Michael T. Conahan, one of the two Luzerne County, Pennsylvania judges convicted on fraud charges for taking more than $2.6 million kickbacks for dumping kids in privately run detention centers, "wrote a letter of reference in 2005 for the wife of an alleged associate of mob boss William 'Big Billy' D'Elia when she was seeking a license for an offshore Internet gambling site in the Caribbean":
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Scranton, Conahan wrote a letter of reference for Michelle Mattioli-Kulick, wife of Robert J. Kulick, who has had business dealings with D'Elia. D'Elia, who is serving nine years on federal money laundering and witness tampering charges, has cooperated in an investigation that threatens to send Kulick, a convicted felon, back to federal prison, prosecutors say. The letter of reference was sent to a company in the Netherlands Antilles that Mattioli-Kulick engaged to set up an Internet gambling site there, according to court documents.
Last week the Citizens' Voice newspaper stated in court documents that it has an unidentified witness who will testify that the Bufalino mob boss D'Elia "had direct connections to either one or both" of convicted Pennsylvania judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr.
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