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Chicagoland: Reputed Mobster Gets A Mere Year

The judge didn't see it.

Last year Rudy "the Chin" Fratto pled guilty to bid rigging on a forklift contract for trade shows at the expo center McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, and yesterday U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced him to a rather insignificant year and a day in prison after declaring from the bench that "I am unable to make a finding there was a nexus between the fraud and any alleged connections to organized crime" as reported by Annie Sweeney for the Chicago Tribune.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Fratto "was a 'made' member of the mob who used his connections with the Outfit to advance the bid-rigging scheme," and accordingly argued he should receive a sentence of more than two years.

Among the evidence which the government presented to Judge Leinenweber was a secret recording in which Fratto purportedly stated "I'm the … boss of this area around here.  No one else."

Last August Judge Leinenweber sentenced reputed Outfit mobster Joseph Scalise to the lowest end of the sentencing guidelines even while recognizing "he probably shouldn't grant such a favor" as previously reported by Chuck Goudie for WLS.

Feds To Judge: Give Rudy Fratto More Prison Time For Alleged Mob Membership

Last year Rudy "the Chin" Fratto pled guilty to bid rigging on a forklift contract for trade shows at the expo center McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, and although sentencing guidelines call for only 18 to 24 months federal prosecutors want the  judge to consider additional time at Fratto's sentencing hearing this Wednesday based on his alleged membership in the Outfit as reported by Chuck Goudie for WLS:

Prosecutors will say that Fratto was a "made" member of the Chicago outfit, and that in a Hollywood-style fingerpricking ceremony on Father's Day of 1988, Fratto was inducted in the mob. According to the government, a "person would not even be considered for that status until he had committed a homicide on behalf of the outfit."

The feds intend to call Nick Calabrese -- the mob hitman who flipped to testify against top leaders in the Chicago Outfit during the Family Secrets trial -- as a witness to bolster their allegations against Fratto. 

Mob Boss Pleads Guilty To Bid Rigging

Reputed Chicago mobster Rudy "the Chin" Fratto has pleaded guilty to bid rigging on a forklift contract for trade shows at the expo center McCormick Place as reported by Chuck Goudie for WLS:  "for years, law enforcement has considered Chicago's McCormick Place as a mob Mecca, where gangsters were drawn by lucrative contracts with trade shows, exhibitors and convention producers paying the price."  Although Fratto faced up to 20 years for the crime federal prosecutors only are seeking between 1 1/2 to 2 years when he is sentenced in February.  Heck, Fratto can do that time standing on his head.

The Chin Will Stand Trial Alone

Rudy "the Chin" Fratto will be a lonely boy at his trial next month in a Chicago federal courthouse on big rigging charges.

The reputed Outfit mobster's co-defendant in the case, businessman William Anthony Degironemo, pleaded guilty to mail fraud last Thursday as reported by Ryan Haggerty for the Chicago Tribune:  "as part of the agreement, prosecutors will move to dismiss a charge of making a false statement to a federal agency and will recommend that Degironemo be sentenced to up to 21 months in prison."  Sentencing for Degironemo is scheduled for Feb. 16.

Feds Won't Talk Mob At Suspected Mobster's Trial

In Chicagoland the feds are swearing to omerta.

At the upcoming November trial against reputed Outfit enforcer Rudy "the Chin" Fratto and his co-defendant William Anthony Degironemo federal prosecutors promise not to make any references to the Mafia including the use of suggestive nicknames as reported by John Kass for the Chicago Tribune.

The pair are charged with rigging a bid on a forklift contract for trade shows at the lakefront expo center McCormick Place, and Degironemo's defense lawyer argued that his client should not be tainted at trial with mob talk:

"It is understood by everyone that Mr. Degironemo was just a businessman who has no affiliation with alleged organized crime," his wily attorney, Joseph Duffy, told me over the phone the other day.

"The government agreed with our motions. References to organized crime will be struck out of the indictment, and the jury won't hear about it," said Duffy, a former prosecutor. "The jury will hear about a businessman seeking a contract at McCormick Place."

Only in Chicago can one allegedly scheme with a reputed mobster without being accused as a mob associate.

When It Rains, It Pours

Reputed Chicago mobster Rudy Fratto, scheduled to report to prison next month to serve a year-and-a-day sentence following his federal income tax evasion conviction last November, was arrested today on a new mail fraud charge in connection with an alleged bid-rigging scheme on a forklift contract for trade shows at the lakefront expo center McCormick Place as reported by Jeff Coen and Ray Gibson for The Chicago Tribune:

The new indictment alleged that Fratto saw an opportunity when a consultant for a Las Vegas exposition firm was on the hook with Cleveland organized-crime figures for $350,000. Fratto, nicknamed "the Chin" and "Uncle Rudy," cited his Outfit ties in offering to intervene with the Cleveland mobsters, prosecutors alleged, but in return Fratto wanted the consultant to leak confidential information on competitors' bids and help steer business to an associate. Armed with the inside information, Fratto's co-defendant, William Anthony Degironemo, who operated MidStates Equipment Rentals and Sales, undercut the competition and won the forklift contracts for the International Machine and Tool Show and the National Plastics Exposition in 2006, prosecutors said.

Download United States Attorney's Press Release