Gangland 3/11

[Dr031718]

The Lion & The Plumber Made Nice But Keystone Kolombos Face Jail Time For Tough Talk

Gang Land Exclusive!Dominick RiciglianoIt's probably merciful that Carmine (Junior) Persio, who died behind bars two years ago this week, didn't live to learn of the silly shenanigans involving a half a dozen witless members and associates of his Colombo crime family.

At the same time that the 85-year-old Mafia boss was cashing in his chips while serving the 35th year of his 100 year prison term, a pair of Colombo family loansharks became embroiled in an angry but senseless feud.

The feud between the loansharks, known as The Lion and The Plumber, escalated into a nasty war of words that the feds happily picked up on their tape recorders. The feds had their wires up because of an even dumber maneuver by the duo's mob superior, a lovesick Staten Island capo who had placed a GPS tracking device on his wayward paramour's car in a failed effort to keep tabs on her.

As the feds listened in, mob associate Dominick (The Lion) Ricigliano and mobster Thomas (The Plumber) Scorcia, made nice and teamed up to provide some cash to a needy customer. That made them co-conspirators — as well as victims of each other — in the same indictment, accused of loansharking.

Thomas ScorciaAnd before they buried the hatchet in March of 2019, four other lots-of-talk and little-or-no-action Colombos whom the feds overheard talking to The Plumber about giving The Lion a beating — wiseguy Daniel (The Wig) Cataldo, and associates Albert Masterjoseph, Krenar Suka, and Anthony (Bugz) Silvestro — were indicted along with them.

As a result, the zany sextet will begin showing up in the courtroom of Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan next week to face their own trips to the Big House with recommended prison terms from a low of 15-to-21 months for Suka, to a high of 37-to-46 months for Scorcia.

The group's Keystone Kops-like caper began on January 30, 2019, after Scorcia was inducted into the crime family. The newly made member promptly decided to use his new clout to get even with The Lion for assaulting him, vandalizing The Plumber's office, and stealing his loanshark customers in 2017, according to court filings in the case.

That night, after The Plumber told a customer who had borrowed money from both loansharks to stop paying The Lion, he and Suka went to the Woodrow Diner in Staten Island where Scorcia said he was "gonna blast the kid in the face." In the end, he didn't, he told Silvestro, a third member of the plot against Ricigliano because "the place is packed," according to a government filing.

Joseph AmatoThe Plumber "updated Capaldo about what had happened" and made plans with Bugz to take care of The Lion at his home on Saturday, February 2, wrote prosecutors Elizabeth Geddes and Megan Farrell. But Ricigliano "thwarted" that effort by Scorcia, Silvestro and Masterjoseph, by installing surveillance cameras in front of his house.

At this point, The Plumber dragged his capo, Joseph Amato, whose decision to place the GPS under his girlfriend's car three years earlier had them all being tape recorded by the FBI, into the plot by calling him up for guidance.

"Alright stupid," said the learned Amato. "Don't go over his house, that's for sure, cuz. Just leave it alone."

FBI agents monitoring the situation weren't sure The Plumber and his pals would follow the skipper's order, so they "warned Ricigliano about the potential assault, causing Scorcia and others to abandon their plan that night," the prosecutors wrote.

Joseph CorozzoIn a somewhat surprising filing, defense attorney Joseph Corozzo cited FBI wiretaps to make the point that the FBI warning did not end the beat-up-Ricigliano conspiracy on February 2. The lawyer insisted that his point was proven by several taped talks The Plumber and Bugz had about The Lion, especially one on February 8, 2019 in which Silvestro told Scorcia "that (he) had confronted (Ricigliano) after all."

His client, Krenar Suka, withdrew from the assault plot three days earlier on January 30, Corozzo wrote, but his codefendants continued in their endeavors.

In asking Judge Cogan for a non-custodial sentence for Suka, 27, of Staten Island, the canny lawyer did not mention Suka's codefendants by name. He adopted a tactic prosecutors employ when they don't want to identify a cooperating witness, using coded terms (codefendant B, codefendant C, and John Doe #10) to refer to the trio. Suka is slated to be sentenced next week.

On February 6, 2019, Scorcia told Silvestro, "You got to take it like 50/50. We gotta talk in person about that," according to Corozzo's court filing. The attorney also noted that the FBI agent had stated in an affidavit that Scorcia "believed there was only a 50% chance that law enforcement had actually warned (Ricigliano)."

Daniel CapaldoThe agent added that Scorcia was also "confused" how the FBI could have learned about their plot since they never spoke about "setting up or doing any type of work" to harm The Lion "over the telephone."

That same night, Corozzo wrote, Scorcia told an unidentified cohort in a coded conversation that Silvestro "did not believe that law enforcement had actually warned (Ricigliano)," according to the expert opinion of the FBI agent who monitored the conversation.

Two days later, Corozzo wrote, The Plumber told another crony: "Everything was a big fucking roost . . . a, a ruse. I'll tell you in person when I see you." This statement, the lawyer wrote, "proves that (Scorcia) was convinced that law enforcement had never warned (Ricigliano.)"

As further proof that the FBI warning had no impact on the Scorcia plot to assault Ricigliano, the lawyer also cited the indictment in the case. It accused The Lion and The Plumber of conspiring with each other between March 2019 and July 2019 to use “extortionate means to collect and attempt to collect one or more extensions of credit."

Krenar SukaHad the plot been "terminated due to law enforcement scrutiny," Corozzo argued, the duo "would not have teamed up the following month to commit extortion against someone else using a threat of violence. They would have been laying low to avoid trouble with law enforcement."

Based on the government's own evidence, Corozzo wrote, his client is entitled to "a reduction of three levels" in his recommended sentence to 8-to-14 months, based on guideline protocols that govern his actions. Suka, who has no prior convictions, and backed out of a continuing plot, not one that "was interrupted or prevented on the verge of completion by" the FBI, deserves an even bigger break, the lawyer argued.

He asked Cogan to impose a no jail sentence for Suka, whom he described as a hard-working young man who made a big mistake by borrowing money from a loanshark. Suka was not a mob associate involved in a racketeering enterprise, the lawyer wrote, but a down-on-his-luck young man who made an even bigger mistake by going along and threatening Ricigliano in the hope that his loan would be forgiven.

"He has matured" since then and he has "remorse for his crime" that will ensure "that he does not commit another offense in the future," Corozzo wrote. "He realizes that he does not have the luxury of remaining the immature, irresponsible young man who made the wrong choices that brought him before this Court," the lawyer stated.

Feds Seize Records For The Waldorf, Not The Hotel, & The PAL, Not The Police Athletic League

Mileta MiljanicIn the far reaching federal probe into alleged Gambino crime family influence in the construction industry, teams of FBI agents and NYPD detectives have seized financial records from more than a dozen metro-area companies, including two major league demolition companies with checkered pasts, Gang Land has learned.

Among the targets of last month's coordinated raids are a New Jersey company that is banned from working in New York for using fraudulent labor practices. Also targeted is a Queens firm that has earned $1.3 million for asbestos cleanup work in the city this year, records show.

Sources say NYPD detectives and FBI agents carried away boxes of books and records from the Waldorf Demolition Company of Englewood, N.J. and from the PAL Environmental Services Corp of Long Island City. Both raids appear to be part of a long-running federal investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

The sources say that the records of the two firms — which have not been implicated in any wrongdoing in the current probe — were seized on February 22 at the offices of more than a dozen construction companies in the metropolitan area in a probe of alleged extortion, bribery and bid rigging by members and associates of the Gambino family.

Frank CamusoAs Gang Land disclosed last week, the targets include two powerful capos, Frank Camuso of Staten Island, and Louis Filippelli of Armonk. Also under investigation are two recently inducted mobsters, Diego (Danny) Tantillo, of Freehold, NJ., and Angelo (FiFi) Gradilone, of Staten Island.

Sources say Tantillo and Gradilone both work for the Waldorf Demolition Company, which is owned by three brothers — James, Joseph and Michael Marrone.

Tantillo has been an employee and business partner of the Marrones for more than 20 years, according to the city's Business Integrity Commission. Waldorf Demolition is a successor company to the Waldorf Holding Company, which lost its license to operate in New York back in 2005 for a host of fraudulent billing practices, according to BIC.

In rejecting a renewal license for Waldorf Holding, which had operated several trash hauling companies that were licensed by the city in 2000, BIC stated that the Marrones had falsified business records in a bid to save at least $400,000 by cheating the firm's union employees. In addition, the firm also falsely claimed personal expenses as business expenses, according to BIC.

Louis FilippelliOn paper, the Marrones listed "various business entities" as separate vendors or subcontractors when the "entities are all controlled in one way or another by the Marrone brothers and are used by them as part of a corporate 'shell game,' a purpose of which is to avoid paying legally-required wages and fringe benefit contributions," the Commission found.

As part of the alleged scheme, the Marrones structured two companies, Five Star and Safe Office, as "independent companies," the Commission found. But the firms were both incorporated in New York with "Diego (Danny) Tantillo listed as the chairman and chief executive officer for both corporations" at an address in Brooklyn that was the home of Tantillo's parents.

The Marrone brothers did not respond to phone or email requests for comment.

PAL Environmental has earned more than $9 million in contracts with New York City over the last five years, according to records maintained by the New York City Comptroller's Office. But the 22-year-old company, which lists several government agencies as well as dozens of major corporations, including hospitals and banks as clients on its website, has a checkered history when it comes to environmental and physical safety at job sites.

Campos, Squitieri, Vaccaro, FilippelliIn October of 2014, two PAL asbestos removal workers were seriously injured when a ceiling collapsed and they were trapped under asbestos contaminated debris in a shuttered Garden City office building where they were working along with 17 other workers who escaped injury.

The two injured workers, who were rescued by police and firefighters, and hospitalized, survived their injuries. All 19 PAL workers were decontaminated after the ceiling collapse, police said.

In 2005, the company was cited for criminal violations by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for shredding computers, chairs, desks and other furniture during a 2004 cleanup of the contaminated Deutsche Bank tower site at 130 Liberty Street without a DEC permit.

According to a complaint, PAL Environmental illegally disposed of toxic office equipment for four months in 2004.

In August of 2005, according to a September 9, 2007 New York Daily News story by Greg B. Smith, the DEC dropped the charges when PAL owner Salvatore Dilorenzo took "full responsibility" for the company's actions and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine.

On its website, the company unabashedly lists Deutsche Bank as one of its clients.

DiLorenzo, and PAL Environmental vice president Aric Domozick, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Gambino associate Mileta (Michael Michael) Miljanic, the reputed head of a Serbian America gang known as Grupo Amerika who was arrested on gun charges on February 22 when his home was searched on a warrant obtained by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, remains detained without bail on charges that were filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Judge Steps Aside After Gambinos Take Plea Deals In Labor Racketeering Case

Judge Frederic BlockIn a surprise move, the Brooklyn Federal Judge who presided for 13 months over a 26 count indictment of a dozen defendants who put millions of dollars into the coffers of the Gambino family while ripping off $1.5 million from the IRS and several major construction companies, removed himself from the case just days after all 12 defendants pleaded guilty.

With little notice and no fanfare, Judge Frederic Block, a senior federal judge who authored three books with a variety of legal themes between 2012 and 2019, recused himself from the case against Andrew Campos & Company. The judge's move came four days after the Gambino capo copped a plea deal to racketeering charges.

As a senior federal judge, Block is not required to give any official reason when he recuses himself from a case, and he gave none as he stepped aside on January 19, according to the court docket sheet.

The 86-year-old jurist is assured of receiving his $219,000 annual salary whether he handles any cases or not.

Back in September, during a remote proceeding Block handled while he was in Greece, the judge cut short a request for less restrictive bail conditions for Campos by telling his attorney he was prepared to clear his calendar and schedule a trial in November so Campos could "get acquitted as quickly as possible" and be free to travel wherever he wanted.

Andrew CamposBut in October, instead of asking the judge to set a trial date, defense attorney Hernry Mazurek informed the Court that his client was close to resolving the case with a guilty plea.

Block, a former defense lawyer who has been on the federal bench since 1994 and maintains a pretty full case load, declined to discuss his reasons with Gang Land.

Court sources familiar with the judge's thinking on the subject say Block was not looking forward to dealing with the long, tedious job of digesting the sentencing memos and pre-sentence reports he'd have to deal with, not to mention the various lawyers involved in the case.

"Other than the fact that he is a senior judge and twelve sentences can be a lot of work," said one knowledgeable court source, "there's no reason why he decided to randomly re-assign the case."

Judge Ann Donnelly, a former prosecutor who has been on the federal bench since 2015 and will be handling the sentencings of Campos and his 11 co-defendants in the coming months, has only had to deal with requests involving doctors' visits and other routine matters since she took over the case.

Donnelly recently ordered prosecutors and lawyers for mobster Vincent Fiore to schedule a hearing before a U.S. Magistrate Judge to handle his motion to substitute one property for another as security for his bail.

[TommyGambino]

Interesting filippelli is described as a powerful captain, where is his crew based?

[Wiseguy]

Interesting filippelli is described as a powerful captain, where is his crew based?

Queens

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post.

Any interesting pics?

[newera_212]

Some of those Amato guys seemed like morons - actually Amato himself as well - but overall it seems like they are over-prosecuting the shit out of them. That little rift that happened between Ricigliano and Sciorcia seems like the average run of the mill type of day, but they're blowing it up into a huge deal. What's Capaldo's actual involvement here? The fact that he was called and updated on it? Maybe gave some advice on the phone? Nothing really happened outside of some vandalism and people getting loaned money; am I recalling that correctly? Nothing they wanted to do - which was just a simple beating to begin with - even got off the ground. And at the end of the day, the two of them buried the hatchet and went about their business. I get the benefit in shit like this to keep these guys off the street and throw a wrench in their program for a year or two but jesus, what a waste of time and resources. I guess you can argue they're preventing them from committing more serious crimes, instead of simply waiting for serious crimes to happen and then react to them. But still, seems like a huge waste of time.

[Amershire_Ed]

Some of those Amato guys seemed like morons - actually Amato himself as well - but overall it seems like they are over-prosecuting the shit out of them.

Pennisi said he was dating a girl that was good friends with a girl that Amato was seeing. Apparently Amato was pillow talking and told his girl that Pennisi was recently made. Then she relayed that info to Pennisi’s girl—who later confronted Pennisi and asked him about it. Pennisi said he was shocked.

Sounds like fucking high school, I know, but your point about Amato being sloppy is a good one.

[Dave65827]

Some of those Amato guys seemed like morons - actually Amato himself as well - but overall it seems like they are over-prosecuting the shit out of them.

This is the Colombo’s the bar is already low

Also Hootie Russo also insinuated that one of the reasons The government prosecutes mobsters to promote their careers

And Penisis said His capo Johnny Sideburns said the Amato crew where cowboys and that Amato himself was a good guys but “dumb as rocks” and was going to get indicted soon

[newera_212]

Its crazy to see how much of LCN revolves around loans. Like there are entire crews that just sustain by borrowing money off of one another in a hierarchy at varying interest and loaning it to the public. Or one guy (capo?) acting as a bank and loaning to soliders who loan to whoever else. IIRC this was happening at an admin level too in the Bonannos with Joe C loaning to Capos. Loans come up a lot in Pennisi's talks and even Hootie said Al T built a big loan book from scratch

Not saying I'm a street guy or anything like that but i know a lot of knuckleheads and ppl into dumb shit, plus an assortment of other types like small biz owners, bar owners, etc pretty well and i don't know anybody that's personally taken out a shylock loan. It's wild to me how prevalent and prolific it is but still seems like a hidden, underground type of thing. Before some of the recent indictments (Giallanzo, Amato) and stories by podcast rats I was ignorantly thinking that shylocking had quieted down and wasn't as big - only to find out its looking like its bigger than ever

Anyone on here ever personally do a shylock loan or know somebody who has?

[TallGuy19]

Its crazy to see how much of LCN revolves around loans. Like there are entire crews that just sustain by borrowing money off of one another in a hierarchy at varying interest and loaning it to the public. Or one guy (capo?) acting as a bank and loaning to soliders who loan to whoever else. IIRC this was happening at an admin level too in the Bonannos with Joe C loaning to Capos. Loans come up a lot in Pennisi's talks and even Hootie said Al T built a big loan book from scratch

Not saying I'm a street guy or anything like that but i know a lot of knuckleheads and ppl into dumb shit, plus an assortment of other types like small biz owners, bar owners, etc pretty well and i don't know anybody that's personally taken out a shylock loan. It's wild to me how prevalent and prolific it is but still seems like a hidden, underground type of thing. Before some of the recent indictments (Giallanzo, Amato) and stories by podcast rats I was ignorantly thinking that shylocking had quieted down and wasn't as big - only to find out its looking like its bigger than ever

Anyone on here ever personally do a shylock loan or know somebody who has?

I don't know why anyone would use loansharks with payday loan stores on every corner. A payday loan carries roughly the same interest rate as a juice loan, and they're not picky about who they'll loan to.

I do know that a lot of juice loans are actually gambling debts that get converted to high interest loans when the bettor can't pay though.

[Philly d]

Its crazy to see how much of LCN revolves around loans. Like there are entire crews that just sustain by borrowing money off of one another in a hierarchy at varying interest and loaning it to the public. Or one guy (capo?) acting as a bank and loaning to soliders who loan to whoever else. IIRC this was happening at an admin level too in the Bonannos with Joe C loaning to Capos. Loans come up a lot in Pennisi's talks and even Hootie said Al T built a big loan book from scratch

Not saying I'm a street guy or anything like that but i know a lot of knuckleheads and ppl into dumb shit, plus an assortment of other types like small biz owners, bar owners, etc pretty well and i don't know anybody that's personally taken out a shylock loan. It's wild to me how prevalent and prolific it is but still seems like a hidden, underground type of thing. Before some of the recent indictments (Giallanzo, Amato) and stories by podcast rats I was ignorantly thinking that shylocking had quieted down and wasn't as big - only to find out its looking like its bigger than ever

Anyone on here ever personally do a shylock loan or know somebody who has?

I don't know why anyone would use loansharks with payday loan stores on every corner. A payday loan carries roughly the same interest rate as a juice loan, and they're not picky about who they'll loan to.

I do know that a lot of juice loans are actually gambling debts that get converted to high interest loans when the bettor can't pay though.

totally agree

[Amershire_Ed]

Small businesses and families that needed help over the past year had to provide a ton of new potential customers. Maybe that sounds cliche but it just seems logical. The Financial Times had this huge piece about how the ‘Ndrangheta were absolutely raking. it. in. during the pandemic. And one of their cash cows were the loans to business owners.

[TommyGambino]

Some of those Amato guys seemed like morons - actually Amato himself as well - but overall it seems like they are over-prosecuting the shit out of them.

This is the Colombo’s the bar is already low

Also Hootie Russo also insinuated that one of the reasons The government prosecutes mobsters to promote their careers

And Penisis said His capo Johnny Sideburns said the Amato crew where cowboys and that Amato himself was a good guys but “dumb as rocks” and was going to get indicted soon

Capeci has described him as a powerful capo so he can't be as dumb as were making out, he's a fucking creep though stalking a woman at his age

[Wiseguy]

Decades ago, before consumer credit in the form of credit cards, payday loan companies, small business lending, etc., there was a wider clientele for mob loansharks. It's a narrower clientele today, though as said, the larger economy can affect things. That said, it's still a core business for the mob and you see it in many indictments.

[Uncle Pete]

I had always assumed that not all but a majority of that loanshark money made its way into the hands of other criminals using it to set up drug deals, book making operations, investing in gray area business (strip clubs etc)

[Wiseguy]

I had always assumed that not all but a majority of that loanshark money made its way into the hands of other criminals using it to set up drug deals, book making operations, investing in gray area business (strip clubs etc)

I think that's generally true today.