Gangland 11/4/21

[Dr031718]

Ronnie G And Wife Say His Lawyer And His Prosecutor Coerced Him To Plead Guilty

Gang Land Exclusive!Ronald GiallanzoIn an unorthodox move to try and take back his guilty plea, Bonanno wiseguy Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo has turned to his wife for help. Elizabeth Giallanzo has filed an affidavit backing her husband's claim that his lawyer and a top mob prosecutor coerced him to plead guilty in a "secret meeting" they had with him. The secret meeting, Giallanzo says, took place immediately after he refused to plead guilty during a scheduled proceeding in Brooklyn Federal Court.

In court filings, Giallanzo and his wife Elizabeth each cite attorney Elizabeth Macedonio and assistant U.S. attorney Lindsay Gerdes as co-schemers who wrongly assured him he would receive a "guidelines sentence" and be housed in a federal prison in the New York area if he pleaded guilty instead of going to trial on racketeering charges in 2018.

Instead, Giallanzo got 14 years — five years and three months more than his guidelines maximum. In his affidavits, he argues that the "representations" at the secret session by Macedonio and Gerdes "were plainly meant to induce him to give up his right to trial and enter a plea of guilty" and they violated his "rights to due process" because he "otherwise would have gone to trial."

Elizabeth MacedonioAccording to court filings, the hush-hush session took place right after Ronnie G refused to plead guilty on March 8, 2018. After appearing in open court, Giallanzo said he met with Macedonio and the prosecutor in a holding cell before he was returned to the Metropolitan Detention Center. He pleaded guilty 11 days later, according to the docket sheet. His sentencing guidelines called for 82-to-105 months in prison.

Law enforcement sources told Gang Land that Gerdes and an FBI agent did have an unusual closed door meeting with Giallanzo on March 8, with Macedonio's okay. The sources denied there was any impropriety by the feds during the session but otherwise declined to discuss the matter.

In addition to the affidavit from his wife, Giallanzo also obtained affidavits from two defense attorneys who corroborate the wiseguy's assertion that he was prepared to go to trial. Joseph DeBenedetto, who represented mobster Nicholas (Pudgie) Festa, wrote that "Giallanzo expressed his interest in proceeding to trial" during several "codefendant meetings."

Lindsay GerdesLawyer Gerald McMahon stated that he met with Giallanzo in 2017 and again "many months" later. Each time, he said, the wiseguy told him he "was not committed to resolving the case through a plea and that he was seriously considering going to trial with me as his trial attorney." But he "learned shortly thereafter," McMahon wrote, that Ronnie G had pleaded guilty.

In his own affidavit to Judge Dora Irizarry, Giallanzo wrote he "was prepared to fight the charges." Because he knew that "jury trials could be unpredictable and there was a possibility that a trial could go against" him, he said he told Macedonio "to explore the possibility of a guilty plea."

But "I made clear to my attorney, my co-defendants, and my family members," the wiseguy wrote, "that I had confidence in my defense since it was evident that the charges were based on the accounts of unreliable cooperating witnesses and would go to trial if there was no acceptable plea offer."

In early March of 2018, even though he told Macedonio that he "would not plead guilty" on March 8 as prosecutors had hoped, she told him she was not going to cancel the proceeding "because that may upset the judge." Besides, she advised him, they "could use the hearing to address" other gripes that he had about prison accommodations at the MDC.

Judge Dora Irizarry"When I got to court," he wrote, "I was surprised to see my wife there because I had told my attorney to advise her not to attend due to my unwillingness to plead guilty that day." Macedonio told him, he wrote, that she had "invited my wife because she thought I would change my mind."

Giallanzo wrote that he "didn't want to speak" to the feds that day, but "my attorney permitted (a prosecutor and an FBI agent) to approach me while I was detained in the courthouse holding cell." The prosecutor, he wrote, "aggressively addressed" him and advised him that Macedonio "had worked very hard" for him and that he "should accept the plea deal they had offered."

When he told her he would plead guilty only if he was assured of a "reasonable outcome" and that he would be able to serve his prison sentence "in the New York City area," Giallanzo wrote, prosecutor Gerdes told him, "If you take the plea, I'll keep you in your region."

In a subsequent discussion with Macedonio, he wrote, she eased Ronnie G's "concern" that like his uncle, Vincent Asaro, who was also a Macedonio client, and Michael Persico, who was sentenced by Irizarry, he would receive a longer prison term than one within his sentencing guidelines.

Gerald McMahon"My attorney assured me that my case was different from those defendants and that the proposed plea agreement in my case would protect me from that occurring," Giallanzo wrote. "In light of that assurance, and the prosecutor's promise to keep me in my region, I told my attorney that I would accept the plea offer, and on March 19, 2018, I signed a plea agreement and pled guilty."

If not for the "representations" by Macedonio and Gerdes, "I would have rejected the plea offer and gone to trial," he insisted, noting that from his prison cellblock he reminded his attorney in an email that "i was told that they would not send me far from home" by prosecutor Gerdes, whom he identified in his email as "that lady linsy."

Elizabeth Giallanzo, who was part of the case because their spectacular five-bedroom home in Howard Beach with two fireplaces, a full bar, a gym and a salt-water heated pool with a waterfall was in her name and had to be sold as part of his plea deal, backed up her husband's assertions about his decision to hire McMahon to go to trial until his closed door meeting with the feds.

Vincent Asaro"He told me that the prosecutor came to the holding cell, told him that his attorney was doing a great job for him, and that he should accept the plea deal," she wrote. "The prosecutor also told him that if he agreed to plead guilty, she would keep him close to New York" and "he agreed to plead guilty," wrote Mrs. Giallanzo.

"We expected my husband to be designated to a facility close to New York City, and we were confused about why it did not happen quickly," she wrote. When she asked Macedonio why his promised "designation was not occurring as we expected," Mrs. Giallanzo wrote, "she informed me that she 'spoke to the government about it' and 'they had no idea why it is taking so long.'"

Lawyers Brendan White and Anthony DiPietro argue that the affidavits by the Giallanzos and attorneys DeBenedetto and McMahon are "considerable evidence" that Ronnie G "would have gone to trial" but for the "representations" by Macedonio and Gerdes on March 8, 2018 and as a result Giallanzo's guilty plea 11 days later "was not truly voluntary" and "must be vacated."

Judge Irizarry granted a request by newly assigned prosecutor Margaret Schierberl for an additional month to respond, until December 17, so she can obtain relevant documents and "affidavits from former counsel" Macedonio as well as Gerdes, a Gang Land prosecutor of the year in 2017 and 2018, who recently left the U.S. Attorney's office.

Macedonio ignored telephone and email requests for comment. Gerdes, who is now a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl, a Cincinnati-based national law firm with 750 lawyers, declined to comment since she may be a witness in the case.

Mafia Boss Linked To Union Extortion By A Family Dispute Among Two Capos

Andrew RussoMob bosses try to keep their hands clean and let others do the dirty work. But Colombo boss Andrew (Mush) Russo couldn't remain above the fray after a pair of rival capos got into a nasty spat over the crime family's alleged 20-year-long extortion of a Queens-based construction union.

Russo stepped directly into the mix a year ago in an effort to resolve a "beef" between the capo who allegedly orchestrated the shakedown scheme and a rival capo whose son worked for the union, Gang Land has learned.

Russo was dragged into the dispute by consigliere Ralph DeMatteo when he refused to confront capo Dennis (Fat Dennis) Delucia with the complaint by capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo that Delucia had instructed his son and the union president to hold back the monthly extortion payment of $2600, according to a court filing in the case.

It happened in October 2020, and led to tape recorded talks that Russo had with DeMatteo, Ricciardo, and Delucia about the feud regarding the extortion of Andrew Talamo, the president of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union, according to the prosecutors in the case.

Ralph DeMatteoThe main thrust of Ricciardo's specific complaint seemed to be, wrote prosecutors James McDonald and Devon Lash, that Delucia's son David, who was an administrator of Local 621's benefit funds, "was not paying, or 'kicking up,' money from the Health Fund to the family's administration."

After DeMatteo refused to confront Delucia, he "took the matter to Russo for a decision," the prosecutors wrote. DeMatteo spoke to Russo in two tape recorded talks on October 16 of last year during which the mob boss told his consigliere in a "coded conversation" that Vinny Unions and Fat Dennis "had an appointment about the dispute," they wrote.

Three weeks later, on November 7, Russo was picked up on a tape-recorded telephone talk with DeLucia while the mob boss, his consigliere and Vinny Unions were huddled together at a bakery in Carle Place LI. While the men were there, DeMatteo dialed up Fat Dennis and handed the phone to Mush Russo.

During the discussion, Russo stated that he believed — mistakenly — that Local 621 president Talamo had "visited" Fat Dennis and spoken to him. This was an "unmistakable reference" that the bakery meeting of Ricciardo and DeMatteo with Russo, and the mob boss's contemporaneous phone call with Fat Dennis "concerned the labor union and health fund" scam, the prosecutors wrote.

Dennis DeluciaFive days later, Fat Dennis "informed DeMatteo that the consultant, (Delucia's son David) would not continue in his position with the health fund," prosecutors wrote. The next day, November 13, they wrote, agents saw Delucia, DeMatteo and Russo's driver "meet at the Blue Bay Diner in Flushing and overheard that their discussion involved the health fund and the consultant."

The filing, which proscutors submitted last week in a failed effort to keep the ailing 87-year-old mob boss detained as a danger to the community, contains several other references to Russo's supervision over the union extortion scheme, as well as his less than honorable — but incorrect — view of mob loyalty that Delucia and his son possessed.

This summer, on June 6, Vinny Unions was overheard discussing a conversation he had with DeMatteo in which they talked about "Russo's concern" about firing David Delucia and describing the mob boss's stated belief that Fat Dennis and his son David "were 'rats' or were acting as law enforcement informants," the prosecutors wrote.

William RussoIronically, while the conversation links Russo to the extortion scheme, which is the centerpiece of the racketeering case, it also seems to back up defense claims that the mob boss is quite forgetful and suffering from dementia, and possible Alzheimer's disease.

After DeMatteo told him, "The old man don't want him fired," Ricciardo stated, "I said fine," he continued, noting that he told DeMatteo that he was glad Russo's son William, a reputed family capo, was there during the conversation, because he told DeMatteo, "I guarantee you Ralph, you go back there right now, he'll forgot what he told you to tell me."

"He says, 'You're probably right, but his son Billy was there. Billy knows, and Billy told his father (to) let Vinny handle it.' Cause I'm telling you right now Ralphie," Ricciardo continued, "Make sure (when) you tell that to the old man, make sure Billy is there, I want Billy to hear it. If I gotta meet Billy tomorrow I'll meet him."

Over objections by the government, Russo was released last Friday on a $10 million bond secured by $7 million in property.

Yesterday, during a heated proceeding regarding several issues posed by pre-trial services about logistical issues about the house arrest conditions of Russo's release at the large compound in Glen Head where he lives, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ordered his release to continue and told both sides to cool down and return with some solutions to the problems on Friday.

Sal Romano: I'm Guilty With An Explanation

Onetime Gambino associate Salvatore Romano admits that he stole $3.1 million from a bunch of investors under the new identity he got in the Witness Security Program. But he also wants folks to know that he is not nearly as bad a fellow as Gang Land portrayed him in last week's exclusive report about the two Ponzi schemes he pulled off in his new home town of West Palm Beach.

For one thing, Romano insists he was not a fugitive for three months. He admits his case was marked "fugitive status" on the docket sheet. But that was just a shorthand designation for court sessions that were put off during last year's COVID-19 pandemic, he says. And while he may've played fast and loose with other peoples' money, he insists he did not pull off a Ponzi scheme in his first new home town of San Diego in 2004, as Florida federal prosecutors implied, and as Gang Land reported.

Like the feds in New York, their Sunshine State counterparts prefer to talk only about public records they choose to disclose in news releases, not anything a nosy reporter might want to ask them about. As a result, the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of Florida did not respond to Gang Land's query about the case. Since the feds chose not to respond, Gang Land will give Romano his point about "fugitive status," and it now requires no further mention.

John A GottiHis rejoinder that he was not guilty of a Ponzi scheme in California, also rings true, but it cries out for further explanation, which Romano readily provided. "It was a fraud," he said, but it wasn't a Ponzi scheme. He admits committing Ponzi schemes in Florida, that is, obtaining money from investors under false pretenses in order to pay off victims of a prior fraud.

Romano, 54, received the identity of Salvatore Renaldi in 2004 from his federal protectors after he pleaded guilty of orchestrating a $40 million stock swindle scam for the Gambino family and cooperated against a gaggle of Gambino wiseguys, including John A. (Junior) Gotti and William (Big Billy) Scotto.

But the efforts of the man now known as Salvatore Renaldi to raise money to open a legitmate investment firm began quite innocently, he says. The complicating factor was that he was banned from becoming a stock broker because of his prior conviction.

William Scotto"I can't be stock broker, but I can absolutely operate in the capacity as an investor and bring in new investors," he said. And that's what he tried to do, he insists. He readily concedes that he committed a fraud, but argues that he had lots of help in pulling it off from the feds, "which created a whole new world of lies for me when they gave me a new identity."

When he and his family entered the Witness Security Program and received their new identities, they were told by deputy U.S. Marshals, he said, "we can't break the law, we can't own a gun, and we can't be fingerprinted" because a fingerprint check would expose their prior identities as the Romanos who used to live in a "$5 Million Dream Home" on Todt Hill in Staten Island.

That's what Romano called their house in The Mafia Deacon: My Journey from Gangster to the Calling of a Catholic Deacon, the 250-page book he wrote about his life in 2016 that didn't mention any of the crimes he committed after he cooperated.

The fingerprint ban is what prevented him from becoming a securities broker again, Romano said. "If I could have gotten fingerprinted, I could have gone through the training and I probably could have gotten a license again."

The Mafia DeaconBut to help the family get along in their new neighborhood, deputy U.S. Marshals gave Romano the name of a fictitious company that he worked for and a phony reference from a prior landlord to enable him to rent an apartment and obtain a job that did not require a fingerprint check.

"They created a company called Titan Industries, and said I was their best employee for the last 20 years," he said. "They actually answer the phone, 'Titan Industries, can I help you,' if you call," he said.

"They gave me a landlord in Detroit Michigan who would say I paid on time for the last 15 years and that I was the greatest tenant he ever had," Romano continued. "So the government was creating this web of lies giving me what I thought was tons of latitude in doing what I had to do to build a legitimate business and create a fictitious past without mentioning my criminality."

"I had the right to be a businessman," he said. "As a businessman, I needed capital for the startup. So I'm speaking to investors. There were rules and guidelines and stipulations that I needed to follow. I thought I'd be given a lot of latitude, and I was, but I pushed it too far. "

Guilty with an explanation, Romano faces upwards of five years behind bars when he is sentenced in January for pulling off Ponzi schemes from 2011 to 2015, and from 2017 to 2019, in an effort to pay off the victims of a fraud that goes back to 2004.

[Amershire_Ed]

Thanks for posting

[rolotomasi]

Thanks

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting

[Pogo The Clown]

How did DeLucia manage not to get indicted with the rest of them?

It happened in October 2020, and led to tape recorded talks that Russo had with DeMatteo, Ricciardo, and Delucia about the feud regarding the extortion of Andrew Talamo, the president of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union, according to the prosecutors in the case.

Three weeks later, on November 7, Russo was picked up on a tape-recorded telephone talk with DeLucia while the mob boss, his consigliere and Vinny Unions were huddled together at a bakery in Carle Place LI. While the men were there, DeMatteo dialed up Fat Dennis and handed the phone to Mush Russo.

[OcSleeper]

Delucia was doing his civic duty by stopping the extortion. No crime committed

[chin_gigante]

A Russo.jpg

W Russo.jpg

[JohnnyS]

Thanks chin

[Pmac2]

So they know the guy is starting the dementia but still pushing for him to not have bail knowing the guy wont make it to trial shadyyyy

[Dave65827]

Shady as in he is the boss of a criminal organization with members swearing a blood oath to kill for

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post Dr.

Great to see a photo of William Russo. Thx chin.

[Pmac2]

Yaeh lol they probaly got rid of that rule. You must kill for the family. Dude its 2021 not 1977.

[Pmac2]

Blood oath joe massino said he wasnt even doing the burning card or guns n knives on a table but there still pledging to kill. Its a thing of the past.

[Uforeality]

I think I say ithe same thing in every one of these articles. I can't believe these guys talk on the phone about business. And even in public places, it's even easier to listen in there.

[AntComello]

Hope mush beats this