Friends of Ours

Warnings Of Medicare Scams Ignored

Repeated letters to The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services warning of multi-million dollar scams against the system by organized crime groups were ignored as reported by Kelli Kennedy for The Associated Press:

For three years, the federal agency in charge of preventing Medicare fraud repeatedly ignored internal watchdog warnings about swindlers stealing millions of dollars by scamming several programs, documents show. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services received roughly 30 warnings from inspectors over three years — mostly under the Bush administration — but didn't respond to half of them, even after repeated letters, according to records provided to The Associated Press by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley's office.

DeCavalcante Informer Gets 1 1/2 Years

Vincent Palermo, the reputed former acting boss of the DeCavalcante family who had been living in Texas under the witness protection program after turning government informant against the crime family following his 1999 arrest, has been jail for unspecified reasons as reported by Kati Cornell for the New York Post:  "Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff this week sentenced him to 1½ years in prison after weighing his long record against his admittedly 'off-the-charts' cooperation with the feds."  Palermo allegedly had become involved with the strip club industry in Houston.

The Judge Denies The Saint

A federal judge denied the motion by reputed Patriarca capo Anthony St. Laurent to have the indictment against him dismissed, and the Saint now will stand trial for allegedly trying to arrange on three separate occasions a hit on reputed fellow capo Robert "Bobby" DeLuca as reported by Tim White for WPRI in Providence, RI:

Earlier this year St. Laurent filed a motion to dismiss claiming a 2006 plea agreement with the government cleared him of the charges. The government fired back that they had no such deal, and the judge agreed. "Defendant's interpretation of the plea bargain finds no support in the text of the agreement, his statements at the plea hearing, or the evidence of the parties' negotiations," Judge Smith writes in the ruling.

Opinion and Order Denying St. Laurent's Motion To Dismiss

The Junior Gotti Racketeering Trial

The racketering and murder trial against the mob scion went to the jury at 1 pm this afternoon as reported by Alison Gendar and Larry Mcshane for the Daily News:

The jury, due back Thursday at 10 a.m., spent about four hours working before knocking off Wednesday at 5 p.m. The panel is to deliberate seven hours a day with no lunch break.

Further reporting:

New York Post:  Jury begins deliberating Gotti case

Italian Politician Faces Mafia Collusion Charge

Italian prosecutor Raffaele Piccirillo has authorized an arrest warrant for Italian Undersecretary of Finance Nicola Cosentino for allegedly colluding with the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia on garbage disposal issues as reported by Steve Scherer and Lorenzo Totaro for Bloomberg:  "Cosentino, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Liberty party, said the accusations 'are rubbish,' La Stampa newspaper reported today, citing an interview."

Meanwhile, Chiara Remondini reports for Bloomberg that Cosa Nostra or "the Sicilian Mafia planned to kidnap Silvio Berlusconi in the 1970s, when Italy's premier was a real- estate developer in Milan, mob turncoat Gaspare Mutolo told the Italian edition of Vanity Fair," and Berlusconi later "hired mobster Vittorio Mangano to live at his villa near Milan and protect him."

March 1: Trial In Murder Of Genovese Capo

The trial for Fotios "Freddy" Geas, charged with planning the 2003 hit against New England Genovese capo Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, has been adjourned from February 1 to March 1 in order "to allow for a broader pool of potential jurors" as reported by Stephanie Barry for The Republican:

Bruno was shot seven times in a darkened parking lot outside the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Society in the city's South End on Nov. 23, 2003, the eve of his 58th birthday. After turning government witness, admitted triggerman Frankie A. Roche told investigators he was paid $10,000 to ambush Bruno, the regional boss for the New York-based crime family. Although a fringe character, Roche, 35, said he was the pick to shoot Bruno amid a high-level power play for control of the area's rackets. Investigators have said Geas, labeled as the muscle for Bruno successor Anthony J. Arillotta, acted as a conduit between Roche and higher-ranking mobsters but have not specified for whom. Arillotta has not been charged, nor have any New Yorkers.

The Junior Gotti Racketeering Trial

Federal prosecutors and defense lawyers made their closing arguments yesterday in the racketeering and murder trial against Junior, and today the case goes to the jury as reported by Larry Neumeister for the Associated Press:

Don't believe a defense lawyer's argument that John "Junior" Gotti quit organized crime with a sudden epiphany more than a decade ago, a prosecutor told a jury Monday during closing arguments in Gotti's fourth trial on racketeering charges in as many years. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Trezevant called the claim contrary to evidence. "It makes no sense," he said as he started daylong closings. Gotti would have had to turn against hundreds of mobsters working for him and immediately stop more than a decade of "nonstop crime," Trezevant said. "He has never, never quit that life," the prosecutor said as Gotti sat calmly at the defense table at the 2-month trial. * * * Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, countered the prosecution's closing by attacking the government's turncoat witnesses, saying they were willing to tell lies about Gotti to reduce their own prison sentences.

Alison Gendar for the Daily News writes:

John A. (Junior) Gotti is a career crook who reveled in the vicious acts needed to protect his drug empire, prosecutors said Monday as the mobster's fourth trial wound down. Prosecutor Jay Trezevant told jurors Gotti "built and ran a massive cocaine trafficking operation" and did "whatever was necessary" to keep it flourishing. Despite his claims to have gone straight, Gotti "never never quit that life," Trezevant said. He compared Gotti's main defense - that he left the mob in 1999 - to a balloon where "the smallest hole, one pin prick and it's gone." He said Gotti's claim to have left the mob was "complete nonsense...made up to escape prosecution."

Further reporting:

New York Post:  Feds: Gotti would do anything to protect drug ring

AFP:  NY mafia scion's farewell to crime a "sham": prosecutors

Graveyard For Russian Mobsters

In Ekaterinburg, Russia a cemetary maintains a section which is reserved for the burial of reputed gangsters, and not surprisingly their final resting places are marked by "tastleless graves with expensive marble headstones" as reported by the Telegraph:

In true gangster style the showy tombstones display many of the men they symbolise wearing clothing preferred by mafia men during the bloody era. Russian enthusiast Alan Gignoux, who visited the graveyard this summer, said: "Most of the images showed men clad from head to toe in 90's Mafiosi leather. Some of them even had their speciality etched on the tombstones such as 'judo sixth dan' or an 'expert in the use of knives.'"

Bulgaria: "Big Mafia Bosses Are Still Untouchable"

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov "has harshly criticized the popular new centre-right government for its failure to impose measures to combat crime, saying the mafia bosses in the country remain untouchable" as reported by Sofia News Agency:

"Why doesn't the government act as swiftly in combating the bosses of the organized crime, who have turned into one of the symbols of the Bulgarian transition?" Parvanov said. "I can't shake off the feeling that the big mafia bosses are still untouchable."

Fugitive Camorra Boss Nabbed

Luigi Esposito, a reputed leader of the Nuvoletta clan from the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia, has been arrested after several years on the lam as reported by BBC News:  "He had been on the run since 2003. He was sentenced to nine years is prison for drug trafficking and associating with mafia in 2006."

Video Gaming: Excluding Mob "Almost Impossible"

Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe has stated that "it is 'an almost impossible job' to keep the mob out" of video gambling as reported by Joseph Ryan for the Daily Herald:

The comments by the former judge and lawmaker come as regulators get down into the nitty-gritty of deciding how to regulate an expected 45,000 slotlike machines that could rake in more than $1 billion in lost wagers a year. * * * [O]ne question that is so far unanswered is whether to allow legal machines at bars or clubs that have faced charges for operating illegal video gambling machines in the past. Illegal machines are often run by organized crime. Jaffe said if he had his way, those who have faced charges for illegal machines in the past will be frozen out of the legal business.

Massage Parlor Raids

In Western Massachusetts federal and state authorities raided eight "massage parlors" which they believe "may have links to a Chinese organized crime ring operating out of suburban New York City" as reported by Buffy Spencer for The Republican.