Friends of Ours

New Orleans Discovers Racketeering Law

The New Orleans District Attorney has brought a racketeering indictment against 15 suspected members of the 110'ers gang "involving 15 killings, numerous attempted murders and armed robberies and other violence across the city" as reported by John Simerman for The Times-Picayune.  Among the charged murders is the 2012 killing of a 5-year-old girl who was brought down by stray gunfire while attending a birthday party.  Apparently the DA only recently discovered the "obscure state racketeering statute."  Really?  Better late than never.

Federal Judge Spares Mel Weiss From More Jail

Disgraced lawyer Melvyn Weiss violated his parole by drinking and driving but a federal judge isn't sending the sad sack back to jail as reported by Dana Feldman and Nate Raymond for Reuters:

Weiss, 77, reached a deal with federal prosecutors on the eve of a Friday hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on whether to revoke his release following an arrest in December for driving under the influence in Boynton Beach, Florida.  The agreement came after Weiss pleaded guilty to the DUI charge on April 18 in Florida and was sentenced to 12 months probation and 50 hours of community service, court records show.  At a Los Angeles court hearing on Friday, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said that Weiss had been publicly embarrassed by the DUI episode and had learned his lesson.

Weiss was a founding partner of Milberg Weiss, and convicted in 2008 on a racketeering charge for his role in an alleged decades-long scheme in which serial plaintiffs were paid kickbacks out of the attorneys' fees for filing their shareholder lawsuits.  The once high-flying legal eagle was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, and still on probation when pulled over for allegedly doing 90 mph in a 65 mph zone in December as then reported by Toni-Ann Miller for The Palm Beach Post.

When the deputy approached the vehicle, he said he smelled alcohol on the driver's breath and that the driver appeared impaired. The report says the driver's eyes were "bloodshot and glassy," his speech was slurred, and he was unsteady on his feet.

From his back seat in the patrol car Weiss asked "Do you know who I am?" and then answered his own question by stating a "pretty well known person" at which point the self-important little man fell asleep according to the arrest report as reported by Joe Patrice for Above The Law:   "'Pretty well known person.' Aww, Mel still thinks it's 2006."

Further reading that may be of interest:

Corporate Counsel Trade Group Challenges Use Of Temp Lawyers By Plaintiff Class Action Firms

Federal Judge Rules Whitey Bulger Cannot Assert Immunity Defense At Murder Trial

A federal judge has ruled that Whitey Bulger cannot argue at his racketeering trial next month that he had legal immunity for his alleged crimes as reported by The Boston Globe:

US District Court Judge Denise J. Casper, who took over the case in March, wrote in a 31-page opinion that Bulger's "claimed immunity is not a defense to the charged crimes to be presented to the jury at trial."  Casper said Bulger’s claim of immunity was a question of "contract law," which he should have asked the court to resolve prior to trial as part of a motion to dismiss the sweeping federal racketeering indictment that alleges he participated in 19 murders in the 1970s and 1980s.  Bulger's failure to ask the judge to rule on his immunity assertion does not give him the right to present it to a jury, she wrote.

Bulger's defense lawyer J. W. Carney Jr. claimed that some time prior to December 1984 Jeremiah O'Sullivan, the former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, granted Bulger immunity for his crimes in exchange for information to nail the Italian Mafia which was public enemy number one during the 1970s and 1980s.

Boston lawyer Harvey Silverglate says Judge Casper's "decision is unfairly protective of the Department of Justice in that the public will never get to learn in more detail about the department's relationship with Whitey Bulger."

FBI Files Reveal Enforcer Stephen Flemmi Was Better Informant Than His Boss Whitey Bulger

The FBI's 1,600 page informant files on Winter Hill boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his one-time enforcer Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi reveal that Flemmi "provided more intelligence on the New England mob than Bulger" as reported by Tim White for WPRI:  "the files show Bulger was an informant from 1975 to 1990 while Flemmi's years date back to approximately 1967," and "Flemmi's access to members of the Patriarca crime family was evident in several references."

Of couse, as an Italian Flemmi obviously would have had "far better access" to the wise guys as aptly noted by Boston Globe investigative reporter Shelley Murphy who has co-authored a book on Bulger: 

"Flemmi, the son of Italian immigrants, had been offered membership in the Mafia," Murphy said. "[Flemmi] politely declined because he didn't really like them that much and it was more lucrative for him to work with Whitey with the protection of the FBI."

The murder trial against Bulger is set for this June, and among the government's witnesses will be Flemmi.  There's "no love lost between these two," and "Flemmi claims he thought about killing Whitey" as reported by Howie Carr for the Boston Herald.

Report: Obama Pick For French Ambassador Folds Over Alleged Ties To Poker Ring

Billionaire Marc Lasry who runs a Manhattan hedge fund was slated to become the next French ambassador but apparently he's declined the post over his alleged friendship with Illya Trincher whom federal prosecutors accuse of heading a gambling and money laundering ring with ties to the Russian Mafia as reported by the New York Post:  "'it's not that he committed a crime, but it opens a can of worms,' a source said."

Trincher and co-defendant Hillel "Helly" Nahmad, an art dealer and spoiled playboy, allegedly headed a racketeering enterprise which operated poker games in New York for the fabulous set, and they were among dozens arrested by the FBI earlier this month.

At a bail hearing on Wednesday for Anatoly Golubchik  federal prosecutors sought to dissuade the judge from any conception that the ring was just harmless fun and games for the rich and famous as reported by the New York Post: 

Golubchik, whom the feds claim helped run a multimillion-dollar illegal-gambling operation out of Nahmad's $5 million Trump Tower condo, answered directly to reputed Russian crime boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, the prosecutor said.  "This is the top of the top of the top in organized crime in Russia," he noted, in arguing against Golubchik's bid to maintain bail.

Tokhtakhounov is charged in the indictment for allegedly heading a separate racketeering enterprise with Illya Trincher's father Vadim, and Tokhtakhounov remains a fugitive as reported by Richard Behar for Forbes:

The feds call him a "major figure in international Eurasian Organized Crime" who has been involved in "drug distribution, illegal arms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles." In the current gambling case, he's accused of using his status as a thief-in-law (or vory v zakone) -- a select group of the highest-level criminals in Russia -- to resolve disputes with gambling clients with threats of violence.

In the past Tokhtakhunov allegedly has been linked to Semion "The Brainy Don" Mogilevich, the supposed "boss of bosses" over Russia's organized crime networks, who is under federal indictment for allegedly "swindling Canadian and U.S. investors out of $150 million in a complex international financial scheme" as previously reported by Jeanne Meserve for CNN.

It's unlikely that the feds ever will bring Tokhtakhunov or Mogilevich to justice given that the United States has no extradition treaty with Russia where both men are living.