This is the biggest mass murder in modern Ontario history and the biggest known biker mass murder in the world. The eight victims were all connected to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club Worldwide. The size of the jury pool is roughly the size of the Bandidos club, and more than six times the size of downtown Shedden, the hamlet a half-hour's drive west of here, where the bodies of eight men were found shot to death in vehicles abandoned on a muddy farmer's field on April 8, 2006. The Bandidos are the world's second biggest outlaw motorcycle club, behind only the Hells Angels.
Among the executed was the motorcycle club's Canadian president John Muscedere. The six defendants also are reputed members and associates of the Bandidos, and law enforcement attributes the motive for the slayings as an internal cleansing.
Rossetti was thrust into the spotlight in late 2006 when the FBI said she was the victim of a $100,000 mob extortion scheme. Investigators alleged that a Bonanno family associate threatened her reputation if she didn't pay back the money, which he had borrowed from a reputed Bonanno soldier and used to top off an earlier investment of $400,000 in Rossetti's bogus real estate venture. * * * After reputed Bonanno crime family acting underboss Nicholas Santora, consiglieri Anthony Rabito and others were charged with playing roles in the extortion, defense attorneys and former friends of Yvonne Rossetti on Long Island and in Queens came forward with allegations in court papers that she was involved in a real estate scheme or had borrowed money from them without making repayments.
Yvonne Rossetti's husband, reputed Bonanno associate Vincent Rossetti, under indictment in a different federal extortion case, became a cooperating witness for the government after the extortion attempt against his wife, and he testified earlier this month at the racketeering trial against alleged Gambino hitman Charles Carneglia.
Frankie Roche will receive the money to settle a lawsuit over his injuries, said his lawyer, Mark A. Sylvester of Miami. * * * Sylvester said the settlement has not been finalized and its terms are confidential, although he wouldn't object if the government wanted to disclose the amount being paid. "All I can say is under the totality of the circumstances, it was a fair and reasonable settlement for what happened to Frankie Roche, for his injuries," Sylvester said. "There is a settlement, but at this point, the details are not public record," said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. "At some point they may become public record."
Sylvester further states that Roche "is cooperating with federal prosecutors and has either entered or will enter the witness protection program."
Roche presumably will testify against Fotios A. "Freddy" Geas and Brandon D. Croteau who face conspiracy charges in Massachusetts for Bruno's murder. Roche admitted that he whacked Bruno for $10,000 on orders from the New York faction of the Genovese crime family. According to a statement by prosecutors at the time of Roche's plea:
Members of the Genovese LCN [La Cosa Nostra] family hierarchy in New York became upset with Adolfo Bruno because he was not sending sufficient tribute payments to New York. Thereafter, a member of the Springfield Crew sought authority from the hierarchy of the Genovese LCN family in New York, pursuant to the rules of La Cosa Nostra, to murder Adolfo Bruno.
Geas, with "a rap sheet riddled with violent crimes," has been "dubbed by law enforcement officials as the 'muscle' for Bruno's reputed successor, Anthony J. Arillotta," and allegedly recruited Roche for the hit; Croteau was a drug dealer out of a strip club at which he was a bouncer, and allegedly helped Roche flee to Florida after the murder.
On Aug. 3, 1995, an indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in New Jersey, charging Misulovin and 24 other individuals, 15 of whom were emigres from Eastern Europe, with conspiring to defraud the United States and the state of New Jersey of approximately $138 million in motor fuel excise taxes, and to commit the substantive offenses of wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Misulovin was born in Riga, Latvia, and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. According to the indictment, Misulovin and co-defendants Igor Erlikh and Demetrios Karamanos, operated Kings Motor Oils (Kings), a wholesale fuel distributorship with offices in Edison, N.J. From 1989 through 1994, Kings purchased hundreds of millions of gallons of tax-free home heating oil, but through an elaborate scheme sold it as tax-paid diesel fuel to PetroPlus, a fuel wholesaler located in Deptford, N.J., which was owned and operated by co-defendant Daniel Enright. PetroPlus then sold the fuel to unknowing customers as diesel fuel for highway use, and charged and collected the applicable federal and state taxes. Under U.S. and New Jersey law, the co-conspirators incurred the tax liability for the sale of the fuel. However, instead of paying the IRS and state revenue authorities as required, the amount collected for the taxes were distributed among Enright, Misulovin, Erlikh, Karamanos and other conspirators in the scheme.
The racket in which Misulovin was involved is commonly known as a "daisy chain" scheme, and is popular within the Gambino crime family, the Russian Mafia and eurasian crime groups in California, New York and New Jersey:
According to court documents, Kings and PetroPlus insulated themselves by inserting a series of shell companies, nominee companies and other sham entities (known collectively as "middle companies") between them in the distribution chain to give the appearance that these companies actually bought and sold the fuel. In reality, these companies never took title or possession of the fuel. According to court documents, the sole purpose of these middle companies was the generation of false and fraudulent invoices and other paperwork to disguise the true transactions between Kings and PetroPlus. One of the middle companies in each transaction would be positioned as the "burn" company - the entity that appeared on paper to bear the tax liability and that would disappear in the event of an investigation. However, the scheme was designed so that on the face of the paperwork, it always appeared that Kings and PetroPlus were relieved of any tax liability. In the early 1990s, this scheme was commonly known as a "daisy chain" scheme, and often involved organized crime groups. The "daisy chain" made it difficult for the IRS and state revenue authorities to identify those responsible to pay the federal and state taxes, and to trace the movement of the illicit proceeds. The illicit proceeds were then laundered through various bank accounts throughout the United States and overseas.
Misulovin was apprehended by Israeli police in April 2004 "in connection with their investigation of a major international money laundering operation involving an underground bank in Israel," and "entered into a plea agreement with the United States in January 2008" pursuant to which he waived pending extradition.
Erlikh also fled the country following the 1995 indictment but was returned to the United States by Ukrainian authorities in 1999: "Erlikh pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution." With respect to the other defendants named in the indictment:
On June 19, 1998, following a nine-and-a-half-month jury trial before Judge Irenas in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Enright and Karamanos were convicted for their role in the conspiracy and related charges. Also convicted at trial were co-defendants Richard Pedroni and Mary Ingram, both wholesale motor fuels distributors in New Jersey. Two additional defendants were acquitted. Seventeen co-defendants pleaded guilty prior to trial. Enright was sentenced to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1 million.
The "daisy chain" scheme was conceived by former Colombo capo Michael Franzeze in the 1980s who perpetrated a "multi-billion dollar gasoline tax scheme":
The Sonora Cartel [was] a Mexico-based drug-trafficking organization that funneled tons of marijuana into the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, according to federal investigators. A federal indictment alleges that the cartel funneled marijuana from Mexico to a farm near Longmont and a house in Westminster, which the cartel used as marijuana storage and distribution facilities. The cartel also allegedly bought numerous vehicles from Colorado dealerships, which they used to transport the marijuana. Large quantities of marijuana were distributed by the ring in Colorado, California, Illinois and New York, according to federal investigators.
Caro Quintero's brother Rafael, known in Mexico as "the drug lord of drug lords," was convicted in Mexico for the 1985 kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent Enrique Camarena, and currently is in prison.
Before Persico and DeRoss were sentenced, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Buretta read a statement from Cutolo's family. It said that Persico and DeRoss murdered Cutolo "to assuage their personal greed for money and power. They do not deserve any leniency at sentencing; they took a life of one man. . . . In return, their lives should be taken from them."
Last October the FBI uncovered the decomposed body of Cutolo in a vacant lot in East Farmingdale, NY pursuant to information from reputed Colombo soldier Joseph Competiello, and the agency announced today that it was resuming its digging at the site for two other bodies supposedly dumped there:
Cutolo's body was one of three that informers told officials were buried in the industrial park on Baiting Place Road off Route 110. A Colombo mob member turned informer told FBI agents last year that the bodies of Richard Greaves and Carmine Gargano Jr. also had been disposed of in the area. Greaves was killed in 1995 when he was suspected of becoming an informer, according to officials. Gargano, a 21-year-old Pace University student, was killed in 1994 as part of a revenge plot against a cousin of a member of the Luchese organized-crime family.
*** In Naples police arrested ten people, including the wife of jailed Camorra boss Ciro Formicola, on drug trafficking charges.
*** In Villabate, a suburb outside the Sicilian city of Palermo, police arrested 12 people on extortion and money laundering charges:
The mafia's move to target businesses for extortion and for activities that allow large sums of cash to pass through its hands which can be more easily laundered are "very traditional," Palermo's chief prosecutor, Francesco Messineo said. The Villabate clan used "shell companies" to invest the money from its various illegal activities, investigators found. One of those arrested on Friday is the owner of a bridal gown tailoring shop, used as a mafia front operation. Police also seized two gambling halls, and a supermarket worth over 12 million euros, which investigators used the Villabate bosses used to launder money.
The sleepy rural town of Griffith, in a wine and rice-growing area 350 miles west of Sydney, might seem an unlikely setting for gangland murders and drug-trafficking. But this fertile patch of New South Wales boasts not only orchards and vineyards, but also a cell of the Calabrian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. In 1977 a Griffith businessman and outspoken anti-drugs crusader, Don Mackay, was shot dead outside a pub where he had been drinking with friends. A subsequent royal commission uncovered a thriving marijuana trade in the area, and established that Mackay had been killed by a hit man, on the orders of a local branch of the 'Ndrangheta.
In keeping with the times the same 'Ndrangheta clan that assassinated MacKay now is engaged in heroin, cocaine and ecstasy trafficking:
Last year – two months before filming began – police raided four Griffith properties in the wake of the world's largest ecstasy seizure: 15 million pills shipped from Calabria to Melbourne in tomato cans. Among the four addresses was an Italianate mansion set amid orange groves and grapevines, the home of Pasquale "Pat" Barbaro, allegedly the Australian kingpin of an international drugs syndicate. Barbaro's father, Francesco, was one of a number of men named by the 1979 royal commission as members of the local 'Ndrangheta cell that ordered Mackay's murder.
Federal prosecutors say those who admit their guilt will also cooperate in the prosecution of fellow gang members, putting themselves and their families at risk for violent retaliation and murder. * * * In anticipation of the guilty pleas, federal prosecutors have asked a judge to seal all court records pertaining to plea bargains and sentencings. "The government believes that the threat of retaliation is credible and raises significant concerns for the safety of the persons involved," federal prosecutors say in a 5-page document filed in U.S. District Court. * * * The gang also has ties to the Mexican Mafia, a violent prison gang, meaning any Mongol who cooperates with prosecutors might even be in danger behind bars, prosecutors claim.
"I'm very concerned about the number of people who have called us, called the police agencies, and said to us, 'Look, we have information, but we don't even want to come forward if he's out,' " Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said on a radio program Thursday morning. * * * Since his arrest a week ago on a first-degree arson charge, and the discovery of a small explosive device in his office at Mont Pleasant Middle School, a portrait has begun to emerge. It shows a man who'd grown up in a family involved both in organized crime and a murderous personal dispute. Carney painted him as someone who'd coveted power and sought to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who stood in the way of him, his associates or even his school and union. * * * Carney said State Police have told him that Raucci's brother had been connected to organized crime downstate, and that he killed himself rather than testify. Raucci is also the son of Joseph Raucci, who pleaded guilty in 1986 at the age of 69 to two counts of attempted murder and one charge of manslaughter in the death of his 6-year-old son, and wounding of his estranged wife and her boyfriend.
Raucci is the facilities manager for the Schenectady public school system, overseeing its custodians and building projects, and president of the local Civil Service Employee Association. Raucci is on paid adminsitrative leave from his $80,000/year city job, and the CSEA "has taken over management of the local union chapter":
Capital Region CSEA spokeswoman Therese Assalian said the Schenectady chapter has been placed in "administratorship," which means that the state will take over day-to-day operations of the bargaining unit. She said the local chapter also has a vice president, treasurer and secretary, but state CSEA believed it was best to step in as a result of the allegations against Raucci. Assalian believed Raucci had been president since 2001 and he receives no salary for the position. She was not aware of any issues at the local chapter which she said function fairly independently with support from the regional and state organization. Assalian said it was somewhat unusual — though not unheard of — that Raucci would be in this union while holding a management position. "It's not something we can control or change."
The young lawyer from Michigan, now just 34, arrived here knowing no one but quickly made magical connections and owned the hottest clubs in town. He ran with a crowd of politicians, trust-fund kids, Outfit bookmakers and other Rush Street players. That crowd included the guys who know guys at Tavern on Rush, Viagra Triangle royalty with the finest cars, the best vacations, the hottest-looking dates.
Kass speculates that Demasi may be in a position to expose nightlife-related corruption:
Demasi's brain is like a dangerous egg, and if the FBI ever cracks what's in there, some guys who know guys figure they'll get fried. That's because Demasi knows whose itch he scratched for the city liquor licenses and building and occupancy permits, which determine how crowded a club can be. And he knows what he says he paid to promote legislation in Springfield permitting VIP bottle service, which allows club owners to milk the suckers. Since he was locked up Feb. 5, news began circulating among his old crowd. Some are worried. And I don't want Demasi getting accidentally hit by a bolt of lightning or choking himself to death with plastic bags in the jail shower. That might ruin Chicago's reputation. "He's a con artist, and he's not tough," said a guy I know, a fellow wise in the ways of Chicago wiseguys, politicians and the clubs. "But on the street, there are people who think he can hurt them with what's inside his head. Whether he can or not, I don't know." * * * But they're on the outside. Demasi is inside, far removed from magnums of champagne and the glitter of the clubs, locked behind bars, where accidents can happen.
Fritchey enjoys the backing of a politically connected father-in-law, other clout-heavy Democratic North Side ward bosses and many labor unions. * * * Fritchey said his congressional campaign is the target of critics who have made him "a victim of insinuation" and "try to paint me as a product of ward organizations." Fritchey, 44, was an assistant Illinois attorney general in the early 1990s when he met his wife, Karen. She's the daughter of Samuel V.P. Banks, the de facto 36th Ward Democratic boss and arguably City Hall's most influential zoning lawyer. Banks' name also came up during the 2007 federal Family Secrets trial of local organized-crime figures. An Outfit burglar [Sal Romano] testified that he used Banks to funnel bribes to police when he got caught. Banks has not been charged with any crime. Asked about his father-in-law, Fritchey replied, "There has never been any showing of any impact on my service to the community based on who my relatives are. None."
Samuel Banks was on the payroll of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, and its successor organization, Unite Here, since at least 1989. A court-appointed union watchdog raised questions more than a decade ago about what Mr. Banks did for his salary there. In August 2007, former mob-linked burglar Sal Romano testified at the Family Secrets trial that he had bribed police officers through Mr. Banks and another lawyer. Mr. Banks, who is also a criminal defense attorney, hasn't been charged with wrongdoing. Mr. Banks is the brother of Chicago Alderman William Banks (36th), father of tollway board member James Banks and father-in-law of state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago. * * * A labor leader said the split had nothing to do with the accusation made at the trial. * * * Mr. Banks was a close associate of the late Ed Hanley, who ran the international union until he was forced out in 1998 amid corruption allegations by a court-appointed monitor. Around that time, the monitor, former U.S. Justice Department attorney Kurt Muellenberg, released a report that, among other things, questioned what Mr. Banks and other consultants did for the union since their work was not documented or itemized.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón's sweeping crackdown on narco-traffickers has triggered a desperate backlash of violence "of a different degree and level than we've ever seen before," Napolitano said in her first appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee. "It is something that deserves our utmost attention right now," she said. Napolitano said she has reached out to national security adviser James L. Jones, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and local and state law enforcement officials to review ways to assist Mexican law enforcement; stop the flow of guns, assault rifles and cash from the United States into Mexico; and identify areas in which more resources might be needed. * * * "It is a state of war," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.). He noted that Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) called Tuesday for 1,000 additional federal troops or agents to be sent to the state out of concern that security along the border was inadequate. U.S. intelligence officials as recently as yesterday restated their assessment that drug-related corruption and violence against government leaders and the military have limited the Mexican government's authority. More than 6,000 deaths last year were attributed to the crackdown, twice as many as in 2007, with an additional 1,000 killings this year, Napolitano said.
ORC involves sophisticated crime rings that move from store to store stealing large quantities of goods. The stolen merchandise is then sold, often to unknowing customers, through flea markets, swap meets, pawn shops and, increasingly, on Internet auction sites. Tens of billions of dollars of merchandise is stolen annually by these criminals. * * * Because of widely varying state laws and the lack of a clear federal criminal statute addressing ORC, gangs who move from store to store stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise are often only subject to minor misdemeanor charges. * * * ORC jeopardizes the health and well-being of consumers, communities and businesses by exposing innocent consumers to potentially tampered or tainted goods; robs states of billions in sales tax revenue, and costs retailers tens of billions of dollars each year. Furthermore organized retail criminals often use the profits from ORC to fund other crimes.
About the bills:
*** The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2009 introduced by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and co-sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would clarify existing law to give law enforcement the tools to fight ORC, require on-line and off-line market places to investigate suspicious sales, and place basic disclosure requirements on on-line marketplaces.
*** The Organized Retail Crime Act of 2009 HR 1173, introduced by Congressman Brad Ellsworth (D-IN) and co-sponsored by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) would amend federal criminal code, making it illegal to engage in activities that further organized retail crime. To deter illegal activities of organized retail criminals, it would also impose specific and narrow obligations upon on-line marketplaces known to be used by high-volume sellers of stolen merchandise.
*** The E-Fencing Enforcement Act of 2009 HR 1166, introduced by Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) is a carefully tailored bill that tackles the selling of stolen goods on-line, the bill would address ORC by imposing reasonable duties on on-line marketplaces to collect information that law enforcement can in turn use to prosecute those that fence goods on their websites. The bill requires that on-line marketplaces halt the sale of goods on websites if the goods are determined to be stolen.
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