Enrico Ponzo, the reputed Patriarca associate discovered last February living as Jay Shaw in Marsing, ID after seventeen years on the lam, may be facing additional charges.
Ponzo is charged with a 1989 murder attempt against family boss Francis P. "Cadillac Frank" Salemme during a civil war but federal prosecutors are mulling whether to add fraud and perjury counts against him for not disclosing his cash and gold in an application for a court-appointed public defender as reported by Laurel J. Sweet for the Boston Herald:
The FBI found $102,020 in cash and $65,000 in gold coins inside an ammo can that Kelly Verceles, a tenant of the former fugitive, hid after breaking into a safe of Ponzo's that was buried in cement at his cattle ranch in Idaho, according to an FBI affidavit filed Friday in U.S. District Court.
"It is likely that Ponzo did not disclose to the court . . . that he had such a large amount of assets," the U.S. Attorney's Office told Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton in its motion for access to his financial history. "Committing perjury, perpetrating a fraud on this court and defrauding the public are serious matters."
Meanwhile, a trial against Verceles and two co-defendants who are accused of stealing Ponzo's stash, is set to begin on September 27 in Owyhee County, ID as reported by Patrick Orr for the Idaho Statesman.
