Friends of Ours

Organized Crime Behind Financial Fraud

Confirmed:  criminals are responsible for crime.

A recently released report by the RCMP says organized crime groups are behind financial fraud schemes in Canada as reported by Kathryn Blaze Carlson for the National Post:  "the Montreal mafia has a history of boiler-room schemes and stock market manipulation, while Nigerian organized crime groups in Ontario have been involved in telemarketing and investor fraud."

Meanwhile, a separate study by the federal government "concludes that the Canadian commercial construction sector is at a moderate to high risk of corruption and organized crime" as reported by The Canadian Press:  "a barrage of reports about cost overruns in the construction industy, and its ties to crime groups like the Mafia, has prompted a public inquiry that will soon begin in Quebec."

No surprises here.  Now that the problems have been identified for the umpteenth time how about doing something about it, eh?

Russian Mob Moves Into Miami, FL

South Florida long has been "easy money" for organized crime, and now the Russian Mafia is getting a piece of the pie as reported by Matt Gutman for ABC Nightline.

Among the rackets for which the Russian Mafia is becoming known is the B-Girls or Bar Girls scam in which a pretty girl seduces a drunk fool, and then racks up his bar tab with phony charges.

Former DEA agent Richard Mangan estimates that "the 'B-Girl' scam represented only 10 percent of the crimes the Eastern European mafia was involved in," and the South Florida group "also has been into credit card fraud, they've been into health care fraud, they've been into drugs, everything from stocks to market fraud to loan sharking."

 

The Calabrian Mafia In Canada

In ordering the deportation of Carlo Figliomeni the Immigration and Refugee Board heard testimony detailing the alleged presence of the 'ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia in Toronto, ON Canada as reported by Adrian Humphreys for the National Post:

During four days of hearings into Mr. Figliomeni's admissibility to Canada, the IRB heard testimony from a York Regional Police detective about several 'Ndrangheta clans living in and around Toronto. In its written decision, released yesterday, the IRB accepted evidence that Mr. Figliomeni is part of the Figliomeni crime group, whose "leadership is identified as being vested in both Angelino and Cosimo Figliomeni, who are cousins of the subject of this hearing." Police allege the organization has been involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, importing and exporting drugs as well as stock fraud. The clan is closely tied to other mob groups active in Canada, including the Coluccio and Commisso crime families, all of which are part of the wider Siderno group, according to the decision. "The Siderno crime group operates throughout Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe and is composed of a group of families who are related by blood or marriage. "The Siderno crime group has many leaders, from Siderno, Italy and in Ontario as well," the decision says, summarizing police evidence. The Figliomeni clan also has a representative on the 'Ndrangheta's powerful board of control, called the Camera di Controllo in Italian, which resolves disputes and organizes competing enterprises of various Calabrian crime clans in the Greater Toronto Area, according to the decision.

The IRB ordered Carlo Figliomeni out of the country for his failure to disclose to authorities "when he immigrated in 1988 that he had a record in Italy for stashing weapons for criminals connected to the 'Ndrangheta" as reported by Peter Edwards for The Toronto Star:

[An Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in January] was told he stashed the weapons during a bloody war between the Costa and Commisso clans in the southern Italian province of Calabria in the early 1990s. Italian police suspected he and family members sided with the Commisso forces. Figliomeni was convicted in Italy of possessing illegal, unregistered guns found hidden on his parents' property in the town of Locri.

Florida Is Open Territory

Reflecting upon the arrest earlier this month in Miami, FL of Roberto Settineri pursuant to an alleged international Mafia raid, Peter Franceschina and Jon Burstein from the Sun Sentinel report on the long history of organized crime in Florida:

Ever since the ruthless Chicago mobster Al Capone bought a mansion on Miami's Palm Island in 1928, South Florida has been a destination for organized crime figures who want to relax and do a little business. The rackets have evolved over the years — loan-sharking, extortion and gambling have largely given way to stock scams, money laundering and white-collar fraud — and the Italians and Jews of yore have been joined by rival contingents from Russia, Israel and South America. But the culture of greed and violence has remained a constant. * * * Federal prosecutors roll out indictments against the Italian Mafia every year, charging everything from murder to money laundering, but younger Mafiosi come up the ranks to fill the voids left by the prison sentences and old-age deaths of top family members.

Bob Norman from "The Daily Pulp" blog over at the Broward Palm Beach News took a look at the Sun Sentinel article, and he has quite a bit more to add on the subject:  "If you really want to know about the Mafia in Broward, read on. And the easiest way to chart the Mafia is, of course, through the ristorantes."