Friends of Ours

Nine Gambino Mobsters Sentenced

Nine reputed Gambino mobsters were sentenced on Wednesday and Thursday to light prison terms ranging from 18 months to 100 months after variously pleading guilty to the usual mob rackets such as sex trafficking, drug distribution, and gambling, loansharking and extortion as reported by Courthouse News Service.  The nine defendants were among the fourteen indicted in April 2010.  The other five defendants, including reputed boss Dan Marino, previously have been sentenced.  Marino was sentenced last January to five years in prison after pleading guilty to green lighting a 1998 hit on his Bonanno associate nephew Frank Hydell whom mobsters feared was cooperating with the feds.  If these boys were a black crew from the Crips or Bloods would the sentences have been as lenient?

FBI Press Release

Related:  Mafia Exploitation Of Kids:  Really A New Low?

Feds Bust Armenian Crime Group The Mirzoyan-Terdjanian In Massive Medicare Fraud Scheme

The feds have charged 73 defendants, including dozens of reputed members and associates of the transnational Armenian crime group known as the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian, for their alleged roles in a multi-state $163 million billing fraud scheme against Medicare according to an FBI press release:

According to the indictments, the defendants allegedly stole the identities of doctors and thousands of Medicare beneficiaries and operated at least 118 different phony clinics in 25 states for the purposes of submitting Medicare reimbursements. "The emergence of international organized crime in domestic health care fraud schemes signals a dangerous expansion that poses a serious threat to consumers as these syndicates are willing to exploit almost any program, business or individual to earn an illegal profit," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grinder.

According to the allegations contained in the indictment the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian "is named for its principal leaders, Davit Mirzoyan and Robert Terdjanian." Its leadership "is based in Los Angeles and New York" although "its operations extend throughout the United States and internationally." Among those indicted is Armen Kazarian who is an alleged "Vor" or "thief-in-law" which is characterized by the FBI as "a member of a select group of high-level criminals from Russia and the countries that has been part of the former Soviet Union, including Armenia."

 

Cleaning House

Obama goes bitter and paranoid: Democrat voter apathy "inexcusable" . . . Fox News is "destructive" to America . . . is the ghost of Richard Nixon haunting the White House?

Consumer confidence drops to lowest level since February . . . economy "close to a destructive tipping point" . . . CEOs' view of economy darkens . . . it's not a recovery without jobs . . . job loss looms as part of stimulus plan expires . . . new EPA rules will cost 800,000 more jobs

Imprisoned ex-NJ state senator Wayne Bryant indicted on new charges

MA liquor inspector Arthur Hitchman indicted on bribery charge

Cleaning House

Harlem, NY voters just love their scoundrel Charlie Rangel

Retirement on hold: American workers $6 trillion short

Greenspan:  so-called stimulus package "worked far less than expected"

So-called financial reform regulations let banks off easy . . . Bank of America warns consumers of new account fees

The crash, Obama and the disappearing Dem majority

New Black Panther voter intimidation case roars back

Anti-tax protesters put on terror watch list in PA

Sen. Harry Reid adds controversial immigration measure to defense bill

CNN Poll:  only 25% of the public trusts the government

FBI arrests Cuyahoga County, OH Comm'r Jimmy Dimora & two local judges

Cleaning House

Obama family to begin sixth holiday of the year . . . ten days on Martha's Vineyard

Weekly jobless claims jumps to 500,000 . . . fear of faltering recovery . . . CBO forecasts more tough economic times

Dems abandon claims that ObamaCare will reduce costs and deficit

U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Dugger pleads guilty to bribery in Afghanistan fuel theft case

Ex-Baton Rouge, LA prosecutor Flitcher Bell gets 3 years for case fixing

Corruption at issue in NM gubernatorial race

Two more indictments in Cuyahoga County, OH corruption probe

Two more indicted in widening North Providence, RI corruption probe