Genovese Crime Family, General discussion and news

[GangstersInc]

Mob thugs guilty in swindling

Three mob-linked contractors and a Genovese crime family soldier pleaded guilty yesterday to roles in a multimillion-dollar scheme that siphoned cash from unions working on major city contracts, federal prosecutors said.

The drywall contractors - James Delio, his brother Joseph Delio and Fred Nisall - copped to racketeering charges that included mail fraud, embezzlement and extortion counts.

Genovese soldier Robert Carbone admitted in Manhattan Federal Court that he extorted officers of Local 530 of the Operative Plasters and Cement Masons Union to pay a portion of his salary.

Through its control of the carpenters union and Local 530, the Genovese family allowed corrupt contractors to hire nonunion labor at low wages, costing union benefit funds millions and cheating legitimate workers out of earnings, officials said.

James Delio and Nisall agreed to forfeit $1.5 million as part of their plea.

Among the projects linked to the scam were the expansion of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, construction at Public School 83 in the Bronx and an apartment building at 124 Hudson St. in Manhattan.

Twenty-two people were arrested in 2004 as part of a four-year probe by agents from the FBI, the IRS' criminal investigation division, the city Department of Investigation and the School Construction Authority.

Thomas Zambito


Originally published on April 11, 2006

[GangstersInc]

FBI seeking connection between trash industry, Genovese family

May 3, 2006

NEW HAVEN, Conn. --Federal authorities are scrutinizing the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family as part of their investigation into the mob's influence over the trash industry in New York and Connecticut, people close to the case said Wednesday.

The interest focuses on Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, 85, who prosecutors have called the acting boss of the New York crime syndicate.

FBI agents searched Ianniello's New York home in recent months, according to one person close to the case. Another person with direct knowledge of the case said agents have been asking questions about Ianniello since executing dozens of search warrants last year.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Jared M. Lefkowitz, an Ianniello defense attorney, declined comment Wednesday.

The federal interest comes amid a developing FBI investigation of the Connecticut trash industry.

Defense attorneys have acknowledged that Danbury trash magnate James Galante, who owns a number of companies named in federal search documents, is a target of the Connecticut racketeering case. But they say Galante is an honest businessman.

"He's a hardworking guy who built a huge business on the sweat of his brow," attorney H. James Pickerstein said.

Connecticut trash hauler Joseph R. LoStocco admitted in federal court last week that he was part of a so-called "property rights" scheme, in which companies carved out specific routes, stifling competition and driving up prices.

Ianniello was named in a similar scheme in New York in a 1995 indictment. Prosecutors said he and other Genovese figures controlled part of the city's trash industry.

Thomas Milo, who was indicted in the 1995 case, used to be business partners with Galante. He was also named in FBI search records last year in the Connecticut case. New York prosecutors said in 1995 that Milo and his companies were affiliated with the Genovese and Gambino crime families.

The Connecticut investigation includes at least nine wiretaps and the Justice Department began notifying people this week whose voices were recorded, according to one source. Such notification is standard as the investigation proceeds.

"I think things will be happening soon," said attorney M.H. "Reese" Norris, who represents LoStocco.

Ianniello is free on bail while awaiting trial on an unrelated indictment in New York, where prosecutors say that under Ianniello's leadership, the Genovese family infiltrated a bus driver's union. He has pleaded not guilty and denied allegations that he's a mob boss.

[GangstersInc]

Depergola plea deal expected
Thursday, May 04, 2006
By JACK FLYNN
jflynn@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - A witness in the slaying of mob kingpin Adolfo Bruno (photo) has agreed to plead guilty in a high-profile loan-sharking case in which the alleged victim collected $126,000 for working as a federal informant, according to court documents.

The plea deal will allow former city employee and South End restaurant owner Frank Depergola to avoid a trial next month on loan-sharking and conspiracy charges. He is accused of shaking down a Westfield pizza shop owner between 1996 and 2003. The change of plea hearing is scheduled for May 11 in U.S. District Court.

The pizza shop owner, Leone Daniele, was forced to deny a role in the Bruno slaying after a prison inmate said Daniele claimed to be the shooter in the case, according to court records. Investigators believe Frankie A. Roche, 32, formerly of Westfield, is responsible for gunning down Bruno in a mob power struggle and have charged him with the slaying.

Neither Depergola's lawyers nor Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd E. Newhouse could be reached for comment yesterday. But documents made public this week provide new details on how federal investigators built their case against Depergola, who drew scrutiny in organized crime and public corruption probes here even before he became the only witness to Bruno's killing outside a South End social club in 2003.

In a letter to Depergola's defense team, Newhouse acknowledged that star witness Daniele had been paid $126,000 for "expenses and subsistence" while cooperating with the government.

Prosecutors said that Depergola and co-defendant Armando L. Botta, both of Springfield, teamed up to collect extortionate loan payments from Daniele, who began recording meetings with Bruno and other mobsters as early as 2001.

Daniele's own legal misadventures were detailed in Newhouse's letter, including driving without a license, defaulting on a probation warrant, making illegal bets, referring debtors to organized crime members and filing a false armed robbery report with Springfield police in 2002.

Two years later, after Daniele was arrested and jailed on a state firearms charge, another inmate claimed that Daniele said he killed Bruno, described by prosecutors as a top figure in the local faction of the Genovese crime family. Daniele denied involvement in the killing and was given an FBI polygraph test. The results were not included in the letter.

The letter did not indicate how Daniele's firearms case was resolved, but Newhouse wrote he would be deported to Italy after the case against Depergola and Botta was settled. Botta is scheduled to stand trial next month, according to filings in his case.

At Depergola's arraignment in March 2005, prosecutors said he could face between two and four years if convicted on the two loan-sharking charges. It was unclear yesterday whether Depergola was scheduled to plead guilty to one or both charges.

Depergola, 49, was one of the first names to surface when the federal organized crime and corruption investigations became public here in 2000. While running the former Angelo's restaurant, a popular spot for political fund-raisers, Depergola was also earning $606 a week on the payroll of the Massachusetts Career Development Institute, a Springfield-run job center known for political patronage.

Depergola was laid off from the job training center in 2001 after state troopers questioned him about sports gambling.

[GangstersInc]

Alleged mobster's rackets trial told of loans to ex-restaurateur
Saturday, May 06, 2006
BY GUY STERLING
Star-Ledger Staff

The federal racketeering trial of reputed Genovese crime family associate Michael Crincoli began in Newark yesterday with the former owner of a Greek restaurant claiming Crincoli arranged for him to get thousands of dollars in loans from the mob over the years.

George Vlahos maintained he even got new loans through Crincoli while still paying off old ones. The interest rate on the loans ranged from 1 to 3 percent a week, he testified before U.S. District Judge William Martini, in a trial that is expected to last two to three weeks.

Asked by a prosecutor what could befall him if he failed to make his payments, Vlahos replied: "Anything could happen to me from all the stories I heard. ... I believe I would have to pay by force, or someone would go to my family."

Vlahos, 53, was the first witness to take the stand and the first of three Greek men slated to testify they allegedly got usurious loans from the Mafia through Crincoli, 47, a Jersey City resident who later moved to Las Vegas and is charged in an 11-count indictment.

As part of the case, mob turncoat Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino is scheduled to testify about the loansharking operation of the Genovese family. Thirty of the hundreds of tapes he secretly recorded for the government also will be played, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz told the jury.

Schwartz and defense lawyer Joseph Ferrante sparred in their opening statements over what Crincoli's relationship to organized crime was and if, in fact, there was anything sinister in the loans he arranged.

The first thing Schwartz said was that Crincoli was Italian-American and an associate of the Mafia, one who ingratiated himself with the Greek community in Jersey City and relied on fear and intimidation to get his loans repaid in a timely manner. But the weekly payments meant little since the only way a loan could be paid back was in a lump sum, she added.

When payments were late, Crincoli resorted to the "Mafia card" by saying the matter was out of his hands and that he'd been ordered to collect the money by higher-ups, often employing mob muscle in the process, Schwartz said.

In addition to presenting the loan victims, the government will prove its case with tapes, surveillance photos, the testimony of Caporino and an FBI expert on the Genovese crime family, the prosecutor added.

Ferrante countered by saying there was no proof he was aware of that Crincoli was a Genovese associate. He did not deny his client arranged the loans for Vlahos, Tommy Triantafillikis and Tommy Diakos but claimed he did so for no other reason than to help out boyhood friends of his.

Those who looked to Crincoli for the loans were mostly degenerate gamblers in search of quick money off the books, the defense attorney added. When loan payments were not made, Crincoli was made responsible for the debts by those supplying the funds because he'd been the one to vouch for those in need, he said.

"You can be involved in illegal loans unwittingly just by making an introduction," Ferrante said, referring to his client's actions. "But if he doesn't pay, you've got to pay. That's the way it was in the realm these men lived in."

Crincoli was one of more than a dozen defendants rounded up in a sweep last year after a three-year investigation of Genovese family activities in North Jersey. He was the only one not to accept a plea deal.

[Hollander]

Mob witness describes triple life
Caporino was businessman, numbers runner and FBI informant
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino spent about 40 years in the mob and nearly half that time as an FBI informant, but looks neither part, which might explain why he was successful at both.

Now 69, Caporino has a slight frame, thick white hair and wire-rimmed glasses. At his courtroom debut yesterday as a mob turncoat, he could have passed for a school administrator or maybe even a museum curator, wearing a light gray double-breasted suit and delivering clipped phrases in a slightly nasal North Jersey accent.

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What poured forth, however, was Caporino's criminal autobiography, one that began with him running numbers as a young man at a freight company and ended with him running a hidden recorder during hundreds of conversations with Genovese crime family associates.

Caporino's library of tapes led to charges last summer against 16 defendants, prompting prosecutors to proclaim they had delivered "a body blow" to the state's dominant crime family. Fifteen of them, including high-ranking captain Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico, have pleaded guilty.

Michael Crincoli, accused of running loansharking operations from a Jersey City deli, was the lone holdout, the one who forced Caporino, the well-known and liked Hasbrouck Heights resident, from the shadows to the witness stand.

Crincoli's trial, now in its third week before U.S. District Judge William Martini in Newark, had so far been a parade of diner owners who testified they had borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from Crincoli at extortionate rates.

As the government's crowning witness, Caporino is expected to spend the next two days explaining to the jury his role as a prolific mob informant. Prosecutors hope he can persuade them Crincoli was not, as his attorney contends, a businessman lending friends money, but part of the organized crime family with Caporino.

"When you say 'our family,' what family were you with?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Schwartz asked.

"The Genovese," Caporino replied, matter of factly.

Caporino said he grew up in Hoboken, served three years in the Army and returned to work at a freight company in Fairfield. A co-worker asked if he wanted to help collect bets from workers.

"He said, 'I'll work the platform, you work the drivers,'" Caporino recalled. "I was a numbers runner."

Bettors won when their numbers matched the winning horses that day at Aqueduct or other racetracks. Caporino said he kept 25 percent of his gross collections, and passed the rest up the ladder.

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After his father died, Caporino left the warehouse to take over the family business -- an amusement company that placed pinball machines and pool tables in taverns, he said.

But his numbers ring continued, growing got so big that he soon was introduced to James "Jimmy Nap" Napoli, a powerful Genovese captain. Caporino agreed to pay Napoli 25 percent of his proceeds. In return, he got protection; he was under the mob's wing.

"He said, 'If anyone ever approaches you, you just tell them you're with me, mention my name,'" Caporino recalled.

In 1969, the year of storybook seasons for the Jets and Mets, Caporino expanded into sports bookmaking. From then on, the names of his bosses changed but the operations remained largely the same.

After Napoli went to prison, Caporino said, he began paying $2,500 weekly tribute to Louis Anthony "Bobby" Manna, the New Jersey-based Genovese consigliere. He made his payments through intermediaries at reputed mob hangouts, like Casella's restaurant in Hoboken, and succeeded in getting Manna to ultimately lower his payoffs to $850 a week.

When Manna went to jail in 1988, Caporino said, he paid tributes to his wife, Ida Manna. And in 1998, he shifted his tribute to Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, an associate in West Orange, who pleaded guilty in the case earlier this year.

Caporino had a club, the Character Club, along Monroe Street in Hoboken, where friends came to toss back drinks and "have a good time," he said. All the while Caporino had secretly been helping the FBI.

"I was an informant," he testified, his voice dropping a notch.


For how long? Schwartz, the prosecutor, asked.

"More than 15 years," Caporino replied.

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Crincoli watched the witness intently at times, sometimes cracking a half-smile. Other times, he kicked his head back as if he was bored. Caporino rarely returned glances toward the defense table, instead focusing on the prosecutor.

In 2002, Caporino, his wife and about 30 others were arrested on state gambling charges. He decided to become a cooperating FBI witness.

"My wife had been to prison before, and I knew she couldn't do it again," Caporino testified. "I knew she wouldn't be able to do the time."

The couple also has a disabled adult daughter.

Caporino wore a pager for his numbers ring, so agents gave him one with a hidden recorder that they could activate remotely. Toward the end of the three-year probe, he said, they let him turn it on and off by himself.

He taped hundreds of conversations, although prosecutors are expected to play only about 30.

Caporino said he had been considering giving up the business, or relocating his operations. At one point, he said, he went to Philadelphia to meet with an associate who had relocated his betting rooms there.

"He told me how great it was down there, how you could operate much freer than you could up here," Caporino said. "So I went down for a look-see."

But he never made the move.


John P. Martin covers federal courts and law enforcement. He may be reached at (973) 622-3405 or

jmartin@starledger.com

[GangstersInc]

Mob Figure Is Convicted of Murder

By MICHAEL BRICK
Published: May 18, 2006

A 67-year-old reputed organized crime figure was convicted of murder yesterday for killing his brother-in-law during a fight at a restaurant in Brooklyn.

The man, Andrew Gargiulo, who once forfeited $1.5 million as part of a plea bargain in a bookmaking case involving the Genovese crime family, was supported in court by dozens of friends and family members, many of whom wept and expressed their disbelief. Justice Plummer E. Lott of State Supreme Court ordered Mr. Gargiulo to jail until his sentencing, scheduled for June 7.

"Your crime is no different than any other defendant convicted of murder," Justice Lott said, rejecting a request for bail and adding, "No amount of money would keep him here."

Mr. Gargiulo, who faces 25 years to life in prison when sentenced, listened impassively.

During the trial, he had delivered an animated account of self-defense, rolling on the courtroom floor to re-enact the fight with his wife's brother, Preston J. Geritano. He said he was afraid of Mr. Geritano, whose behavior had turned erratic. His lawyers played a recording of Mr. Geritano making violent threats.

On April 22, 2004, Mr. Geritano confronted Mr. Gargiulo with a stickball bat at Amici, a restaurant in Bay Ridge, and Mr. Gargiulo stabbed him with a hunting knife concealed in a scabbard attached to his garter sock.

Jurors were told little of Mr. Gargiulo's past, though prosecutors hinted at a subtext to the killing: The moment Mr. Geritano had raised a stick against a made member of the Genovese crime family, the code of the Mafia demanded his death.

"He crossed the line," the prosecutor, Kyle Reeves, said in his closing on Tuesday. Mr. Reeves told jurors that Mr. Geritano's behavior did not warrant his killing, saying that "every person, whether they're a lowlife or the president of the United States, is protected by the law."

A lawyer for Mr. Gargiulo, Albert J. Brackley, said in his closing that witnesses' accounts of the fight were contradictory. "Of all the types of testimony," Mr. Brackley said, "the most unreliable is eyewitness."

Jurors sent out a note yesterday with a long list of requests, including a legal definition of intent as it applied to Mr. Gargiulo's mind-set before and during the fight.

Ronald J. Aiello, another defense lawyer, said an appeals court would see the case differently. "He's confident that further proceedings will someday exonerate him," he said.

[GangstersInc]

Jersey City Mobster Convicted Of Racketeering, Loansharking

POSTED: 11:55 am EDT May 24, 2006

NEWARK, N.J. -- A Jersey City man who prosecutors say was a soldier in the Genovese crime family has been convicted of racketeering and loansharking.

Michael Crincoli, 46, an Italian national who once ran loansharking activities from a deli he owned in Jersey City, was one of 16 reputed mobsters rounded up last summer in a gambling ring bust, but he was the only one to decline a plea bargain.

"It shows a thorough analysis of the evidence and is another blow by the government against organized crime," Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Wednesday's newspapers, about Crincoli's conviction.

During the Tuesday court proceeding, Crincoli was also acquitted on one count of extortion and one count of transporting in aid of extortion.
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The arrests of the Genovese family members were the result of a four-year federal investigation.

Crincoli is to be sentenced August 24, and is expected to spend about seven years in prison after which he will be forced to leave the country.

Jurors, who deliberated for two days, heard testimony from four men who said Crincoli lent them thousands of dollars but charged a weekly interest of 3 percent. Crincoli was also photographed with reputed Genovese members Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico and Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, and heard on taps provided by federal informant Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino.

[GangstersInc]

Associated Press

Reputed Mob Figure, Ex-Mayor, Arrested

By MATT APUZZO , 06.09.2006, 12:18 PM

A reputed mob boss, a former mayor and the owner of a trash hauling business were among 29 people charged Friday in a federal investigation into the mob's influence over the region's trash hauling industry.

The indictment alleges that companies owned by James Galante paid a "mob tax" to Matthew Ianniello, the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family. The payments were part of a scheme in which trash haulers carved out routes and agreed not to steal each other's customers, according to the indictment.

"One of the effects ... has been to stifle competition by preventing small independent companies from competing," the indictment alleges.

Federal authorities were discussing plans Friday to take over operations at Galante's trash hauling businesses, which handles garbage pickup for thousands of customers in about 20 Connecticut towns, according to an attorney for the companies.

Galante and several employees of his companies were arrested by federal agents, lawyers said. Ianniello was arrested at his home on New York's Long Island that was raided last summer, according to his lawyer, Jay Goldberg.

Former Waterbury Mayor Joseph Santopietro was also due in court Friday morning after being charged with racketeering in the indictment. The indictment also names seven companies.

Santopietro worked as a consultant for Galante's companies. In an interview a few months ago, he said he was not a target of the investigation and had not hired a lawyer. In 1992, while mayor, Santopietro was arrested in an investigation of bribery and kickbacks and served more than six years in prison.

More than a dozen defense attorneys milled about a New Haven federal courtroom Friday morning reading the 117-page indictment.

Galante's bond hearing was scheduled first, and prosecutors said they would seek to have him held without bond. He was arrested at his Danbury trash hauling company, Automated Waste Disposal, Inc., according to his attorney, Hugh Keefe.

Prosecutors allege in the indictment that Galante paid Ianniello $200,000 in 2001, then $30,000 every three months until 2005.

They say a system carving out territory of trash haulers had been in effect since the mid-1980s. If companies challenged it, their drivers were assaulted, their trucks vandalized and they have been locked out of transfer stations, prosecutors said.

Galante owns or has ties to at least 25 of about 60 companies under scrutiny in the case. His attorneys say he is an honest businessman known for his civic work in Danbury.

He also owns the Danbury Trashers, a minor league hockey team in the United Hockey League that is named as a defendant in the case.

The FBI raided Galante's offices last summer, seizing truckloads of documents from his companies. Agents returned to the office Tuesday, seizing a small amount of cash and business records as the grand jury worked in New Haven. Authorities were moving Friday to seize Galante's fleet of race cars.

Ianniello, known as "Matty the Horse," is awaiting trial on unrelated charges in New York, where prosecutors say that under Ianniello's leadership, the Genovese family infiltrated a bus driver's union. He has pleaded not guilty and denied allegations that he's a mob boss.

[Hollander]

Connecticut prosecutors say Mafia ran trash industry

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

June 9, 2006, 6:35 PM EDT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Each week, tens of thousands of southern Connecticut residents put their garbage out by the curb. And each week, prosecutors said, the Mafia decided who came by and picked it up.

That's the way it worked for decades, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday. Connecticut and eastern New York trash haulers allegedly carved out exclusive routes and paid handsomely for mob muscle to enforce their territories.

That allowed haulers to drive up prices, authorities said. Instead of a free market, prosecutors said Connecticut was a place where competitors saw their headlights smashed and their tires slashed and were threatened with having their eyes gouged out.

"'What I have to do,' tell him, 'is hurt you,' " Danbury garbage magnate James Galante was recorded instructing a subordinate during a 2005 dispute with a rival company.

Galante's companies controlled trash operations in about 20 southern Connecticut towns. Every three months, prosecutors said, reputed Genovese crime family boss Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello sent a representative to Galante to pick up an envelope containing his $30,000 "mob tax."

In exchange, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said, Ianniello provided mob muscle to stifle competition.

Federal authorities took over operations Friday at Galante's trash hauling businesses and O'Connor said they would oversee daily trash operations. Eventually, he said, prices should go down.

"Organized crime's stranglehold on the citizens of Connecticut through its control of the trash industry has been broken," said Kimberly Mertz, Connecticut's top FBI agent.

Ianniello, 85, was arrested at his Long Island, N.Y., home. He was released on $1 million bond Friday and will return home, where he was already under house arrest in an unrelated case.

"What can I say, right? Nothing," said Ianniello, who smiled broadly and shook hands with the marshals and agents as he left court.

Former Waterbury Mayor Joseph Santopietro, who worked as Galante's consultant, helped get business in the Waterbury area and perpetuate the scheme, prosecutors said. Santopietro was released on $200,000 bond Friday after being charged with racketeering in the indictment.

Santopietro served more than six years in prison following his 1991 arrest on corruption charges. While serving time, Santopietro met Galante, who had been convicted in a tax case, the FBI said.

Others named in the indictment include Connecticut Trooper Paul Galietti and Louis Angioletti, a federal drug agent from New Jersey, who were accused of misusing government computers to run criminal background checks for the organization. Galietti has been suspended since the allegations surfaced in November.

Galante was held without bail after prosecutors played secretly recorded phone conversations of what they called a war between Galante and a rival company over trash business at a local hotel.

"He is a manipulating, controlling, hands-on bully," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gustafson said.

Galante and his associates were recorded making a series of threatening, expletive-laced calls regarding a rival trash hauler's refusal to cede business to Galante.

"It sounds like a bunch of high school seniors talking tough and no one actually acting out on it, except for flattening some tires," Galante's attorney, Hugh Keefe, said in court.

The case hinged on an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated Galante's company for three weeks and worked in other trash companies for more than a year, authorities said. That gave the FBI probable cause to tap several phones and intercept more than 100,000 phone calls.

"He's an undercover agent involved in an organized crime case. He was involved in danger every day," said William Reiner, the FBI agent who supervised the case.

Galante owns or has ties to at least 25 of about 60 companies under scrutiny in the case. His attorneys say he is an honest businessman known for his civic work in Danbury. He also owns the Danbury Trashers, a minor league hockey team in the United Hockey League that is named as a defendant in the case.

Authorities moved Friday to seize Galante's fleet of race cars.

Ianniello, who was named but not charged in a similar 1995 New York indictment, is free on bail while awaiting trial on unrelated charges in New York, where prosecutors say that under his leadership, the Genovese family infiltrated a bus driver's union. He has pleaded not guilty and denied allegations that he is a mob boss.


Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

[GangstersInc]

Ex-official takes Fifth on McGreevey role in parole scandal

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Thursday, June 15, 2006

By TOM BALDWIN
Gannett State Bureau
TRENTON

The former chairman of the state Parole Board invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 75 times when asked in a deposition if allies of former Gov. James E. McGreevey orchestrated the early parole of a reputed Genovese Mafia capo, according to a court filing Wednesday.

For McGreevey, who resigned from office in 2004 after acknowledging he is gay, the parole of Angelo Prisco was among a series of scandals and ethics lapses that dogged his 34 months as governor.

Prisco's parole was approved in May 2002, four months after it had been denied and one year before Prisco was eligible for reconsideration. Documents and sworn statements in civil court proceedings have indicated phone calls and letters from McGreevey's office prompted the May 2002 reversal.

"Same answer. I won't be responding," former Parole Board Chairman Mario Paparozzi said over and again, in various ways, when being deposed by lawyers in a civil lawsuit.

In that suit, a Parole Board employee claims the state wrongly demoted him for questioning how the alleged Genovese captain won parole in the midst of a 12-year term for pleading guilty to conspiracy and arson regarding a Garfield bar.

Paparozzi even refused to answer when asked if he had been contacted by law enforcement officials investigating the issue and if he had heard about Prisco's latest arrest in March, on a charge of extortion in connection with work done for the annual San Gennaro Festival in Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood.

The deposition took place March 16, in Durham, N.C., the state where Paparozzi now lives. Neither Paparozzi nor his wife, an attorney who co-represented him at the deposition, returned phone calls Wednesday.

In May 2002, Paparozzi met with Prisco's lawyer, Donald Scarinci, who was a counsel to McGreevey's transition in 2001 and 2002. The denial of parole was vacated without normal review by the Parole Board's appellate unit, and Prisco's parole was approved one week later.

Kenneth Connolly, who filed the civil lawsuit, said in his deposition that Paparozzi emerged from his office in early 2002 with a telephone note bearing Davy's name. He said Paparozzi said, "I got a call from the governor's office. Davy said it would be good to have the appeal granted."

In the deposition, whenever McGreevey's, Davy's or Scarinci's names emerged in connection with Prisco, Paparozzi refused to answer.

Reach Tom Baldwin at tbaldwi@gannett.com

[GangstersInc]

Gigante kin off hook in $1M tax rap

He didn't even have to walk around the village in a bathrobe.

A judge tossed out criminal charges accusing Louis Gigante, the nephew of pajama-clad mob boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, of dodging more than $1 million in federal taxes.

Manhattan Federal Judge Denny Chin said prosecutors allowed the statute of limitations to lapse before filing the tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud charges against the White Plains restaurateur last year.

Federal prosecutors had maintained they got around the statute problem by obtaining four sealed indictments - the first in November 2003 and the last in August 2005 - accusing Gigante, 57, of lying about income from his famed White Plains eatery, Mulino's, and from a limousine business in 1998.

Each indictment added new charges and superseded the previous one. Tax evasion has a six-year statute of limitations. For bankruptcy fraud, it's five years.

"The government is not permitted to effectively extend the statute of limitations so that it may conduct an investigation at a leisurely pace," Chin wrote.

Gigante's uncle was able to avoid prison for nearly 40 years with an elaborate oddfella routine that had him walking around Greenwich Village in a bathrobe and slippers mumbling to himself.

He was convicted of racketeering and murder charges in 1997, and died in prison last year.

Thomas Zambito

Originally published on June 21, 2006

[GangstersInc]

'SAUSAGE' COOKED IN MOB-EXTORT CASE

By LARRY CELONA and LAURA ITALIANO

June 21, 2006 -- A Genovese crime family captain pleaded guilty in Manhattan yesterday to racketeering and extortion, admitting he worked with crooked city roofing union bosses to squeeze contractors for some $250,000 in kickbacks.
John "Johnny Sausage" Barbato, 72, of Staten Island, will spend two to six years in prison under his plea. He had faced up to 25 years had he been convicted at trial.

Barbato - who got his nickname because his father owned a sausage shop on Thompson Street - had been arrested in the extortion-kickback ring two years ago, along with a fellow Genovese associate and the five-man leadership of Local No. 8 of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers.

In announcing the indictment at the time, the DA's office said Barbato and the crooked union forced some 20 contractors to pay up to $2,000 a month so they could use cheap, nonunion roofers.

[Hollander]

Jury acquits Springfield man of loan sharking threats
By Associated Press
Friday, June 23, 2006 - Updated: 01:44 PM EST

SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man who prosecutors said was tied to a mob-run loan sharking operation was acquitted Friday of threatening a Westfield pizza shop owner to collect a loan.

Armando Botta was found not guilty by a federal jury on one count of conspiracy and one count of making threats to collect a loan in a trial that opened a window into the workings of organized crime in western Massachusetts.

Botta’s relatives and girlfriend cried when the verdict was announced.

“I could live a normal life now,” Botta said while leaving the courthouse. “I don’t have to be stereotyped.”

During the three-day trial this week, jurors watched several videotapes showing convicted loan shark Frank Depergola and reputed mob boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno meeting with Leone Daniele in the back of Daniele’s Westfield pizza shop.

Daniele testified that he borrowed $35,000 from Depergola in 1996 to buy a house and agreed to pay $700 a week in interest until the loan was repaid in one lump sum. He said Botta came to collect the interest payments for Depergola.

Daniele has a criminal record and testified he owed several other loan sharks tens of thousands of dollars, which he used to pay off gambling debts and keep his pizza shop open. He said he began cooperating with federal investigators when he could no longer take the pressure of having to repay the money.

“I was in desperate need,” he testified. “I couldn’t take it no more - making the payments, the threats.”

Some of the videotapes showed Daniele asking Botta to set up a meeting with Depergola. In other tapes, Daniele could be heard asking Bruno and Depergola to reduce the principal he owed on the loan.

Daniele testified that Bruno was “the big boss of downtown Springfield,” adding that “if anybody could help me out, it was him.”

But Bruno - who was shot to death in November 2003 - never reduced the payments, Daniele said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Newhouse argued that Botta threatened Daniele when he went to collect the payments. But defense attorney Lori Levinson said Botta didn’t know any details of the loan and was just “an errand boy” doing a favor for Depergola by picking up and delivering the cash payments.

After the verdict, Levinson said she was scared jurors would convict Botta because of his perceived connection to Bruno. “If jurors made that leap, it could’ve hurt him,” she said.

Newhouse refused to comment.

[GangstersInc]

Jun 26 2006 4:01 PM
Genovese-family figure pleads not guilty

Matthew Ianniello pleaded not guilty today in the sweeping federal investigation of the garbage industry focused on people associated with Danbury trash hauler James Galante.

Ianniello is a high-ranking member of the Genovese crime family, federal authorities said.

Others who pleaded not guilty were Richard Caccavale, Richard Galietti, and Ciro Viento. Paul DiNardo, brother-in-law of James Galante, also pleaded not guilty. These people are employees of James Galante’s garbage company, Automated Waste Disposal.

Thomas Milo, a partner with Galante in the carting industry and an associate of the Genovese family pleaded not guilty. Former Waterbury mayor Joseph Santopietro, a consultant to Galante’s garbage businesses, pleaded not guilty as did Timothy Arciola, an employee of Galante.

Dennis Bozzuto, owner of John’s Refuse in Northford, Jason Manasort, operator of CWPM, a carting company in Plainville, Philip Armetta, owner of Dainty Rubbish, Middletown, also pleaded not guilty.

By Staff Writer Fred Lucas
http://news.newstimeslive.com/story.php?id...&category=Local

[GangstersInc]

Still On the Waterfront
Long plagued by Johnny Friendlys, dockworkers fight to take back a mob-infested union

by Tom Robbins
June 27th, 2006 12:21 PM

http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0626,r...s,73660,15.html

[Hollander]

Wiseguy bookie gets 20 yrs. in in-law slay


A silver-haired bookie for the Genovese crime family was sentenced yesterday to 20 years to life for fatally stabbing his brother-in-law in Brooklyn.
Andrew Gargiulio - once described by mob investigators as the biggest bookie in Brooklyn - could have faced 25 years to life. He did not react, as relatives and friends packing the court wiped tears.

"I'm very sorry this happened. I never started trouble and I never intended to kill him or hurt him," Gargiulio, 67, told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Plummer Lott before being sentenced in the 2004 murder of Preston Geritano, 57.

During the trial, Gargiulio testified he attacked his wife's brother in self-defense after Geritano smacked him with a stickball bat at Amici's, a popular Bay Ridge eatery they both owned.

Even Geritano's wife, Antoinette, testified for the defense. She said her husband made her call Gargiulio the night before the attack to say, "Preston told me to tell you that next time he sees you, he's going to kill you!"

Nancie L. Katz



Originally published on July 20, 2006

[GangstersInc]

One year to 21 months for 4 admitted mobsters
Thursday, August 03, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The first four sentences were handed down yesterday in connection with the federal probe into illegal gambling in Hudson County that has led to 16 arrests, including the man said to be New Jersey's highest ranking member of the Genovese crime family, officials said.

John Dennis, 49, of Jersey City, a reputed Genovese associate, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to collect extortionate extensions of credit and the collection of an extortionate extension of credit, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark.

He was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $5,100, Drewniak said .

Nicholas "Nicky the Snake" Ladagona, 63, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make extortionate extensions of credit and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and fined $5,000, Drewniak said.

Ludwig "Ninny" Bruschi, 71, of Jackson, pleaded guilty to operation of an illegal gambling business/numbers operation and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and fined $3,000, Drewniak said.

Joseph Bruno, 48, of Jackson, a reputed Genovese associate, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with sports bookmaking and running a numbers operation, Drewniak said. Bruno was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and fined $1,000, Drewniak said.

All but one of those arrested as part of a sting last August have pleaded guilty to various charges.

Michael Crincoli, 46, of Jersey City, a reputed made member of the Genovese family and the owner of a deli on West Side Avenue, did not plead guilty and was convicted of racketeering and loansharking in May.

When the arrests were made, prosecutors said it was a severe blow to the most dominant organized crime family in New Jersey. The defendants, they said, were part of a group that since 1997 had run lucrative gambling, extortion and loan-sharking rackets throughout the region, using Hoboken social clubs and the Jersey City deli as their bases.

Those arrested included Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico," 82, of Seaside Park, who was a member of the "Administration" running the Genovese family, and Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, 67, of West Orange, a reputed high-level Genovese associate.

Russell Fallacara, 39, of Keansburg, a reputed Genovese associate and former Jersey City Incinerator Authority inspector, was also among those arrested.

Dentico, Fallacara and Scarbrough have not been sentenced.

[GangstersInc]

Former city inspector gets 2-year sentence
Thursday, August 17, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

NEWARK - A former Jersey City Incinerator Authority inspector and reputed Genovese crime family associate was sentenced yesterday to more than two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to extortion and running an illegal gambling operation.

Russell Fallacara, 38, of Keansburg, was given 27 months and was also fined $1,000 by U.S. District Court Judge William Martini.

Fallacara admitted in March he demanded a $100,000 payment from Nacirema Carting and Demolition of Bayonne in return for not shutting down various work sites in Jersey City where the company had contracts.

Fallacara also admitted to helping to direct, finance, and supervise an illegal sports bookmaking operation that operated in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania from 1997 through August 2005.

He was charged along with 15 others in an FBI probe that centered on illegal gambling based in Jersey City and Hoboken.

Martini singled out Fallacara for being a public employee.

"Your situation is different," Martini said. "This is where organized criminal activity takes a turn for the worse because people expect someone with a public position to be held to a little higher standard."

Fallacara expressed regret for his family.

"I'm sorry for my guilt," he said. "I'm ashamed and embarrassed as I stand here today in front of my wife, family and children and all the bad press it brought on me."

Martini yesterday also sentenced two other reputed Genovese mobsters.

Gregory Richardson, 57, of Hoboken, who pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion, was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $5,000.

William "Billy Nap" Napolitano, 35, of Belleville was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $75,000. He had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy based on running two types of sports betting operations, officials said.

All three men were ordered to surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Oct. 2.

Scheduled for sentencing today at 10 a.m. is Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico, 81, of Seaside Park, and Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, 67, of West Orange, the two biggest names netted by the FBI racketeering probe focused on Hoboken and Jersey City.

[GangstersInc]

Posted on Wed, Aug. 16, 2006

Thousands of wiretapped calls central to Genovese Mafia case
CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Evidence against seven men accused of running the Genovese crime family's South Florida operation includes thousands of hours of phone intercepts and dozens of undercover videotapes, prosecutors disclosed Wednesday.

Jeffrey Kaplan, an assistant U.S. attorney handling the case, said at a hearing that investigators recorded about 12,000 phone calls through court-ordered wiretaps over more than a decade. Prosecutors also have 168 videotapes showing one or more of the defendants and some 10,000 pages of seized documents, he said.

Because the massive amount of evidence must be carefully assessed by defense lawyers, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow said she would recommend that another federal judge not set a trial date until early March.

"This is certainly a complex case," Snow said. "I think that sounds reasonable."

Two "made" members of the New York-based crime syndicate are named in a federal indictment: Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero, 72, identified by prosecutors as a Genovese family "capo," or captain, who oversaw its activities in South Florida; and an alleged Genovese "soldier," 96-year-old Albert "Chinky" Facchiano.

The other five men charged in the case were dubbed "non-member associates" who allegedly took part in some crimes, including money laundering, loan sharking, bank fraud and possession of stolen property. All seven defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit extortion and robbery and other counts.

The case is based in part on an undercover Miami-Dade Police Department officer who posed as a drug dealer and money launderer as well as an undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said in court papers.

The men were arrested June 30. The reputed acting boss of the Genovese family, Liborio S. "Barney" Bellomo, and 31 others were arrested in February in New York.

[GangstersInc]

Sentencing Day for Reputed North Jersey Mobsters

NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- Two men accused of being ranking figures in the Genovese crime family are going to prison for running gambling and loan sharking operations in New Jersey.

A federal judge today sentenced Lawrence ``Little Larry'' Dentico to 51 months behind bars. Joseph ``Big Joe'' Scarbrough must serve five years.

Federal authorities say Dentico helped run the crime family after boss Vincent ``The Chin'' Gigante was convicted in 1997. Dentico is 82 and lives in Seaside Park.

They say Scarbrough oversaw north Jersey gambling and other activities from a Hoboken social club.

The men were among 15 reputed mobsters rounded up last year.

[GangstersInc]

Genovese informant arrested for running gambling racket
Friday, August 25, 2006
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff

Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino, the Hasbrouck Heights mobster who saved himself from prison by ratting out his Genovese crime family associates, was arrested for running the same gambling racket the FBI had ordered him to shut down, authorities said.

After an investigation that spanned nearly three months, police arrested Caporino as he drove along a Hoboken street Wednesday evening, said Lt. Gary Lallo of the Jersey City Police Special Investigations Unit. Police found $6,500 in cash and records of at least $50,000 in gambling receipts in the car, Lallo said.

"We're still counting," he said.

For Caporino, a slight, white-haired man with glasses, the charges could mean an abrupt and unlikely end to the freedom that he had so dangerously earned.

The 69-year-old spent more than a decade as an FBI informant and three years ago began secretly recording conversations with his associates. Prosecutors used the tapes, which spanned hundreds of hours, to charge and convict 15 reputed mob members or associates who ran a multimillion-dollars gambling, sports betting and loan sharking operation in North Jersey.

In the May trial of one defendant, Caporino took the witness stand in Newark, admitting for the first time his 45 years in the mob and a decade as a snitch. Caporino testified he agreed to wear the wire for the FBI after he and his wife were arrested on state gambling charges in 2002.

"My wife had been to prison before, and I knew she couldn't do it again," he testified. "I knew she wouldn't be able to do the time."

A Superior Court judge was so impressed by the cooperation that he sentenced Caporino last fall to five years in prison but suspended the sentence, effectively freeing him. Caporino didn't even attend the hearing.

But he later testified that he continued running his numbers racket even after FBI agents had ordered him to stop, and that they warned him he could be prosecuted again.

Lallo said yesterday the new charges were unrelated to the federal investigation. Caporino was charged with promoting gambling, possession of gambling records and conspiracy to promote gambling, First Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Guy Gregory said.

A judge ordered him detained at Hudson County Jail under $500,000 bail. His attorney, Samuel DeLuca, did not return a call for comment.

A second defendant in the car, Frank Rodriguez, 45, of Hoboken was jailed on identical charges.

The lead prosecutor in the federal mob case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz, said yesterday she didn't know Caporino had been arrested.

A spokesman for the office, Michael Drewniak, said it would be "inappropriate for us to inject ourselves into this new prosecution, which is best handled by the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office." FBI spokesman Steve Siegel said his office would have no comment.

Rumors of Caporino's continued involvement in illegal gambling had been swirling for months in Jersey City and Hoboken, especially after he testified that he refused FBI witness protection.

Earlier this year, police arrested several of his co-defendants in the 2002 case on new gambling charges. Anonymous letters were sent to law enforcement agencies, government offices and The Star-Ledger alleging that Caporino was still running numbers.

Lallo declined yesterday to discuss how the recent probe began, except to say, "It was a result of community complaints in various sectors of the city."

[GangstersInc]

Mob rat may face time for'02 plea
Thursday, August 31, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Mob rat Peter Caporino's recent arrest on gambling charges means the FBI will no longer fight to keep him out of jail - and that could mean serving time for an old arrest out of Hudson County.

In 2002, Caporino pleaded guilty to money laundering involving illegal gambling proceeds, and he was sentenced to five years in prison, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

But after pleading guilty, Caporino - who had already been cooperating with the FBI for a number of years - agreed to wear a wire for the feds during their investigation into gambling, extortion and loansharking rackets in Hudson County, and the five-year sentence was suspended, DeFazio said.

That investigation eventually led to the successful prosecution of 15 people reputedly associated with the Genovese crime family.

But on the witness stand earlier this year, Caporino admitted he continued running his illegal gambling business even while cooperating with the feds.

Last week, Caporino was arrested by Jersey City police on charges of promoting gambling and possession of gambling records. Police said he had $6,500 in cash and records of at least $50,000 in gambling receipts in his car when he was arrested.

"We have had a conversation with the federal authorities and they say Caporino is on his own," DeFazio said. "He is at this point facing the new charges, plus he is facing a hearing on the previous sentence which was suspended."

The new charges each carry possible five-year prison terms upon conviction, but DeFazio said he wants the five-year suspended sentence to be looked at again as well.

"We will be revisiting it because, as a general rule of suspended sentences, you are not to be involved in criminal activity," DeFazio said. "That will be subject to a court hearing concerning whether there is a violation, and the judge could then impose a suspended sentence."

The two biggest fish netted and jailed earlier this year with the help of the hundreds of recorded conversations made by Caporino were reputed Genovese "capo" Lawrence Dentico, 81, of Seaside Park, and Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, 67, of West Orange, who reportedly oversaw loansharking and gambling operations from a Hoboken social club.

Caporino has been released after posting $500,000 bail, DeFazio said yesterday.

Messages for two attorneys working for Caporino weren't returned last night.

[GangstersInc]

Sep 14, 3:27 PM EDT

Longtime Genovese capo `Matty the Horse' pleads guilty

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, an ailing 86-year-old longtime capo in the Genovese crime family, pleaded guilty Thursday to a racketeering charge, admitting he helped infiltrate a union and interfere with a federal grand jury probe.

Ianniello, his wooden cane hanging on a chair beside him, entered the plea before U.S Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis in Manhattan.

A plea agreement signed with the government called for Ianniello to be sentenced to between 1 1/2 and two years in prison. Without the deal, Ianniello would have faced up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 14.

He also agreed to forfeit up to $1 million to the government.

Ianniello was a longtime capo who allegedly became one of the family's acting bosses following the 1997 racketeering conviction of Vincent "The Chin" Gigante.

Gigante died in prison at age 77 last December. Long before that, he was dubbed the "Oddfather" for his bizarre behavior, including wandering the streets of Greenwich Village in nightclothes, muttering incoherently.

Ianniello, who lives on Long Island, is free on bail.

In court, Ianniello was difficult to understand as he read a statement admitting his role in efforts to corrupt a union and to prevent the union's leaders and employees from being honest with the government during a federal grand jury probe of mob activities.

Ianniello's lawyer said his client's voice was affected by a stroke.

Ianniello entered his plea to a single count of racketeering, admitting that he received unlawful payments from a labor union and that he conspired to obstruct justice.

Ianniello said he committed the crimes between 1990 and 2005.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Treanor told Ellis that Ianniello participated in a conspiracy in which some union officers lied to federal investigators about various things, including the involvement of organized crime in union business.

[GangstersInc]

Alleged mobster gets 51-month sentence, $1,800 fine
Friday, September 15, 2006
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff

A former Jersey City deli operator whose racketeering trial marked the courtroom debut of a longtime mob turncoat was sentenced yesterday to 51 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge William Martini also ordered the defendant, Michael Crincoli, to pay $1,800 in fines.

Crincoli, 47, an Italian national, was among 16 suspects arrested last year in a crackdown against reputed Genovese crime family members and associates, but the only one to go to trial. A jury in Newark deliberated for more than two days in May before convicting him of racketeering, loan-sharking and extortion.

The lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz, said Crincoli was a high-ranking associate in an operation that processed millions of dollars in illegal gambling and extortionate loans.

"We believe that he was the one running the whole loan-sharking operation, collecting these loans," she aid.

But the judge settled on a sentence that was nearly two years less than the term prosecutors had sought, and in the same range Crincoli had been offered as part of a plea deal before his trial, according to the case attorneys.

The judge said he did not believe Crincoli was as culpable as other defendants in the case, particularly reputed Genovese captain Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico, who received 51 months in prison, and New Jersey crew boss Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, who was sentenced to six years in prison.

Martini also said there "there wasn't an overwhelming amount of evidence" the defendants were as violent as prosecutors had argued.

The trial marked the debut as a government witness of Peter Caporino, a longtime Genovese family associate who was a secret FBI informant at the same time he ran an extensive numbers operation in North Jersey. Caporino, who ran a social club in Hoboken, secretly recorded hundreds of conversations for the FBI during the three-year probe.

Caporino kept running his gambling operation despite two warnings by federal prosecutors. He was arrested last month on new illegal gambling charges by Jersey City police.

In an unusually blunt admission yesterday, Crincoli's lawyer, Joseph Ferrante, hailed Caporino's arrest and told the judge he had tried to engineer it during the trial. He said he intentionally cross-examined Caporino about a recording in which one mobster bragged that he and Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio vacationed in the same Florida development.

Ferrante said he knew that DeFazio was an honest prosecutor, but he hoped that injecting his name into a mob trial would stir DeFazio to action.

"I knew the press was here," Ferrante told the judge. "And I was hoping that he would be so incensed that his name was brought into the trial that he would say, 'Hey, let's look into these allegations that Caporino is still committing crimes.'"

Crincoli declined to address the judge the sentencing, but let his attorney convey his glee at Caporino's recent arrest.

"My client wanted me to comment that justice had been served," Ferrante said.

John P. Martin covers federal courts and law enforcement. He may be reached at jmartin@starledger.com or (973) 622-3405.

[GangstersInc]

The barber and the mob

Daily News Exclusive

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A beloved East Harlem barber whose tiny shop has attracted celebrities from Jimmy Durante to J.Lo is fighting charges he lied to the feds to protect his mobster pals.

Claudio Caponigro was swept up, with dozens of other defendants, in a 45-count racketeering indictment handed up this year that includes charges that Genovese crime family boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo ordered a hit from behind bars.

The indictment gives the 75-year-old Caponigro's alias as Claudio the Barber.

But it was not until this week, when his defense attorney filed papers to quash tapes of chats Caponigro had in his Old World Barber Shop on E. 116th St., that the reference was identified as being to the hardworking hair stylist.

The man wearing the wire was identified as a former mob lawyer-turned-informer, Peter Peluso.

"It is beyond comprehension why the government targeted Claudio Caponigro, who they knew ran a neighborhood barbershop for years and was neither a member nor an associate of any organized crime family," wrote attorney Michael Washor.

Caponigro didn't want to talk about the case when the Daily News visited his shop and found him applying a straight razor to a customer's stubble.

His troubles stem from his reluctance to talk to FBI agents on Nov. 12, 2004, when they came into his barber shop asking him if he could identify several Genovese crime family members from photographs.

"They ask me a couple of questions," Caponigro later told Peluso, who wore a wire during visits to the shop. "I don't answer not one question. I says, 'I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just a barber.'"

In another conversation about the FBI visit, Caponigro tells Peluso, "Then they show me the picture. I even deny. I don't know those guys. He came over here once."

The feds say Caponigro's talks with Peluso show he lied when he said he couldn't identify Genovese crime family members. The barber faces five years in prison for making false statements to federal agents.

Caponigro, who has cut hair in East Harlem for 56 years, is one of the few Italian merchants who has remained long after the neighborhood became a largely Hispanic enclave.

Around the corner on Pleasant Ave. is Rao's, the famed restaurant that, like Caponigro's barber shop, attracts a steady stream of wiseguys, mob wanna-bes and celebrities.

Actress Jennifer Lopez used Claudio's green vinyl chairs and red-white-and-blue barber pole as a backdrop for one of her music videos. The walls are adorned with baby photos and a worn certificate from the American Barber Institute.

Washor said the conversations should be protected by an attorney-client privilege since Caponigro had gone to Peluso 20 years earlier when he was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.

"Caponigro believed Peluso represented many people in the neighborhood and was the lawyer to go to if you had a problem," Washor wrote. "Peluso played Mr. Caponigro like a Ping-Pong ball."

In 2005, Peluso pleaded guilty to his role in the 1998 Bellomo-ordered hit on mob capo Ralph Coppola and has been cooperating with the feds ever since. Coppola's body has never been found.

During one visit to the barbershop, Caponigro tells Peluso, "Just in case they bug me, you're my attorney. I'll call you."

The lawyer warns Caponigro to be careful not to get caught in a lie.

"Caught in a lie for what?" Caponigro replies. "I don't know nothing about anything."

tzambito@nydailynews.com

Originally published on October 8, 2006

[GangstersInc]

Can anyone tell me more about Ralph Gigante? I know he was Vincent's brother and a soldier in the Genovese Family and that he died of AIDS (more regarding that???) in 1994. When I was looking for the Triangle Social Club I met a woman who said she had worked as a waitress in one of Ralph's clubs in the 1960s.

EDIT: The AIDS info came from The Prince death list at americanmafia.com, and could be incorrect since directly below Ralph, Scarpa Sr is listed.

This post has been edited by GangstersInc on Oct 31 2006, 03:51 PM

[Hollander]

Ex-Coach Pleads Guilty In Trash Inquiry
Admits He Arranged No-Show Industry Jobs For Players
November 2, 2006
By EDMUND H. MAHONY, Courant Staff Writer The coach of a minor league hockey team owned by indicted trash mogul James Galante admitted in court Wednesday that he beat salary cap rules by concealing income his players earned through no-show jobs in the trash industry.

J. Todd Stirling, the 34-year old former head coach of the United Hockey League Danbury Trashers, made the admission while pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in New Haven to a reduced charge of using federally regulated communication lines to commit fraud.

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Stirling, of Plymouth, Mass., is a minor player in a larger racketeering case that accuses his boss, Galante, and 28 other reputed mob and trash industry figures of conspiring to drive out competition and drive up prices in the western Connecticut and eastern New York trash markets.

The indictment describes Galante as directing a group of mob-backed carters who used violence and extortion to eliminate competition. Among those also indicted were Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, boss of New York's Genovese crime family, and Joseph Santopietro, the former Waterbury mayor released from prison in 1999 after a landmark Connecticut municipal corruption conviction.

Galante's lawyers say he is an honest businessman.

Upon his arrest in June, federal prosecutors moved to seize assets they claim Galante acquired with illegal trash profits. Those assets include some of about 25 businesses, a horse farm and two sporting enterprises - an automotive racing team and the now defunct Trashers.

Stirling admitted in court that he helped the Trashers circumvent the minor league's $275,000 annual salary cap during the 2004-05 season by signing and faxing fraudulent salary cap reports to the league office in Iowa on about 30 occasions. Prosecutors said team payroll actually was about $750,000 when income from no-show jobs and other improper benefits were factored in.

The prosecutors said that several Trasher players, and in some cases their wives, got no-show jobs in Galante businesses. In other cases, they said, players received unreported compensation in the form of improper housing allowances and unreported cash bonuses. The prosecutors said in court Wednesday that three Trashers players alone received compensation of approximately $100,000 each.

Several of the players were questioned during the grand jury investigation that led to the indictment.

Wire fraudcarries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, under the guidelines used in federal court, Stirling is expected to receive a lesser punishment when he returns to court for sentencing on Jan. 28.

[Hollander]

Call fruit boss bad seed
of the Mafia

Mob honcho's son-in-law is held
as Hunts Point gambling kingpin

BY BARBARA ROSS
and GREG B. SMITH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS



John Caggiano, son-in-law of Genovese crime boss Dominick Cirillo, exits court after being freed on bail.


A mob boss' son-in-law peddled fruit out of the city-run Hunts Point Market for seven years without a license - a mixup that yesterday came back to haunt the city.
John Caggiano, owner of giant C&S Wholesale Produce, was arrested on charges of running an illegal betting ring at the sprawling Bronx market.

In announcing the indictment of Caggiano and 10 others, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau identified Caggiano, 59, as an associate of the Genovese crime family.

Caggiano's application for a license to sell produce at Hunts Point was filed in March 1999, city records show.

Yesterday, city officials conceded the application was never acted on.

An investigation that began in June 2005 discovered a betting ring controlled by the Genovese and Luchese crime families that raked in $1 million a year.

In his application, Caggiano did not mention that he was son-in-law to Dominick (Quiet Dom) Cirillo, the jailed former acting boss of the Genovese family.

He did mention two prior convictions for robbery and drugs.

But a source familiar with the city's probe of the matter said those charges dated back to the 1970s and were not mob related.

Caggiano's checkered past came to light in 2002 shortly after jurisdiction for approving Hunts Point licenses shifted to the city Business Integrity Commission.

An official familiar with the matter said investigators also learned Caggiano was Cirillo's relative but no law enforcement agency would identify him as a mob associate.


Because the law doesn't allow the city to reject an applicant merely because they're related to a gangster, the city decided to neither approve nor reject Caggiano's application.

In addition, the city considered C&S "grandfathered in" because they'd been operating at Hunts Point since 1981, years before the law regulating the market went into effect.

Thomas McCormack, chairman of the Business Integrity Commission, said the city would now review the application.

Yesterday, prosecutors alleged Caggiano "directly controlled and supervised the day-to-day business of the illegal gambling operations" at the market.

He allegedly reported to Ralph Balsamo, a funeral home owner identified by law enforcement as a soldier in the Genovese family. In a separate case, the feds have alleged Genovese gangsters often met at Balsamo's Bronx funeral parlor.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the gambling bust was, "a message to organized crime to stay out of Hunts Point Market."

Caggiano and his lawyer, Larry Stern declined comment after his release on $100,000 bail.

Originally published on November 10, 2006


Mob Gambling Ring Busted, Police Say

Friday November 10, 2006 7:16 AM


NEW YORK (AP) - Eleven people, including members and associates of the Genovese and Lucchese organized crime families, have been indicted on charges of running an illegal gambling ring at one of the world's largest food distribution centers, prosecutors said Thursday.

A 17-month probe revealed the defendants took sports and numbers bets at the massive Hunts Point market area in the Bronx and earned about $800,000 between January 2005 and January 2006, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

Morgenthau said the defendants operated in two of the markets inside the Hunts Point complex, where hundreds of businesses sell huge quantities of meat, vegetables and other goods.

Anyone who wanted to place a bet and happened to be in the area could do so, he said. Only one of the defendants actually had a business or job at Hunts Point.

Authorities seized gambling records and $162,937 in cash, Morgenthau said. He also froze $800,000 worth of the defendants' property as ill-gotten gambling gains and another $150,000 in the defendants' assets related to loan-sharking charges.

Ten of the defendants were arrested Thursday, prosecutors said. One man was already in jail on federal charges.

The defendants were to be arraigned later in the day, eight of them on an enterprise corruption charge punishable by up to 25 years in prison, as well as on charges of gambling and loan sharking.

Two other defendants were charged with gambling-related offenses that carry penalties of up to four years in prison, and another defendant was charged with loan sharking, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

[Hollander]

Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello

[Hollander]

FBI busts union's boss on school bus shakedown rap



BY GREG B. SMITH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A corrupt union backed by the Genovese crime family extorted cash from numerous school bus companies, prosecutors charged yesterday.
The charges emerged in a new indictment unsealed yesterday against Salvatore Battaglia, president of Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 1181.

Battaglia was arrested at dawn by the FBI at his Staten Island home, officials said. The arrest came a day after the Daily News revealed the FBI's probe of the city school bus shakedown.

Prosecutors in Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia's office sought to keep the longtime union figure behind bars, but Battaglia was released yesterday on $1.5 million bond after agreeing to temporarily step down from his union post.

The new indictment alleges Battaglia "and others" - identified as the Genovese crime family - "improperly received payments from numerous bus companies" who employed Local 1181 members.

Among other allegations, prosecutors alleged that some bus companies paid off Battaglia to back off on efforts to organize the firms' nonunion members.

The new indictment alleged that Battaglia continued extorting the bus companies into 2006, even after he and other union officials were arrested in July 2005.

The arrest comes two months after Matthew (Matty the Horse) Ianiello, a Genovese captain, pleaded guilty to charges of shaking down Local 1181. During his plea, Ianiello contended he'd arranged payments to the union from several city school bus companies.

Originally published on November 21, 2006

[puparo]

By JERRY CAPECI
November 30, 2006

Less than a year after the death of legendary Mafia boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante, a cagy wiseguy who understands the wisdom of keeping a low profile has taken the reins of the powerful Genovese crime family, Gang Land has learned.

Meet Daniel Leo, 65, a reputed member of the violent, East Harlem-based Purple Gang during the 1970s who now resides in a $2 million home in Rockleigh, N.J., a town on the Palisades that boasts the highest median household income in the state, according to the 2000 census.

There is scant public record on Leo, but several top law enforcement sources told Gang Land this week that he is currently at the pinnacle of the crime family whose members and rackets surpass all the others. The officials disagree about his title.

"We're carrying him as the acting boss," a law enforcement official who has been involved in several major investigations into the family's sophisticated labor racketeering schemes said.

Two other highly placed mob busters said they were not sure about Leo's official mob rank, but agreed that Leo is a low-key and "well-respected" family leader who has beaten the system. The lawmen agreed that in the wake of Gigante's death — and after the recent prosecutions of many top Genovese mobsters — no other family gangster now has more power and influence than Leo.

"Leo is a heavyweight, a major player, and he may be the acting boss, but we don't know for sure, yet," one source said. "This is the family that didn't tell the other four families for years that Chin was really the boss and that ‘Fat Tony' Salerno was merely a figurehead."

All the sources do agree that Leo has served for many years as a top official in the crime family with little fanfare.

Leo, whose two-story brick house sits on a 1-acre plot on Rockleigh Road that in the 1680s was rich Colonial Dutch farmland, also owns a condominium in Boca Raton, Fla., according to real estate records. He did not respond to a call to his home for comment.

During the 1970s, according to a 1976 Drug Enforcement Administration report, Leo was a member of the Purple Gang, a loosely connected group of 127 drug dealers that includes dozens of gangsters from East Harlem and the Bronx who became Luchese and Genovese family mobsters, including Leo. The original 20-member East Harlem gang included several current Genovese mobsters, including capo Angelo Prisco.

Leo suffered his only known arrest in 1980, when he was hit with a criminal contempt indictment for refusing to testify before a grand jury that was investigating loansharking, drug trafficking, and four murders, two in East Harlem and two in the Bronx.

Leo, who has used the names Leonelli and Leonardo, according to investigative reports, was found guilty at a bench trial the following year. His felony conviction on two counts was upheld on appeal, but he spent no time in prison, according to a docket entry about the case in Manhattan Supreme Court.

In October 1999, the FBI secretly listened in as Genovese capo Salvatore "Sammy Meatballs" Aparo described Leo's role in a recent Mafia induction ceremony that included Aparo's son, Vincent, and 14 other inductees. Leo assisted Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico and Ernest Muscarella, who like Sammy Meatballs are currently serving federal prison terms for racketeering charges.

Aparo stated: "Larry, Ernie and Danny conducted the induction. Danny was the individual who pricked the fingers and told them what to say during the ceremony," according to an FBI summary of the tape-recorded conversation that was obtained by Gang Land.

A year later, in October 2000, another capo, Alan "Baldy" Longo, glowingly described Leo and Dentico as close associates of Gigante who were running the family following Chin's racketeering conviction in 1997, according to an FBI report on that conversation.

"You got Danny Leo, you got Larry. … A few other guys," Longo said. Chin "loves them," he said. "They're gentlemen. They got money. They're men and a half."

During the same conversation, Longo told mob turncoat Michael "Cookie" D'Urso that even though Chin and other family members were incarcerated, the family was in relatively good shape and "much stronger than the other families in the event there was a war," the report said.

We got thirty, forty guys. Don't let anyone tell you that we're dead. Cause we're here," Longo said. He later pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to 11 years.

Longo and dozens of other wiseguys were ultimately convicted and jailed in large measure because of D'Urso's undercover work, but Longo wasn't just blowing smoke about the Genoveses during his rant, two top New York mob analysts say.

"The Genovese crime family is still the best organized, and has the deepest bench," said Daniel Castleman, the chief of investigations for the Manhattan district attorney, whose office has sent Genovese capos Alfonso "Allie Shades" Malangone, John "Johnny Sausage" Barbato, and Salvatore "Sally Dogs" Lombardi to prison in recent years.

"They continue to take part in traditional organized crime activities of gambling, loansharking and labor racketeering in New York and New Jersey," Mr. Castleman said.

"The Genovese family is the most secretive, criminally diverse, and powerful family in the country," the acting special agent in charge of the FBI's organized crime branch, FBI agent Michael Campi, said, noting that "the power stems from the control of unions and major industries."

Mr. Campi declined to comment about Leo's status, or that of another powerful capo, Tino Fiumara, who recently relocated to Long Island from the Garden State following his release from prison nearly two years ago. Sources say Fiumara, 65, is a ready and willing contender for the top spot, but the prevailing wisdom is that he won't become a serious threat to reach for it until he concludes his federal supervised release in 13 months.

Mr. Campi would not identify any of the FBI's specific family targets, but made it clear that agents have their sights on other family members. Recent defections by mob lawyer-family associate Peter Peluso and soldier George Barone have provided considerable help to the feds, he said, "and will pose additional future problems to the power base of the Genovese family."

This column and other news of organized crime will be available today at ganglandnews.com.

[GangstersInc]

This is like the Dutch information whitewash, as discussed by Bart Middelburg, where criminals put out information regarding cases to the media in order to get the info to be used in court.

Feds: Leo Leads, Fat Charlie Follows

By Jerry Capeci
December 7, 2006

Danny Leo & Fat Charlie Salzano At the bail hearing last week of a burly wiseguy who was detained as a danger to the community, a federal prosecutor cited Gang Land’s exclusive report that disclosed the ascension of low-key gangster Daniel Leo to the top of the powerful Genovese family.

Holding up a copy of The New York Sun for emphasis, assistant U.S. attorney Eric Snyder argued that FBI tape recordings showed mobster Charles (Fat Charlie) Salzano to be a violent thug who was proposed for induction into the family by Leo, the family’s new acting boss. (Salzano follows the leader at right.)

“This is a man who is extraordinarily violent, and the right hand to the man who is widely believed to be the boss of the Genovese crime family,” said Snyder, adding: “Just today it was reported in The Sun in the widely-read Gang Land column about organized crime.”

Daniel Leo's Home in Rockleigh, NJ, courtesy NY PostSnyder told Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan that his office had been preparing to add Salzano to an existing 34-defendant indictment later. However, he said, FBI agents moved early to arrest Salzano when they learned that he planned to assault a taxi company owner last Saturday. The 370-pound gangster was tape-recorded twice in October threatening the businessman in a $250,000 extortion effort. (FOR MORE GO TO www.ganglandnews.com )

[Hollander]

Reputed Mob Boss Pleads in Trash Probe
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, The Associated Press
Dec 20, 2006 3:23 PM (14 hrs ago)
Current rank: # 11,347 of 15,398 articles

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The aging reputed boss of the Genovese organized crime family pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges filed in an investigation of organized crime influence over the trash industry in Connecticut and New York.


Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, 86, acknowledged that he participated in a so-called property rights scheme in which trash haulers carved out routes for each other and agreed not to poach customers. He was one of 29 people charged over the summer in the scheme, which prosecutors said forced customers to pay more for trash pickup.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, he faces 24 to 30 months in prison for the charges of racketeering conspiracy and tax evasion. Sentencing was set for March 9; he remains free on $1 million bail.

Companies owned by James Galante of Danbury allegedly paid a quarterly "mob tax" to Ianniello, prosecutors said. In exchange, Ianniello provided mob muscle to stifle competition. Trash haulers who tried to challenge the system faced physical and economic threats.

Ianniello, who has a home on New York's Long Island, admitted sending representatives to Connecticut to pick up payments from other defendants but did not admit being in the mafia.

Authorities have said Ianniello was a longtime capo in the Genovese mob and became one of its acting bosses after the 1997 racketeering conviction of Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, who died in prison last December.

Galante's attorney, Hugh Keefe, said Ianniello's plea would not pressure his client to reach an agreement. "Every one of these people have to decide what is in their best interest," Keefe said.

In September, Ianniello pleaded guilty to racketeering in New York, where authorities said he helped to try to infiltrate a union and thwart a federal grand jury probe. He faces up to two years in prison in that case.

[GangstersInc]

PRESS RELEASE - Genovese/Gambino indictment

NEW YORK, Dec. 21 -- An indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn charging Genovese family soldier JOHN GIGLIO, Genovese family associates VINCENT CASALE GARCIA, RICHARD DACUNTO, JOHN LAFORTE, and ANTHONY STOCCO, and Gambino family associates EDWARD FISHER, RAYMOND SPITALE, and SALVATORE PALMIERI with racketeering conspiracy, including charges of loansharking, extortion, attempted obstruction of justice, arson, and murder(1). GIGLIO, FISHER, DACUNTO, GARCIA, LAFORTE, and STOCCO will be arraigned later today before United States Magistrate Judge James Orenstein, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza West, Brooklyn, New York. PALMIERI and SPITALE will be arraigned on the charges at a later date. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge David G. Trager.

The charges were announced by Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in- Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, William G. McMahon, Special Agent-in-Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, New York Field Division, and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department.

As alleged in the indictment and the government's detention memorandum, FISHER and PALMIERI participated in the arson of My Deli & Grocery, located on Rhine Avenue in Staten Island, in the early morning of December 22, 2001. Prior to the arson, the owner of My Deli & Grocery was approached and threatened by members and associates of organized crime because he planned to open another deli that would rival a deli whose owner was allegedly protected by members and associates of La Cosa Nostra. FISHER provided PALMIERI with the destructive device to be used in the arson, and PALMIERI threw the device into My Deli & Grocery, while store employees were present, destroying the store.

PALMIERI is also charged with murdering Ronald Peteroy on September 27, 1990. Peteroy's body, which had two gunshot wounds, was found near Emily's Bar, located on Forest Avenue on Staten Island.

The defendants GIGLIO, FISHER, SPITALE, DACUNTO, GARCIA, PALMIERI, LAFORTE, and STOCCO are charged with a loansharking conspiracy, marked by violence and threats. GARCIA, for example, bragged to GIGLIO about threatening a debtor: "I went there ... I smacked him right in front of all his f----n' friends, 40 guys in the club ... I smacked him and I dragged him out by the hair and put the thing to his face ... "

If convicted of the racketeering conspiracy, GIGLIO, GARCIA, DACUNTO, SPITALE, LAFORTE, and STOCCO face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. If convicted of arson, arson conspiracy, and possession and use of a dangerous device, FISHER faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison. PALMIERI, who is already serving a sentence on his prior conviction for conspiring to commit the My Deli & Grocery arson, faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

"We remain steadfast in our commitment to uproot the members and associates of organized crime who endanger our community by spreading violence and fear," stated United States Attorney Mauskopf. "Today's arrests are the result of outstanding cooperation among our federal and local law enforcement partners."

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Mershon stated, "In the popular imagination, the mob is often thought to have evolved from crimes of violence to more sophisticated white collar schemes. That belief is mistaken, or at least grossly over-simplistic. The litany of charges against these defendants reads like the ABCs of traditional organized crime. The FBI will continue to police mobsters, whether their crimes are sophisticated or brutally unsophisticated."

ATF Special Agent-in-Charge McMahon stated, "Five years ago today, cowards threw a fire bomb into an occupied grocery store and then ran away. For over three years, ATF Agents and NYPD Detectives doggedly pursued numerous investigative leads, which ultimately led to the apprehension of three subjects. These initial arrests and the investigation that followed led to the arrests made today and shows that acts of violence, threats and intimidation of law 3 abiding citizens will not be tolerated. ATF, along with our partners, remain committed to protecting the public and reducing violent crime."

New York City Police Commissioner Kelly stated, "I want to commend our detectives and federal partners for stopping the mob from returning to the old days of routinely bombing their competitors out of business. They tried here and were arrested."

The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Amy Busa.

The Defendants:

Name: JOHN GIGLIO
Alias: "Little John," "Johnny Bull," "Fat John"
DOB: 4/11/1958

Name: EDWARD FISHER
Alias: "the Irishman"
DOB: 11/3/1952

Name: RAYMOND SPITALE
DOB: 7/6/1944

Name: VINCENT CASALE GARCIA
Alias: "Vinny Basille"
DOB: 9/7/1972

Name: RICHARD DACUNTO
DOB: 10/28/1962

Name: SALVATORE PALMIERI
DOB: 4/17/1955

Name: JOHN LAFORTE
Alias: "Hammer"
DOB: 2/13/1968

Name: ANTHONY STOCCO
Alias: "The Retard"
DOB: 10/18/1982

(1) The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations, and
the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Contact:
Robert Nardoza
United States Attorney's Office
(718) 254-6323

Joseph Green
PIO, ATF New York Field Division
(718) 650-4022

[GangstersInc]

Islander's lawyer blasts mob charges
Woodrow man had nothing to do with firebombing of Concord deli, attorney says
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
By JEFF HARRELL
ADVANCE STAFF WRITER

A Woodrow man had nothing to do with the mob or the 2001 firebombing of a Concord deli, according to his attorney.

Edward (The Irishman) Fisher, 54, was arrested Thursday when feds swooped down on the homes of several alleged Staten Island mobsters on charges linked to the Dec. 22, 2001, firebombing of My Deli & Grocery on Rhine Avenue.

A six-count federal indictment was filed last week against a reputed Genovese soldier and seven alleged Genovese and Gambino family associates.

Fisher, according to federal court documents, provided a device normally used for fireworks that Salvatore Palmieri, 51, tossed into the store.

Palmieri is doing prison time after he pleaded guilty last year to throwing the firebomb that destroyed the deli.

Described as a long-standing associate with the Gambino crime family, Fisher was charged with loansharking, arson, arson conspiracy, and possession and use of a destructive device in the My Deli firebombing.

But Joseph Sorrentino, Fisher's attorney, maintained that The Irishman is neither a mobster nor a firebug.

I can't be more adamant in denying these charges, Sorrentino said, referring to Fisher as a model citizen known to be a really great guy around his neighborhood.

I think the fact that the government waited until the last moment to file these charges indicates their reluctance, Sorrentino said. When [Palmieri] was charged, Ed Fisher was not. That he was not charged then, and we have an indictment on the eleventh hour is ... an indication of the weakness of the charges.

Fisher was held without bail following his arraignment in Brooklyn federal court Thursday afternoon. A date for a bail hearing has yet to be determined.

Also charged in the indictment were reputed Genovese soldier John (Little John) Giglio, 48, of Graniteville; Richard Dacunto, 44, of Dongan Hills; John (Hammer) LaForte, 38, of Huguenot; Anthony Stocco, 24, of Port Richmond; Vincent Casale Garcia, 34, of Tottenville, and Raymond Spitale, 62, of Sarasota, Fla.

All except Spitale are being held in federal custody without bail on charges of racketeering, loansharking, extortion, wire fraud and arson. Spitale is scheduled for arraignment at a later date.

Already serving a 63-month sentence, Palmieri was also charged in the indictment with the murder of Ronald Peteroy in September 1990 near the former Emily's Keyboard Lounge on Forest Avenue in West Brighton.

The victim had an extensive criminal record.

If convicted, Palmieri faces life in prison.

Jeff Harrell is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at harrell@siadvance.com.

[GangstersInc]

Crime family suspect pleads guilty to racketeering

By Vanessa Blum
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted December 28 2006

An alleged associate of the Genovese crime family accused of taking part in two violent assaults and extortions in 2003 pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge Wednesday in a federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Joseph Dennis Colasacco, 54, nicknamed "The Baker," was charged along with six other men in June in a 29-page indictment alleging racketeering, loan sharking, robbery, money laundering and extortion. Prosecutors named Renaldi Ruggiero, 73 of Palm Beach Gardens as the "capo" running South Florida operations for the organized crime network sometimes called "La Cosa Nostra."

Prosecutors said Colasacco orchestrated an attack against a businessman in October 2003 and that he discussed it in wiretapped conversations with Ruggiero. Colasacco was not present for the attack, but another individual called him so he could listen as others beat the man and threatened to shoot him if did not agree to pay $1.5 million, prosecutors said.

Colasacco, who faces a possible 20-year prison term, admitted he participated in that and an earlier 2003 beating and took part in money laundering, dealing in stolen property, loan sharking and an attempted robbery.

As part of his plea deal, Colasacco agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for a possible sentence reduction.

Ruggiero's lawyer, Michael Salnick, said the plea and Colasacco's agreement to testify came as no surprise. There is no plea deal on the table for his client, who looks forward to fighting the government's charges at trial, Salnick said.

"My client has been called a mobster, which he is not. He has been called an extortionist, which he is not," he said. "This is not The Sopranos. This is real life. In real life, the government has to prove what the defendant has done beyond a reasonable doubt."

Ruggiero and his alleged associates had been under investigation for several years before being charged. The government's evidence includes 12,000 recorded phone calls, 130 recordings made by undercover agents and records obtained from a 2003 search of Ruggiero's home.

At least two other defendants in the case are expected to plead guilty before the start of trial Feb. 26. Lawyers representing Charles "The Fat Man" Steinberg, 31, of Coral Springs, and Francis O'Donnell, 48, of Davie, confirmed the men would plead guilty Friday and Jan. 5, respectively. Attorney William Norris, who represents Steinberg, said his client would plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy. Steinberg has not agreed to cooperate with the government, even though it means he could receive a harsher sentence, Norris said.

O'Donnell's attorney, Theresa Van Vliet, declined to comment on the terms of his plea agreement or to what charge he would plead guilty.

Prior to his arrest, O'Donnell was chairman and chief executive officer of Coach Industries Group Inc., a public transportation company based in Cooper City. He is accused of taking part in the October 2003 extortion attempt and of laundering about $280,000 through various companies for an undercover agent posing as a drug dealer. O'Donnell took 10 percent as commission, giving some to Ruggiero, prosecutors said.

Attorneys for the other defendants, Mitchell Weissman, 56, of Boca Raton, Albert "The Old Man" Facchiano, 96, of Miami, and Clement Santoro, 51, of New York, could not be reached for comment.

Vanessa Blum can be reached at vbblum@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4605.

[GangstersInc]

Trial for Mafia's `Old Man' Set to Begin in February

By CAROL J. WILLIAMS
Los Angeles Times Sunday, January 14, 2007

MIAMI -- With his trial on racketeering charges set to begin in February, Albert "The Old Man" Facchiano may be living proof that the only way to leave the mafia is feet first.

Facchiano, 96, is believed to be the oldest person ever indicted by the federal government and would likely be the U.S.'s most senior of senior-citizen inmates if convicted and sent to prison for alleged violent service to the Genovese crime family.

A federal grand jury in 2006 issued a six-count indictment of Facchiano and six other South Florida men tied to the New York mob, alleging they ran the mafia's Miami operations and engaged in "a pattern of racketeering activity" that included extortion, robbery, money-laundering and loan-sharking.

It is unclear from the Florida indictment whether Facchiano is suspected of actually having pulled a trigger or wielded a lead pipe. But a parallel New York indictment of 30 reputed Genovese family members accuses him of trying to intimidate or eliminate a witness in the federal government's case against the nation's most powerful crime family.

Facchiano's attorney, Brian McComb, said he is trying to negotiate a plea bargain for his client, whom he describes as having "a lot of medical problems" but still able to participate effectively in his own defense.

Facchiano, who will turn 97 on March 10, is in full possession of his mental faculties "so far," said McComb.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for South Florida reports its prosecution of Facchiano is on track to begin Feb. 22 in the court of U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn.

"I think the judge gave us sufficient time and I think he intends to go forward. We're ready to go to trial," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey N. Kaplan.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation undercover operation supported by federal tax authorities led to the grand jury indictment in June, which details extensive mob-related activities by the Florida defendants over a 12-year period through last year.

After a reputed life of crime that began before the Great Depression, Facchiano is no stranger to the federal prison network. His first conviction, on robbery and fencing charges, stemmed from a 1932 arrest, and he was also jailed for mob activity in 1936 and 1944. His last incarceration, an eight-year stretch on a 25-year sentence for racketeering, ended in 1989.

Facchiano is free on personal recognizance and a signature bond, said McComb. He is living with a daughter in upscale Bal Harbor but will not speak to the media until his case is resolved, McComb said.

Neither the U.S. Bureau of Prisons nor the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics could say definitively that there are no prisoners as old as Facchiano being incarcerated. But officials at both offices, as well as McComb, speculated that the 96-year-old was probably the nation's oldest accused perpetrator.

Paige Harrison, a Justice Department statistician, pointed out that less than one-half of 1 percent of the U.S.'s 1.5 million prisoners are over 55 -- the highest age category on which the department keeps statistics -- "so if you start getting into `older than 80' or `older than 90,' you're talking about really, really small numbers."

If convicted, Facchiano, aka "Chinky" or "The Old Man," could face a prison sentence of as much as 60 years and fines up to $750,000, according to the federal prosecution statement issued at the time of his indictment. Even then, age alone isn't expected to be a factor in determining the length of time he serves.

[GangstersInc]

Site update:

http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/Matty_the_Horse.html

By Maarten Anthonissen
Posted: January 20, 2007

Matthew 'Matty the Horse' Ianniello isn’t your average mobster. He is an acting boss of the Genovese Crime Family, who was on the ruling committee of the Family after official boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante was convicted. According to the FBI Matty had the most important vote in the committee, they ranked him as acting boss. Ianniello has had a long and successful mob career. Matty The Horse has been an important Genovese member since the 70s. He is a cold blooded Mafioso who also was successful in the businessworld. He is the prototype of the shrewd gangster who despite his old age, wasn’t ready to retire.

Click on the link to read the whole article.

[GangstersInc]

Sins of the Father
Rev. Louis Gigante, kin to the Genovese crime family, slips from hero to slumlord
by Jennifer Redfearn
January 23rd, 2007 11:54 AM

A chauffeur-driven black Lincoln Executive pulled to a stop in front of a crumbling building in the South Bronx on a chilly night this past October and out stepped Father Louis R. Gigante, the low-income- housing developer and brother of legendary mobster Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. Father G. was once hailed as the savior of the South Bronx for convert-ing hulks of charred buildings into affordable homes for impoverished families. But on this night, the white-haired 74- year-old priest had arrived to meet with angry tenants who accuse this once heroic figure of being a slumlord.

Read more:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0704,redfearn,75612,2.html

[GangstersInc]

Longshore Bigs Bicker Over Broken Benefits
By Bennett Baumer
From the February 22, 2007 issue | Posted in Local | Email this article


Clockwise from top left: John Bowers, George Barrone, Al Cernadas, and Harold Daggett

Since beating a labor racketeering rap two years ago, top officials with the troubled International Longshoremen Association (ILA) could now be jockeying for the power to lead the East Coast Union. An unsigned flier circulating throughout the New York/New Jersey ports over the past couple weeks is calling for a “Walk in Solidarity” to protest cuts in health benefits and poor financial management.

The flier comes just months before a potential shift of power in the governmentsupervised Bayonne, New Jersey Local 1588. Progressive union militants are gearing to win an election and wrest power from decades of corrupt leadership in the port early this spring. The federal government has had a trusteeship over the Bayonne local since January 2003.

“Nothing happened,” said ILA spokesperson Jim McNamara in reference to the job action. “If it [flier] wasn’t signed, I wouldn’t put much credence in it.”

The cryptic flier lambasted the federal government’s “attacks” and blamed long-time ILA President John Bowers and Secretary Treasure Robert Gleason for deteriorating health benefits. Apart from criticizing the government and international president, the flier is curious because it lauds former Newark Local 1235 President Al Cernadas and current General Organizer Harold Daggett, who both formerly sat on the union’s health benefits fund. In 2005, Cernadas resigned his post in disgrace and admitted to labor racketeering and other fraud. In the 2005 federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) complaint against the international union, the government claims the Genovese crime family picked Daggett to lead the union once Bowers retired.

The union’s health benefits fund has been on shaky financial ground as many rank and file members have had problems obtaining proper coverage and hundreds of doctors have dropped out of the plan. Open criticism of union officials is rare in the ILA, a union with a long organized crime affiliation. Labor militants who speak out too loudly risk anything from the loss of job hours to physical violence by enforcers in New York’s powerful Cosa Nostra families.

The octogenarian ILA president, John Bowers has made no formal announcement of his retirement from the union. However, his departure is anticipated sometime soon, which will create a power vacuum. Executive Vice President Richard Hughes seems an obvious choice to succeed Bowers though delegates representing each port local elect the international president. The candidate who shores up the delegates will win the power of the presidency.

In 2005 the federal government filed a RICO case against ILA General Organizer Harold Daggett and a vice president, Arthur Coffey on labor racketeering and other fraud. Both were acquitted of the charges, dealing a blow to the government’s attempt to take over the union. Coffey then broke ranks with the international union as he squabbled over the union refusing to pay his legal fees. A third codefendant in the case was Larry Ricci, a reputed Cosa Nostra capo in the Genovese crime family, who became absent half way through the trial. Police later found Ricci’s body in the trunk of a silver Acura parked at a Jersey diner.