Friends of Ours

Mob-Fixed Tennis Matches

Former Colombo crime family capo Michael Franzese and son of underboss John "Sonny" Franzese says "his crime contacts lead him to believe organized crime remains involved in tennis":

"It's definitely going on. If I were in this business now, tennis would be my major target because one player can impact the game. That's all you need. I have to believe they are, certainly from the feedbacks I've gotten since I got involved with the ATP. Sports has become such an incredibly lucrative racket, so to speak, for guys on the street. They [ATP players] told me there's a problem in the sport. It is something that has to be addressed. Mainly, I told them how damaging and dangerous it could be for them to get involved in gambling and get around the wrong people. Gambling is a very serious business. If you put yourself in a gambling situation, you're most likely going to attract the wrong people because those same people are watching you. They want to find out who's got a gambling problem."

Franzese is the author of Quitting the Mob and Blood Covenant, and he speaks extensively about his break from the Mafia.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald On Blagojevich: More To Come

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald today requested in a motion an additional 90 days by which to bring an indictment against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris citing, among other factors, the number of new witnesses who have come forward with evidence of criminal activity, the thousands of intercepted telephone calls still to be reviewed, and the number of individuals who may be named as additional defendants in the indictment.  The "motion also said there are other factors — but those were included in a separate, sealed attachment."  The public's knowledge to date of political corruption in Chicago is only the tip of the iceberg.

Norman Hsu & Democratic Notables

Norman Hsu, the notorious Democratic fundraiser who steered over $1 million into Hillary Clinton's primary bid, is scheduled to stand trial on January 12 for allegedly operating a $60 million pyramid scheme, and intends on introducing evidence concerning his "connections to the Clintons and other Democratic notables -- including perhaps the president-elect."  The Smoking Gun reports:

Before becoming a key fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, Hsu co-hosted a 2005 California fundraiser for Obama's political action committee and introduced the Illinois Democrat to Marc Gorenberg, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who later joined the Obama campaign's national finance committee. Prosecutors allege that Hsu directed his investors to donate money to specific candidates, and then reimbursed them in violation of federal campaign laws.

Bernie Madoff Laundering Money For The Russian Mafia?

Among the predictions -- "events that have a reasonable chance of occurring despite the general perception that the odds are very long" -- by Doug Kass for 2009 is that investigators will reveal that Bernie Madoff was involved in more than a ponzi scheme but further was laundering money for the Russian Mafia and Colombian drug cartels:

The Russian mafia and Russian oligarchs are found to be large investors with Madoff. During the next few weeks, a well-known CNBC investigative reporter documents that the Russian oligarchs, certain members of the Russian mafia and several Colombian drug cartel families have invested and laundered more than $2 billion in Madoff's strategy through offshore master feeders and through several fund of funds. There are several unsuccessful attempts made on Madoff and/or his family's lives. With the large Russian investments in Madoff having gone sour and in light of the subsequent acts of violence against his family, U.S./Russian relations, which already were at a low point, are threatened. Madoff's lawyers disclose that he has cancer, and his trial is delayed indefinitely as he undergoes chemotherapy.

Robert M. Jaffe, the broker who steered many wealthy investors to Bernard Madoff's investment fund through both New York-based Cohmad Securities Corp., partly owned by Madoff and of which Jaffe is a vice president, and Jaffe's own Palm Beach-based M/A/S Capital Corp., previously "did business with another notorious rogue: former Boston mob leader Gennaro Angiulo":

Jaffe, under investigation for his ties to the Wall Street investor who authorities say confessed to running a Ponzi scheme, was the stockbroker to Angiulo and his brothers, reputed members of the Boston Mafia, before they were sent to jail on racketeering charges in 1986. He first represented the Angiulos when he worked at the investment firm E.F. Hutton in the 1970s, and the Angiulos followed him when he became the Boston branch manager at Cowen & Co. in 1980, according to a Boston Globe article in 1985 that quoted Cowen's lawyer, Lawrence Leibowitz.

Jaffe's brokerage relationship with the Angiulos first came to light "in an inquiry by federal securities regulators into whether Cowen failed to report large deposits the Angiulos made into their brokerage accounts there" that "was part of a broader federal investigation of alleged money laundering by the Angiulos"; however, "neither Jaffe nor Cowen was ever implicated, and the Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry appears to have ended quietly." 

Mexican Drug Cartels Thwart Efforts By Texas Charities

Texas charties are curbing their outreach efforts to the Mexican poor across the Rio Grande border in light of the ongoing vicious war among rival drug cartels:

With the death toll in the Mexican city of Juarez mounting, the increasingly bloody struggle for control of the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso can now count one more victim: charity from its American neighbor. At least two church groups have chosen not to send members over the border to aid the poor because of the ongoing drug cartel war. "It pains us. The violence is out of hand. We actually had a parishioner who was kidnapped, so it's too close to home," said Monsignor Arturo Banuelas, of El Paso's Roman Catholic diocese. Banuelas, whose young nephew was shot and killed in an ambush in the west coast state of Sinaloa earlier this year, said parishioners from El Paso would normally make trips to a city jail and several missions around Juarez to deliver food, clothing, blankets and Christmas gifts at this time of year. But because of the ongoing drug cartel war — more than 1,300 people have been killed in the city of 1.3 million this year — he canceled the church's outreach. Officials with the Abundant Living Faith Center in El Paso also have canceled trips to orphanages and local ministries in Mexico that aid Juarez's poorest. Pat Rodriguez, the center's outreach director, said her church group has been forced to wait for aid organizers from Mexico to cross the border and pick up supplies. And even that effort has waned as the violence in the sprawling city across the Rio Grande has mounted in the last year.

U.S. Government Crisis: Mexico Drug Cartels: Are they Number #1 Organized Crime Threat in America?

Clarence Walker, an investigative crime journalist, has a piece in the New Criminologist detailing the ominous threat that the Mexican drug cartels pose to the United States:

The U.S. government is on the defensive. There's a major crisis threatening America's security. This diabolical threat do not involve foreign terrorists, Chinese spys, Al-Qaeda, nor the Russian Mafia. This unrelenting threat comes from major narco gangsters known throughout the U.S. and South America as Mexican drug traffickers.