Gangland News 2/2/2023

[Dr031718]

The Feds Are Back For Another Round With Danny Fama, And This Time They Say He's A Made Guy

Nearly nine years after he made history when the vaunted Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office admitted it had wrongly charged him with killing a suspected informer and dismissed the bogus indictment, Daniel Fama is back in the sights of the FBI and the organized crime unit of the so-called Sovereign District of New York, Gang Land has learned.

That's with good reason, according to law enforcement officials. They say Fama is a convicted drug dealer and killer, and that two years after prosecutors dropped their faulty 2013 murder charge, he was inducted into the Gambino family. And in recent years, they say, he's been implicated in a money laundering scheme as part of a construction industry racketeering conspiracy by the crime family.

Fama, 58, is identified as a Gambino family soldier with ties to Mileta (Michael Michael) Miljanic, a Serbian-American gangster. An arrest complaint filed against Miljanic states that he owns a construction company, MDP Rebar Solutions LLC, that operates as a "shell company" and has funneled millions of dollars to members and associates of the Gambino family in recent years.

Fama operated for at least 20 years as a mob associate, never reaching for the brass ring of being straightened out. He spent 17 of those years in prison but his decision to become a made man after becoming the first defendant in the storied history of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office to have his murder indictment summarily thrown out, is curious.

For one thing, as a bona fide wiseguy, Fama is quite eligible to be charged with racketeering — and its onerous potential sentences — if prosecutors can find evidence linking him to any fraud or bribery charges that the feds are looking into involving Miljanic and Gambino capo Louis (Bo) Filippelli.

Any racketeering charges against Fama would be ironic. Because he didn't have his button, and the feds had info that he had turned it down, FBI agent Ted Otto pushed for Fama to be indicted for the murder of an informer — rather than as a racketeering act in the 1990 rubout of demolition contractor Edward (Eddie the Chink) Garofalo — the last killing ordered by the late John Gotti.

The Miljanic complaint, which was approved by supervising assistant U.S. attorney Jason Swergold, notes that Fama was convicted of murder in Manhattan Federal Court in 1996. It alleges that between December of 2018 and May of 2021, MDB Rebar transferred $484,000 from its bank accounts to a company owned by Fama's son.

Like Gambino consigliere Lorenzo Mannino, who received $639,000 in payoffs from Miljanic's company, and Filippelli, who controls two construction management companies that received $1.5 million in disbursements from MDP Rebar, Fama is not named in the complaint. There's no question he's the Miljanic associate called "Individual-5" in the complaint by NYPD Detective William Dionne, a member of the FBI Task Force in the case.

But Fama insists that since he was released from prison in 2009, everything he's done, including a rock quarry business he built and sold seven years ago, has been "above board," according to a reliable Gang Land source who spoke to him back in December. "I'm home 13 years," he told the source. "I don't wanna go back. I make sure everything I do is on the square now, everything."

Fama is represented by Seth Ginsberg, who along with the late Charles Carnesi, got prosecutors to drop the 2013 indictment that accused Fama of killing Garofalo because he was a suspected informer. If the feds didn't drop the charges, Carnesi and Ginsberg made clear at the time, they risked being embarrassed at trial along with FBI agent Otto for bringing a bogus case.

The lawyers convinced the prosecutors they would not be able to prove the motive for the killing, which was a key element in Fama's defense for the 1990 rubout. The government had to prove it in order to obtain conviction.

The feds had evidence that Fama drove one of the cars used by a hit team that was assembled by Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano — but Fama's defense that Garofalo was not whacked because he was an informer was fortified when Carnesi interviewed The Bull and told prosecutors that Gravano would testify that he never told anyone why they were going to kill Eddie the Chink.

Ginsberg told Gang Land the money laundering allegations against Fama don't make sense. "They're barking up the wrong tree with that," said Ginsberg. "This looks to be nothing more than a routine business transaction," he said, declining to give any details about the "business transaction" between MDP Rebar and the company owned by Fama's son, Daniel Jr.

Sources say that the elder Fama calls the shots and is the "real" owner of the company and that his son, a former cement worker, serves as "proxy owner" for his father.

The sources said that because Fama had difficulties getting bank loans when he was trying to borrow money to buy a rock quarry when he got out of prison — he detailed those struggles in a letter to the court back in 2013 — he decided to step back and put the company, "an oil company" he formed a few years ago, in his son's name.

But Fama's best laid plans to use his son to borrow money fell flat, the sources say. So Fama approached Michael Michael and asked him to invest in the company, and to loan him money as well. The sources declined to mention how Fama knew Miljanic, but as Gang Land has written, Miljanic, the leader of the Serbian-American gang known as Grupo Amerika, is a longtime Gambino family associate, according to court records.

And sources on both sides of the law say that Fama is a made man who would have no trouble speaking to Michael Michael. The sources say Fama followed his younger brother Lee, 54, into the Gambino family circa 2016.

"We've done nothing wrong," Fama told Gang Land's source. "We borrowed money from the guy. It's a debt. There's a loan document. It's gotta be paid back."

The source never found out if Miljanic, in addition to loaning Fama money, invested in his oil company. If his new firm does what Fama told our source it does, it sounds like the ex-con, wiseguy-business-developer might have come up with an even more profitable company than the rock quarry business he created right before he was indicted for murder in 2013.

"The company," Fama told the Gang Land source, "has a machine that cleans up oil. It takes the sulfur out of oil. It takes the heavy metals out of oil."

In a four-page letter to the Court in 2013, Fama detailed how after "four and a half years of dedicated hard work" of "14-18 hour days," and with the help of a lawyer and four truckers he named, he had used $4.8 million in loans and investments to form a growing and expanding company, in a failed effort to obtain bail following his April of 2013 arrest for the 1990 murder.

“Between December 15, 2011 and May 1, 2012, 300,000 tons (of rocks) were blasted and crushed" and "over 240,000 tons (were) sold," Fama wrote in what he called "a story of redemption and progress."

Eight months later, after federal prosecutors interviewed Gravano, and he confirmed what Carnesi had told them, they agreed to release Fama on a $2 million bond, and he got back to his rock quarry company several months before his case was officially dismissed.

In September of 2015, after operating Fama's Wantage Stone Rock Quarry under a lease agreement for a year, the U.S. Concrete Company, of Euless Texas, bought the quarry, an 80-acre parcel of land in Hamburg, NJ, from Fama.

"The Wantage reserves will continue to enhance the company's ability to serve the Northern New Jersey and New York metropolitan markets with a combined 19 million tons of proven and permitted reserves and a further 19 million tons of unpermitted, yet available additional reserves," U.S. Concrete said in a statement about the purchase.

Flying Blind: Judge Says It's OK For Feds To Hide 'Sensitive' Evidence From Wiseguys Awaiting Trial

In Brooklyn Federal Court, prosecutors have added a set of obnoxious initials to their case against a pair of Genovese wiseguys. And while it is a pain in the neck to all involved, Gang Land readers need to become familiar with them because they might be coming your way soon.

One of them is SDM. This may sound vaguely pornographic, but it stands for "Sensitive Discovery Material" which translates in plain English into stuff the feds designate as info that is so hot it can't be shared with anyone not involved in the case, i.e. you and me.

The other is AEO. This is another beaut — it stands for "Attorneys' Eyes Only."

The phrase suggests that prosecutors have been watching too many spy shows on Netflix. But this one is real life and it means that even lawyers for the mobsters aren't allowed to show their clients that hot info referenced above. This may sound un-American since the same info (SDM, remember?) will be used against them if they go to trial. But there it is — and in a ground breaking decision last week, a Brooklyn Federal Judge has ruled that all of this is A-OK.

Over fierce objections by the defense, Judge Eric Vitaliano signed a protective order that prevents lawyer Gerald McMahon from showing his clients any SDM that the feds designate as AEO.

You are probably guessing that this is a case of mob murder and mayhem in which many lives are at stake. Wrong. This is a case in which the toughest crimes charged are running illegal gambling operations in Queens and Long Island, although this behavior translates into "racketeering" in federal court.

The mobsters, Carmelo (Carmine Pizza) Polito and Joseph (Joe Fish) Macario, are not even charged with any violence in the case. But prosecutors told Vitaliano that an "AEO protective order" was needed to safeguard the SDM because the duo are members of a crime family that engages in "murder, robbery, extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice."

Such "Protective orders" are not uncommon in mob cases. They prohibit wiseguys and mob associates from getting ahold of of any SDM ("custody or control" as the feds put it), as well as "any and all copies, notes, transcripts, or documents derived from the SDM." But at least defendants are permitted to review this red hot evidence against them in the presence of their attorney.

But now comes this AEO – a new strategic weapon that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Manhattan have begun using in mob cases. The ruling permitting the feds' "eyes only" request by Judge Vitaliano is the first issued over the objections of the defendants, according to the court filings in the case.

How extreme is this AEO protective order? It prevents lawyers from even mentioning selected SDM evidence the feds have against their clients — right up until the eve of trial.

Manhattan prosecutors asked lawyers Telemachus (Tim) Kasulis and McMahon to agree to an AEO order months before last year's $80 million Lottery Winners ripoff trial. But the feds gave up the notion when both attorneys refused to go along, McMahon told Gang Land.

Brooklyn prosecutors Drew Rolle, Abigail Margulies and Anna Karamigios argued they had "good cause" for an AEO order following a multi-year probe by their office, the FBI and the Nassau District Attorney's office. It ended with two separate indictments and the arrests of nine mobsters and associates of the Genovese and Bonanno crime family who had teamed up to use a popular Lynbrook gelateria as an illegal gambling parlor for 11 years, from 2012 to 2022.

In their court filing, and during a court session on Friday, the prosecutors argued that federal judges had "repeatedly" approved AEO orders in the past, and noted that the only defendants in either gambling case who objected to the AEO order were Carmine Pizza and Joe Fish Macario.

McMahon countered that AEO protective orders were "somewhat new occurrences" and that judges had approved them only three times. In those cases, unlike the illegal gambling case, where Polito and Macario object to the AEO order, the defendants had approved the protective order.

"The AEO provision of the proposed protective order," should be rejected out of hand, argued McMahon, because "allowing the government to have evidence relating to pending charges" and keep it from his clients violates their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights of "due process" and "effective assistance of counsel."

McMahon raised the ante even higher: "It is reminiscent of the Star Chambers of King Henry VII," he wrote, and "has no place in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York." (Gang Land is still researching KHVII and his Star Chamber but for now will take McM at his word for it.)

In addition to the constitutional impediments, McMahon wrote, an AEO order undercuts their defense in several ways. It prevents his clients from pointing out "the relevance of a document that might otherwise seem extraneous" to him, and it keeps them from making "an informed decision about whether to plead guilty, or go to trial."

"An AEO restriction can also undermine the attorney-client relationship" since many "hands-on" clients "intensely dislike the notion" that their lawyer has critical info about their case they don't have, McMahon wrote. "The relationship of trust, so crucial to an effective partnership between attorney and client, is virtually impossible when one side is withholding information from the other," he wrote.

The lawyer argued that the government had offered only "mundane" reasons containing no allegations of violence against his clients during the years of electronic surveillance in the case, and he asked Vitaliano not to approve the AEO protective order.

Noting that it would be unwieldy to have an AEO order for some defendants and not for others, Vitaliano signed the protective order for Carmine Pizza and Joe Fish. The judge ruled that if the feds decide that some discovery qualifies as AEO, they will inform the Court, and McMahon. If Vitaliano agrees that the AEO order is appropriate, McMahon will be able to oppose the finding, and ask the Judge to reverse his opinion. Maybe McMahon, an Army vet, will reach for another acronym in his next response: SNAFU.

Gangster Michael Michael And Feds Say Yes, Yes; We Have A Deal — For The Time Being

Mileta (Michael Michael) Miljanic, the 62-year-old reputed leader of a violent Serbian-American organized crime gang known as Grupo Amerika, has been sitting behind bars for two years, trying to resolve not one, but two indictments. Now it seems his waiting may finally be at an end: Miljanic and the feds have agreed to resolve indictment #2 with a plea deal to fraud charges involving a $154K Small Business Administration loan.

Miljanic's attorney Joseph Corozzo and federal prosecutor Jason Swergold told White Plains Federal Judge Philip Halpern that they had an "agreement in principle" that calls for Michael Michael to plead guilty to the SBA fraud, as well as tax charges related to the loan his company MDP Rebar Solutions took out three years ago.

The planned plea agreement — which is awaiting approval from the Justice Department in Washington because it involves tax charges — does not mean that the feds won't slam Miljanic with a third indictment in the coming months. In fact, another charge may well be brewing since sources say that the Swergold is still spearheading a probe of widespread construction industry racketeering by the Gambino family.

In addition to money laundering, according to a court filing, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office is investigating Miljanic's "involvement in a racketeering conspiracy involving among other offenses, bribery, wire fraud, and honest services fraud in connection with the Gambino crime family's involvement in the construction industry."

That threat doesn't bother his lawyer — at least so far. "As I have stated in court, this case is essentially a tax case, and we intend to resolve it shortly," Corozzo told Gang Land following the session.

The lawyer said he and his client believe they have at long last reached an agreement to resolve the troublesome SBA fraud case. But the planned plea agreement carries no guarantees that Miljanic won't be charged with other crimes in the continuing investigation by the feds.

"We have no promises" from the government regarding the ongoing probe, Corozzo said. "If it comes, we'll deal with it. We're not afraid of it. As I have always stated, my client's company is not a shell company, but a viable business that worked on numerous jobsites in the area."

Swergold declined to comment. "We are resolving Miljanic's current case with a plea that includes tax charges that needs DOJ approval," said an office spokesman, who declined to discuss the status of the ongoing construction industry investigation.

If the plea agreement is approved by the DOJ, and there's no reason to think that it won't be, Miljanic's sentencing guidelines will likely be around three years.

If it happens on May 3, his next scheduled court appearance, Michael Michael will have spent about 27 months behind bars since his arrest in February of 2021, when agents conducting a search of his Queens apartment found a loaded handgun on his night table and he was arrested on federal gun charges.

Editor's Note: Gang Land is taking a slide next week. We'll be back with real stuff about organized crime on February 16.

[Cheech]

Nice little dig at the end…is it a shot at Scott? One wonders…


Editor's Note: Gang Land is taking a slide next week. We'll be back with real stuff about organized crime on February 16.

[Dr031718]

Danny Fama


Lee Fama



Carmelo Polito

[Pmac2]

Yep that a shot lol by the old guy. Ha good for him

[Little_Al1991]

The next Gl should mention what’s going on with the Bonnano’s in relation to the alleged murder contracts.
The second article makes reference to stuff that could possibly affect PACER? If I interpreted it correctly.

[Pogo The Clown]

I'm shocked that Capeci made no mention of the bombshell news of the drive by shooting and fire bombing on the former Bonanno Acting Boss and the multiple hit teams roaming the city looking to "kill on sight" and all the FBI heat that is descending on the 5 families as a result. And he has no column next week. Boy he is really missing out on all this big breaking news.


Pogo

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting. Good to finally know who individual-5 is from that document.

[JohnnyS]

The Fama brothers are close friends with Joe Lanni. Wouldn't surprise me if they are in his crew or if Lanni sponsored Fama.

[TommyGambino]

The Fama brothers are close friends with Joe Lanni. Wouldn't surprise me if they are in his crew or if Lanni sponsored Fama.

Did Lannii get 18th ave?

[JohnnyS]

The Fama brothers are close friends with Joe Lanni. Wouldn't surprise me if they are in his crew or if Lanni sponsored Fama.

Did Lannii get 18th ave?

Yeah he's been captain since 2016 possibly even before that.

[Angelo Santino]

I'm shocked that Capeci made no mention of the bombshell news of the drive by shooting and fire bombing on the former Bonanno Acting Boss and the multiple hit teams roaming the city looking to "kill on sight" and all the FBI heat that is descending on the 5 families as a result. And he has no column next week. Boy he is really missing out on all this big breaking news.


Pogo

Smart ass.

[Pmac2]

Did that guy Lee whose wife drita on the TV show ever get his button. I bet they don't care she was on tv

[Pmac2]

Just reminded me

[Uncle Pete]

Did that guy Lee whose wife drita on the TV show ever get his button. I bet they don't care she was on tv

There was a gang land news from 2015ish? stating that mob associate Albert Crisci was brutally beaten in prison, for the suspected reason that his wife / girlfriend was considering joining mob wives. Interestingly, it was Johnny Joe Sr, who was transferred to another facility due to his suspected role in the violent assault.

[newera_212]

Did that guy Lee whose wife drita on the TV show ever get his button. I bet they don't care she was on tv

That was Lee D'Vanzo from Staten Island. Not sure which family he's an associate of , either Bonanno or Colombo. He was one of those 90s knucklehead kids and worked with Chris Paciello on at least one bank job I believe. No confirmation on whether or not he is made today. He caught a pot case a few years ago (technically THC carts / oil)