Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Secretly released and court documents sealed, will "Bent Finger" Lou Monacello rat on the Philly mafia?


La Cosa Nostra Meets Kosher Nostra


Meyer LanskyMeyer Lansky Retired Judge and Mafia Historians Reveal the True Alliance Between the Italian and Jewish Mobsters of Brooklyn
BROOKLYN — Italian and Jewish mobsters, respectively ‘La Cosa Nostra’ and ‘Kosher Nostra,’ came together to make money in America during the 1940s — but the dividing lines between the two groups never fully went away.
“The Guineas are comin’! Let’s get the Sheenies!” the Jewish Brownsville Boys would shout as they chased Ocean Hill Italians from back up to Atlantic Avenue, writer Ron Ross described of a typical Brooklyn scene during a panel last week on Italian and Jewish mob history, “La Cosa Nostra Meets the Kosher Nostra: From the Ghetto to the Boardroom.”
Then, by the time they got there, the Italians would turn around, grab horse manure from the street and fling it at the Jews, chasing them back into their own turf.
In a few years, the Brownsville Boys would be organizing with Italians to form Murder, Inc., which operated out of a Brownsville candy store and was estimated to be behind 400 to 700 murders as enforcers for the Mafia in New York City. Jews and Italians united, most of all, for profit.
“There’s a stereotype that Jewish guys were the bookkeepers and Italians were enforcers. That’s not true,” said panelist Eric Dezenhall, who is the author of “The Devil Himself.” “There were plenty of intelligent Italians who kept the books, and there were plenty of psychotic, violent Jewish guys.”
“It was all about making money,” added New York University professor Roberta Newman of the union between the two groups.
As Dezenhall put it, “There were some guys who were tribal, but some who just cared about making money. It wasn’t all guys who wanted to go into a restaurant and have everyone go ‘Oooh.’”
Retired Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edwin Torres, famed as the author of “Carlito’s Way,” which later spawned the 1980s mobster movie starring Al Pacino, moderated the panel and introduced the subject from a historical perspective.
In Italy, where famine, draught and political unrest ravaged the land during the late 1800s, people left in droves for the United States, just like Jews in Russia and Poland, who were living in shtetls and villages and subjected to anti-Semitism and pogroms, Torres said.
The second-generation immigrants, Jews and Italians who were born in America, were the ones who turned to crime, panelists said.
“The history of organized crime doesn’t have to do with ethnic groups, it has to do with when you got here,” Dezenhall said.
As Ross said about the Brownsville Boys who later became founding members of Murder Inc., “Their parents never had land of their own before or an apartment of their own before. … Clash for turf was a daily thing.”
The panel said that while Italian and Jewish mobsters worked together, real loyalty only existed between a few partners and friends — not between the groups as a whole.
Ross said La Cosa Nostra shunned some of its members who were overly loyal to Jewish mobsters.
A lot of the discussion focused on ironic differences between the two groups.
Dezenhall said that one Italian mobster, Lucky Luciano, told a Jewish mobster, Meyer Lansky, “One day, my son will run the Brooklyn waterfront.” The Jewish mobster replied, “My son works at NASA.”
“Jewish guys never brought their kids in [to the mob],” Dezenhall said.
And divisions between ethnic groups were part of life back then, Torres said.
Torres told the audience at this talk organized by the Museum of the American Gangster that as a Puerto Rican growing up in Spanish Harlem, he would get beat up by the Italian Redwings if he walked east past Park Avenue; or by the black gangs if he went west of Fifth Avenue.
Bummy the Brownsville Boxer
Ross, who grew up on the border of East Flatbush and Brownsville, heard many of these stories from his uncle, who owned a Brownsville gas station, and from his cousin, who trained with boxer Al “Bummy” Davis, who was known for standing up to the mobsters in Brooklyn.
Bummy was 5-foot-9 and chunky, but Ross said that when his cousin would come home from Beecher’s Gym in Brownsville and tell him stories about Bummy, “that made him 10 feet tall in my eyes.”
Ross’ book, “Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Inc.,” tells much of the history of the Italian and Jewish mobster alliance, but focuses on one particular event, when Bummy refused to throw a fight for the profit of one of Murder, Inc’s toughest killers, Abe Reles.
When Reles and his cohorts confronted Bummy on the sidewalk in the middle of the day, Bummy refused, and instead put his dukes up, snarling, “You want me, I’ll take all of ya’s! C’mon! I’ll take all of ya!’” He was left alone after that.
“It was the talk of Brownsville,” Ross said, and he claims in his book that Bummy’s actions even inspired some former Murder, Inc. henchmen to turn state’s evidence, leading to the eventual downfall and arrest of many Murder, Inc. members.
Ross also claims to have solved the mystery behind “The Canary Sang But Couldn’t Fly” — the mysterious death of Reles, thrown out of a guarded room at the Half-Moon Hotel in Coney Island after he was arrested and turned informant for prosecutors.
Mobsters Albert Anastasia and Franky Carbo whacked Reles by throwing him out the window, Ross claims, after Lansky paid the five policemen guarding Reles to “go to sleep.”
Ross said that he has this information firsthand from connections in the boxing world, which Carbo ruled back in the day, but said that he can’t reveal his sources on this information just yet.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=45091

Friday, July 29, 2011

Mobsters relationship with Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney


Governor Mitt Romney of MAIn March 2004 I was released from federal prison and I immediatly started working with Boston attorney Christopher C. Rich who was a friend of my "family". His parents Frank and Catherine are very wealthy and they are big financial supports of Mitt Romney and the Republican party.

In April 2004 I attended a Celtics/Pacers playoff game at Fleet Center with then Governor Mitt Romney. I won't say how this happened or comment on our relationship but I will say this. Within weeks of that game Christopher C. Rich was appointed CEO of Hubbard Regional Hospital, a state owned hospital in Webster Ma and I was appointed DIRECTOR OF SECURITY for the same hospital.

The funny part about this is the fact that neither one of us applied for these jobs. How I got the director of security position is nothing short of a miracle. I was just released from federal prison a month earlier, I was on federal probation, I had a conviction for armed robbery and gun possession in 1991 and I was a known mob associate that was under investigation on a bookmaking case at the time and had my phones tapped from the Mass state police.

Chris Rich took a salary of $1 and loves to tell people he did it out of the goodness of his heart.... The real story is that when he took the CEO job he got all of the collection work for the hospital which amounted to millions of dollars. This hospital had more dirty dealing going on than the mens room at Suffolk Downs race track.

It all blew up of course when someone from the Board of Directors, who knew something was amiss, did a little homework and checked on my backround. Within a few weeks there was article in the Boston Globe about it and that was the end of my Director of Security position.

Once Mitt Romney made it public he wouldn't be running for re election the Board of Directors fired Christopher C. Rich and gave him ten minutes to clean out his desk and get out of the building.

Then Christopher Rich tried to leave me holding the bag. That didn't work out to well though. After my conviction we found out my phones were tapped and the rest is history as they say.

Please vote for MITT ROMNEY in the Presidential election. I'm hoping for the DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY job.....LOL

If you would like to hear this story from top to bottom you will have to wait for my book to come out DIRTY MONEY available soon but to see my fox interview on the wire tap case just follow this link, its a good story.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/undercover/civic-leader-or-greedy-criminal-20110508

http://con-sulting.blogspot.com/2011/07/mobsters-relationship-with-mitt-romney.html

Sicilian Wiseguy Domenico Cefalu becomes Boss of the Gambino crime family once ruled by Gottis


The new boss of the mob clan once ruled by the late John Gotti is Sicilian-born gangster Domenico Cefalu, an ex-con who lives with his mother.
Sources say Cefalu, 64, has taken the reins of the Gambino crime family - a move that marks a stunning break with the late John Gotti's infamous era.
"I think they picked a Sicilian because they're tired of the old, fat, lazy American Italians who turn into rats," said a law enforcement source.
Cefalu's ascension, first reported by the Gang Land News website, comes at a sensitive time for the crime family - but even more so for the convicted felon. Two fellow gangsters on the family's ruling panel - Bartolomeo "Baboots" Vernace and Daniel Marino - are in jail, leaving Cefalu as the lone made man standing.
Cefalu is also still on supervised release for a 2008 extortion conviction and was warned at his sentencing by Federal Judge Jack Weinstein not to associate with any mobsters.
Cefalu is a low-key wiseguy who couldn't be more different than the flamboyant Gotti.
He lives with his mother in Bensonhurst and says he's a salesman for a baking supply company. He's also served time for a heroin conviction and for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury about his then-captain Pasquale Conte.
Lewis Kasman, the late Gotti's so-called "adopted son," disputed the opinions of law enforcement experts who say Gotti hated Sicilian mobsters.
"I think John was not a fan of [Cefalu] because of his involvement with narcotics," Kasman told the Daily News.
"John always said the Sicilians did the best work."

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Mobster's hidden treasure up for sale by feds



You don't often hear a story about government officials doing the mob's bidding. But, in this intelligence Report, that is just what the U.S. Marshal's Service is about to do with thousands of dollars in outfit cash.
The government is about to sell off some of the hidden treasure of a Chicago mobster.
This is the latest installment in the long saga of Frank "The Breeze" Calabrese and a stash of cash that he was hiding in his Oak Brook home.


Calabrese is now serving a life sentence for running outfit rackets and committing gangland murders.
After Calabrese was convicted in the Operation Family Secrets mob trial, federal agents found his hidden money and are about to sell it.
At the Oak Brook home of imprisoned mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr., down in the basement covered by a family portrait, authorities found Calabrese's secret hiding place. Loose diamonds, other expensive gems and finished jewelry had been stashed behind the drywall and the between the studs.
And there was $750,000 in cash, according to authorities, some of it in unusually large bills.
Now we know how big of a bounty. Calabrese had dozens of $1,000 and $500 bills, printed in the 1920s and 30s, that the government is about to auction to help satisfy the mobster's fines and court-ordered restitution.
According to a record in the Calabrese court file, the marshal's service and a Texas auction house will start the bidding on 125 rare bills, many in mint condition, during a two-week online auction. The bidding for each piece of currency will start at over face value.
Most 80-year-old currency is so worn that the government shreds it.
Today, the highest denomination printed by the government is $100. So, well-preserved, high denomination currency is frequently worth more than its face value.
In some recent auctions of similar $1,000 currency, individual bills have gone for eight or nine times the face value.
The government's auction that begins online on August 9 will feature 43 of Calabrese's bills of $1,000 denomination and 82 bills with a face value of $500.
The other Calabrese property, including 1,000 pieces of diamond jeweler, will be auctioned off as well someday, but the cash is being sold at a stand-alone auction.
One thing not on the sale block: More than a dozen audio tapes that were found hidden in Calabrese's basement. Federal authorities have never revealed what was recorded on them and why they were so important that they were stashed with the cash.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=8276975

Gambinos name Sicilian as new boss signaling end to the Gotti era


Mafia crime family structure treeImage via Wikipedia
The Gambino crime family has promoted former acting underboss Domenico "Italian Dom" Cefalu as the new official boss. Cefalu, currently on parole, was serving as acting underboss on the street for the jailed Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri. This change signifies the end of the leadership of the Gotti clan with previous boss Peter "One Eye" Gotti in jail serving a life sentence.

Recently on the street the family was being run by a three man ruling committee/panel which consisted of Daniel Marino (jailed), Bartolomeo "Bobby" Vernace (jailed), and John Gambino. John Gambino is reportedly on a wheelchair and gravely ill, and Vernace was recently named the family's new consigliere. The current leadership now consists of:
  • Boss: Domenico "Italian Dom" Cefalu (Paroled)
  • Underboss: Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri (Jailed)
  • Consigliere: Bartolomeo "Bobby Glasses" Vernace (Jailed, Under Indictment)
  • New Jersey Faction Boss: Alphonse "Funzi" Sisca
  • Estimated Membership: About 260 Made Members
Look out for an update to our current leadership charts section by the end of the year.

Poll results: What will be the outcome of the major mob bust this past January?


Mostly all will get plea deals
  68 (48%)
Those charged with murder will get serious time
  19 (13%)
Most of them will get out of jail within five years
  67 (48%)

Total votes: 139

Our readers overwhelmingly believe that most guys will get plea deals as we have recently been seeing, and that most of them will be out of jail within five years.

Be sure to vote in our new poll!

South Florida Gambino captain appeals real estate fraud sentence


A reputed captain of the Gambino crime family's South Florida operations asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to reverse his nine-year prison sentence on real estate fraud charges.
Vincent Artuso's attorneys asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to toss the conviction because prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to convict him of fraud and racketeering charges involving a scam that targeted ADT Security Services Inc. They also claim the trial was tainted by a biased juror.
But federal prosecutors countered that there was ample evidence in video recordings, audiotapes and court testimony that proved Artuso was a "made member" who ran a South Florida crew for the notorious crime family. And they said defense attorneys should have raised objections at trial if they were concerned about the juror.
Artuso was convicted of the charges in a 2008 trial after prosecutors built a case contending he was a captain of the Gambino crime family and directed a powerful crew that included his own son.
Prosecutors also asserted that Artuso was linked to the infamous hit that led to John Gotti's rise to power. They cited FBI affidavits and other evidence indicating Artuso was present on Dec. 16, 1985, when former Gambino boss Paul Castellano was gunned down in front of a Manhattan steakhouse — allegedly on Gotti's orders.
Gotti, known as the "Teflon Don" for his ability to avoid criminal convictions, was convicted in 1992 of racketeering and murder and died in prison a decade later.
Artuso was never charged in the Castellano killing, but prosecutors in January 2008 accused him of setting up a sale and leasing scheme involving four office buildings owned by ADT Security Services that defrauded the company of at least $11 million over five years. He and three others were convicted of the charges in October 2008.
At Wednesday's hearing, defense attorneys said prosecutors based much of their case against their client on a 20-year-old videotape that did little to link Artuso to the Gambinos, along with "prejudicial evidence" about the crime family in New York City that wasn't tied to the fraud charges.
"He knew John Gotti. That is not in dispute," said defense attorney Brenda Bryn. "That's not a crime. To know a Gotti or be known by a Gotti is not a crime."
She also urged the three-judge panel, which did not immediately rule, to reverse the conviction because an "unequivocally biased juror" was seated on the panel. She said a judge should have barred the juror from being seated because he indicated he would hold it against a defendant if they refused to testify on the stand. Artuso, she noted, did not testify at trial.
But William Shockley, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the defense team and judge failed to raise more questions about the juror during the trial. And he said there was plenty of other evidence aside from the 20-year-old video linking Artuso to the crime family, including 2006 audio recordings and testimony from other mafia leaders who acknowledged Artuso ran an active crew.
"This isn't simply an old Mafioso who has gone into retirement in Florida," said Shockley.

http://online.wsj.com/article/APbd26bb3037d64ccba252b1df34de1777.html

Longmeadow mobster Emilio Fusco denied bail in Al Bruno murder


A federal judge emphatically denied a motion by mobster Emilio Fusco to be released on bail as he awaits trial on racketeering charges that include the 2003 murders of mob boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno and another organized crime associate in Western Massachusetts.

Emilio Fusco, 42, of Longmeadow, Mass., moved to be released from prison and placed on house arrest while he also is appealing an extradition order by a judge in his native Italy that saw him transferred to the United States in May. Fusco was arrested in Italy in July 2009 after being indicted in a Manhattan court along with other local gangsters and the onetime acting boss of the Genovese crime family.

Mob enforcers Fotios and Ty Geas, of West Springfield, Mass., and Westfield, Mass., respectively, and then-capo Arthur “Artie” Nigro, of Bronx, N.Y., went to trial on essentially the same charges in March, were convicted by a jury and face mandatory life sentences. Fusco, on the other hand, fought extradition from Italy after the charges were brought, was excluded from that trial and is now scheduled to be tried alone in U.S. District Court in March.

U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel told the attorneys the bail argument wasn’t even a close call.

“While on bail and on electronic monitoring, Mr. Fusco participated in two murders,” Castel said, drawing from the evidence and testimony in the March trial. Fusco had been released on bail on a 2000 racketeering charge.

Castel said he wasn’t going to let Fusco “learn from past mistakes” and get out on bail simply to flee to another country with no extradition treaty with the United States.

Prosecutors successfully argued to Castel that Fusco fled after news reports began circulating that former mob soldier Anthony J. Arillotta, of Springfield, had joined ranks with the government shortly after his arrest last year and led them to the body of Gary Westerman, a Bruno associate who disappeared three weeks after Bruno was murdered.
Al Bruno Murder Case
Springfield, MA, May 3, 1993, Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno (center) talks with attorneys in the hallway of the Hampden County Superior Court during a recess in his trial for attempted murder. 
 
The FBI and Massachusetts State Police descended on a wooded lot in Agawam, Mass., in April 2010, recovering Westerman’s remains. Arillotta testified at the Geases’ trial that he, the Geases and Fusco teamed up to shoot and bludgeon Westerman, Arillotta’s brother-in-law, and then bury him in the woods.

They correctly believed Westerman was a police informant and Fusco allegedly was recruited to aid in the killing just three weeks after Bruno was gunned down outside his regular Sunday night card game at an Italian social club. Witnesses said Bruno was killed because Fusco began circulating a court record from a loan-sharking case (to which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison) confirming Bruno had spoken to an FBI agent about Fusco’s status in the Mafia.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas McQuaid told Castel that the theoretical arguments prosecutors usually make urging pretrial detainment of organized crime figures who could pose a threat to witnesses against them is a foregone conclusion in Fusco’s case.

“There’s no need to go there. He’s guilty. He’s killed people for these things,” McQuaid said during a lengthy hearing on Tuesday.

Fusco has denied all allegations; his lawyer argued that he had traveled to Italy to attend his sister’s 50th birthday party and to other family and business matters.

Defense lawyer William I. Aronwald told Castel that Fusco flew out on April 13, 2010, three days before his sister’s birthday but admittedly amid widespread media reports of the Westerman dig. Aronwald contended his return was delayed by his mother’s poor health, an Icelandic volcanic eruption and buisiness negotiations over a tire recycling contract back in the states.

“(The government) has not presented one witness who said Emilio Fusco said he was leaving the country because he knows the jig was up and he was about to be indicted,” Aronwald argued, adding that he routinely traveled to see his mother and siblings in Italy but has a wife, three children, a home and had a Dumpster business in Western Massachusetts.

Fusco became a naturalized citizen in 1996 after immigrating to this country in 1991 and later marrying. At issue in Italy was whether Fusco would face the death penalty and whether he was technically charged with murder. That country opposes extradition of its citizens under those circumstances, according to Aronwald. Because the structure of Fusco’s indictment on the murder counts is murky, Fusco is appealing the extradition order, his lawyer said.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/longmeadow_mobster_emilio_fusco_denied_bail_al_bruno_murder.html

Mafia informant attempts second suicide in three months


Mafia informant Francesco Mannoia, who has returned to Italy after 16-years living in the United States, has tried to kill himself for the second time in three months.
  He is coming to terms with the new informant protection system - now obliged to live no longer on almost 9,000 dollars a month, but on 900 Euros a month. Mannoia has had a clash with the Central Offfice of the protection program. He tried to kill himself once before and was hospitalized. He has tried to kill himself again with a cocktail of drugs in the hotel where he is living under the protection program. He was rescued by his wife, Rita Simoncini

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/elenco-notizie/201107271133-cro-ren1029-mafia_informant_marino_mannoia_tries_to_commit_suicide

Russian mob runs the world of the internet


Just how pervasive is cybercrime?
"There are probably some corporations and credit cards that haven't been hacked," said Kim Peretti, director in PricewaterhouseCoopers' forensic services practice. "But you have to assume you've been compromised."
Large, organized crime syndicates have been launching sophisticated attacks against individuals and major corporations for decades. The result of their efforts is the theft of billions of dollars every year, and a large, ongoing presence in many of our most sensitive computer systems.
These aren't petty thieves. They're committing breaches like the Sony (SNE) attack that stole credit card information from 77 million customers and the Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) hack that stole $2.7 million from about 3,400 accounts in May. They're organized, smart, and loaded with time and resources.
"It's not like the Mafia, it is a Mafia running these operations," said Karim Hijazi, CEO of botnet monitoring company Unveillance. "The Russian Mafia are the most prolific cybercriminals in the world."
Organized cybercrime is a truly international affair, but the most advanced attacks tend to stem from Russia. The Russian mob is incredibly talented for a reason: After the Iron Curtain lifted in the 1990s, a number of ex-KGB cyberspies realized they could use their expert skills and training to make money off of the hacked information they had previously been retrieving for government espionage purposes.
Former spies grouped together to form the Russian Business Network, a criminal enterprise that is capable of some truly scary attacks. It's just one of many organized cybercriminal organizations, but it's one of the oldest and the largest.
"The Russians have everyone nailed cold in terms of technical ability," said Greg Hoglund, CEO of cybersecurity company HBGary. "The Russian crime guys have a ridiculous toolkit. They're targeting end users in many cases, so they have to be sophisticated."

Where hacktivists lack patience and most fraudsters lack skill, organized crime syndicates like the RBN possess the necessary tools to hack just about any target they set their sights upon.
"They're incredibly persistent," said Jose Granado, leader of Ernst & Young's information security practice. "If it takes a year to set up their targets, then they'll wait the year."
Once a hacker in an organized crime unit has gained entry to a targeted system and reached the limit of his expertise, he'll send the hack up the chain to a more expert attacker. That continues until it reaches an organization's top hacker, who will often steal whatever information the organization wants and cover the previous hackers' trails.
Unlike their more boisterous hacktivist peers, organized crime groups don't want their victims to know they've been attacked. They design their presence in their victims' systems to be completely silent.
That's because their motives are very different. Hacktivists like Anonymous are seeking attention. Organized crime syndicates are after gobs of money.
Though credit cards continue to be a source of revenue for organized crime syndicates, experts say there's a supply and demand issue: There are so many stolen cards on the black market, they're not selling for nearly as much as they were several years ago.
As a result, many organized crime syndicates are now going after bigger fish: They're engaging in corporate espionage to steal intellectual property, source code and IT architectural renderings that they can sell to competitors.
"They could go after thousands of credit cards or one very, very sensitive document," said Larry Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute research center for cybersecurity. "The technologies that they're using are beyond the capabilities of most security systems. We're defenseless against those attacks; it's a big problem and it's only getting worse."
Our defenselessness means these crooks are making off with a lot of money.
Globally, data breaches are expected to account for $130.1 billion in corporate losses this year, according to the Ponemon Institute. Historically, about 30% of that total cost has been direct losses attributable to the breaches, which would mean about $39 billion will stolen in 2011.
"If you think about the money that organized crime has, if they throw out $100,000 to attack you, it's hard for a corporation to fight against that," said Dave Aitel, president of security firm Immunity Inc. and a former computer scientist at the National Security Agency.
To catch a cyberthief
As hard as it is for corporations to stop organized crime groups from attacking their systems, it's even more difficult for law enforcement officials to bring them to justice.
Since it's so easy to cover your trail online, the FBI's task isn't easy. It's incredibly hard to prove a person orchestrated an attack when a hack took dozens of different routes to get from point A to point B.
"The anonymous nature of the Internet creates plausible deniability for attack sources," said Jeff Bernstein, executive vice president of security intelligence contractor Critical Defence. "It's hard to fingerprint the source of an attack with absolute certainty."
Making things more difficult is the international aspect of organized cybercrime. For U.S. law enforcement to act on foreign soil, the FBI must be able to show cause.
"Russia won't do anything about it, so the FBI needs to dot their i's and cross their t's to go after them," said Charles Dodd, CEO of cyberwarfare intelligence organization Nicor Global, which contracts with the U.S. government. "But unless they're idiots and left fingerprints all over the place, these guys aren't leaving any forensic details. Bringing charges against them is very difficult."
That's why most cybercrime convictions involve a stroke of dumb luck.

Good fortune played a big role in the apprehension of Albert Gonzalez, the ringleader of one of America's most notorious organized cyber rings.
In 2008, U.S. law enforcement officials apprehended a hard drive of a cybercriminal arrested in Turkey, which contained logs of his chats with other cybercriminals.
Why would he keep those?
Most hackers have an identity on underground chat rooms, but more sophisticated criminals stay away from public or even password-protected boards, making them more difficult to catch. Some stay on smaller boards where they don't even use a handle -- they just use numbers.
"Criminals deal with so many other criminals in business transactions," said PwC's Peretti, who acted as the U.S. Justice Department's lead prosecutor in the Anthony Gonzalez case. "They don't know who they're dealing with, so recording chats allows them to remember others' identities and what's owed to them."
A search of the chats on the confiscated drive showed that the number 20167996 belonged to the lead attacker who compromised cash registers at TJ Maxx (TJX, Fortune 500) stores and stole nearly 46 million credit card numbers in 2006. Law enforcement realized that number also belonged to a hacker who attacked restaurant chain Dave & Busters' systems a year earlier.
That number happened to be used by a hacker with the username "segvec," which was also used by a previously convicted cybercriminal named Albert Gonzalez.
Despite the solid connection, getting a conviction proved difficult. Gonzalez's ring was known to have gained illegal access to hundreds of companies, yet the prosecution could only convict him on seven indictments.
"That's all the hard evidence we had," said Peretti. "It's very difficult to identify the actual person who sat behind the keyboard and did a crime."

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on 4 International Criminal Groups



The Obama administration announced harsh new sanctions against four far-flung criminal organizations on Monday, part of what it said was a coordinated strategy to fight international underworld factions that could harm United States interests or security. 
The sanctions, outlined in an executive order signed Sunday by President Obama, are aimed at the Zetas, a Mexican drug ring linked to multiple killings; the Yakuza, Japan’s widespread mob army; the Camorra, a crime network based in southern Italy; and the Brothers’ Circle, an Eastern European criminal group operating worldwide.
The order freezes the groups’ assets, blocks them from holding interest in American property, authorizes financial sanctions against anyone aiding them and bars their members from entering the United States.
The new moves, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., come as the administration is refocusing its efforts to confront global crime groups suspected of transporting drugs and weapons and aiding terrorist groups.
A 28-page report outlining the government’s strategy conceded that “a shift in U.S. intelligence collection priorities since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks left significant gaps” in intelligence aimed at transnational criminal organizations.
“The fluid nature” of such groups, which often rely on shell corporations, offshore bank accounts and bases in countries with lax law enforcement, makes combating them “increasingly difficult,” the report said.
Under the new strategy, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation would appear to have heightened roles.
The National Security Council has long been the lead agency in investigating transnational threats during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, and will retain a prime role, helping to oversee combined law enforcement, intelligence and military agencies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/us/politics/26cartel.html?_r=1

The Boston FBI is the Mafia


boston mafia
When I got out of Federal prison in 2006 I heard that Mark Rossetti was offered the top spot in the Boston Mafia but he turned it down. At the time I thought this was a pretty smart move on his part. The boss will always have a target on his back for the FBI and that spot almost always comes with a one way ticket to prison.

Now that this news about him being an informant has come to light this is a whole new issue. He obviously couldn't become the boss if he was working with the FBI. How could the FBI justify that? Who could this guy rat on, people working for him? It wouldn't happen so they most likely told him to pass on the promotion.

I honestly believe that the FBI is pulling the strings in the Boston Mafia and the Mafia isn't even aware of it. The FBI has a vested interest in the Mafia staying in business. What else would they do with all those agents? And how could they justify their budget? The funny part is that there are more FBI agents on the street than there are mobsters. Why are they wasting millions of dollars chasing these guys around? They aren't violent anymore and even if they are it is only towards each other. Mobsters don't hurt innocent people anymore. I read in the paper that in September of 2001 the Boston FBI office had 13 agents working ORGANIZED CRIME and 2 agents working ANTI TERRORISM. Does that make sense? We all know what happened there. I don't recall any time in the history of the Mafia that they flew planes into buildings killing over 3000 people. If you add up all the killings committed by the Mafia in the past 50 years it wouldn't add up to 1000 dead.

Mafia cases get headlines and headlines get recognition and recognition gets funding and thats what all this is about.

The Boston FBI has proved time and time again that they will commit any crime they have to accomplish their goal. The problem with that is their goal is self preservation.

When this Mark Rossetti bomb finally drops there will be more press conferences and criminal cases and the government will spend hundreds of millions of your tax dollars trying to convict guys that were just taking a few bets or loaning a little money out and the funny part is, unknown to most of them, the FBI are the ones that most likely put them in business.

The government has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of Whitey Bulger and men they wrongfully convicted of crimes but they don't care. And why should they? You pay for it, not them. So what is to stop them from doing it over and over again? NOTHING THAT'S WHY THEY ARE DOING IT TO THIS DAY. Those settlements should come right out of their budgets, that's the only way they may learn. After all they are a government agency and money is all that matters to them. That and KEEPING YOU SAFE of course.....LMAO

http://con-sulting.blogspot.com/2011/07/boston-fbi-is-mafia-boston-mafia-joe.html

Judge denies mobster Skinny Dom's get-out-of-jail plea to get on kidney transplant list


Dominick Pizzonia, known as "Skinny Dom," is serving time for racketeering and illegal gambling.
Dominick Pizzonia, known as "Skinny Dom," is serving time for racketeering and illegal gambling.


A Brooklyn judge yesterday shot down a cancer-stricken mob hit man's desperate plea for early release from prison so he can get on a list for a kidney transplant.
Gambino captain Dominick (Skinny Dom) Pizzonia, who worked for the late mob kingpin John Gotti, got the bad news in a call from the cancer ward of a North Carolina prison hospital.
"I can't release you," Judge Jack Weinstein said in the teleconference.
"If I could, I would do it for you, but I can't."
Pizzonia, 69, asked to be let out after he learned last year he had advanced cancer of the urethra and his left kidney was removed.
The gangster fears the cancer may spread to his remaining kidney, and he has served only about four years of a 15-year term for racketeering and illegal gambling.
"They can't give you a kidney here, nothing," Pizzonia explained yesterday in a weak voice. "I'm worried about that."
"Out there you get better care and I can get on a list for a kidney, God forbid. Maybe I can get time off or house arrest."
The judge appeared visibly moved by Pizzonia's appeal but explained that he does not have the power to alter the sentence under such a scenario.
Weinstein suggested that Pizzonia contact his trial lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, and seek a "compassionate release" from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
"I really am sorry you're having all this trouble," Weinstein said. "Good luck to you and I hope you have a better day today."
When Pizzonia was off the line, the judge said grimly: "He sounds like he's about to die. They're not going to give him a kidney."
Pizzonia was once a feared member of Gotti's crew. He operated a social club called Cafe Liberty in Ozone Park, Queens, and participated in some of the crime family's most spectacular rubouts, although he was never convicted of murder.
He was reportedly part of the hit team assembled by Gotti to whack then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano outside Sparks steakhouse in midtown.
In 2007, he beat the rap for the double murder of Thomas and Rosemarie Uva - a married "Bonnie and Clyde" stickup duo who had twice robbed Pizzonia's social club - and the killing of mob associate Frank (Geeky) Boccia.
Federal prison rules say an inmate can be an organ donor for an immediate family member and an organ recipient if it is deemed medically necessary.
It's unclear where the donated organ would come from.
"I am going to petition the Bureau of Prisons for any and all available relief," Corozzo told the Daily News.

Joe Pesci sues producers of new Gotti film


    Joe Pesci
    'Funny how?' ... actor Joe Pesci. Photograph: Mike Groll/AP
    When the makers of a new mobster movie about the infamous Gotti family announced that they had hired Joe Pesci to play a major supporting role opposite John Travolta, the buzz was palpable. Flash forward four months, and the Oscar-winning star of Goodfellas and Casino is suing the movie's makers for allegedly cutting his salary by $2m and asking him to take a smaller part. Pesci's lawyers filed the suit yesterday at an unnamed court, claiming producers of Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father used his name to drum up publicity for the project, thereby attracting acting talent and investment, but are now refusing to honour the original agreement. Pesci was set to play Angelo Ruggiero, a trusted senior lieutenant of crime boss John Gotti Sr, and claims he gained more than two stone for the part. He is now seeking the $3m he says he was originally promised and wants to be reinstated in the role. "Defendant has no intention of paying (Pesci) $3 million or having him portray Ruggiero in the film," the lawsuit claims. "Rather, plaintiff secretly planned to use (Pesci's) name and likeness to promote the film and then to later concoct some pretext for terminating the contract so as to avoid paying plaintiff anything for the substantial publicity and 'buzz' that was generated." Producer Marc Fiore, meanwhile, insists Pesci walked away from the role when original director Nick Cassavetes left the production. He says the actor made it clear he would not sign an official deal until a new director had been found. Cassavetes was later replaced by Barry Levinson, another Oscar-winner. "He's wasting his time and everybody else's time," Fiore, of Fiore Films, told the Associated Press. "I might be a newbie in town. This newbie is not going to get bullied around." He said he may countersue Pesci. The film is the first time the story of the Gambino crime family, once considered the most powerful criminal organisation in the world, will have been dramatised in such detail on the big screen. The movie has reportedly received the blessing of Gotti's son John Gotti Jr, who posed for photographs with some of the cast at a press conference in April. Travolta is due to play John Gotti Sr, with his wife Kelly Preston as Gotti Sr's wife Victoria, and his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta as the former mobster's daughter Angel Gotti. Al Pacino joined the cast in May as Gambino crime family underboss Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce, an associate of and mentor to John Gotti Sr. Lindsay Lohan is due to play Kim Gotti, the wife of John Gotti Jr. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jul/28/joe-pesci-sues-fiore-films  

Dominic Cooper to play Junior Gotti in new film


Dominic Cooper at the 2009 Toronto Internation...DOMINIC Cooper is set to star in Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father after “blowing away” bosses.
Barry Levinson — director of the Mafia film, which is set to star John Travolta and Al Palcino – is keen to sign up the Mamma Mia! actor who has impressed him and the producers with his passion for the role of John Gotti Jr.
“He’s read the Gotti script and already has great suggestions for the role,” a source said.
The movie — which is also set to star Lindsay Lohan, Joe Pesci and Kelly Preston — is based on the true story of New York crime boss John Gotti (Travolta) whose son was brought up to be inducted into the Gambino crime family, but he attempts to escape that world.
Barry was recently at the New York premiere of Dominic’s latest release The Devil’s Double — which sees the 33-year-old star as Uday Hussein, the son of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein — to scope out the actor for the role of John Gotti Jr., which Johnny Depp, James Franco and Jeremy Renner have been linked with.
Dominic is also thought to be wanted by Solitary Man directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien — who also attended the screening — for their forthcoming big screen adaptation of The Game, which based on the book by Neil Strauss that gives men tips on how to woo women.

http://www.showbizspy.com/article/235936/dominic-cooper-to-star-in-gotti-flick.html

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Russian Mafia Strategic Threat to US


A National Security Council report on transnational criminal organized released Monday, named Russian organized crime as a strategic threat to Americans and US interests abroad.
“Russian and Eurasian organized crime networks represent a significant threat to eco­nomic growth and democratic institutions,” the report stated.
Russian organized crime syndicates and criminally linked oligarchs may attempt to collude with state or state-allied actors to undermine competition in strategic markets like natural gas, oil, aluminum, and precious metals, the National Security Council attests. At the same time, transnational criminal networks in Russia are establishing new ties to global drug trafficking networks to raise quick capital. Nuclear material trafficking is an especially prominent concern in the former Soviet Union, the report stated, adding that the US would continue to cooperate with Moscow and the nations of the region to combat illicit drugs and organized crime.
The report singled out the Russian mob run by Semion Mogilevich. He is wanted by the US for fraud, racketeering, and money laundering and was recently added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
Mogilevich and several members of his organization were charged in 2003 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in a 45-count racketeering indictment with involvement in a sophisticated securities fraud and money-laundering scheme, in which they allegedly used a Pennsylvania company, YBM Magnex, to defraud investors of more than $150 million. Even after that indictment—and being placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list—Mogilevich has continued to expand his operations. Mogilevich was arrested by Russian police on tax charges in January 2008 and was released pending trial in July 2009. Other members of his organization remain at large.
Mogilevich’s criminal empire currently operates in Europe (including Italy, Chech Republic, Switzerland and Russia) the United States, the Ukraine, Israel and the United Kingdom. He also allegedly has ties with organized crime in South America, Pakistan and Japan. Mogilevich is considered one of the smartest and most powerful gangsters in the world.
The Berlin-based non-governmental anti-corruption organization Transparency International has persistently rated Russia as one of the most corrupt nations on earth, and the worst among the BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China. In the 2010 Corruption Perception Index, Russia was ranked ahead of all three big emerging markets, on par with Libya and Pakistan.

See: Strategy to Combate Transnational Organized Crime

http://blogs.forbes.com/kenrapoza/2011/07/25/russian-organized-crime-strategic-threat-to-us-nsc/

Biker war brewing in Montreal


Rock Machine
A member of the Rock Machine arrives in London, Ont., for two days to party with the London chapter of the Outlaws gang in September 2000.

Organized crime experts say the resurfacing of the Rock Machine motorcycle gang in Montreal last week is another sign of a power vacuum in the city’s underworld that could lead to another biker war.
Ten individuals allegedly flaunting Rock Machine colours were spotted in a downtown Montreal strip club on Thursday. Montreal is considered territory of the notorious Hells Angels biker gang which fought battled the Rock Machine between 1994 and 2002, leaving 160 people dead.
The Rock Machine’s Quebec presence ended in the early 2000s after many of its members were killed and its assets seized by police.
Some Rock Machiners defected to the Hells, others retired, but their presence in Montreal last week lends credence to the fears that the gang is back.
James Dubro and Antonio Nicaso, two well-known organized crime experts, said the spotting of the Rock Machine in Montreal is a sign that the Hells are seen as weak.
In April 2009, 130 members of the Hells Angels and their supporters were arrested in a police operation called SharQc.
“If the Rock Machine resurfaced in Montreal, it’s because they feel safe,” Nicaso, an award-winning journalist and internationally recognized organized crime expert, said.
Dubro, also an award-winning crime author, said the Hells are probably the weakest they’ve been since the end of the biker war in 2002.
The choice to show off in Montreal’s Chez Paree strip club is symbolic.
One of the Rock Machine’s leaders was savagely beaten 10 years ago at the club by people tied to the Hells.
Montreal is the second city visited by the Rock Machine of late.
Recent arsons and gunfights in Winnipeg have been attributed to fighting between the Rock Machine and a Hells-affiliated group.
The Winnipeg violence, coupled with the Montreal appearance, is troubling, Nicaso said.
“These are two clear indications that (the Rock Machine is) trying to muscle in and regain control of the territory they lost after the war with the Hells,” he said.
Montreal’s power vacuum extends to mafia circles as well.
The Rizzuto family, a reputed powerful organized crime force in Montreal since the late 70s, has had much of its leadership assassinated in the past two years.
The bikers are just one of several groups vying for influence in this strategically important port city, Nicaso said.
However, Dubro said a new biker war between the Rock Machine and the Hells isn’t a certainty.
If the Rock Machine decides to sell softer drugs like marijuana or steroids, there likely won’t be much resistance from competing groups because the market is so large, he said. However, if the biker gang wants to enter the highly lucrative cocaine market, the Hells will take notice.
“If you see the Rock Machine on the selling side (of cocaine) then they become a threat to the Hells,” Dubro said. “And that means there will be a violent elimination of it.”
However, the Rock Machine has publicly renounced illegal activities and said it will focus on real estate, Dubro said incredulously.
“They will (get into drugs) and there will be problems,” he said. “The fact that (the Rock Machine) publicly flaunted their colours is a big deal. The police shouldn’t tolerate it and the Hells won’t tolerate it.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/24/biker-war-brewing-in-montreal

Former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani hosts inaugural AMC's "Mob Week" movie marathon


Rudy Giuliani is taking on the mob again.
The former mayor has been tapped to host AMC's inaugural "Mob Week" movie marathon -- a perfect role considering his well-known efforts to take down organized crime in the Big Apple during his six-year tenure as US attorney.
Beginning Monday, the network will air seven days worth of gangster classics, including "The Godfather" trilogy, "GoodFellas," "The Untouchables" and "Donnie Brasco."
Although the flicks were picked by the network, Giuliani is providing his take on a selection of the films during seven 60-second vignettes.
GIULIANI
GIULIANI
 
In four additional 30-second clips, airing throughout the marathon, he'll also talk about his rise as a US attorney, his role in the famed "Pizza Connection" mob trial, the takedown of the Lucchese crime family and knowing the real, undercover FBI agent whom "Donnie Brasco" was based on.
Watching the real-life mob and Hollywood's take on it is "my avocation and my former vocation," Giuliani told The Post. "[AMC] called me up and asked me if I wanted to do it. They remembered my prior life."
Giuliani said he has already seen all of the movies being shown, although he had to go back and rewatch a few, like "Scarface" and "Carlito's Way."
"Some of them I had almost memorized," he admitted, singling out his favorites -- "The Godfather" films.
Giuliani spent three hours taping his soundbites at Manhattan Supreme Court on July 13, talking about the individual films and answering questions about his life as a mob-busting federal prosecutor before becoming mayor.
"I was asked how realistic [each movie] was, where were the historical mistakes, what influenced me," he recalled.
"I told them I thought 'GoodFellas' is the most realistic. It's the closest to reality."
Giuliani said that he was paid a token amount for hosting the AMC marathon, although he declined to specify how much.
To critics who might charge that the AMC appearance is designed to bolster him in advance of a possible run for president, Giuliani said: "No way."
"If they had asked me this a year ago, I would have done it," he added. "I did it purely because it was a fun thing to do. My wife and I happen to love movies. We go to movies all the time. These are some of the most powerful movies ever made."

Just like Cinderella: Mobster Anthony Durso gets his date night, but must be home by midnight


Anthony Durso has been granted a one-night reprieve from curfew.
Anthony Durso has been granted a one-night reprieve from curfew.
 
Baby Fat Larry can go out and play at night - but he'd better be careful not to turn into a pumpkin.
A Colombo crime associate convicted of extortion has been granted a one-night reprieve from curfew so he can go out on a date but he must be home by midnight - just like Cinderella.
Anthony Durso had complained that although he was allowed to keep working as a city garbageman while free on $500,000 bail, he needed "leisure time" away from his parents in their Brooklyn home to "perhaps go on a date."
Federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto refused to eliminate the 7 p.m. nightly curfew outright, but granted Durso a one-night-a-week reprieve with several conditions.
He has to inform his federal pretrial services officer whom he is going out with and where they are going. When he gets home at midnight, Durso must notify the officer that he's in for the night.
If he doesn't make it home by the stroke of midnight, he could face revocation of his bail.
Durso, 27, got his colorful nickname as a result of his close association with reputed Colombo associate Ilario (Fat Larry) Sessa.
Both mob associates were charged with participating in an assault on a deadbeat who had fallen behind on loan-shark payments. Durso pleaded guilty and faces 33 months in prison.
The judge's order also allows Durso to work a night shift or overtime to earn extra legitimate income.
"It sounds fair to me, and we appreciate what the judge did," defense lawyer Mathew Mari told the Daily News yesterday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Allon Lifshitz had opposed any changes in Durso's bail conditions.