Andrew Scoppa

[scagghiuni]

The Caruana-Cuntrera family is probably the most fascinating mafia organization of all time. 99% of mafia groups have a specific geographical territory which they are inextricably linked to whether it be Corleone, New York or Philadelphia but the Caruana-Cuntreras operate across the globe. From Sicily to Canada to South America to the US. Spawned from the Siculiana family it's members infiltrate other groups to expand the network and with great success. They were/are a sort of new age mafia organization, their evolution was spurred by drug money. There isn't a single other cosa nostra group that compares to them, you'd actually have to look to the Ndrangheta to find a decent comparison.

Fascinating , I don’t know much about them

Do you have a sense of their drug business today and what countries they distribute too

Venezuela has become a Narco state where ironically the US dollar currency market is also exploding. This clans connections likely runs to the top of the Govt and their international connections / trade and access to US dollars likely make them even more untouchable in that country.

i wonder what's really happening in venezuela, the colombian paramilitary group eln (probably te biggest cocaine producer) has a very strong presence, a turncoat said matteo messina denaro invested millions in recent years, cosa nostra has still a big presence over there

[stubbs]

The Caruana-Cuntrera family is probably the most fascinating mafia organization of all time. 99% of mafia groups have a specific geographical territory which they are inextricably linked to whether it be Corleone, New York or Philadelphia but the Caruana-Cuntreras operate across the globe. From Sicily to Canada to South America to the US. Spawned from the Siculiana family it's members infiltrate other groups to expand the network and with great success. They were/are a sort of new age mafia organization, their evolution was spurred by drug money. There isn't a single other cosa nostra group that compares to them, you'd actually have to look to the Ndrangheta to find a decent comparison.

Fascinating , I don’t know much about them

Do you have a sense of their drug business today and what countries they distribute too

Venezuela has become a Narco state where ironically the US dollar currency market is also exploding. This clans connections likely runs to the top of the Govt and their international connections / trade and access to US dollars likely make them even more untouchable in that country.

i wonder what's really happening in venezuela, the colombian paramilitary group eln (probably te biggest cocaine producer) has a very strong presence, a turncoat said matteo messina denaro invested millions in recent years, cosa nostra has still a big presence over there

My guess is a lot of them have fled Venezuela within the past few years, given the violence and instability.

[Pmac2]

So what the take. Is this guy scoops a made lcn guy or not? Whether here or in italy.bor did a boss from Italy induct him into something different from the bonanno Montreal crew which was a huge force that is basically dead today. Also is he teting to rewrite history or is he genuine. Sounds to me from the notes you wrote and thank you for it he kinda tooting his own horn. Final question him and his brother are dead today? If so guess it wasnt worth it.

[PogueMahone]

I wouldn’t say the Montreal mob is “basically dead” or anywhere close to it.

[Pmac2]

Montreal bonanno satellite crew. Which may or may not consisted of 20 made guys. Theres probaly all types of other family's from Italy but that crew that joe bonanno and galante set up back in the 1950s is basically like the Springfield genovese crew which was around since the 1930s and had a dozen or more members at 1 point and basically dying out

[CabriniGreen]

Chapter 5: The Book

• Seguin writes, " Before meeting Scoppa, I never understood that it always comes back to the famous "Book".

At one point, while asking about a mafioso, Scoppa said, "Yes, he has 5% of the Book". Scoppa told Seguin, " The Book is everything, if you have the Book, then you have the money". But there is a good chance you will get killed.

Seguin then understood the importance of the" Book".
At every meeting, Scoppa emphasized the importance of the Book.

• Through various clues Scoppa had given about his financial situation, Seguin understood Scoppa to be worth 30 million. Most of his legit income came from his ATM machines, and a trash company he had with his brother Roberto. Couldnt find the name of the trash company. Scoppa told Seguin he could double his worth very five years.

• Scoppa was VERY low key. He had a car rental business, and every car looked used. His clothes were very basic, and his house was plain apparently, it was in Ile Bizard.

• Despite all his money, Scoppa coveted the Book. He said originally Paolo Gervasi had it. He said no one liked him, but everyone owed him money.

From Chapter 5


Everyone and everything was recorded in a book. The name stuck. It is a register that includes all loans and illegal sports betting.


Bets on sports like soccer, football, hockey, basketball, boxing… How much is it worth? Between $ 15 and $ 20 million per year. Even 25 million.


“The Book is now administered on the Internet and by several 'agents'. Let's say you're an agent. You have your guys, on Friday you send in your betting list and the stake money.


Let's say one of them makes a bet: he sends me a message to let me know he's betting so much on this team for that game. And so on. Then everything is compiled and saved.

I have control over everything that happens. I have all the names or numbers of the bettors, all their bets and the money in play. Bettors must notify me of their bets and send me their stake money.

So at the end of the week I know who won, who lost. I have a record of what a bettor has already paid me and I can say, “Hey, that guy lost so much, where's the money? Or this guy won, we owe him so… ”Let's say he takes a gamble with you, but he didn't pay: I'll find out.

So your agents need to keep up to date on everyone who owes money and who is owed money. It takes organization to manage it all. And it's pretty well controlled.

Agents pocket a percentage of the amounts wagered and they are responsible for administering those wagers, which is owed to the winners, the amounts that the losers have to pay. Basically, it's accounting. It's a bit like an underground Loto-Québec. “It's a lot less risky than dope"..

Scoppa goes on to detail the pitfalls of drug trafficking


"Look, cocaine is trouble. Cocaine is heat, is police pressure. The prison terms are severe if you get caught. I pleaded guilty [in 2004] to a conspiracy to import 2,000 kg of coke and served time.


I was guilty. But I could have won my case. I pleaded guilty because I listened to my lawyer ... "But if your business is sports betting and usurious loans, what are you risking? It is not severely punished by the judges. You won't end up in deep shit if you get caught up with a charge in court.


But for sure you will be if you get pinched with pounds of coke. That’s why betting and shylocking are so profitable.

Now, he has some questionable math, but I get his overall point here, lol



How many kilos of coke would you have to sell to make yourself $ 20 million in profit like with The Book? First of all, drugs are much riskier.

You have to take $ 40,000 out of your pocket to buy every pound and hope to make $ 2,000 profit from the resale, when you could loan that $ 40,000 and make yourself $ 2,000 just with the interest.

And all this without any risk. Because, unlike dope, you are not at risk of having your product seized by the police because there is none.

All you have to do is make sure the guy you're lending your money to has a good name and that he's reliable, or that he has someone to endorse him, or that he has goods with which you can repay yourself in the event that he is unable to pay you. In short, it's a much less risky business than drugs.

For example, by importing 200 kg of coke, you make about $ 400,000 in profit, or $ 2,000 per kilo. But you also risk losing 10 million, the price you will pay for your 200 kg, if your stock is seized by the police or border agents along the way.

Of course, for this to be true, the kilos would be selling at 50k, meaning a profit of 10k a kilo. I'm not even about to get into how an importer is paying 40k a kilo, lol. Or how he made 20- 30 million making 2k a kilo. That's like mule money. But I get his overall point......

Scoppa further expounds on the gambling operation to Seguin..



"You can also have partners in other organized crime groups.


Let's say you're connected with the Irish: we'll give you a percentage to take care of the bets [taken by the Irish]. There are some who can make up to 40% or 50% of the profits from betting.

Let's say Eric wants to hire you to take care of everything: he's going to get 40% of the profits and he's going to give you half of it.

But everything flows from the same source. The thing with the Book is making sure everyone is happy so everyone stays with you. "And the thing with betting is that there's a good chance you'll end up needing the money yourself.

So you borrow from those who hold the Book ... So if I have the Book, I make a profit on the bets AND the money I loaned to the bettors. What more do you want? It’s butter and butter money!


“Originally, therefore, the one who holds the Book is Paolo Gervasi, who has long been associated with the Rizzuto clan. He was the owner of a dance bar, Castel Tina, in Saint-Léonard. Gervasi kept the Book from the 1980s until the early 2000s, when he lost it to Lorenzo Giordano. “Paolo Gervasi has had a contract on his head for years.

• He says the first attempt on Gervasi was by Domenico Macri, on August 14, 2000. Shot him several times. The second was a bomb attempt placed under his Jeep.

• Salvatore Gervasi was killed by Skunk Giordano. Gervasi was ambushed at a meeting held at a friends car wash. It was a message to his father.

• Scoppa says Giordano killed Gervasi because he wanted the Book, to impress everyone. He says Giordano owed Gervasi about 100k, Vito about 300k.

Paolo Gervasi was killed in 2004 by Ponytail DeVito, along with a Carmelo Tommasino.

• After Gervasi, Giordano had control of the Book, it was well known.

• Lorenzo " Skunk" Giordano had a fearsome reputation.
He was described as one of the six most senior mafiosi of the Rizzuto clan.

From Chapter 5...

On April 18, 2004, Giordano goes crazy at the Globe restaurant on boulevard Saint-Laurent, where he beats up a heroin trafficker of Iranian origin who sells his drugs in territory reserved for the Mafia, before pulling out a gun and to shoot him in the testicles. This earned him admonitions from Paolo Renda, Vito Rizzuto's brother-in-law and advisor, who was unwittingly recorded telling Giordano to stop attracting public attention and cut back on his alcohol consumption. to better keep calm.


On August 23, 2006, while at the Cavalli resto-bar on Peel Street, Giordano and another Mafia strongman, Francesco Del Balso, were embroiled in a skirmish with a businessman associated with the Hells Angels, Charles Huneault.

“There was an argument between these individuals, relates Corporal Vinicio Sebastiano, of the RCMP, before the Charbonneau commission in 2012. Mr. Huneault would have taken Mr. Del Balso by the throat.

Getting your hands on a high-ranking mafia man is not done. So, Mr. Giordano would have gone outside the bar and fired on Mr. Huneault's vehicle that was a Porsche. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped "because Huneault did not press charges.

In the fall of 2005, Giordano and Del Balso also reportedly beat up businessman John Xanthoudakis, chairman of the Norshield financial group, who defrauded more than 2,000 investors.

The latter, including some close to the Mafia, lost several tens of millions of dollars. Recorded without his knowledge by the RCMP, Del Balso boasted that Xanthoudakis was "pissing blood" and that "his face opened like a pancake from his plastic surgery".

This same Xanthoudakis was then sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the fraudulent scandal involving the production house Cinar and its founder Ronald Weinberg.

Giordano and Del Balso are known to lead the underground sports betting network of the Rizzuto clan. According to the latest known figures, obtained during Operation Coliseum led by the RCMP, between October 1, 2004 and March 19, 2006, at least 1,609 players made more than 820,000 bets on the website of this network hosted by servers located in the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, as well as in Belize, a small country in Central America then considered a tax haven.

According to the RCMP, during those 18 months, the bets represent 390 million dollars, and the network, which employs up to 58 agents to take the bets and book them on the Internet, realizes a net profit of 26.8 million. , although the 2004–2005 National Hockey League (NHL) season was canceled due to a labor dispute between players and owners.

While listening electronics carried out during Operation Colosseum, Giordano and Del Balso complain about the effects of the NHL lockout on sports betting. “Hockey is the best sport for bookmaking,” says Giordano.

In the recordings, the two also discuss the bribes they imposed on some punters with gambling debt totaling a few hundred thousand dollars.

On January 17, 2005, at the Consenza social club where they met their boss Francesco Arcadi, they brought up the case of Liborio Cuntrera, whose father, Agostino Cuntrera, nicknamed "the Lord of Saint Leonard", is close to Vito Rizzuto. Cuntrera, nicknamed "Pancho", lost $ 150,000 gambling but does not want to pay off his debt.

They complain about what the father doesn't want to do with them if the son is in debt and says he won't pay him either. "He is turning our business upside down," rages Lorenzo Giordano, who has decided to put the name of young Cuntrera on the blacklist of bettors excluded from the network.


From Chapter 5

Lorenzo Giordano, one of the six leading heads of the Rizzuto clan and right-hand man of operations chief Francesco Arcadi, was missed. The police finally capture him six months later in Toronto, in the luxury condo building where he is hiding. Like De Vito, he's picked up in a gym where he's going to train.

In the winter of 2009, he was sentenced to 10 years and 3 months imprisonment, in addition to losing his $ 1.1 million house, his Ferrari, his Porsche and his BMW to the state and the tax authorities.

As our Bureau of Investigation then learned, in early 2015, while still in prison, Giordano was allegedly offered 25% of the proceeds of the Book he lost while in detention.

This is a compromise of the interim Montreal Mafia boss and holder of the Book, Stefano Sollecito, the one Scoppa calls "Steve Sauce." We can assume that Sollecito wants to buy peace with the one who is considered number 3 of the Rizzuto clan at the time of his arrest in Operation Colosseum.


• Scoppa says Giordano tried to acquire part of the Toronto Book, but he failed. He says in Toronto the Book is called " Platinum" and is worth more than the Montreal Book, he was unsure exactly HOW much more.

• He says Giordano bought back all the minority shares in the Book, in order to gain full control. He maintained control over it until his arrest in 2007 in the Colosseum operation, all the way up until 2012.

He had no choice but to give it up, as he was incarcerated, and had no regents in the street to administer the Book on his behalf.

• Scoppa believes " Steve Sauce", Stefano Sollecito now has control of the book. He paid a " tribute" of 25% of the profits to Giordano while he was incarcerated.

• Scoppa considers Sollecito his arch rival. He hates, but grudgingly respects him. He says Sollecito is brilliant and cunning, treacherous and dangerous.

• Scoppa say the mafiosi responsible for the Gervasi murders, Giordano and DeVito suffered terrible fates, then recaps the details of the DeVito arrest, and his daughters murders.


Also, Giordanos murder

• Giordano had intents on regaining full control of the Book upon his release from prison....


Lorenzo Giordano does not have the opportunity to get his hands on the famous Book, which he took from Paolo Gervasi and then lost during his imprisonment. On the morning of March 1, 2016, the mafioso, who has become accustomed to training regularly at the Carrefour Multisports de Laval, is awaited in the parking lot by a gunman who leaves him no chance....


A couple questions.....

Are the sportsbooks in New York, controlled by a few, "Central offices?" ( Is that the correct term?)

I always had the impression most made guys ran their own sportsbook. Maybe they borrow from their capo, or another made guy or loan shark, but I thought they had their own books. Do made guys, say, buy a 5, 7.5, 10, 15% share in their capos book? Is that how it works?

Borello and Alite were kinda getting into it with the half sheets and stuff.....


Do made men buy shares of his families central bookmaking office? Of his Capos office? Is there a central office for all the families?

Is it borough specific? Take the Pernas... was it the main book for the Luchesses? Or is it Pernas book personally? Or Lucheese and Genovese together? Or is it more like, all the action in JERSEY, in general? Like a geographic thing?

The Montreal book kinda reminds me of the 30s mob with the race wire, how all the bookies had to use their wire service. Is it, that all the gamblers have to use their gambling infrastructure?

I'm just wondering, why the hell Scoppa didnt just start a sportsbook. He had NO problems encroaching on others drug turf, which is MUCH more dangerous. If you can import cocaine, you can certainly travel to a tax haven, incorporate, get a gambling license, and start taking bets, or am I missing something?


I'll stop here for the moment, but I do have a bunch of sportsbook related questions for the board...

[PogueMahone]

Thanks for posting this. Keep these updates coming!

[Dr031718]

Great write up. Thanks Cabrini

[SantoClaus]

I agree, great information. Thanks man!

Stefano Sollecito seems to be a serious individual according to Scoppa, the guy beat the charges he had with Gregory Woolley, Leonardo Rizzuto, etc. in 2015. Then form what it appears to be true, got revenge on the men (Scoppa Brothers 2019) who murdered his father, Rocco Sollecito (2016).

[Jim505]

thanks Cabrini. Hopefully some great books will come out on this era.

[Tonyd621]

Chapter 5: The Book

• Seguin writes, " Before meeting Scoppa, I never understood that it always comes back to the famous "Book".

At one point, while asking about a mafioso, Scoppa said, "Yes, he has 5% of the Book". Scoppa told Seguin, " The Book is everything, if you have the Book, then you have the money". But there is a good chance you will get killed.

Seguin then understood the importance of the" Book".
At every meeting, Scoppa emphasized the importance of the Book.

• Through various clues Scoppa had given about his financial situation, Seguin understood Scoppa to be worth 30 million. Most of his legit income came from his ATM machines, and a trash company he had with his brother Roberto. Couldnt find the name of the trash company. Scoppa told Seguin he could double his worth very five years.

• Scoppa was VERY low key. He had a car rental business, and every car looked used. His clothes were very basic, and his house was plain apparently, it was in Ile Bizard.

• Despite all his money, Scoppa coveted the Book. He said originally Paolo Gervasi had it. He said no one liked him, but everyone owed him money.

From Chapter 5


Everyone and everything was recorded in a book. The name stuck. It is a register that includes all loans and illegal sports betting.


Bets on sports like soccer, football, hockey, basketball, boxing… How much is it worth? Between $ 15 and $ 20 million per year. Even 25 million.


“The Book is now administered on the Internet and by several 'agents'. Let's say you're an agent. You have your guys, on Friday you send in your betting list and the stake money.


Let's say one of them makes a bet: he sends me a message to let me know he's betting so much on this team for that game. And so on. Then everything is compiled and saved.

I have control over everything that happens. I have all the names or numbers of the bettors, all their bets and the money in play. Bettors must notify me of their bets and send me their stake money.

So at the end of the week I know who won, who lost. I have a record of what a bettor has already paid me and I can say, “Hey, that guy lost so much, where's the money? Or this guy won, we owe him so… ”Let's say he takes a gamble with you, but he didn't pay: I'll find out.

So your agents need to keep up to date on everyone who owes money and who is owed money. It takes organization to manage it all. And it's pretty well controlled.

Agents pocket a percentage of the amounts wagered and they are responsible for administering those wagers, which is owed to the winners, the amounts that the losers have to pay. Basically, it's accounting. It's a bit like an underground Loto-Québec. “It's a lot less risky than dope"..

Scoppa goes on to detail the pitfalls of drug trafficking


"Look, cocaine is trouble. Cocaine is heat, is police pressure. The prison terms are severe if you get caught. I pleaded guilty [in 2004] to a conspiracy to import 2,000 kg of coke and served time.


I was guilty. But I could have won my case. I pleaded guilty because I listened to my lawyer ... "But if your business is sports betting and usurious loans, what are you risking? It is not severely punished by the judges. You won't end up in deep shit if you get caught up with a charge in court.


But for sure you will be if you get pinched with pounds of coke. That’s why betting and shylocking are so profitable.

Now, he has some questionable math, but I get his overall point here, lol



How many kilos of coke would you have to sell to make yourself $ 20 million in profit like with The Book? First of all, drugs are much riskier.

You have to take $ 40,000 out of your pocket to buy every pound and hope to make $ 2,000 profit from the resale, when you could loan that $ 40,000 and make yourself $ 2,000 just with the interest.

And all this without any risk. Because, unlike dope, you are not at risk of having your product seized by the police because there is none.

All you have to do is make sure the guy you're lending your money to has a good name and that he's reliable, or that he has someone to endorse him, or that he has goods with which you can repay yourself in the event that he is unable to pay you. In short, it's a much less risky business than drugs.

For example, by importing 200 kg of coke, you make about $ 400,000 in profit, or $ 2,000 per kilo. But you also risk losing 10 million, the price you will pay for your 200 kg, if your stock is seized by the police or border agents along the way.

Of course, for this to be true, the kilos would be selling at 50k, meaning a profit of 10k a kilo. I'm not even about to get into how an importer is paying 40k a kilo, lol. Or how he made 20- 30 million making 2k a kilo. That's like mule money. But I get his overall point......

Scoppa further expounds on the gambling operation to Seguin..



"You can also have partners in other organized crime groups.


Let's say you're connected with the Irish: we'll give you a percentage to take care of the bets [taken by the Irish]. There are some who can make up to 40% or 50% of the profits from betting.

Let's say Eric wants to hire you to take care of everything: he's going to get 40% of the profits and he's going to give you half of it.

But everything flows from the same source. The thing with the Book is making sure everyone is happy so everyone stays with you. "And the thing with betting is that there's a good chance you'll end up needing the money yourself.

So you borrow from those who hold the Book ... So if I have the Book, I make a profit on the bets AND the money I loaned to the bettors. What more do you want? It’s butter and butter money!


“Originally, therefore, the one who holds the Book is Paolo Gervasi, who has long been associated with the Rizzuto clan. He was the owner of a dance bar, Castel Tina, in Saint-Léonard. Gervasi kept the Book from the 1980s until the early 2000s, when he lost it to Lorenzo Giordano. “Paolo Gervasi has had a contract on his head for years.

• He says the first attempt on Gervasi was by Domenico Macri, on August 14, 2000. Shot him several times. The second was a bomb attempt placed under his Jeep.

• Salvatore Gervasi was killed by Skunk Giordano. Gervasi was ambushed at a meeting held at a friends car wash. It was a message to his father.

• Scoppa says Giordano killed Gervasi because he wanted the Book, to impress everyone. He says Giordano owed Gervasi about 100k, Vito about 300k.

Paolo Gervasi was killed in 2004 by Ponytail DeVito, along with a Carmelo Tommasino.

• After Gervasi, Giordano had control of the Book, it was well known.

• Lorenzo " Skunk" Giordano had a fearsome reputation.
He was described as one of the six most senior mafiosi of the Rizzuto clan.

From Chapter 5...

On April 18, 2004, Giordano goes crazy at the Globe restaurant on boulevard Saint-Laurent, where he beats up a heroin trafficker of Iranian origin who sells his drugs in territory reserved for the Mafia, before pulling out a gun and to shoot him in the testicles. This earned him admonitions from Paolo Renda, Vito Rizzuto's brother-in-law and advisor, who was unwittingly recorded telling Giordano to stop attracting public attention and cut back on his alcohol consumption. to better keep calm.


On August 23, 2006, while at the Cavalli resto-bar on Peel Street, Giordano and another Mafia strongman, Francesco Del Balso, were embroiled in a skirmish with a businessman associated with the Hells Angels, Charles Huneault.

“There was an argument between these individuals, relates Corporal Vinicio Sebastiano, of the RCMP, before the Charbonneau commission in 2012. Mr. Huneault would have taken Mr. Del Balso by the throat.

Getting your hands on a high-ranking mafia man is not done. So, Mr. Giordano would have gone outside the bar and fired on Mr. Huneault's vehicle that was a Porsche. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped "because Huneault did not press charges.

In the fall of 2005, Giordano and Del Balso also reportedly beat up businessman John Xanthoudakis, chairman of the Norshield financial group, who defrauded more than 2,000 investors.

The latter, including some close to the Mafia, lost several tens of millions of dollars. Recorded without his knowledge by the RCMP, Del Balso boasted that Xanthoudakis was "pissing blood" and that "his face opened like a pancake from his plastic surgery".

This same Xanthoudakis was then sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the fraudulent scandal involving the production house Cinar and its founder Ronald Weinberg.

Giordano and Del Balso are known to lead the underground sports betting network of the Rizzuto clan. According to the latest known figures, obtained during Operation Coliseum led by the RCMP, between October 1, 2004 and March 19, 2006, at least 1,609 players made more than 820,000 bets on the website of this network hosted by servers located in the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, as well as in Belize, a small country in Central America then considered a tax haven.

According to the RCMP, during those 18 months, the bets represent 390 million dollars, and the network, which employs up to 58 agents to take the bets and book them on the Internet, realizes a net profit of 26.8 million. , although the 2004–2005 National Hockey League (NHL) season was canceled due to a labor dispute between players and owners.

While listening electronics carried out during Operation Colosseum, Giordano and Del Balso complain about the effects of the NHL lockout on sports betting. “Hockey is the best sport for bookmaking,” says Giordano.

In the recordings, the two also discuss the bribes they imposed on some punters with gambling debt totaling a few hundred thousand dollars.

On January 17, 2005, at the Consenza social club where they met their boss Francesco Arcadi, they brought up the case of Liborio Cuntrera, whose father, Agostino Cuntrera, nicknamed "the Lord of Saint Leonard", is close to Vito Rizzuto. Cuntrera, nicknamed "Pancho", lost $ 150,000 gambling but does not want to pay off his debt.

They complain about what the father doesn't want to do with them if the son is in debt and says he won't pay him either. "He is turning our business upside down," rages Lorenzo Giordano, who has decided to put the name of young Cuntrera on the blacklist of bettors excluded from the network.


From Chapter 5

Lorenzo Giordano, one of the six leading heads of the Rizzuto clan and right-hand man of operations chief Francesco Arcadi, was missed. The police finally capture him six months later in Toronto, in the luxury condo building where he is hiding. Like De Vito, he's picked up in a gym where he's going to train.

In the winter of 2009, he was sentenced to 10 years and 3 months imprisonment, in addition to losing his $ 1.1 million house, his Ferrari, his Porsche and his BMW to the state and the tax authorities.

As our Bureau of Investigation then learned, in early 2015, while still in prison, Giordano was allegedly offered 25% of the proceeds of the Book he lost while in detention.

This is a compromise of the interim Montreal Mafia boss and holder of the Book, Stefano Sollecito, the one Scoppa calls "Steve Sauce." We can assume that Sollecito wants to buy peace with the one who is considered number 3 of the Rizzuto clan at the time of his arrest in Operation Colosseum.


• Scoppa says Giordano tried to acquire part of the Toronto Book, but he failed. He says in Toronto the Book is called " Platinum" and is worth more than the Montreal Book, he was unsure exactly HOW much more.

• He says Giordano bought back all the minority shares in the Book, in order to gain full control. He maintained control over it until his arrest in 2007 in the Colosseum operation, all the way up until 2012.

He had no choice but to give it up, as he was incarcerated, and had no regents in the street to administer the Book on his behalf.

• Scoppa believes " Steve Sauce", Stefano Sollecito now has control of the book. He paid a " tribute" of 25% of the profits to Giordano while he was incarcerated.

• Scoppa considers Sollecito his arch rival. He hates, but grudgingly respects him. He says Sollecito is brilliant and cunning, treacherous and dangerous.

• Scoppa say the mafiosi responsible for the Gervasi murders, Giordano and DeVito suffered terrible fates, then recaps the details of the DeVito arrest, and his daughters murders.


Also, Giordanos murder

• Giordano had intents on regaining full control of the Book upon his release from prison....


Lorenzo Giordano does not have the opportunity to get his hands on the famous Book, which he took from Paolo Gervasi and then lost during his imprisonment. On the morning of March 1, 2016, the mafioso, who has become accustomed to training regularly at the Carrefour Multisports de Laval, is awaited in the parking lot by a gunman who leaves him no chance....


A couple questions.....

Are the sportsbooks in New York, controlled by a few, "Central offices?" ( Is that the correct term?)

I always had the impression most made guys ran their own sportsbook. Maybe they borrow from their capo, or another made guy or loan shark, but I thought they had their own books. Do made guys, say, buy a 5, 7.5, 10, 15% share in their capos book? Is that how it works?

Borello and Alite were kinda getting into it with the half sheets and stuff.....


Do made men buy shares of his families central bookmaking office? Of his Capos office? Is there a central office for all the families?

Is it borough specific? Take the Pernas... was it the main book for the Luchesses? Or is it Pernas book personally? Or Lucheese and Genovese together? Or is it more like, all the action in JERSEY, in general? Like a geographic thing?

The Montreal book kinda reminds me of the 30s mob with the race wire, how all the bookies had to use their wire service. Is it, that all the gamblers have to use their gambling infrastructure?

I'm just wondering, why the hell Scoppa didnt just start a sportsbook. He had NO problems encroaching on others drug turf, which is MUCH more dangerous. If you can import cocaine, you can certainly travel to a tax haven, incorporate, get a gambling license, and start taking bets, or am I missing something?


I'll stop here for the moment, but I do have a bunch of sportsbook related questions for the board...

How do you become a senior in the Rizzuto clan if he owed Vito $300k? I mean I get he took the book over ; what he was so fearsome that Vito allowed him to take the book over without paying his debts? How could nobody liked Paolo? Because everyone owed him money? Whats the reason?

[Etna]

All of this makes these guys seem very unorganized and just at each others throats - like with all of this going back and forth Giordano just took out Gervaci without getting anyone's permission? No where near as organized as New York. Sounds like a mess and Vito was the only one who somewhat held things together.

[Frank]

Thanks Cabrini. It sounds like its possible that Sauce ordered the Giordano hit.

[CabriniGreen]

Chapter 5: The Book

• Seguin writes, " Before meeting Scoppa, I never understood that it always comes back to the famous "Book".

At one point, while asking about a mafioso, Scoppa said, "Yes, he has 5% of the Book". Scoppa told Seguin, " The Book is everything, if you have the Book, then you have the money". But there is a good chance you will get killed.

Seguin then understood the importance of the" Book".
At every meeting, Scoppa emphasized the importance of the Book.

• Through various clues Scoppa had given about his financial situation, Seguin understood Scoppa to be worth 30 million. Most of his legit income came from his ATM machines, and a trash company he had with his brother Roberto. Couldnt find the name of the trash company. Scoppa told Seguin he could double his worth very five years.

• Scoppa was VERY low key. He had a car rental business, and every car looked used. His clothes were very basic, and his house was plain apparently, it was in Ile Bizard.

• Despite all his money, Scoppa coveted the Book. He said originally Paolo Gervasi had it. He said no one liked him, but everyone owed him money.

From Chapter 5


Everyone and everything was recorded in a book. The name stuck. It is a register that includes all loans and illegal sports betting.


Bets on sports like soccer, football, hockey, basketball, boxing… How much is it worth? Between $ 15 and $ 20 million per year. Even 25 million.


“The Book is now administered on the Internet and by several 'agents'. Let's say you're an agent. You have your guys, on Friday you send in your betting list and the stake money.


Let's say one of them makes a bet: he sends me a message to let me know he's betting so much on this team for that game. And so on. Then everything is compiled and saved.

I have control over everything that happens. I have all the names or numbers of the bettors, all their bets and the money in play. Bettors must notify me of their bets and send me their stake money.

So at the end of the week I know who won, who lost. I have a record of what a bettor has already paid me and I can say, “Hey, that guy lost so much, where's the money? Or this guy won, we owe him so… ”Let's say he takes a gamble with you, but he didn't pay: I'll find out.

So your agents need to keep up to date on everyone who owes money and who is owed money. It takes organization to manage it all. And it's pretty well controlled.

Agents pocket a percentage of the amounts wagered and they are responsible for administering those wagers, which is owed to the winners, the amounts that the losers have to pay. Basically, it's accounting. It's a bit like an underground Loto-Québec. “It's a lot less risky than dope"..

Scoppa goes on to detail the pitfalls of drug trafficking


"Look, cocaine is trouble. Cocaine is heat, is police pressure. The prison terms are severe if you get caught. I pleaded guilty [in 2004] to a conspiracy to import 2,000 kg of coke and served time.


I was guilty. But I could have won my case. I pleaded guilty because I listened to my lawyer ... "But if your business is sports betting and usurious loans, what are you risking? It is not severely punished by the judges. You won't end up in deep shit if you get caught up with a charge in court.


But for sure you will be if you get pinched with pounds of coke. That’s why betting and shylocking are so profitable.

Now, he has some questionable math, but I get his overall point here, lol



How many kilos of coke would you have to sell to make yourself $ 20 million in profit like with The Book? First of all, drugs are much riskier.

You have to take $ 40,000 out of your pocket to buy every pound and hope to make $ 2,000 profit from the resale, when you could loan that $ 40,000 and make yourself $ 2,000 just with the interest.

And all this without any risk. Because, unlike dope, you are not at risk of having your product seized by the police because there is none.

All you have to do is make sure the guy you're lending your money to has a good name and that he's reliable, or that he has someone to endorse him, or that he has goods with which you can repay yourself in the event that he is unable to pay you. In short, it's a much less risky business than drugs.

For example, by importing 200 kg of coke, you make about $ 400,000 in profit, or $ 2,000 per kilo. But you also risk losing 10 million, the price you will pay for your 200 kg, if your stock is seized by the police or border agents along the way.

Of course, for this to be true, the kilos would be selling at 50k, meaning a profit of 10k a kilo. I'm not even about to get into how an importer is paying 40k a kilo, lol. Or how he made 20- 30 million making 2k a kilo. That's like mule money. But I get his overall point......

Scoppa further expounds on the gambling operation to Seguin..



"You can also have partners in other organized crime groups.


Let's say you're connected with the Irish: we'll give you a percentage to take care of the bets [taken by the Irish]. There are some who can make up to 40% or 50% of the profits from betting.

Let's say Eric wants to hire you to take care of everything: he's going to get 40% of the profits and he's going to give you half of it.

But everything flows from the same source. The thing with the Book is making sure everyone is happy so everyone stays with you. "And the thing with betting is that there's a good chance you'll end up needing the money yourself.

So you borrow from those who hold the Book ... So if I have the Book, I make a profit on the bets AND the money I loaned to the bettors. What more do you want? It’s butter and butter money!


“Originally, therefore, the one who holds the Book is Paolo Gervasi, who has long been associated with the Rizzuto clan. He was the owner of a dance bar, Castel Tina, in Saint-Léonard. Gervasi kept the Book from the 1980s until the early 2000s, when he lost it to Lorenzo Giordano. “Paolo Gervasi has had a contract on his head for years.

• He says the first attempt on Gervasi was by Domenico Macri, on August 14, 2000. Shot him several times. The second was a bomb attempt placed under his Jeep.

• Salvatore Gervasi was killed by Skunk Giordano. Gervasi was ambushed at a meeting held at a friends car wash. It was a message to his father.

• Scoppa says Giordano killed Gervasi because he wanted the Book, to impress everyone. He says Giordano owed Gervasi about 100k, Vito about 300k.

Paolo Gervasi was killed in 2004 by Ponytail DeVito, along with a Carmelo Tommasino.

• After Gervasi, Giordano had control of the Book, it was well known.

• Lorenzo " Skunk" Giordano had a fearsome reputation.
He was described as one of the six most senior mafiosi of the Rizzuto clan.

From Chapter 5...

On April 18, 2004, Giordano goes crazy at the Globe restaurant on boulevard Saint-Laurent, where he beats up a heroin trafficker of Iranian origin who sells his drugs in territory reserved for the Mafia, before pulling out a gun and to shoot him in the testicles. This earned him admonitions from Paolo Renda, Vito Rizzuto's brother-in-law and advisor, who was unwittingly recorded telling Giordano to stop attracting public attention and cut back on his alcohol consumption. to better keep calm.


On August 23, 2006, while at the Cavalli resto-bar on Peel Street, Giordano and another Mafia strongman, Francesco Del Balso, were embroiled in a skirmish with a businessman associated with the Hells Angels, Charles Huneault.

“There was an argument between these individuals, relates Corporal Vinicio Sebastiano, of the RCMP, before the Charbonneau commission in 2012. Mr. Huneault would have taken Mr. Del Balso by the throat.

Getting your hands on a high-ranking mafia man is not done. So, Mr. Giordano would have gone outside the bar and fired on Mr. Huneault's vehicle that was a Porsche. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped "because Huneault did not press charges.

In the fall of 2005, Giordano and Del Balso also reportedly beat up businessman John Xanthoudakis, chairman of the Norshield financial group, who defrauded more than 2,000 investors.

The latter, including some close to the Mafia, lost several tens of millions of dollars. Recorded without his knowledge by the RCMP, Del Balso boasted that Xanthoudakis was "pissing blood" and that "his face opened like a pancake from his plastic surgery".

This same Xanthoudakis was then sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the fraudulent scandal involving the production house Cinar and its founder Ronald Weinberg.

Giordano and Del Balso are known to lead the underground sports betting network of the Rizzuto clan. According to the latest known figures, obtained during Operation Coliseum led by the RCMP, between October 1, 2004 and March 19, 2006, at least 1,609 players made more than 820,000 bets on the website of this network hosted by servers located in the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, as well as in Belize, a small country in Central America then considered a tax haven.

According to the RCMP, during those 18 months, the bets represent 390 million dollars, and the network, which employs up to 58 agents to take the bets and book them on the Internet, realizes a net profit of 26.8 million. , although the 2004–2005 National Hockey League (NHL) season was canceled due to a labor dispute between players and owners.

While listening electronics carried out during Operation Colosseum, Giordano and Del Balso complain about the effects of the NHL lockout on sports betting. “Hockey is the best sport for bookmaking,” says Giordano.

In the recordings, the two also discuss the bribes they imposed on some punters with gambling debt totaling a few hundred thousand dollars.

On January 17, 2005, at the Consenza social club where they met their boss Francesco Arcadi, they brought up the case of Liborio Cuntrera, whose father, Agostino Cuntrera, nicknamed "the Lord of Saint Leonard", is close to Vito Rizzuto. Cuntrera, nicknamed "Pancho", lost $ 150,000 gambling but does not want to pay off his debt.

They complain about what the father doesn't want to do with them if the son is in debt and says he won't pay him either. "He is turning our business upside down," rages Lorenzo Giordano, who has decided to put the name of young Cuntrera on the blacklist of bettors excluded from the network.


From Chapter 5

Lorenzo Giordano, one of the six leading heads of the Rizzuto clan and right-hand man of operations chief Francesco Arcadi, was missed. The police finally capture him six months later in Toronto, in the luxury condo building where he is hiding. Like De Vito, he's picked up in a gym where he's going to train.

In the winter of 2009, he was sentenced to 10 years and 3 months imprisonment, in addition to losing his $ 1.1 million house, his Ferrari, his Porsche and his BMW to the state and the tax authorities.

As our Bureau of Investigation then learned, in early 2015, while still in prison, Giordano was allegedly offered 25% of the proceeds of the Book he lost while in detention.

This is a compromise of the interim Montreal Mafia boss and holder of the Book, Stefano Sollecito, the one Scoppa calls "Steve Sauce." We can assume that Sollecito wants to buy peace with the one who is considered number 3 of the Rizzuto clan at the time of his arrest in Operation Colosseum.


• Scoppa says Giordano tried to acquire part of the Toronto Book, but he failed. He says in Toronto the Book is called " Platinum" and is worth more than the Montreal Book, he was unsure exactly HOW much more.

• He says Giordano bought back all the minority shares in the Book, in order to gain full control. He maintained control over it until his arrest in 2007 in the Colosseum operation, all the way up until 2012.

He had no choice but to give it up, as he was incarcerated, and had no regents in the street to administer the Book on his behalf.

• Scoppa believes " Steve Sauce", Stefano Sollecito now has control of the book. He paid a " tribute" of 25% of the profits to Giordano while he was incarcerated.

• Scoppa considers Sollecito his arch rival. He hates, but grudgingly respects him. He says Sollecito is brilliant and cunning, treacherous and dangerous.

• Scoppa say the mafiosi responsible for the Gervasi murders, Giordano and DeVito suffered terrible fates, then recaps the details of the DeVito arrest, and his daughters murders.


Also, Giordanos murder

• Giordano had intents on regaining full control of the Book upon his release from prison....


Lorenzo Giordano does not have the opportunity to get his hands on the famous Book, which he took from Paolo Gervasi and then lost during his imprisonment. On the morning of March 1, 2016, the mafioso, who has become accustomed to training regularly at the Carrefour Multisports de Laval, is awaited in the parking lot by a gunman who leaves him no chance....


A couple questions.....

Are the sportsbooks in New York, controlled by a few, "Central offices?" ( Is that the correct term?)

I always had the impression most made guys ran their own sportsbook. Maybe they borrow from their capo, or another made guy or loan shark, but I thought they had their own books. Do made guys, say, buy a 5, 7.5, 10, 15% share in their capos book? Is that how it works?

Borello and Alite were kinda getting into it with the half sheets and stuff.....


Do made men buy shares of his families central bookmaking office? Of his Capos office? Is there a central office for all the families?

Is it borough specific? Take the Pernas... was it the main book for the Luchesses? Or is it Pernas book personally? Or Lucheese and Genovese together? Or is it more like, all the action in JERSEY, in general? Like a geographic thing?

The Montreal book kinda reminds me of the 30s mob with the race wire, how all the bookies had to use their wire service. Is it, that all the gamblers have to use their gambling infrastructure?

I'm just wondering, why the hell Scoppa didnt just start a sportsbook. He had NO problems encroaching on others drug turf, which is MUCH more dangerous. If you can import cocaine, you can certainly travel to a tax haven, incorporate, get a gambling license, and start taking bets, or am I missing something?


I'll stop here for the moment, but I do have a bunch of sportsbook related questions for the board...

How do you become a senior in the Rizzuto clan if he owed Vito $300k? I mean I get he took the book over ; what he was so fearsome that Vito allowed him to take the book over without paying his debts? How could nobody liked Paolo? Because everyone owed him money? Whats the reason?

No, Scoppa has VITO, owing Gervasi 300k....

[CabriniGreen]

All of this makes these guys seem very unorganized and just at each others throats - like with all of this going back and forth Giordano just took out Gervaci without getting anyone's permission? No where near as organized as New York. Sounds like a mess and Vito was the only one who somewhat held things together.

Nah, its explained in the next Chapter, it came from the top...