Troubled personal and gangland history of Lucchese mobster revealed during trial
He was nearly killed in one of the most infamous gangland shootings in the
violent history of the Philadelphia mob.
His older brother has changed his name to get out from under
the family stigma.
A younger brother tried to commit suicide for the same
reason and has been comatose for 25 years.
That's part of the depressing personal history of Nicodemo
S. Scarfo, a story that has made its way into testimony in the now seven-week
old racketeering and fraud trial playing out in federal district court in
Camden.
Scarfo, 47, is the lead defendant in the case. He and
Salvatore Pelullo, a 45-year-old Mafia wannabe, are charged with orchestrating
the secret takeover of a Texas mortgage company in 2007 and then ripping it off
to the tune of $12 million.
But folded into the testimony about corporate structure, SEC
filings and lawyerly due diligence, the anonymously chosen jury panel of 18
(six are alternates) has also been getting a primer of the turbulent history of
the local mob.
Scarfo and his jailed father, Nicodemo D. "Little
Nicky" Scarfo, are at the center of that story.
"You're aware, aren't you, that he was shot in 1989 and
almost killed?" Scarfo's lawyer, Michael Riley, asked his client's
probation officer, Sharon O'Brien as she testified earlier today.
O'Brien, who is due back on the stand when the trial resumes
tomorrow, said she was. One can assume the jury is also aware since this was
not the first time Riley has mentioned the Halloween night shooting at Dante
& Luigi's Restaurant that left the younger Scarfo with seven bullet holes
in his body.
Both the defense and the prosecution have used elements of
the bloody Scarfo family saga to underscore their positions in the trial.
Riley has masterfully laid out the defense claim that
prosecutors have used the spectre of organized crime to sensationalize and prop
up fraud allegations that have little, if any, foundation. He has also told the
jury that his client has been targeted by law enforcement -- often unjustly --
for most of his adult life because he shares the same name with his infamous
father.
Little Nicky Scarfo is considered one of the most violent
mob bosses in the history of the American Mafia and has been described by some
prosecutors as a "psychopath" with a disturbing penchant for
violence.
Prosecutors have painted Scarfo and Pelullo as corporate
gangsters who used strong arm Mafia tactics, including threats of violence, to
take over FirstPlus Financial and then, in a classic mob play, bust the joint
out.
Ironically, it is Pelullo, on secretly recorded
conversations picked up on FBI wiretaps, who has made most of those threats and
who has talked like a B-movie bad guy. Scarfo's story, however, is the wheel
around which the mob allegations spin.
It could be months before the jury is asked to sort it all
out. Scarfo and Pelullo, both convicted felons, could face prison sentences of
30 years or more if convicted. Five other defendants, including four attorneys
and the former CEO of FirstPlus are also on trial.
Scarfo's father and Lucchese crime family boss Vittorio
"Vic" Amuso have been identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the
case. Testimony and evidence has included details of visits Scarfo and Pelullo
made to a federal prison in Atlanta where Scarfo was serving a 55-year term
on racketeering and murder charges.
The elder Scarfo, 84, has a parole date of 2033, meaning he
will probably die in jail. From testimony and evidence offered by the
prosecution, he has been portrayed as a sounding board and cheerleader for what
authorities say was the plan to takeover and loot FirstPlus.
He also warned his son about problems in the New Jersey
underworld, describing several key members of the Lucchese family with whom the
young Scarfo was associated as "rats" who should be avoided.
A letter Scarfo wrote to his son from prison in January 2008
-- about the same time the FirstPlus scam was unfolding according to
authorities -- was introduced as evidence earlier in the trial. Attached to the
letter, according to testimony, were court documents related to a wiretap
affidavit and transcript from a 1999 federal investigation of organized crime
figures.
The targets of that probe apparently included brothers
Michael and Martin Taccetta and several members of the Perna family, fathers
and sons, all of whom were members or associates of the Lucchese organization.
"My dear Son," Scarfo wrote, "hold on to
these 39 pages for the future. Review them. Tacettas and Pernas are rats and
the younger ones are glorified rats by proxy. And who knows how far they will
go in the future. As far as I'm concerned, they're all lying rats.
"Love, Dad xxoo"
"Hardly a Hallmark card, is it," Riley quipped
when cross-examining a federal prison official about the letter.
Donald Manno, a former Scarfo lawyer who is a co-defendant
in the case, described the note as an attempt "by an old man" to
"protect his son as best he could." Manno, who is representing
himself, asked the same prison official the question that Riley posed to the
probation officer today.
"You're aware that the son was shot seven times, almost
killed, by enemies of the father...you're aware of that?" Manno asked.
There has been no detailed explanation of what led Scarfo to
make the allegation about the Taccettas and Pernas. The Taccetta brothers have
been jailed on federal racketeering charges and on murder charges tied to a
state case in Toms River involving the bludgeoning death of a video poker
machine operator with golf clubs.
Martin Taccetta, released from prison a few years ago, is
under indictment in Morris County in a pending state racketeering gambling case
that includes 30 other mob members and associates, including the younger Scarfo
and four members of the Perna family.
Michael Taccetta is due to be released from federal custody
shortly.
One underworld source, while not discounting the possibility
that some of those individuals mentioned by Scarfo may be cooperating, added
that Scarfo, in jail since 1987, "is delusional. He thinks everybody's a
rat."
The letter and bits and pieces of the overlapping mob
connections are part of the intriguing back story that the jury in the
FirstPlus case has been hearing. The jury also was shown a letter from the
elder Scarfo to Pelullo and one from Amuso to the younger Scarfo congratulating
him on being remarried.
Scarfo's marital problems were also part of the testimony
today. He divorced his first wife in February 2007 and married his current wife
on Valentine's Day of that year. His wife, Lisa Murray-Scarfo, was indicted in
the FirstPlus case and has pleaded guilty to a mortgage fraud charge linked to
the couple's purchase of a $715,000 home in Egg Harbor Township.
The down payment for that home came from money siphoned out
of FirstPlus, authorities allege, and the mortgage itself was arranged through
companies the government has linked to the scam.
O'Brien, the probation officer, was asked about two of those
companies today, Global Net and Learned Associates and Scarfo's ties to them.
O'Brien said she never determined exactly what the relationship was, but said
her office was aware of the ongoing FBI investigation into FirstPlus and did
not want to jeopardize it by raising questions with Scarfo.
Evidence introduced at the trial indicates that at the time
Scarfo completed his three years of probation under O'Brien's supervision in
March 2007 he was being paid $33,000-a-month as a consultant for Seven Hills
Management, a Pelullo-backed company that authorities allege was also part of
the scam. Scarfo also told O'Brien that he was about to begin working a second
job for William Maxwell, a Texas lawyer whose brother John was the CEO of
FirstPlus.
William Maxwell was special counsel to FirstPlus at the
time. The Maxwell brothers are co-defendants in the ongoing trial. A letter
from Maxwell indicated that he was going to pay Scarfo $150,000-a-year to
develop business contacts and identify companies that could be purchased in New
Jersey. The job also included a car, cell phone and business expenses.
"An opportunity like this is one I can build a
tremendous career on," Scarfo said in a note to O'Brien about the job
offer. The government alleges the salary from Maxwell and the consulting fee
from Seven Hills were part of the scam and ways to funnel money from FirstPlus
to Scarfo.
O'Brien said that Scarfo never fully disclosed his finances
to the probation department, as he was required to do under the terms of his
supervised release. She also said he lied to her by denying he had had contact
with convicted felons and organized crime figures, two other prohibitions.
Personal details of Scarfo's life were also part of her
testimony. She told the jury that before moving, Scarfo was living in Ventnor
with his first wife, his daughter, his mother and his (comatose) brother.
Later, after divorcing and remarrying, she said Scarfo made
a point of asking her to come and see his new baby. His second wife gave birth
of a baby boy a few months after they were married on Valentine's Day 2007, she
said.
O'Brien said Scarfo proudly told her he had named the enfant
"Nicodemo Scarfo 3d."
http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/02/scarfo-familys-troubled-history-now.html#0cMPPHleGx5pGCzv.99
