Friends of Ours

Kim Rothstein Charged Over Pretty Baubles

Apparently she's a bit like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, and she must have the precious.

Kim Rothstein, the wife of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, has been charged by federal prosecutors in Fort Lauderdale, FL with "conspiring to hide more than $1 million in jewelry from federal authorities," and "among the items was a 12.08-carat fancy intense yellow diamond ring" as reported by Jon Burstein for the Sun Sentinel. 

Scott Rothstein ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme involving his law firm as a front to sell phony legal settlements to investors, and he alleged pervasive public corruption and organized crime in South Florida during deposition testimony last December "arising from the bankruptcy of Rothstein's shuttered law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, and various lawsuits filed by investors" as then reported by Jon Burstein for the Sun Sentinel:

"We were involved in public corruption with politicians," said Rothstein in transcripts of his Dec. 14 testimony released early Friday evening. "We were involved in public corruption with law enforcement. We were involved in activities with mob-related individuals. We were involved in activities involving the physical threats of other individuals. We were involved in the public corruption side of purchasing of political positions. We were involved in the manipulation of the judiciary."

Rothstein was sentenced to fifty years in prison but likely will get a reduction based on his cooperation with the FBI in a sting which resulted in the bust of Miami Beach, FL wine merchant Roberto Settineri whom U.S. and Italian authorities suspect is an intermediary between the Gambino crime family and the Santa Maria de Gesu clan from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia. Settineri was sentenced in November 2010 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The feds should declare South Florida a racketeering enterprise and put the region under receivership if Scott Rothstein is to be believed.

Poll:  Which area of the U.S. is most corrupt?

NYPD Cop Charged With Conspiracy To Murder Witness In Ticket Fixing Scandal

An NYPD cop who allegedly was fixing tickets in exchange for stolen electronics has been charged with conspiring to hire a hitman to rub out the witness who ratted on him as reported by the New York Post: 

José Ramos, a 17-year NYPD veteran, arranged the assassination from his Rikers jail cell with the help of his wife, Wanda Abreu, prosecutors said. * * * "They need him. Without him, they have no case," Ramos allegedly said of [the witness] in one of several taped calls with his wife.

The dirt spilled by the witness sparked an investigation into ticket fixing at the NYPD which resulted in the indictment of sixteen cops last October.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Further reading that may be of interest:

Ticket-Fixing Is Old-Fashioned Corruption

NYPD Corruption:  Same As It Ever Was?

Charge: Camorra Mobsters Corrupted Tax Man

Sixteen tax court judges are among the sixty suspects arrested in a raid targeting the Fabbrocino clan from the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia, and assets worth about 1 billion euros or $1.31 billion have been seized as reported by ANSA:  "prosecutors believe corruption led to dozens of tax disputes being settled against the State and frequently in favour of people linked to the Camorra."

Cop Fixed Ticket For Mobster

Apparently New York City's boys in blue aren't the only cops who have been charged with fixing tickets.

In Montreal, QB Canada a Sureté du Québec police officer made a ticket disappear for a wise guy as reported by CJAD:

Serge Parent pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and theft of a speeding ticket that was given in 2003 to Francesco Arcadi, a top-ranking member of the Rizzuto crime family. Parent's uncle, who runs a café known as a mafia headquarters, had asked him to do the favour for Arcadi without mentioning his name at the time. Parent insists he never asked and didn't know after the fact either.

Parent may lose his job "because of provincial legislation which prohibits anyone with a criminal from working as a police officers" as reported by Paul Cherry for the Montreal Gazette:  "Parent is now expected to face a disciplinary hearing to determine his future with the SQ."

Ticket-Fixing Is Old-Fashioned Corruption

Last month sixteen cops were arrested for their alleged roles in a wide-spread ticket-fixing ring within the NYPD, and some -- including Eric Adams, a state senator from Brooklyn and former city police captain, and Ernie Naspretto, a Daily News reporter and a former city police caption -- attempt to downplay the charges as mere professional courtesy rather than egregious criminal behavior.

Although some apparent corruption apologists within the NYPD may euphemistically refer to ticket-fixing as extending a "professional courtesy," it sounds to those of us on the outside like they're unapologetically admitting "we take care of our own."

This cavalier attitude that some are more equal than others under the law has the public fuming including Pace Professor of Law Bennett L. Gershman who argues that the accused and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association through which many tickets allegedly were fixed should have been charged with racketeering:

In organizing, directing, and participating in the ticket-fixing conspiracy -- during which the crimes of larceny, obstruction of justice, criminal solicitation, and fraud were committed -- the union, its leaders and other high-ranking officers should have been charged with racketeering. * * * [A]s one examines the allegations of the widespread pattern of the ticket-fixing conspiracy alleged in the indictments, the conduct most assuredly is not "professional courtesy" -- it is a flagrant misuse of power by law enforcement and it involves blatant corruption. Given the length of time it allegedly has lasted, and its reliance on the union for its success, it is also racketeering.

The failure of many police even to comprehend the seriousness of the ticket-fixing allegations perhaps is emblematic of a culture of corruption within the NYPD, and could explain a broad array of more serious misconduct allegations that has plagued the department in recent months:  planting drugs on innocent people to meet arrest quotas, covering up crimes in some cases and making false arrests in other cases as favors to friends, and smuggling guns, shaking down drug dealers or robbing others for fun and profit.  After all, the failure to see the bright line between right and wrong -- particularly for someone otherwise sworn to uphold the law -- makes it easy for a cop to tumble down the slippery slope of wrongdoing.  Indeed, many of those accused in the ticket-fixing case are further implicated in more serious offenses, and that is not likely a coincidence.

The pattern of corruption which is emerging from the NYPD raises "questions about the department’s ability to police itself, said nearly a dozen current and former prosecutors who have handled corruption cases, as well as some current and former Internal Affairs supervisors and investigators" as reported by The New York Times, and several politicians now have called upon Mayor Bloomberg "to create an independent commission to investigate what they said was systemic corruption" as reported by Rob Harris for The New York Times.

The public faith in government institutions has been eroding for some time, and if the police can no longer command the respect of the people then the country might as well degenerate into a state of anarachy.  Frankly, on some days it appears we already are there.

16 Cops Arraigned In NYPD Ticket-Fixing Case

Sixteen New York City cops will be arraigned today following indictments by a Bronx grand jury for their alleged roles in a wide-spread ticket-fixing ring within the NYPD as reported by the Daily News: "ten of the ensnared cops have been indicted on charges related to fixing tickets, while six others are facing raps for crimes uncovered on wiretaps during the sweeping probe, said a source close to the investigation," and the charges include perjury, bribery, obstruction of justice, grand larceny and official misconduct.

Three charged cops are union trustees and six others are union delegates as reported by the New York Post.

The investigation was "plagued by leaks to union officials from within the Internal Affairs Bureau, several people briefed on the inquiry have said, and the leaks prompted a separate inquiry" as reported by William K. Rashbaum and Al Baker for The New York Times: "the lieutenant charged in the case, Jenarra Cobb, who worked on the initial stages of the inquiry when she was in Internal Affairs, has been indicted on several misdemeanor counts, disclosing wiretap information, official misconduct and obstructing governmental administration, several people said."

The Bronx District Attorney sought the criminal indictments for only the most egregious incidents of alleged police misconduct uncovered during the two-year ticket-fixing probe, and hundreds of other cops may be subject to internal NYPD disciplinary proceedings.

The alleged misconduct by police officers could compromise thousands of criminal cases which they investigated as reported by Kevin Deustch for the Daily News: "at least three juries have already acquitted defendants because they didn't trust arresting officers' testimony.

NYPD Officers Charged With Gun Running

Eight current and former NYPD officers have been arrested on federal gun trafficking charges as reported by William K. Rashbaum for The New York Times:

The charges allege that the officers — five are still on the force and three are retired — were involved in smuggling more than a dozen illegal handguns as well as M-16 rifles and shotguns, the people briefed on the case said. * * * The case includes allegations that some of the serial numbers of the weapons were defaced in an apparent effort to prevent them from being traced back to their source, suggesting that they were to be used in a crime, one of the people said.

Some of the defendants further have been charged with "illegally transporting other goods, including cigarettes and slot machines" as reported by NBC New York.

It's been a rough month for the NYPD.

Earlier this month a former detective testified at the corruption trial of a fellow officer that "it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas" in the Brooklyn South and Queens narcotic squads as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News, and a Bronx grand jury indicted seventeen cops for their alleged roles in a wide-spread ticket-fixing ring within as reported by Erin Einhorn and Rocco Parascandola for the Daily News.

Corruption Scandals Plague The NYPD

A former NYPD detective testified yesterday at the corruption trial of a fellow officer that "it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas" in the Brooklyn South and Queens narcotic squads as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News.

Meanwhile, in the Bronx, the grand jury indictment against seventeen cops for their alleged roles in a wide-spread ticket-fixing ring within the NYPD soon will be unsealed as reported by Erin Einhorn and Rocco Parascandola for the Daily News.

The Bronx District Attorney sought the criminal indictments for only the most egregious incidents of alleged police misconduct uncovered during the two-year ticket-fixing probe, and hundreds of other cops may be subject to internal NYPD disciplinary proceedings.

The ticket-fixing scandal was uncovered by a detective assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau during an investigation into "suspected ties between a cop and a drug dealer" as reported by Kevin Deutsch and Rocco Parascandola for the Daily News.