Gangland 5/26/2022

[Dr031718]

Financial Whiz Linked To Genovese Family Charged In Colombo Family Union Shakedown

Gang Land Exclusive!Albert AlimenaQuietly, with no public notice, the feds have charged a financial adviser for the powerful Genovese crime family with close ties to the son of its legendary boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante with being part of a Colombo family scheme to extort thousands of dollars a month in health care funds from a Queens-based construction workers union, Gang Land has learned.

Albert Alimena, who was identified as a close pal of Gigante son Vincent Esposito in the labor racketeering case in which Esposito pleaded guilty to extortion and was sentenced to two years in prison, is charged along with seven mobsters, including the late Mafia boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, and two associates with conspiring to steal the funds in 2020 and 2021.

Alimena, who owns Dickinson Group LLC, a Garden City firm that provides numerous services to various clients in the health care industry, pleaded not guilty last week to the two counts with which he is charged in the 21-count racketeering indictment. He remains free on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond that was set last month, when he was arrested in Florida.

Vincent EspositoOn his LinkedIn page, Alimena states that he has worked for the "betterment of working men and women from all walks of life" for 37 years, and he "looks forward" to serving his clients and working with fellow professionals "in the service of Taft Hartley Health Welfare, Pension, Annuity and Training Funds" in the future.

Following his arraignment, Brooklyn Magistrate Judge James Cho prohibited Alimena from working in the "health care field" except in the service of current clients at Dickinson Group, which he has owned for 18 years. He is banned from soliciting new business.

Alimena, 68, is named in seven of 25 "overt acts" that link him and his codefendants to the conspiracy to steal the funds. In three of the overt acts, between February and of April of last year, he is accused of speaking on the phone or in person with the accused architect of the shakedown scam, Colombo capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo.

Vincent RicciardoHis overall role in the scheme, according to the indictment, was to become the "third-party administrator" for the health fund of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades & Industrial Employees Union (UCTIE) for the purpose of "embezzling money" from the "vendor contracts" that would be set up with the help of other Colombo family schemers.

To that end, Alimena met in Fort Lauderdale with Vinny Unions and his key aide in the scam, Andrew Koslosky — who later flipped and is a cooperating witness in the case — to discuss how to embezzle the funds. And in March of last year, according to the indictment, Alimena emailed "his intent to submit a bid" to become the health fund's "third-party administrator" to Local 621 president Andrew Talamo.

The indictment indicates Alimena is a cautious man: In February of last year he told a co-conspirator to retype his handwritten notes "because he doesn't want it in his handwriting." He also allegedly told Ricciardo to download an encrypted messaging app for his cell phone. But he didn't begin to worry about his involvement in the scheme until a few months later, according to the indictment.

Andrew KosloskyOn June 2, it states, "Alimena placed a WhatsApp call to (Koslosky) to discuss a planned bid as the third-party administrator of Local 621's health funds and stated, 'This is not. This is not going to go down easy, and ah, you know, it's going to facilitate a full scale investigation, just so you know.'"

But despite his stated, and very real, concerns, Alimena continued to play an important role in the scheme, according to the indictment.

On August 5, Alimena met in Westbury with several co-conspirators, including Joseph Bellantoni, another Long Island-based health care field entrepreneur who advises unions and employers about benefit plans, to discuss the embezzlement scheme, according to the indictment.

At a court hearing early this year, prosecutor James McDonald stated that Bellantoni "created and structured schemes" that enabled him and his Colombo family associates to "pilfer and embezzle" funds from union benefit plans "by routing money from vendor contracts through intermediaries to Bellantoni's marketing company and then to co-conspirators."

Joseph BellantoniIn September, a month after Alimena hooked up with Bellantoni in Westbury, the FBI arrested 14 defendants, including Bellantoni, Ricciardi, Russo, on racketeering and a slew of other charges including a 20-year-long extortion scheme against Local 621 of the UCTIE.

Nine years ago, Alimena was tape recorded by Chin Gigante's grandson Vincent Fyfe, the corrupt former president of Local 2D of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, who had agreed to cooperate with the feds and was working undercover in the case that snared Gigante's son Vincent Esposito on extortion charges.

On November 19, 2013, Alimena warned Fyfe that higher-ups in the Genovese crime family were telling Esposito, who was extorting $10,000 a year from Fyfe at the time, to find a way to bring Genovese wiseguy Frank (Frankie G) Giovinco into Local 2D. Unlike Esposito, Giovinco took his chances at trial. He was convicted, and is currently serving a four-year prison term.

Vincent Fyfe"Listen to me, please, Vincent, if you ever utter this, you can put me in a fucking box," Alimena told the wired-up Fyfe. "I love you, I truly do, and I respect you," he continued. "I’m taking a chance to tell you all the things I know; it's family. I don't get involved in family normally, but" he was telling Fyfe so he wouldn't be "surprised by it."

Alimena didn't get put in a box by the Genoveses, or charged with any wrongdoing by the feds in the Local 2D case. But he faces up to 20 years if convicted on the conspiracy charges in the Local 621 scheme.

The feds also upped the charges against capos Richard Ferrara and Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico in the superseding indictment.

Ferrara was hit with a federal weapons rap for a gun that was on his nightstand when agents arrested him. Persico, who already faces 10 violation of supervised release allegations for meetings he had with other gangsters during the investigation, was charged with the easy to prove crime of making false statements to probation officials about meetings he had with five mobster codefendants in the case.

Last week, the charges against Mush Russo, who died on April 18, were officially dismissed.

A Gang Land Column Gets a Day in Court Over Our Prosecutor Of The Year's Objections

Hagan ScottenHagan Scotten was Gang Land's Prosecutor of the Year in 2019. But the assistant U.S. attorney wanted nothing to do with an exclusive interview Gang Land had with a "critical" witness who helped him win convictions of four gangsters for the murder of mob associate Michael Meldish when defense lawyers tried to hand him a copy of the article earlier this month.

Scotten refused to take a printout of the March 24 column which disclosed that jailhouse snitch David Evangelista had finally kicked a longtime heroin habit a week before he testified against the Luchese family quartet in October of 2019. The prosecutor gruffly told the attorneys to file it as a court exhibit as they handed a copy up to White Plains Federal Judge Cathy Seibel during arguments in the defense motion for a new trial.

Co-prosecutor Alexandra Rothman was not happy with what Evangelista had told Gang Land either, but she asked for a copy as Anthony DiPietro, lawyer for convicted underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea argued that Evangelista's admitted drug use behind bars from 2017 to 2019 was new info that put the lie to the government's claims before, during and after the trial.

Gang Land, The Column 3-24-2022"Evangelista tells Capeci, because he's now writing a book, that he became clean one week before he testified in this courtroom," said DiPietro, noting that there was no "speculation" about it. "Their witness again has spoken, and he said that he continued to misuse drugs until he testified here," the lawyer said, arguing that prosecutors have been giving the court "facts that are not accurate."

As DiPietro pressed the Judge not to "misinterpret" his reason for offering up "the news article," Scotten barked at the defense counsel. "Could you stand at your microphone and not right behind me?"

"Yes, I will,' said DiPietro, who continued: "The purpose of the news article is to show that the inquiry that we're doing here in which the government proffers facts is not sufficient because the witnesses are out there saying inconsistent facts than what the government's proffering here."

David EvangelistaThe government hasn't "interviewed these witnesses about the tapes," the lawyer said, "and they are relying on their own interpretation of what the witness is saying, and that's insufficient," he said, noting that the defense lawyers didn't "have to go scavenging around the world to try to disprove what they are telling you."

"The purpose of that article,' the lawyer continued, "is to point out that when the government tells you there's no evidence that he used drugs during the summer of 2017, and then the witness is in public saying, 'Oh, yeah, I was using drugs until the week before I testified,' (that) also implies that he was using drugs while proffering with the government."

Scotten's angry refusal to look at the Gang Land article came after prosecutor Rothman conceded for the first time that Evangelista was "committing crimes" behind bars in 2017. But she argued that the value of the "impeachment material" was minimal and would not have caused the jury to ignore his testimony linking Crea, acting boss Matthew (Matty) Madonna, mobster Chris Londonio and mob associate Terrence (Ted) Caldwell to the murder of Meldish.

Chris LondonioDiPietro countered that prosecutors would also have to concede that their prior assurances in court briefs that "There is no evidence that David Evangelista continued to use heroin in 2017" were wrong because he told Gang Land that he stopped using heroin on October 15, 2019.

That is important evidence, DiPietro argued, because Evangelista's trial testimony "goes to his perception of events" at that time and "if he was using drugs, (that) is very fertile impeachment, because he could have been high when Mr. Londonio was talking about his case and maybe he perceived it as a confession."

Judge Seibel asked the defense lawyers to comment on the fact that Londonio also told Gang Land "essentially the same thing he said on the stand about what Londonio told him about the murder."

Anthony DiPietroMadonna's lawyer, Joshua Dratel responded: "We're not suggesting that there's an inconsistency in the article between his story about the confession and what he testified. We're saying it's entirely a fabrication. So we're not surprised that he's holding to the notion that this confession occurred. It's an entire fabrication."

In the same article, Dratel noted, "Evangelista also says that when he returned to jail" after he was mistakenly released, "he found Jesus and that he's been on the straight and narrow since then, which is quite different than what happened in the summer of 2017 in those jail calls."

Seibel replied that it didn't matter if Evangelista "lied to Capeci. He didn't say to the jury that was the day Jesus came to him."

The judge scheduled the second and likely last round of oral arguments in the longshot defense motion for a new trial for June 13.

Judge Cathy SeibelBefore calling it a day, right after Dratel stated he would publicly file the Gang Land article the next day, Judge Seibel glanced at what would become a court exhibit the following day and had the following discussion with DiPietro.

"Nice picture, Mr. DiPietro."
"You have a nice picture in there as well."
"I do? Let's see. Not the greatest picture of Mr. Londonio. Oh, there I am. We were both quite a bit younger when those pictures were taken."
"They put us back to back."
"All right. I look forward to reading the article."

Turncoat Gangster-Turned Podcaster Faces The Music For Social Media Threats — Again

Gene BorrelloOn the day Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block gave turncoat-gangster Gene Borrello four months behind bars for making violent threats on his podcast, the judge said he was giving him a "break." At that point, Borrello had admitted threatening to "blow (his ex-girlfriend's) husband's head off" and to "beat the dog shit out of (her father)."

The judge warned him that when he got out of prison, he needed to stay off social media and behave himself.

But Borrello didn't heed the judge's warning. Instead, the former Bonanno crime family associate repeated similar threats against the same folks. He also boasted about a violent assault he committed in a gruesome podcast titled, "Ronnie do you smell that." In it, he told his viewers how he and his mob capo used brass knuckles to "literally beat the shit out of" their victim.

Gene Borrello Instagram PageThat's the kind of thing that would try the patience of most judges. Tomorrow, Block will decide the proper sentence for a defendant the feds say has repeatedly demonstrated that "he has no respect for the law or orders of this Court" as well as “no regard for the conditions of his supervised release."

Borrello faces up to five years in prison. Federal prosecutors are asking for a more modest sentence of eight months. In their memo to Judge Block, they say Borrello has breached "the Court's trust," not once, but twice. They also note that the violations came after Borrello received a "time served" sentence of four years for a slew of violent crimes including murder conspiracy, arson, attempted murder and extortion.

The feds say the eight months in stir would be a "sufficient, but not greater than necessary" punishment for Borrello to receive for ignoring Block's warning to "get control over (his) anger problems and criminal behavior," and for violating Block's order to avoid any "podcasts, radio, or internet shows that discuss organized crime" for three years when his four month stretch ended.

Borrello, who completed his four-month bid at the Metropolitan Detention Center in June of last year, now faces the music for his second violation of supervised release (VOSR) since he was rewarded for his cooperation against Bonanno wiseguy Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo and released from prison in December of 2019.

In his sentencing memo, prosecutor Matthew Galeotti told Block that a "guidelines sentence" between eight and 14 months was needed to hold Borrello "accountable for breaching the Court's trust and failing to abide by the conditions imposed by the Court," and to deter him from repeating the same "violent and threatening conduct" in the future.

In July 2021, Galeotti wrote, "Borrello created and uploaded to YouTube incendiary videos" about "his past violent incidents and discussed his criminal history" in violation of a direct order from Block to stay out of trouble or risk having the judge put him "in jail for a long, long time."

GaleottiIn a YouTube video titled, "Getting violated by probation and going back to jail," Borrello gave "his version of the violation" and "made disparaging remarks regarding his ex-girlfriend’s husband," the prosecutor wrote. "I'm not your fucking fat, goofy, boyfriend husband from Long Island," the Howard Beach born and raised gangster stated in the podcast, Galeotti wrote.

Borrello also discussed "private information" his former mob associates, "including information about an organized crime member's wife and her sexual activity" and recalled "shooting rats" and other "violence within the community of Howard Beach, Queens," wrote Galleotti.

Judge Frederic BlockAnd in the "Ronnie do you smell that" podcast, the prosecutor wrote, Borrello "glorified" how he and Giallanzo "assaulted a victim to recover money" from him, and then stated on the video: "Ron do you smell that? . . .The dude shit himself. We literally beat the shit out of him." Borrello then told his viewers that he took the already tortured victim home and "continued to physically assault the victim in front of his family."

Borrello proudly identifies himself as a Video Creator and a "Former New York Bonanno Crime Family Gangster and now book author and podcaster" on his Instagram site, which boasts 682 followers, 112 postings, and has more than 100 photos. Despite his very public posture on social media, his lawyer has filed his sentencing memo, which likely seeks a non-custodial sentence, under seal, seemingly without any appropriate legal reason.

She has done so, she has explained, because Gang Land has campaigned over the years to "disparage, denigrate, deride and discredit" poor Gene Borrello and she "realized that whatever (she) wrote would become a source of ridicule, scorn and derision for the pages of Gang Land News." The letter, received by the court on April 4th, has remained sealed since then by Judge Block, despite two requests to unseal it, for reasons he has not yet explained.

[TommyNoto]

The Westside is doing actuarial services for pension funds . Crazy how they adapt . They seem to have all kinds of pension fund services companies in insurance, TPA, investments. All their busts seem to be complicated schemes. Barney seems to have that family booming and I wonder if some the recent surge in cases ( some bs gambling) is the govt trying to slow them down any way they can

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting

[OcSleeper]

Funny we haven't heard anything on Mancuso's parole violations. He was suppose to have a hearing sometime in May and you'd think it would've happened already.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post.

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting!

[newera_212]

Thanks for posting.

Borrello was supposed to go in for sentencing last month. I had a feeling it got delayed, since we hadn't heard about it. Doesn't sound good for him.

The other night Hootie was on a live stream saying that him and Gene are starting the best LCN/true crime podcast anyone has ever heard, with never heard before stories and unprecedented guests. Hootie was also even in talks with the landlord of an older, renowned social club in Manhattan , to rent and use the space as a podcast studio. So, Hootie and Gene are coming out with a show and they're going to have a tricked out studio located in an old, famous social club. A few more minutes into that very same stream , Hootie decided to shut it down due to small audience turnout and went on a rant about how his viewership is low...LMAO . I feel bad saying this and counting other people's money but from the looks of things, it's very very doubtful Hootie and/or Gene could afford to rent vacant storefront space anywhere in the city.

So yeah, going off what's being reported...I don't think we're gonna get that podcast for a good 3.5 years . Apparently Gene spent or absconded with the money he got to do the podcast with that OnlyFans girl that he was going to do too lol. Every time Hootie streams he's posting from a new home/apartment - I have a feeling he's homeless. It's kinda sad to see these guys down so bad when they were given clean slates and second, third, sometimes fourth chances. From the perspective of the government, is it worth keeping guys like this on the payroll and having to constantly deal with them, bail them out, etc - just to send someone like Ronnie G to prison for 6 years? Obviously the answer is yes or else they wouldn't be doing it, but it just seems crazy

[Cheech]

Look. I think that Crea Madonna and Londonio case is a prime example, right?
Are all those scumbags? Probably. For sure killers and drug dealers. But the witnesses the govt used were beyond horrific people. That Evangelista and Pasqua? I mean holy shit. Those guys seem worse than the aforementioned

[newera_212]

Look. I think that Crea Madonna and Londonio case is a prime example, right?
Are all those scumbags? Probably. For sure killers and drug dealers. But the witnesses the govt used were beyond horrific people. That Evangelista and Pasqua? I mean holy shit. Those guys seem worse than the aforementioned

Evangelista seems like half-a-retard and Pasqua has been caught in like a half dozen different lies, on top of him constantly violating terms of whatever his release would be considered (isn't he locked up now?). The thing is, they didn't really use those informants beyond the grand jury - Evangelista's claims about Londonio's prison escape didn't amount to anything... those charges were dropped... and Pasqua's version of how the murder went down was never used during trial IIRC. So they used these guys to get the indictment but they weren't credible when it came to the actual trial

[Uforeality]

This Borello guy is a piece of work. Whenever he's sentenced the judge is gonna hit him hard. You give up the mob life only to go around and bully old men and ex-girlfriends.

[Waingro]

Thanks for posting.

[SonnyBlackstein]

This Borello guy is a piece of work. Whenever he's sentenced the judge is gonna hit him hard. You give up the mob life only to go around and bully old men and ex-girlfriends.

Stupid is as a stupid does.

[aray22]

is it worth keeping guys like this on the payroll and having to constantly deal with them, bail them out, etc - just to send someone like Ronnie G to prison for 6 years?

He actually got 14 years.

[Uforeality]

This Borello guy is a piece of work. Whenever he's sentenced the judge is gonna hit him hard. You give up the mob life only to go around and bully old men and ex-girlfriends.

Stupid is as a stupid does.

Totally agree. But it seems like he's lusting to go back to prison. And he's a snitch so it isn't like he's just watching TV in the rec room laughing at old Seinfeld episodes.

[mafiastudent]

Look. I think that Crea Madonna and Londonio case is a prime example, right?
Are all those scumbags? Probably. For sure killers and drug dealers. But the witnesses the govt used were beyond horrific people. That Evangelista and Pasqua? I mean holy shit. Those guys seem worse than the aforementioned

Is this the real Cheech?