shop, pleaded guilty on February 2, 2015 and was sentenced on April 29, 2015 to serve 28 months in federal prison.
Coroniti, 55, also of North Hollywood (and formerly of Boston) also pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property on March 19, 2015. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
At the owner’s request, the recovered artwork will remain in possession of the Portland Museum of Art for visitors to enjoy. For more information about the upcoming exhibit, call 207-775-6148 or visit www.portlandmuseum.org.
The FBI recovered both of the paintings on Friday, October 9, 2015
, when a third party surrendered them to retired FBI agent Jim Siracusa in the greater Boston area. That individual, who wishes to remain anonymous, directed Mr. Siracusa to turn the artwork over to the FBI, which for months has been aggressively working towards its successful recovery.Both paintings were found in good condition inside cardboard boxes and in their original frames.
The four other paintings that were stolen were recovered by the FBI in Los Angeles last December.
The criminal investigation into the robbery was initiated in June 2013 after the Portland Police Department requested the FBI’s assistance in investigating the theft of six N.C. Wyeth paintings. It is believed to be one of the most significant thefts in the history of the state of Maine.
In November 2014, after a lengthy investigation, the FBI in Portland requested assistance from the FBI in Los Angeles after it obtained information indicating the stolen paintings had been transported to that area. In December, the FBI’s Los Angeles Division recovered four of the paintings at a pawnshop in Beverly Hills. To date, three individuals, Lawrence Estrella, Oscar Leroy Roberts, and Dean Coroniti, have been charged in connection with this investigation.
Estrella, 65, of Worcester, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property on February 20, 2015. He was sentenced in the United States District Court in Portland, Maine to 92 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. According to court records, Estrella transported four of the six stolen paintings to California in an effort to sell them. Law enforcement officers in California located his vehicle in the parking lot of a hotel in North Hollywood. Estrella’s room at the hotel was searched and a firearm was located, but no paintings were found.
Roberts, 37, of North Hollywood, California, the man who used the stolen paintings to secure a loan from the Beverly Hills pawn shop, pleaded guilty on February 2, 2015 and was sentenced on April 29, 2015 to serve 28 months in federal prison.
Coroniti, 55, also of North Hollywood (and formerly of Boston) also pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property on March 19, 2015. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
At the owner’s request, the recovered artwork will remain in possession of the Portland Museum of Art for visitors to enjoy. For more information about the upcoming exhibit, call 207-775-6148 or visit www.portlandmuseum.org.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
'Fugitive of the Week' Arrested by U.S. Marshals
“Fugitive of the Week,” Leela Cable (aka: Nina Ouelette), 19, was arrested by members of the U.S. Marshals Florida/Caribbean Fugitive Task Force at a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. bus station. Cable was featured as the “Fugitive of the Week” on October 7, 2015.
Ms. Cable was wanted on an arrest warrant issued out of the Hillsborough County (NH) Superior Court for failing to appear on a charge of first degree assault by stabbing. Cable was indicted after an investigation conducted by the Manchester Police Department into a stabbing that occurred on June 9th, 2014. During this incident, Cable is alleged to have stabbed the victim multiple times with a piece of glass, resulting in serious bodily injuries.
The “Fugitive of the Week” was broadcasted on WTPL-FM, WMUR-TV, The Union Leader, The Nashua Telegraph, The Patch, Foster’s Daily Democrat, Manchester Information, The Manchester Ink Link and prominently featured on the internet. This program has been a remarkably successful tool that has resulted in the location and arrest of numerous fugitives since its implementation in 2007. It was based on this feature that the U.S. Marshals received numerous tips, which pointed investigators to both Florida and the Manchester, NH area. All of these leads were followed up on and we were able to determine that Cable was likely in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area of Florida. Recently, the NH Joint Fugitive Task Force sent all of the information on Cable to our counterparts in the Florida/Caribbean Fugitive Task Force. This investigation resulted in the arrest of Leela Cable by the U.S. Marshals in Fort Lauderdale without incident. After her arrest, Leela Cable was brought to the Broward County Jail, where she will be processed and held as a fugitive from justice on the outstanding Hillsborough County (NH) arrest warrant. Cable will be held without bail pending her return to Manchester to face these very serious charges.
U.S. Marshal David Cargill, Jr. says, “I am very proud of the work that the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force does on a daily basis.” Marshal Cargill continues, “This case is a great example of how the Marshals task forces around the country work seamlessly together to track down dangerous fugitives like Leela Cable.”
Ms. Cable was wanted on an arrest warrant issued out of the Hillsborough County (NH) Superior Court for failing to appear on a charge of first degree assault by stabbing. Cable was indicted after an investigation conducted by the Manchester Police Department into a stabbing that occurred on June 9th, 2014. During this incident, Cable is alleged to have stabbed the victim multiple times with a piece of glass, resulting in serious bodily injuries.
The “Fugitive of the Week” was broadcasted on WTPL-FM, WMUR-TV, The Union Leader, The Nashua Telegraph, The Patch, Foster’s Daily Democrat, Manchester Information, The Manchester Ink Link and prominently featured on the internet. This program has been a remarkably successful tool that has resulted in the location and arrest of numerous fugitives since its implementation in 2007. It was based on this feature that the U.S. Marshals received numerous tips, which pointed investigators to both Florida and the Manchester, NH area. All of these leads were followed up on and we were able to determine that Cable was likely in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area of Florida. Recently, the NH Joint Fugitive Task Force sent all of the information on Cable to our counterparts in the Florida/Caribbean Fugitive Task Force. This investigation resulted in the arrest of Leela Cable by the U.S. Marshals in Fort Lauderdale without incident. After her arrest, Leela Cable was brought to the Broward County Jail, where she will be processed and held as a fugitive from justice on the outstanding Hillsborough County (NH) arrest warrant. Cable will be held without bail pending her return to Manchester to face these very serious charges.
U.S. Marshal David Cargill, Jr. says, “I am very proud of the work that the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force does on a daily basis.” Marshal Cargill continues, “This case is a great example of how the Marshals task forces around the country work seamlessly together to track down dangerous fugitives like Leela Cable.”
Gun Owner Fights Off Four Armed Home Intruders
A group of four people attempted to break into a home in San Antonio, Texas by removing an air conditioning unit from a window and crawling inside. The homeowner responded to the break-in by retrieving a gun and firing at the intruders, striking and killing one, and causing the others to flee. A knife and a bag, containing a gun and burglary tools, was found next to the body of the deceased intruder.
Police captured the three intruders, who fled the gunfire, a short distance from the home.
Per KSAT.
Police captured the three intruders, who fled the gunfire, a short distance from the home.
Per KSAT.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Member of @FARC_COLOMBIA Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Hostage-Taking of Three U.S. Citizens
Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran, 43, a member of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas (FARC) terrorist organization, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 27 years in prison on hostage-taking charges stemming from the 2003 kidnappings of three U.S. citizens in Colombia.
The sentencing was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia, and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Division.
Navarrete Beltran was extradited from Colombia to the United States in November 2014 to face charges in a superseding indictment that was returned in February 2011. He pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 2015, to three counts of hostage-taking. He was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia. Navarrete Beltran is among three FARC leaders who have been convicted for their roles in the hostage-taking.
“Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran participated in the hostage-taking and captivity of three Americans by the FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “This case underscores our resolve to hold accountable those who target our citizens with violence anywhere in the world, no matter how long it takes.”
“Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran and other FARC guerillas ruthlessly subjected their American hostages to constant threats of violence while holding them in one camp after another in the remote jungles of Colombia,” said U.S. Attorney Phillips. “For over 16 months, this defendant was among the armed guards who prevented their escape. Today’s 27-year sentence provides justice for the three victims who were subjected to repeated barbaric abuse by the defendant and others while part of this terrorist organization.”
“Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran now faces a long time behind bars for his participation in the hostage-taking of three U.S. Citizens in Colombia,” said Special Agent in Charge Piro. “To all hostage-takers the message is clear: target our citizens with violence anywhere in the world and we will hold you accountable for your actions.”
According to a statement of offense submitted as part of the plea hearing, the FARC is an armed, violent organization in Colombia, formed in 1964 as the armed wing of the Colombian Communist Party. It has evolved into a major armed force financed by drug trafficking, hostage-taking and extortion. International human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the FARC of serious crimes, including kidnapping, murder, use of land mines, threats, the recruitment of minors, forced displacement and hostage-taking. The FARC was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State in 1997 and remains so designated.
As described in the statement of offense, Navarrete Beltran was a member of the First Front in the FARC’s Eastern Bloc.
In his plea, he admitted taking part in the hostage-taking of three U.S. citizens, Marc D. Gonsalves, Thomas R. Howes and Keith Stansell. These three individuals, along with Thomas Janis, a U.S. citizen, and Sergeant Luis Alcides Cruz, a Colombian citizen, were seized on Feb. 13, 2003, by the FARC after their single engine aircraft made a crash landing near Florencia, Colombia. Janis and Cruz were murdered at the crash site by members of the FARC.
For the next five and a half years, according to the statement of offense, Gonsalves, Howes, Stansell and many others were held prisoners by the FARC and used to bargain with the Colombian government. Along with about a dozen Colombian hostages, they were forced to march from one site to another to prevent their rescue. They were threatened, chained and forced to participate in proof-of-life videos. In early October 2006, the hostages were delivered to the FARC’s Eastern Bloc’s First Front and were held prisoners by the First Front of the FARC.
From October 2006 through mid-June 2008, according to the statement of offense, Navarrete Beltran and other guerillas kept the hostages under the control of the FARC’s First Front. In particular, Navarrete Beltran often served as an armed guard of the American hostages.
In July 2008, the Colombian military conducted an operation which resulted in the rescue of the hostages. All told, members of the FARC held the Americans hostage for 1,967 days.
The sentencing was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia, and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Division.
Navarrete Beltran was extradited from Colombia to the United States in November 2014 to face charges in a superseding indictment that was returned in February 2011. He pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 2015, to three counts of hostage-taking. He was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia. Navarrete Beltran is among three FARC leaders who have been convicted for their roles in the hostage-taking.
“Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran participated in the hostage-taking and captivity of three Americans by the FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “This case underscores our resolve to hold accountable those who target our citizens with violence anywhere in the world, no matter how long it takes.”
“Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran and other FARC guerillas ruthlessly subjected their American hostages to constant threats of violence while holding them in one camp after another in the remote jungles of Colombia,” said U.S. Attorney Phillips. “For over 16 months, this defendant was among the armed guards who prevented their escape. Today’s 27-year sentence provides justice for the three victims who were subjected to repeated barbaric abuse by the defendant and others while part of this terrorist organization.”
“Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran now faces a long time behind bars for his participation in the hostage-taking of three U.S. Citizens in Colombia,” said Special Agent in Charge Piro. “To all hostage-takers the message is clear: target our citizens with violence anywhere in the world and we will hold you accountable for your actions.”
According to a statement of offense submitted as part of the plea hearing, the FARC is an armed, violent organization in Colombia, formed in 1964 as the armed wing of the Colombian Communist Party. It has evolved into a major armed force financed by drug trafficking, hostage-taking and extortion. International human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the FARC of serious crimes, including kidnapping, murder, use of land mines, threats, the recruitment of minors, forced displacement and hostage-taking. The FARC was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State in 1997 and remains so designated.
As described in the statement of offense, Navarrete Beltran was a member of the First Front in the FARC’s Eastern Bloc.
In his plea, he admitted taking part in the hostage-taking of three U.S. citizens, Marc D. Gonsalves, Thomas R. Howes and Keith Stansell. These three individuals, along with Thomas Janis, a U.S. citizen, and Sergeant Luis Alcides Cruz, a Colombian citizen, were seized on Feb. 13, 2003, by the FARC after their single engine aircraft made a crash landing near Florencia, Colombia. Janis and Cruz were murdered at the crash site by members of the FARC.
For the next five and a half years, according to the statement of offense, Gonsalves, Howes, Stansell and many others were held prisoners by the FARC and used to bargain with the Colombian government. Along with about a dozen Colombian hostages, they were forced to march from one site to another to prevent their rescue. They were threatened, chained and forced to participate in proof-of-life videos. In early October 2006, the hostages were delivered to the FARC’s Eastern Bloc’s First Front and were held prisoners by the First Front of the FARC.
From October 2006 through mid-June 2008, according to the statement of offense, Navarrete Beltran and other guerillas kept the hostages under the control of the FARC’s First Front. In particular, Navarrete Beltran often served as an armed guard of the American hostages.
In July 2008, the Colombian military conducted an operation which resulted in the rescue of the hostages. All told, members of the FARC held the Americans hostage for 1,967 days.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Conviction in Largest Single No Fault Automobile Insurance Fraud Scheme
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MICHAEL DANILOVICH was found guilty on racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, health care fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering charges following a five-week jury trial before United States District Judge Deborah A. Batts. The jury convicted DANILOVICH of racketeering arising out of his operation, from 2007 through 2012, of the largest single no fault automobile insurance fraud scheme ever charged; his operation, from 2007 to 2009, of two investment fraud schemes, Lyons Ward & Associates and the Rockford Group; and his attempted operation, from 2011 to 2012, of a third investment fraud scheme, Baron & Caplan, including after he was arrested and released on bail in this case.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Michael Danilovich has been convicted by a unanimous jury of committing several frauds. As the jury found, he took a lead role in scamming insurance companies of over $100 million in fraudulent medical treatments and in engaging in other investment scams that swindled investors out of another $18 million. Today’s verdict ensures that Danilovich will be punished for the wide-ranging frauds he perpetrated.”
According to the Superseding Indictment and evidence admitted at trial:
From 2007 through 2012, DANILOVICH was a leader of an enterprise engaged in a pattern of racketeering that included a massive scheme to defraud automobile insurance companies under New York’s no fault insurance law, multiple securities fraud schemes, money laundering, and the operation of illegal gambling businesses.
Under New York State Law, every vehicle registered in the State is required to have no fault automobile insurance, which enables the driver and passengers of a registered and insured vehicle to obtain benefits of up to $50,000 per person for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, regardless of fault (the “No Fault Law”). The No Fault Law requires prompt payment for medical treatment, thereby obviating the need for claimants to file personal injury lawsuits in order to be reimbursed. Under the No Fault Law, patients can assign their right to reimbursement from an insurance company to others, including medical clinics that provide treatment for their injuries. New York State Law also requires that all medical clinics in the State be incorporated, owned, operated, and controlled by a licensed medical practitioner in order to be eligible for reimbursement under the No Fault Law. Insurance companies will not honor claims for medical treatments from a medical clinic that is not actually owned, operated, and controlled by a licensed medical professional.
From 2007 through 2012, DANILOVICH’s organization defrauded automobile insurance companies of more than $100 million by, among other things, creating and operating medical clinics that provided unnecessary and excessive medical treatments in order to take advantage of the No Fault Law. In addition, Danilovich’s organization fraudulently owned and controlled more than a dozen medical professional corporations (“PCs”)—including no fault clinics, MRI offices, and acupuncture and chiropractic PCs—by paying licensed medical professionals to use their licenses to incorporate the professional corporations. DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators paid kickbacks of thousands of dollars to runners to recruit patients to receive the same battery of tests and treatments, and received kickbacks from other co-conspirators for referring patients for additional unnecessary treatments. All told, Danilovich’s organization billed insurance companies for tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent medical treatments. Furthermore, DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators laundered the proceeds of the fraud through check cashing entities and shell companies, and used the money to pay for luxury cars, watches, and vacations.
In addition to the no fault insurance fraud scheme, DANILOVICH was convicted for operating two investment fraud schemes that swindled innocent victims out of nearly $18 million. Both schemes—Lyons Ward & Associates and the Rockford Group—purported to be settlement claims funding companies that invested in lawsuits in return for a portion of future settlements. DANILOVICH also attempted to operate a third scheme, Baron & Caplan, including after he was arrested and released on bail in this case. As part of these schemes, DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators created bogus documents and account statements used by cold-callers to solicit victims through false representations. In reality, there was no investment fund at all; instead, DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators simply stole the money invested by victims and laundered the proceeds by wiring them overseas to shell companies in Eastern Europe, which were then turned into cash in the United States.
DANILOVICH’s organization also operated high-stakes illegal poker games and illegal sports books.
DANILOVICH was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. In addition, DANILOVICH was convicted of conspiracies to commit securities fraud, health care fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, as well as substantive counts of securities fraud, health care fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, which, in total, carry a maximum sentence of 260 years in prison. In total, DANILOVICH faces a maximum sentence of 280 years in prison. DANILOVICH is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8, 2016, at 11:00 a.m., before Judge Batts. The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
DANILOVICH, 41, of Brooklyn, New York, is the thirty-sixth defendant convicted in this case. DANILOVICH was remanded pending sentencing following his conviction.
At DANILOVICH’s first trial in the fall of 2013, a mistrial was declared after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on all counts.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Michael Danilovich has been convicted by a unanimous jury of committing several frauds. As the jury found, he took a lead role in scamming insurance companies of over $100 million in fraudulent medical treatments and in engaging in other investment scams that swindled investors out of another $18 million. Today’s verdict ensures that Danilovich will be punished for the wide-ranging frauds he perpetrated.”
According to the Superseding Indictment and evidence admitted at trial:
From 2007 through 2012, DANILOVICH was a leader of an enterprise engaged in a pattern of racketeering that included a massive scheme to defraud automobile insurance companies under New York’s no fault insurance law, multiple securities fraud schemes, money laundering, and the operation of illegal gambling businesses.
Under New York State Law, every vehicle registered in the State is required to have no fault automobile insurance, which enables the driver and passengers of a registered and insured vehicle to obtain benefits of up to $50,000 per person for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, regardless of fault (the “No Fault Law”). The No Fault Law requires prompt payment for medical treatment, thereby obviating the need for claimants to file personal injury lawsuits in order to be reimbursed. Under the No Fault Law, patients can assign their right to reimbursement from an insurance company to others, including medical clinics that provide treatment for their injuries. New York State Law also requires that all medical clinics in the State be incorporated, owned, operated, and controlled by a licensed medical practitioner in order to be eligible for reimbursement under the No Fault Law. Insurance companies will not honor claims for medical treatments from a medical clinic that is not actually owned, operated, and controlled by a licensed medical professional.
From 2007 through 2012, DANILOVICH’s organization defrauded automobile insurance companies of more than $100 million by, among other things, creating and operating medical clinics that provided unnecessary and excessive medical treatments in order to take advantage of the No Fault Law. In addition, Danilovich’s organization fraudulently owned and controlled more than a dozen medical professional corporations (“PCs”)—including no fault clinics, MRI offices, and acupuncture and chiropractic PCs—by paying licensed medical professionals to use their licenses to incorporate the professional corporations. DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators paid kickbacks of thousands of dollars to runners to recruit patients to receive the same battery of tests and treatments, and received kickbacks from other co-conspirators for referring patients for additional unnecessary treatments. All told, Danilovich’s organization billed insurance companies for tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent medical treatments. Furthermore, DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators laundered the proceeds of the fraud through check cashing entities and shell companies, and used the money to pay for luxury cars, watches, and vacations.
In addition to the no fault insurance fraud scheme, DANILOVICH was convicted for operating two investment fraud schemes that swindled innocent victims out of nearly $18 million. Both schemes—Lyons Ward & Associates and the Rockford Group—purported to be settlement claims funding companies that invested in lawsuits in return for a portion of future settlements. DANILOVICH also attempted to operate a third scheme, Baron & Caplan, including after he was arrested and released on bail in this case. As part of these schemes, DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators created bogus documents and account statements used by cold-callers to solicit victims through false representations. In reality, there was no investment fund at all; instead, DANILOVICH and his co-conspirators simply stole the money invested by victims and laundered the proceeds by wiring them overseas to shell companies in Eastern Europe, which were then turned into cash in the United States.
DANILOVICH’s organization also operated high-stakes illegal poker games and illegal sports books.
DANILOVICH was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. In addition, DANILOVICH was convicted of conspiracies to commit securities fraud, health care fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, as well as substantive counts of securities fraud, health care fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, which, in total, carry a maximum sentence of 260 years in prison. In total, DANILOVICH faces a maximum sentence of 280 years in prison. DANILOVICH is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8, 2016, at 11:00 a.m., before Judge Batts. The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
DANILOVICH, 41, of Brooklyn, New York, is the thirty-sixth defendant convicted in this case. DANILOVICH was remanded pending sentencing following his conviction.
At DANILOVICH’s first trial in the fall of 2013, a mistrial was declared after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on all counts.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Vincent Asaro #NotGuilty in ‘Goodfellas’ Lufthansa heist
Vincent Asaro, the reputed mobster charged in connection with the notorious 1978 Lufthansa robbery, walked out of federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday a free man after a jury cleared him of racketeering and other charges.
The verdicts, delivered after little more than two days of deliberations
, left many in the courtroom stunned, most visibly prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office, which had spent years building a case against Mr. Asaro, 80, with testimony from high-ranking Mafia figures and recordings by an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the case relied heavily on the cooperation of some of those Mafia figures, some of them admitted killers, and the jury rejected the government’s accusation that Mr. Asaro helped carry out a criminal enterprise engaged in murder and robbery, most infamously the Lufthansa robbery, which figured prominently in the plot of the 1990 Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas.”
When the juror chosen to deliver the verdict said “Not guilty” on the first count — the racketeering charge, by far the most complicated and serious of the charges — there was a startled silence in the courtroom.
After the “not guilty” verdict on the second and third counts, for extortion, Mr. Asaro pumped his right fist in the air three times. Once the jury left, he clapped sharply, then hugged his lawyers. “Your Honor, thank you very much,” he said to the judge, Allyne R. Ross.
As he walked out of the courthouse on Cadman Plaza, Mr. Asaro, who had been jailed since January 2014, raised his hands in the air and shouted, “Free!”
Flanked by his lawyers, Elizabeth Macedonio and Diane Ferrone, he fielded a flurry of questions from reporters, who asked what he was going to do (“play some paddleball”), where he was heading (“to have a good meal and see my family”) and what he was going to eat (“anything but a bologna sandwich”). Indeed, he appeared delighted by the commotion his acquittal had created. “John Gotti didn’t get this much attention,” he said of the Gambino boss, who was notoriously hard to convict.
The jury, in Federal District Court, had begun deliberations late on Monday and continued through the week, with a break on Wednesday for Veterans Day. The jurors, whom the judge granted anonymity, did not appear to depart through any public areas or exits in the court.
To secure a conviction on the racketeering count — for which Mr. Asaro might have faced up to life in prison — prosecutors would have had to prove two or more of the 14 racketeering acts they alleged.
During a three-week trial, prosecutors argued that Mr. Asaro, whose father and grandfather were members of the Mafia, had committed murder and robbery and performed shakedowns and other crimes on behalf of his Mafia family, the Bonannos.
The most famous one was the robbery at the Lufthansa terminal at Kennedy International Airport. It was then said to be the largest cash robbery in United States history. Mr. Asaro helped plan it, prosecutors said, and his accomplices stole $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels from a cargo vault.
Although investigators had long suspected the Mafia’s involvement, they had not brought charges against any reputed Mafia member until the case against Mr. Asaro, leaving the matter officially unsolved for decades.
Prosecutors brought a queue of informers who testified about Mr. Asaro’s role in the Mafia and in various crimes. Evidence also included surveillance photos from the 1970s on, and the testimony of several F.B.I. agents who detailed the man’s comings and goings for several decades. But the key to the prosecution’s case was an informer named Gaspare Valenti, Mr. Asaro’s cousin. Tired of Mr. Asaro’s berating him, and broke, Mr. Valenti testified he approached the F.B.I. in 2008 and began telling them about Mr. Asaro’s crimes. That had helped prosecutors link the Lufthansa crime, and many others, to Mr. Asaro. Mr. Valenti also recorded Mr. Asaro from 2010 to 2013.
In her closing argument, Ms. Macedonio attacked Mr. Valenti’s credibility. “Gaspare Valenti was an experienced liar,” she said. “Once you eliminate Gaspare as a reliable person,” she said, “then you won’t be able to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with regards to the crimes alleged against Vincent Asaro.”
Ms. Macedonio also argued that some other prosecution evidence — surveillance photos in which Mr. Asaro was not committing crimes, phone books from other Mafia members that listed him in them — proved nothing.
The crimes prosecutors accused Mr. Asaro of committing as part of the criminal enterprise included murder. They said he killed a man in 1969, Paul Katz, who owned a Queens warehouse where Mr. Asaro and James Burke, a Mafia associate known as Jimmy the Gent, would unload their goods. After Mr. Asaro and Mr. Burke were arrested at the warehouse, Mr. Valenti testified, they began to suspect Mr. Katz of working with the police.
One morning in 1969, Mr. Burke and Mr. Asaro arranged to meet Mr. Valenti at a house his father was building in Queens. Mr. Valenti said they brought materials for cracking into concrete, and brought Mr. Katz’s body. Mr. Valenti said Mr. Asaro revealed that they had strangled Mr. Katz with a dog chain and that they then buried him underneath the basement concrete.
In the 1980s, Mr. Valenti said, he and Mr. Asaro’s son, Jerome, moved the body after Mr. Burke, who was in prison at the time, “caught a delusion” and worried that the body would be found.
In 2013, federal agents cracked open the Queens basement and found traces of clothing and bones from Mr. Katz, according to trial testimony. Mr. Katz’s son testified at the trial, describing how his father said just before his disappearance that he was going to move the family to the country. His father was, in fact, cooperating with the police, according to trial testimony and records.
Mr. Valenti described the Lufthansa robbery in his testimony, giving what seemed to be a remarkable firsthand view of how one of the Mafia’s most noted robberies unfolded.
Mr. Burke had organized the robbery, he said, with Mr. Asaro helping. In the dark early-morning hours, a group of Mafia members and associates drove up to the Lufthansa terminal at Kennedy Airport. Several went around the front to subdue the employees, while Mr. Valenti and another man forced a guard to open the overhead door to the terminal. They went upstairs, where they burst into the vault. They thought there would be only a couple million dollars in cash; instead, there was $5 million, along with emeralds, diamonds and gold chains.
The robbery was front page news, and barely a decade later found its way onto the big screen, in “Goodfellas.”
As Mr. Asaro packed into the passenger seat of a white Mercedes outside the courthouse, he offered some words of caution: “Don’t believe everything you see in the movies,” he said.
Still, Mr. Asaro could not help taking a last jab at the prosecution. “Don’t let them see the body in the trunk.”
Thanks to Stephanie Clifford.
The verdicts, delivered after little more than two days of deliberations
, left many in the courtroom stunned, most visibly prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office, which had spent years building a case against Mr. Asaro, 80, with testimony from high-ranking Mafia figures and recordings by an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the case relied heavily on the cooperation of some of those Mafia figures, some of them admitted killers, and the jury rejected the government’s accusation that Mr. Asaro helped carry out a criminal enterprise engaged in murder and robbery, most infamously the Lufthansa robbery, which figured prominently in the plot of the 1990 Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas.”When the juror chosen to deliver the verdict said “Not guilty” on the first count — the racketeering charge, by far the most complicated and serious of the charges — there was a startled silence in the courtroom.
After the “not guilty” verdict on the second and third counts, for extortion, Mr. Asaro pumped his right fist in the air three times. Once the jury left, he clapped sharply, then hugged his lawyers. “Your Honor, thank you very much,” he said to the judge, Allyne R. Ross.
As he walked out of the courthouse on Cadman Plaza, Mr. Asaro, who had been jailed since January 2014, raised his hands in the air and shouted, “Free!”
Flanked by his lawyers, Elizabeth Macedonio and Diane Ferrone, he fielded a flurry of questions from reporters, who asked what he was going to do (“play some paddleball”), where he was heading (“to have a good meal and see my family”) and what he was going to eat (“anything but a bologna sandwich”). Indeed, he appeared delighted by the commotion his acquittal had created. “John Gotti didn’t get this much attention,” he said of the Gambino boss, who was notoriously hard to convict.
The jury, in Federal District Court, had begun deliberations late on Monday and continued through the week, with a break on Wednesday for Veterans Day. The jurors, whom the judge granted anonymity, did not appear to depart through any public areas or exits in the court.
To secure a conviction on the racketeering count — for which Mr. Asaro might have faced up to life in prison — prosecutors would have had to prove two or more of the 14 racketeering acts they alleged.
During a three-week trial, prosecutors argued that Mr. Asaro, whose father and grandfather were members of the Mafia, had committed murder and robbery and performed shakedowns and other crimes on behalf of his Mafia family, the Bonannos.
The most famous one was the robbery at the Lufthansa terminal at Kennedy International Airport. It was then said to be the largest cash robbery in United States history. Mr. Asaro helped plan it, prosecutors said, and his accomplices stole $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels from a cargo vault.
Although investigators had long suspected the Mafia’s involvement, they had not brought charges against any reputed Mafia member until the case against Mr. Asaro, leaving the matter officially unsolved for decades.
Prosecutors brought a queue of informers who testified about Mr. Asaro’s role in the Mafia and in various crimes. Evidence also included surveillance photos from the 1970s on, and the testimony of several F.B.I. agents who detailed the man’s comings and goings for several decades. But the key to the prosecution’s case was an informer named Gaspare Valenti, Mr. Asaro’s cousin. Tired of Mr. Asaro’s berating him, and broke, Mr. Valenti testified he approached the F.B.I. in 2008 and began telling them about Mr. Asaro’s crimes. That had helped prosecutors link the Lufthansa crime, and many others, to Mr. Asaro. Mr. Valenti also recorded Mr. Asaro from 2010 to 2013.
In her closing argument, Ms. Macedonio attacked Mr. Valenti’s credibility. “Gaspare Valenti was an experienced liar,” she said. “Once you eliminate Gaspare as a reliable person,” she said, “then you won’t be able to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with regards to the crimes alleged against Vincent Asaro.”
Ms. Macedonio also argued that some other prosecution evidence — surveillance photos in which Mr. Asaro was not committing crimes, phone books from other Mafia members that listed him in them — proved nothing.
The crimes prosecutors accused Mr. Asaro of committing as part of the criminal enterprise included murder. They said he killed a man in 1969, Paul Katz, who owned a Queens warehouse where Mr. Asaro and James Burke, a Mafia associate known as Jimmy the Gent, would unload their goods. After Mr. Asaro and Mr. Burke were arrested at the warehouse, Mr. Valenti testified, they began to suspect Mr. Katz of working with the police.
One morning in 1969, Mr. Burke and Mr. Asaro arranged to meet Mr. Valenti at a house his father was building in Queens. Mr. Valenti said they brought materials for cracking into concrete, and brought Mr. Katz’s body. Mr. Valenti said Mr. Asaro revealed that they had strangled Mr. Katz with a dog chain and that they then buried him underneath the basement concrete.
In the 1980s, Mr. Valenti said, he and Mr. Asaro’s son, Jerome, moved the body after Mr. Burke, who was in prison at the time, “caught a delusion” and worried that the body would be found.
In 2013, federal agents cracked open the Queens basement and found traces of clothing and bones from Mr. Katz, according to trial testimony. Mr. Katz’s son testified at the trial, describing how his father said just before his disappearance that he was going to move the family to the country. His father was, in fact, cooperating with the police, according to trial testimony and records.
Mr. Valenti described the Lufthansa robbery in his testimony, giving what seemed to be a remarkable firsthand view of how one of the Mafia’s most noted robberies unfolded.
Mr. Burke had organized the robbery, he said, with Mr. Asaro helping. In the dark early-morning hours, a group of Mafia members and associates drove up to the Lufthansa terminal at Kennedy Airport. Several went around the front to subdue the employees, while Mr. Valenti and another man forced a guard to open the overhead door to the terminal. They went upstairs, where they burst into the vault. They thought there would be only a couple million dollars in cash; instead, there was $5 million, along with emeralds, diamonds and gold chains.
The robbery was front page news, and barely a decade later found its way onto the big screen, in “Goodfellas.”
As Mr. Asaro packed into the passenger seat of a white Mercedes outside the courthouse, he offered some words of caution: “Don’t believe everything you see in the movies,” he said.
Still, Mr. Asaro could not help taking a last jab at the prosecution. “Don’t let them see the body in the trunk.”
Thanks to Stephanie Clifford.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Folk Nation Gang Member Sentenced to Five Consecutive Terms of Life Imprisonment
Jamal Laurent, a member of a set of the violent street gang Folk Nation operating primarily in the Crown Heights and East Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn, was sentenced to five consecutive terms of life imprisonment at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York. Last week, on November 6, 2015, one of Laurent’s co-defendants, Trevelle Merritt, was sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment. On March 18, 2015, both defendants, along with a third defendant, Yasser Ashburn, were convicted, following a jury trial, of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, including as racketeering acts the murders of Courtney Robinson, Brent Duncan, and Dasta James, and related crimes. Ashburn is scheduled to be sentenced on January 8, 2016, and faces a mandatory term of life imprisonment.
The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Diego G. Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), New York Field Office; and William J. Bratton, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD).
“The defendants committed a string of shootings, robberies, and other senseless acts of violence that for years terrorized the law-abiding members of their community,” stated United States Attorney Capers. “We hope that the sentences imposed give a measure of comfort and closure to the victims and their families, and serve as a warning and deterrent to those who would continue to commit crimes in the name of this violent gang.” Mr. Capers expressed his grateful appreciation to the FBI and the NYPD, the agencies that led the government’s investigation.
From approximately 2007 until their arrests, the defendants, all members of the Folk Nation gang, were responsible for numerous acts of gang-related violence, including homicides, non-fatal shootings, and robberies in and around Crown Heights and East Flatbush, as well as elsewhere in the tri-state area.
During the course of the summer of 2010, Laurent committed seven armed robberies and three shootings. On June 19, 2010, Laurent shot and killed 18-year-old Brent Duncan while Duncan sat in his car outside a party in Brooklyn. Laurent subsequently told a friend that he shot Duncan because Duncan was a member of the rival Crips gang, but no evidence ever established that Duncan belonged to, or was even associated with, that gang.
On July 7, 2010, the same day that Laurent robbed three individuals at gunpoint, Laurent also attempted to murder Louis Ivies, who Laurent believed to be a member of the Crips. After greeting Ivies on the street, Laurent removed a gun from his waistband and fired at him eight times, hitting him five times. Ivies was seriously injured but ultimately survived.
During a three-week period in January 2011, Merritt and fellow gang members participated in a robbery spree that culminated in murder. In the first two robberies, Merritt and others robbed two residents of the Ebbets Field Houses of their cell phones. On January 28, 2011, Merritt, Laurent, and another man attempted to rob Dasta James at his residence on McKeever Place in Brooklyn. During the course of the robbery, James was shot in the back and head. He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died.
The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Diego G. Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), New York Field Office; and William J. Bratton, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD).
“The defendants committed a string of shootings, robberies, and other senseless acts of violence that for years terrorized the law-abiding members of their community,” stated United States Attorney Capers. “We hope that the sentences imposed give a measure of comfort and closure to the victims and their families, and serve as a warning and deterrent to those who would continue to commit crimes in the name of this violent gang.” Mr. Capers expressed his grateful appreciation to the FBI and the NYPD, the agencies that led the government’s investigation.
From approximately 2007 until their arrests, the defendants, all members of the Folk Nation gang, were responsible for numerous acts of gang-related violence, including homicides, non-fatal shootings, and robberies in and around Crown Heights and East Flatbush, as well as elsewhere in the tri-state area.
During the course of the summer of 2010, Laurent committed seven armed robberies and three shootings. On June 19, 2010, Laurent shot and killed 18-year-old Brent Duncan while Duncan sat in his car outside a party in Brooklyn. Laurent subsequently told a friend that he shot Duncan because Duncan was a member of the rival Crips gang, but no evidence ever established that Duncan belonged to, or was even associated with, that gang.
On July 7, 2010, the same day that Laurent robbed three individuals at gunpoint, Laurent also attempted to murder Louis Ivies, who Laurent believed to be a member of the Crips. After greeting Ivies on the street, Laurent removed a gun from his waistband and fired at him eight times, hitting him five times. Ivies was seriously injured but ultimately survived.
During a three-week period in January 2011, Merritt and fellow gang members participated in a robbery spree that culminated in murder. In the first two robberies, Merritt and others robbed two residents of the Ebbets Field Houses of their cell phones. On January 28, 2011, Merritt, Laurent, and another man attempted to rob Dasta James at his residence on McKeever Place in Brooklyn. During the course of the robbery, James was shot in the back and head. He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Scam Timeshare Telemarketer Sentenced to Federal Prison #Karma
Senior U.S. District Judge John Antoon, II has sentenced Tammie Lynn Cline (33, Leominster, MA) to two years and six months in federal prison for her role in the operation of a boiler room. She also was ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution to her victims. Cline pleaded guilty on July 17, 2015.
According to court documents, Cline and her codefendant, Mark Gardner (28, Osteen, FL), operated a boiler room in Central Florida. Along with the telemarketers who worked at their call center, they would make unsolicited calls to owners of timeshare properties located throughout the United States. During those calls, they claimed that they worked for Universal Timeshare Sales Associates (UTSA) out of Beaverton, Oregon, that UTSA had a purchaser who was interested in buying a timeshare, and that the timeshare owner just needed to pay a fee between $1,600 and $2,200 for the sale to proceed.
In order to convince timeshare owners to pay the fee, Gardner, Cline, and their telemarketers would sometimes claim that an interested purchaser was present in the showroom ready to buy a timeshare, that a buyer had already deposited money into an escrow account for the sale, or that the sale would take place in about 90 days. Those representations were false. The timeshares were not sold as had been promised, and members of the conspiracy would deny or ignore requests for refunds, and would dispute chargebacks with the credit card companies.
In total, victims lost more than $1.2 million due to operation of the telemarketing call center.
In May 2013, the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Attorney General’s Office filed a civil action against Gardner, Cline, and others in federal court. In June 2014, the district court entered a permanent injunction against them related to certain telemarketing practices.
Gardner previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and money laundering. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 3, 2015.
According to court documents, Cline and her codefendant, Mark Gardner (28, Osteen, FL), operated a boiler room in Central Florida. Along with the telemarketers who worked at their call center, they would make unsolicited calls to owners of timeshare properties located throughout the United States. During those calls, they claimed that they worked for Universal Timeshare Sales Associates (UTSA) out of Beaverton, Oregon, that UTSA had a purchaser who was interested in buying a timeshare, and that the timeshare owner just needed to pay a fee between $1,600 and $2,200 for the sale to proceed.
In order to convince timeshare owners to pay the fee, Gardner, Cline, and their telemarketers would sometimes claim that an interested purchaser was present in the showroom ready to buy a timeshare, that a buyer had already deposited money into an escrow account for the sale, or that the sale would take place in about 90 days. Those representations were false. The timeshares were not sold as had been promised, and members of the conspiracy would deny or ignore requests for refunds, and would dispute chargebacks with the credit card companies.
In total, victims lost more than $1.2 million due to operation of the telemarketing call center.
In May 2013, the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Attorney General’s Office filed a civil action against Gardner, Cline, and others in federal court. In June 2014, the district court entered a permanent injunction against them related to certain telemarketing practices.
Gardner previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and money laundering. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 3, 2015.
Monday, November 09, 2015
Loving Husband, Devoted Father, Ruthless Killer #TheIceMan
Based on a true story
, Director Ariel Vromen's (Danika) critically-acclaimed, true-life thriller The Iceman, comes on Blu-ray & DVD from Millennium Entertainment.
The chilling story of Richard Kuklinski, a devoted husband and father who in reality was a ruthless killer-for-hire, THE ICEMAN stars Academy Award® nominee Michael Shannon (Best Supporting Actor, Revolutionary Road, 2008), also Man of Steel, TV's "Boardwalk Empire"), two-time Academy Award nominee Winona Ryder (Best Supporting Actress, The Age of Innocence, 1993, Best Actress, Little Women, 1994), Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers), Academy Award nominee James Franco (Best Actor, 127 Hours, 2010, also Spring Breakers, Oz: The Great and Powerful) and Ray Liotta (Killing Them Softly).
Based on the book "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer" by Anthony Bruno
, The Iceman was directed by Ariel Vromen from a screenplay by Morgan Land and Ariel Vromen. Ehud Bleiberg and Ariel Vromen produced, with René Besson, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort, Lati Grobman, Avi Lerner, Laura Rister and Trevor Short serving as executive producers.
Inspired by actual events, THE ICEMAN follows notorious contract killer Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) from his early days in the mob until his arrest for the murder of more than 100 men. Appearing to be living the American dream as a devoted husband and father; in reality Kuklinski was a ruthless killer-for-hire. When finally arrested in 1986, neither his wife nor daughters have any clue about his real profession.
, Director Ariel Vromen's (Danika) critically-acclaimed, true-life thriller The Iceman, comes on Blu-ray & DVD from Millennium Entertainment. The chilling story of Richard Kuklinski, a devoted husband and father who in reality was a ruthless killer-for-hire, THE ICEMAN stars Academy Award® nominee Michael Shannon (Best Supporting Actor, Revolutionary Road, 2008), also Man of Steel, TV's "Boardwalk Empire"), two-time Academy Award nominee Winona Ryder (Best Supporting Actress, The Age of Innocence, 1993, Best Actress, Little Women, 1994), Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers), Academy Award nominee James Franco (Best Actor, 127 Hours, 2010, also Spring Breakers, Oz: The Great and Powerful) and Ray Liotta (Killing Them Softly).
Based on the book "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer" by Anthony Bruno
, The Iceman was directed by Ariel Vromen from a screenplay by Morgan Land and Ariel Vromen. Ehud Bleiberg and Ariel Vromen produced, with René Besson, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort, Lati Grobman, Avi Lerner, Laura Rister and Trevor Short serving as executive producers. Inspired by actual events, THE ICEMAN follows notorious contract killer Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) from his early days in the mob until his arrest for the murder of more than 100 men. Appearing to be living the American dream as a devoted husband and father; in reality Kuklinski was a ruthless killer-for-hire. When finally arrested in 1986, neither his wife nor daughters have any clue about his real profession.
2 Grape Street Crips Gang Members Admit Dealing Heroin and Crack-Cocaine
Two members of the Grape Street Crips gang admitted their roles in conspiracies to distribute heroin and crack-cocaine in and around Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Larry Coleman, a/k/a “LA,” 28, of Newark, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. Tauheed Satchell, a/k/a “Tah,” 26, also of Newark, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to a separate information charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine and one count of possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Coleman admitted that from December 2014 through May 20, 2015, he conspired with others to distribute 20 bricks of heroin. Satchell admitted that from April 2014 through May 2015, he conspired with others to distribute 28 grams of crack-cocaine. Satchell, who was convicted in March 2009 of distributing a controlled substance on school property, also admitted possessing an AMT .380 9mm Kurz Backup semi-automatic pistol and six hollow point bullets.
The conspiracy to distribute heroin charge to which Coleman pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine charge to which Satchell pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The unlawful possession of a firearm charge to which Satchell pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison. Sentencing for Coleman and Satchell is set for Feb. 16, 2016 and Feb. 1, 2016, respectively.
In May 2015, over the course of three weeks, 50 alleged members and associates of the Grape Street Crips were charged by criminal complaints with drug-trafficking, physical assaults and witness intimidation. The charges are the result of a long-running investigation led by the DEA and FBI, in conjunction with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the Newark Police Department and Essex County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Narcotics. Over the course of the entire investigation, 71 defendants have been charged with federal and state charges.
Other defendants who have recently pleaded guilty include Bernard Anderson, a/k/a “BA,” 32, and Dennis Wright, a/k/a “Hersh,” a/k/a “Coyote,” 32, both of Newark, who pleaded guilty to heroin distribution charges on Oct. 21, 2015, and Oct. 13, 2015, respectively. Monesha Johnson, a/k/a “Smoove,” 36, and Willie Brooks, a/k/a “Animal,” 24, both of Newark, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine on Oct. 6, 2015. Antonio Foye, a/k/a “Steel,” 29, of Newark pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon and conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine on Sept. 23, 2015.
Larry Coleman, a/k/a “LA,” 28, of Newark, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. Tauheed Satchell, a/k/a “Tah,” 26, also of Newark, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to a separate information charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine and one count of possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Coleman admitted that from December 2014 through May 20, 2015, he conspired with others to distribute 20 bricks of heroin. Satchell admitted that from April 2014 through May 2015, he conspired with others to distribute 28 grams of crack-cocaine. Satchell, who was convicted in March 2009 of distributing a controlled substance on school property, also admitted possessing an AMT .380 9mm Kurz Backup semi-automatic pistol and six hollow point bullets.
The conspiracy to distribute heroin charge to which Coleman pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine charge to which Satchell pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The unlawful possession of a firearm charge to which Satchell pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison. Sentencing for Coleman and Satchell is set for Feb. 16, 2016 and Feb. 1, 2016, respectively.
In May 2015, over the course of three weeks, 50 alleged members and associates of the Grape Street Crips were charged by criminal complaints with drug-trafficking, physical assaults and witness intimidation. The charges are the result of a long-running investigation led by the DEA and FBI, in conjunction with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the Newark Police Department and Essex County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Narcotics. Over the course of the entire investigation, 71 defendants have been charged with federal and state charges.
Other defendants who have recently pleaded guilty include Bernard Anderson, a/k/a “BA,” 32, and Dennis Wright, a/k/a “Hersh,” a/k/a “Coyote,” 32, both of Newark, who pleaded guilty to heroin distribution charges on Oct. 21, 2015, and Oct. 13, 2015, respectively. Monesha Johnson, a/k/a “Smoove,” 36, and Willie Brooks, a/k/a “Animal,” 24, both of Newark, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine on Oct. 6, 2015. Antonio Foye, a/k/a “Steel,” 29, of Newark pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon and conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine on Sept. 23, 2015.
The Great Gatsby on Instant Video
Aspiring writer Nick Carraway goes to New York City at the height of the Roaring Twenties and is drawn into the world of the super-rich and the mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby.
Euripides Caguana Sentenced to 17+ Years in Prison for Plotting to Kill 2 Potential Witnesses in His Son’s Murder Trial
A Chicago father who offered to hire a hit man to execute two potential witnesses in his son’s murder trial was sentenced to 17 and a half years in federal prison.
EURIPIDES CAGUANA, 61, sought the killings of two men he believed would testify against his son in his upcoming murder trial. Caguana paid $500 to an undercover individual to purchase a gun, and he offered the individual up to $7,500 to have the two witnesses killed.
A jury in May convicted Caguana on four counts of murder for hire. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin imposed the 210-month sentence in federal court in Chicago.
“The defendant’s conduct strikes at the heart of the criminal justice system,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter S. Salib argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Without witnesses, criminal cases can never be judged on the merits of the evidence.”
Caguana’s son, Travis Caguana, is charged with murder in the Circuit Court of Cook County in connection with a fatal drive-by shooting of a man on June 8, 2011. In October 2013, a cooperating individual notified law enforcement that Euripides Caguana had called him seeking to have two men killed to prevent them from testifying against Travis Caguana. Over the course of a few days, the cooperating individual and an undercover police officer—posing as a hit man—engaged in a series of secretly recorded meetings and conversations with Euripides Caguana.
During one of the meetings, Euripides Caguana provided the cooperating individual with $500 to purchase a gun, and he offered to pay up to $7,500 to have the two potential witnesses killed. He is heard on a recording telling the individual, “I want both of them, both of them.”
Caguana was arrested on Oct. 17, 2013, and the murders for hire were never carried out.
EURIPIDES CAGUANA, 61, sought the killings of two men he believed would testify against his son in his upcoming murder trial. Caguana paid $500 to an undercover individual to purchase a gun, and he offered the individual up to $7,500 to have the two witnesses killed.
A jury in May convicted Caguana on four counts of murder for hire. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin imposed the 210-month sentence in federal court in Chicago.
“The defendant’s conduct strikes at the heart of the criminal justice system,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter S. Salib argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Without witnesses, criminal cases can never be judged on the merits of the evidence.”
Caguana’s son, Travis Caguana, is charged with murder in the Circuit Court of Cook County in connection with a fatal drive-by shooting of a man on June 8, 2011. In October 2013, a cooperating individual notified law enforcement that Euripides Caguana had called him seeking to have two men killed to prevent them from testifying against Travis Caguana. Over the course of a few days, the cooperating individual and an undercover police officer—posing as a hit man—engaged in a series of secretly recorded meetings and conversations with Euripides Caguana.
During one of the meetings, Euripides Caguana provided the cooperating individual with $500 to purchase a gun, and he offered to pay up to $7,500 to have the two potential witnesses killed. He is heard on a recording telling the individual, “I want both of them, both of them.”
Caguana was arrested on Oct. 17, 2013, and the murders for hire were never carried out.
Olympus Has Fallen
Olympus Has Fallen.
A terrorist mastermind kidnaps the President of the United States inside the White House
, and a disgraced former Secret Service agent must save the President and take down the terrorists.
Starring: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
A terrorist mastermind kidnaps the President of the United States inside the White House
, and a disgraced former Secret Service agent must save the President and take down the terrorists.Starring: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Courtroom Drama Spotlights The Right To Stand Your Ground - A Cry For Justice #GeorgiaJustice
Stand Your Ground: A Cry for Justice depicts the real-life drama that GA resident Jackie Carpenter and her family were thrust into after her son was arrested for an accidental shooting. Based on Jackie’s two books, Stand Your Ground runs the gamut of emotions from tragedy to triumph and has all the makings of a blockbuster hit!
No mother should have to endure the ordeal that Jackie Carpenter and her family were put through as a result of her son’s arrest after he accidentally shot a man stealing from his worksite. And never in her wildest dreams could this Georgia mom have known that she would become an author as a result of this terrifying experience, that her two books would be made into an award-winning movie, or that her son’s case would be considered “textbook” in the annals of legal cases and be taught to future first year law students!
Taking first place in the Alaska International Film Festival, Stand Your Ground: A Cry For Justice by Triple Horse Studios is the award-winning movie that tells the gripping story of Jackie Carpenter’s quest to save her family. Jackie’s idyllic life was frozen in time the day she heard her son was arrested for felony murder when all he did was defend his worksite from constant theft. Unfortunately, as he held the men at bay while waiting for the police to arrive, his gun accidentally fired and one of the men died. This is a movie that everyone needs to see because it shows how something that happens in a split second can change a life forever. While it has all the terror and tragedy of a blockbuster movie hit, this one is real life!
Stand Your Ground, tells the explosive story of the ten-month trial and how Jackie Carpenter’s faith was tested to the max. The trailer for the movie won Award of Excellence in the Best Short Competition and Award of Merit in The Accolade Competition, and has been nominated as Best Picture in the ICVM Crown Awards and entered in the Gideon Film Festival! Please watch: http://acryforjusticemovie.com to see the exciting trailer.
Feeling physically, mentally and emotionally ill through the first six months of this ordeal resulted in Jackie questioning her faith. All this loving mom knew was that she needed God on her side throughout the trial and she prayed relentlessly, asking for strength and renewed faith. Once she stopped doubting, courage replaced fear and she knew that God heard her plea.
Jackie’s first book, The Bridge: Between Cell Block A and a Miracle is Psalm 91, tells the traumatic events after her son’s arrest and how she used the prayer of protection, Psalm 91, to help face the turmoil of emotions raging through her and help her find the strength to hold her family together. Her second book, Georgia Justice, is a story of building faith. Jackie was able to overcome the grips of doubt and depression and her book acts as a guide for anyone wanting to renew and strengthen faith and hope on the road to ultimate victory.
Jackie Carpenter has been a featured guest on television, radio, and in newspaper articles. For information on Jackie and her books, or the extraordinary movie that will have audiences white-knuckled and hanging on to the edge of their seats, please visit: www.bridgetoamiracle.com.
No mother should have to endure the ordeal that Jackie Carpenter and her family were put through as a result of her son’s arrest after he accidentally shot a man stealing from his worksite. And never in her wildest dreams could this Georgia mom have known that she would become an author as a result of this terrifying experience, that her two books would be made into an award-winning movie, or that her son’s case would be considered “textbook” in the annals of legal cases and be taught to future first year law students!
Taking first place in the Alaska International Film Festival, Stand Your Ground: A Cry For Justice by Triple Horse Studios is the award-winning movie that tells the gripping story of Jackie Carpenter’s quest to save her family. Jackie’s idyllic life was frozen in time the day she heard her son was arrested for felony murder when all he did was defend his worksite from constant theft. Unfortunately, as he held the men at bay while waiting for the police to arrive, his gun accidentally fired and one of the men died. This is a movie that everyone needs to see because it shows how something that happens in a split second can change a life forever. While it has all the terror and tragedy of a blockbuster movie hit, this one is real life!
Stand Your Ground, tells the explosive story of the ten-month trial and how Jackie Carpenter’s faith was tested to the max. The trailer for the movie won Award of Excellence in the Best Short Competition and Award of Merit in The Accolade Competition, and has been nominated as Best Picture in the ICVM Crown Awards and entered in the Gideon Film Festival! Please watch: http://acryforjusticemovie.com to see the exciting trailer.
Feeling physically, mentally and emotionally ill through the first six months of this ordeal resulted in Jackie questioning her faith. All this loving mom knew was that she needed God on her side throughout the trial and she prayed relentlessly, asking for strength and renewed faith. Once she stopped doubting, courage replaced fear and she knew that God heard her plea.
Jackie’s first book, The Bridge: Between Cell Block A and a Miracle is Psalm 91, tells the traumatic events after her son’s arrest and how she used the prayer of protection, Psalm 91, to help face the turmoil of emotions raging through her and help her find the strength to hold her family together. Her second book, Georgia Justice, is a story of building faith. Jackie was able to overcome the grips of doubt and depression and her book acts as a guide for anyone wanting to renew and strengthen faith and hope on the road to ultimate victory.
Jackie Carpenter has been a featured guest on television, radio, and in newspaper articles. For information on Jackie and her books, or the extraordinary movie that will have audiences white-knuckled and hanging on to the edge of their seats, please visit: www.bridgetoamiracle.com.
Escobar versus Cali: The War of the Cartels - Chronicles Epic Struggle Between Pablo Escobar & Cali Cartel in History’s Biggest #GangWar
Escobar VS Cali: The War of the Cartels (Gangland Mysteries), chronicles the fascinating story of history’s biggest gang war. The setting
: Colombia, South America; the time: the 1980s and early 1990s. The participants were known as cartels, and they were responsible for flooding the world with billions of dollars worth of cocaine. The epic death struggle pitted Pablo Escobar, the so called “World’s Greatest Outlaw” and leader of the Medellin cartel, against the brothers Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, “The Chess Player,” and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, “The Boss”. the leaders of the powerful Cali cartel. The war left thousands of Colombians dead, spawned the term “narcoterrorism” and almost turned Colombia into a narcodemocracy. The gang war, moreover, had major implications for the U.S.’s War on Drug.
When the momentous battle ended, Escobar was dead and the Cali Cartel stood tall as the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organization. So who were the major players in the gangland war? How did it play out? Who took out Pablo Escobar? What role did the U.S. play? Author Ron Chepesiuk takes the reader behind the scenes of the war to the death and investigates a gangland mystery. Escobar versus Cali: The War of the Cartels is must read for anyone who enjoys true crime and a good story. D4 Entertainment has optioned the film rights to the book.
: Colombia, South America; the time: the 1980s and early 1990s. The participants were known as cartels, and they were responsible for flooding the world with billions of dollars worth of cocaine. The epic death struggle pitted Pablo Escobar, the so called “World’s Greatest Outlaw” and leader of the Medellin cartel, against the brothers Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, “The Chess Player,” and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, “The Boss”. the leaders of the powerful Cali cartel. The war left thousands of Colombians dead, spawned the term “narcoterrorism” and almost turned Colombia into a narcodemocracy. The gang war, moreover, had major implications for the U.S.’s War on Drug.
When the momentous battle ended, Escobar was dead and the Cali Cartel stood tall as the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organization. So who were the major players in the gangland war? How did it play out? Who took out Pablo Escobar? What role did the U.S. play? Author Ron Chepesiuk takes the reader behind the scenes of the war to the death and investigates a gangland mystery. Escobar versus Cali: The War of the Cartels is must read for anyone who enjoys true crime and a good story. D4 Entertainment has optioned the film rights to the book.
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Revisiting the Mob Career of Tony Spilotro
Tony Spilotro, who would eventually be portrayed by Joe Pesci in the Martin Scorcese film "Casino," was born and raised in “The Patch,” a near west side Chicago neighborhood that was a haven for Italian immigrants in the 1940s and 50s
. Spilotro entered high school at Steinmetz, but when his father had a stroke and died the next year, he dropped out and started a full-time life of crime. All but one of his five brothers, along with a number of neighbors, became members of the Chicago mob, and a few played starring roles.
During the 1970s, Tony Spilotro was fronted in Las Vegas by childhood friend Frank Rosenthal (portrayed by Robert DeNiro in "Casino"), who ran numerous mob-backed gambling operations, to become the enforcer for Chicago. Spilotro was already known for his brutality and quickly established an embezzling scheme that took a cut for mob families in Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Los Angeles.
Leo Foreman was the first brutal murder that Spilotro was accused of, supposedly in retribution because the loan shark (Foreman) had disrespected Chicago mob boss Sam DeStefano. Spilotro also is thought to have murdered Tamara Rand, a California real estate broker, in 1975, because she was suing over an unpaid $2 million loan to Spilotro’s Las Vegas associate Allen Glick.
When Tony was blacklisted by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1979, which barred him from being physically present in a casino, Spilotro’s role of enforcer was curtailed. By that time, he had branched out into other activities like fencing stolen property and conducting a burglary operation with his brother Michael. The first Chicago mob informants flipped by the FBI named Spilotro in the murder of Leo Foreman, and a half dozen other close associates who accused Spilotro of ordering or carrying out mob murders.
By the early 1980s, Spilotro had already broke with Rosenthal after he had an affair with Rosenthal’s wife. When Frank Cullotta
, a childhood friend who had remained an insider, began to fear that Spilotro was going to kill him, Cullotta began talking to the FBI.
Spilotro was acquitted in Chicago on a murder charge stemming in part from Cullotta’s testimony, but by 1986 the mobster had been implicated in about 22 murders and had lots of enemies in and out of jail. Among other high-profile killings, Spilotro was suspected of being involved in the murder of his mentor Sam DeStefano and mob kingpin Sam Giancana.
There are several theories about how Tony and his brother Michael were lured to a summit meeting likely in Bensenville or North Riverside, Ill., and subsequently beaten and killed on June, 14, 1986.
About 10 days after the murders, the partially decomposed bodies of Tony and Michael Spilotro were found buried in a cornfield within the 12,000-acre Willow Slough preserve, in Newton County, Indiana. The farmer who spotted the site of the burial investigated at first because he thought a poacher had buried a deer killed out of season. The coroner noted that the bodies appeared to have been beaten to death by several people, and numerous people were eventually convicted. Of the 7-8 suspects in the Spilotro killings, several were convicted, others flipped and received lighter sentences in later cases, but everyone who was known to be at the meeting where the brothers were murdered, went to jail or died.
Thanks to Pat Collander.
. Spilotro entered high school at Steinmetz, but when his father had a stroke and died the next year, he dropped out and started a full-time life of crime. All but one of his five brothers, along with a number of neighbors, became members of the Chicago mob, and a few played starring roles.During the 1970s, Tony Spilotro was fronted in Las Vegas by childhood friend Frank Rosenthal (portrayed by Robert DeNiro in "Casino"), who ran numerous mob-backed gambling operations, to become the enforcer for Chicago. Spilotro was already known for his brutality and quickly established an embezzling scheme that took a cut for mob families in Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Los Angeles.
Leo Foreman was the first brutal murder that Spilotro was accused of, supposedly in retribution because the loan shark (Foreman) had disrespected Chicago mob boss Sam DeStefano. Spilotro also is thought to have murdered Tamara Rand, a California real estate broker, in 1975, because she was suing over an unpaid $2 million loan to Spilotro’s Las Vegas associate Allen Glick.
When Tony was blacklisted by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1979, which barred him from being physically present in a casino, Spilotro’s role of enforcer was curtailed. By that time, he had branched out into other activities like fencing stolen property and conducting a burglary operation with his brother Michael. The first Chicago mob informants flipped by the FBI named Spilotro in the murder of Leo Foreman, and a half dozen other close associates who accused Spilotro of ordering or carrying out mob murders.
By the early 1980s, Spilotro had already broke with Rosenthal after he had an affair with Rosenthal’s wife. When Frank Cullotta
, a childhood friend who had remained an insider, began to fear that Spilotro was going to kill him, Cullotta began talking to the FBI.Spilotro was acquitted in Chicago on a murder charge stemming in part from Cullotta’s testimony, but by 1986 the mobster had been implicated in about 22 murders and had lots of enemies in and out of jail. Among other high-profile killings, Spilotro was suspected of being involved in the murder of his mentor Sam DeStefano and mob kingpin Sam Giancana.
There are several theories about how Tony and his brother Michael were lured to a summit meeting likely in Bensenville or North Riverside, Ill., and subsequently beaten and killed on June, 14, 1986.
About 10 days after the murders, the partially decomposed bodies of Tony and Michael Spilotro were found buried in a cornfield within the 12,000-acre Willow Slough preserve, in Newton County, Indiana. The farmer who spotted the site of the burial investigated at first because he thought a poacher had buried a deer killed out of season. The coroner noted that the bodies appeared to have been beaten to death by several people, and numerous people were eventually convicted. Of the 7-8 suspects in the Spilotro killings, several were convicted, others flipped and received lighter sentences in later cases, but everyone who was known to be at the meeting where the brothers were murdered, went to jail or died.
Thanks to Pat Collander.
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Monster Sized Mobster Trial to Begin #MafiaCapital
The biggest mob trial in modern-day Rome opens on Thursday, with a one-eyed former neo-fascist gangster and 45 other defendants in the dock accused of operating a mafia network that plundered city coffers.
The trial is the result of the "Mafia Capital" investigation, which laid bare allegations of mobsters, bureaucrats and politicians working hand-in-fist to siphon off millions of euros from services covering everything from refugee centres to trash collection.
At the heart of the scandal sits Massimo Carminati, a one-time member of Rome's notorious far-right Magliana Gang, and his sidekick Salvatore Buzzi, a convicted murderer.
Italian police allege Carminati and Buzzi infiltrated Rome's city hall and got their hands on lucrative public contracts. Police have released an array of wiretaps that they say show the defendants openly discussing their various schemes.
"Do you have any idea how much you can make from immigrants? The drugs trade brings you less money," Buzzi said in one call.
Both Buzzi and Carminati have denied the mafia charges.
As recently as 2013, the main government representative in the Rome region downplayed the existence of the mafia in the city, but the police probe, which was made public last December, suggested that much of local administration was rotten.
"Rome is unfortunately fundamentally corrupt," said Alfonso Sabella, a renowned Sicilian anti-mafia prosecutor who was drafted into the city after the Mafia Capital scandal detonated late last year.
"This is not your traditional mafia involved in drug dealing or extortion rackets. This is something original," he told Reuters, saying mobsters found accomplices in officials and politicians of all colours.
Police say the group was organised like a mob clan and have classified it as a mafia case. However, they say it was independent of the traditional southern Italian mafias.
Amongst those standing trial are Luca Gramazio, the former head of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party on the regional council, and Mirko Coratti, former head of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party on the Rome city council.
Both have denied wrongdoing.
The case will open in Rome's main courthouse but will then switch to the court bunker in the Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, where it is easier to secure large groups of defendants. It is expected to run until at least next July.
Carminati, who lost an eye in a police shoot-out in the early 1980s, is being held in a maximum security jail and will only be allowed to follow proceedings via a video link.
An initial, fastracked trial tied to the scandal ended on Tuesday, with all four defendants, including a senior city official, found guilty and handed prison terms of between four and five years.
Prosecutors allege that mobsters flourished in Rome following the 2008 election of right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno, who is under investigation for graft, but does not face any mafia-related charges and is not involved in this trial.
Alemanno's successor, the centre-left Ignazio Marino, is not implicated in the case, but was forced to resign last week following in an unrelated expenses scandal.
Sabella says city hall has been purged over the past year.
"I would put my hand in the fire and say there is now no mafia in city hall. But I can't say the same about corruption. Even as we speak, someone is probably paying someone a bribe somewhere in the Rome city council," he said.
"That is what makes one so bitter."
Thanks to Crispian Balmer.
The trial is the result of the "Mafia Capital" investigation, which laid bare allegations of mobsters, bureaucrats and politicians working hand-in-fist to siphon off millions of euros from services covering everything from refugee centres to trash collection.
At the heart of the scandal sits Massimo Carminati, a one-time member of Rome's notorious far-right Magliana Gang, and his sidekick Salvatore Buzzi, a convicted murderer.
Italian police allege Carminati and Buzzi infiltrated Rome's city hall and got their hands on lucrative public contracts. Police have released an array of wiretaps that they say show the defendants openly discussing their various schemes.
"Do you have any idea how much you can make from immigrants? The drugs trade brings you less money," Buzzi said in one call.
Both Buzzi and Carminati have denied the mafia charges.
As recently as 2013, the main government representative in the Rome region downplayed the existence of the mafia in the city, but the police probe, which was made public last December, suggested that much of local administration was rotten.
"Rome is unfortunately fundamentally corrupt," said Alfonso Sabella, a renowned Sicilian anti-mafia prosecutor who was drafted into the city after the Mafia Capital scandal detonated late last year.
"This is not your traditional mafia involved in drug dealing or extortion rackets. This is something original," he told Reuters, saying mobsters found accomplices in officials and politicians of all colours.
Police say the group was organised like a mob clan and have classified it as a mafia case. However, they say it was independent of the traditional southern Italian mafias.
Amongst those standing trial are Luca Gramazio, the former head of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party on the regional council, and Mirko Coratti, former head of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party on the Rome city council.
Both have denied wrongdoing.
The case will open in Rome's main courthouse but will then switch to the court bunker in the Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, where it is easier to secure large groups of defendants. It is expected to run until at least next July.
Carminati, who lost an eye in a police shoot-out in the early 1980s, is being held in a maximum security jail and will only be allowed to follow proceedings via a video link.
An initial, fastracked trial tied to the scandal ended on Tuesday, with all four defendants, including a senior city official, found guilty and handed prison terms of between four and five years.
Prosecutors allege that mobsters flourished in Rome following the 2008 election of right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno, who is under investigation for graft, but does not face any mafia-related charges and is not involved in this trial.
Alemanno's successor, the centre-left Ignazio Marino, is not implicated in the case, but was forced to resign last week following in an unrelated expenses scandal.
Sabella says city hall has been purged over the past year.
"I would put my hand in the fire and say there is now no mafia in city hall. But I can't say the same about corruption. Even as we speak, someone is probably paying someone a bribe somewhere in the Rome city council," he said.
"That is what makes one so bitter."
Thanks to Crispian Balmer.
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