Gangland May 25th 2023

[Dr031718]

Mikey Nose Flubs The Boss Test: Snared In Off-Limits Meets With His Underboss And A Gaggle Of Gangsters

In a series of hard-to-fathom, truly boneheaded moves, Mafia boss Michael (Mikey) Nose Mancuso seems to have done his best to make sure that he — and his underboss — will both be going back to prison, Gang Land has learned.

Their problem? Both were caught attending meetings with each other on Long Island to discuss Bonanno family business shortly after they each completed lengthy prison terms for a gangland-style mob rubout.

Mancuso also made a mockery of the Cosa Nostra axiom that wiseguys keep their mob business away from their women by using his girlfriend's optometry business (that's right, optometry), for confabs with wiseguys with whom he was forbidden to meet in 2020 and 2021, according to testimony at Mikey Nose's violation of supervised release (VOSR) hearing.

As FBI agents monitored the comings and goings of Mancuso and his underlings, they snapped photos of him meeting with at least eight gangsters. Among his visitors was Bonanno underboss John (Johnny Joe) Spirito, who is a good bet to be charged with a VOSR before his three year term ends on September 1.

Spirito, 62, completed a 20 year sentence for the 1999 murder of Gerlando (George) Sciascia in 2020. He then had four monthly meetings with Mancuso from August to November of 2021 at various locations on Long Island, according to the testimony of FBI agent Jarryd Butler at the hearing before Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis last week.

Mikey Nose, 67, maxed out a year earlier, in 2019, for the 2004 rubout of Randolph (Randy) Pizzolo, and was charged with a VOSR two days before his supervised release ended in March of 2022. Plea deals agreed to by Mancuso and the feds were repeatedly rejected as too lenient by Garaufis: "Put some meat here on this bone for me," he said last year, stating that one proposed plea was a "conceptual statement of guilt," not an admission he did anything wrong.

But last week, the feds took their gloves off, and gave the judge what he asked for — and then some.

They emptied their files against the outgoing Mafia Boss, who was anointed as the Bonanno chieftain in the middle of his prison term, and who'd been snared using a mobster nephew to deliver messages to and from his troops from the federal prison in Danbury where he was housed in 2014 and 2015.

They introduced 81 exhibits into evidence. These included six tape-recorded phone call talks, 11 surveillance photos, eight head shots of gangster ex-cons Mancuso met with, one video walk-talk Mikey Nose had with Johnny Joe Spirito, and 40 monthly probation reports in an apparent effort to convince the judge to put Mancuso behind bars for two more years, the maximum he faces for his VOSR.

And in a major break with the usual protocol by the FBI and Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, agent Butler publicly confirmed an October 2021 Gang Land report naming Andrew Koslosky as the key cooperating witness in the indictment of 15 Colombo mobsters and associates, and disclosed that Koslosky was a major reason for Mancuso's current problems with the law.

Butler testified that Koslosky, a renowned singer who's had roles in Broadway and off-Broadway shows and has been a featured soloist at many U.S. churches, including St. Patrick's Cathedral over the last 30 years, was a "longtime friend and associate" of Colombo capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo and that he agreed to wear a wire for the FBI after he was arrested.

This disclosure is most unusual, since the Colombo case is still pending. Eight defendants are still awaiting trial on racketeering charges, including a Ricciardo-initiated extortion scheme of a Queens-based union that included a plan by Vinny Unions to install Koslosky into the union in an effort to steal $10,000 a month from the union's benefit funds.

Prosecutor Michael Gibaldi played three tape-recorded conversations between Koslosky and Ricciardo. The talks are still classified as "protected" material in the Colombo case, but prosecutors openly used them to implicate Mancuso in numerous discussions with Vinny Unions and several additional meetings that Mikey Nose had with Bonanno family underlings that are at odds with the provisions of his supervised release.

A May 12, 2021 talk explained away a defense claim that Ricciardo was visiting RealEyes Optical in Great Neck, the business that Mancuso's girlfriend Laura Keller has operated since 2004, because Vinny Unions was a patient being treated for an eye infection. It also implicated the mob boss in clandestine meetings with Bonanno underboss Spirito.

The discussion took place minutes after Ricciardo had left RealEyes, Butler testified. The first thing that is heard is Ricciardo saying out loud that he had to speak to Bonanno capo Jerome Asaro. Then after he punches in Asaro's phone number, and he answers, Vinny Unions says, "I just left your friend. Your glasses are ready."

During the rest of the taped conversation, Ricciardo is heard telling Koslosky that Mancuso had stated that he and Spirito, whom Mikey Nose referred to as "our number two," both thanked Vinny Unions for help he gave them in getting a $2.2 million construction job, even though the deal fell through.

Spirito praised Vinny Unions to Mancuso, Ricciardo boasted to his longtime pal, totally unaware that he had flipped. "He wanted to thank us for getting him in there," Ricciardo recalled, and said that "he appreciated what you did for him." A minute later in the talk, Ricciardo told Koslosky, Mancuso told him, "Vinny, I love you like you're my brother."

On September 8, 2021, a week before the feds arrested Vinny Unions and the other Colombo family defendants, the FBI used a belt and suspenders approach to make sure that it didn't miss capturing Johnny Joe Spirito's expected visit that day with Mikey Nose. They videotaped, as well as photographed, a walk-talk the duo had on Long Island. That's Mancuso in the white baseball cap and white shorts during his stroll he took with his underboss.

The photo and video, along with photos of their meeting in August and their get togethers in October and November make it tough to explain away Mancuso's reports to probation officer Michael Nicholson that he ran into Spirito several times in their Bronx "neighborhood."

A day earlier, agent Butler testified, Mancuso was seen leaving RealEyes Optical with Bonanno mobsters David DelFranco, and Anthony Fasitta. Mikey Nose is on the left wearing the white baseball cap with black shorts. Fasitta, 48, is in the middle, DelFranco, 51, at the right.

Mancuso never told his probation officer during his three-year stint on supervised release that he had ever met Fasitta, DelFranco, or three other ex-cons he met several times, including Colombo capo Ricciardo, whose 75th birthday bash Mikey Nose attended at Salvatore's of Elmont on October 7, 2020 with DelFranco and two other gangsters.

Mikey Nose did report running into Colombo mobster Michael Uvino numerous times at his girlfriend Laura's home before he moved in with her because they were childhood friends, and Uvino was living in a basement apartment in her home.

Prosecutor Gibaldi played tapes of several conversations between Mancuso and Uvino in calls that the Colombo wiseguy made to RealEyes that were answered by Keller who often exchanged pleasantries with her old friend she called "Binny" or "Binny Binster" before giving the phone to Massino, who was obviously the real reason for the call.

In cross examining Butler about those conversations, and about meetings that Mancuso had with ex-cons including DelFranco and Ricciardo at RealEyes, defense attorney Stacey Richman often brought out innocent or innocuous aspects of her client's actions in an effort to deflect the fact that he was talking to and meeting ex-cons he was prohibited from associating with.

Richman got the G-Man to agree that Mancuso was living with Keller as well as working with her "almost every day." In one call, Mikey Nose and Uvino were discussing whether Keller had "yelled at them" over a menu she was preparing. Butler also conceded that her client was not charged with committing any wrongdoing — except for the VOSR — when the Colombo duo of Uvino and Ricciardo were indicted for racketeering.

But Judge Garaufis told Richman he had "no interest" in the Colombo case charges. He was focused on whether Mancuso "was meeting with people who were associated with organized crime. That's all the Court cares about." Not being arrested was "good," the judge said, but it was "not the issue here."

Mikey Nose had reported running into Bonanno capo Ernest (Ernie) Aiello many times in the "neighborhood," but Richman's only retort to a picture of Aiello, Uvino, Mancuso, Ricciardo and mobster Joseph Russo mugging for the camera that the FBI plucked from a text that Uvino's girlfriend sent him was that it was taken at a party attended by wives.

Garaufis has stated he will make a final decision on Mancuso's VOSR after he receives closing argument submissions from both sides. The government's is due tomorrow. The defense filing is due June 9.

A New Home For Mafia Boss Bellomo, And A New Arrest For His Sweetheart's Sister

Mafia boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo has very close ties to a woman-owned construction company that was allegedly used by longtime Genovese family associate Lawrence Wecker to steal millions of dollars by illegally obtaining subsidized building contracts for major projects in in New York and its suburbs for seven years, Gang Land has learned.

Bellomo isn't named in the state racketeering indictment, and he is not implicated in any wrongdoing in the case that the Manhattan District Attorney's office filed this month charging Wecker and Lisa Rossi, the owner of LNR Construction, with bid rigging, bribery and money laundering from 2015 to last year.

But sources on both sides of the law say the "N" in the company's name stands for the Genovese chieftain's main squeeze these days, Nancy Rossi — a sister of Lisa Rossi, who is charged with being a "pass through" owner who enabled Wecker to satisfy city and state requirements to use minority or women-owned contractors. In fact, according to the charges, Rossi's company had no employees, did no work, and simply allowed Wecker to illegally qualify for state construction subsidies for which he was not entitled.

A widower since 2013, Bellomo, 66, and Nancy Rossi, 50, a divorcee, have been life-partners for a few years, and sources say they currently reside in the City Island section of the Bronx.

They recently purchased a building lot in Crestwood, a leafy section of Yonkers on the city's northeast border with Tuckahoe, according to Property Shark, an online real estate database. The sources say the couple plans to build a home there, in walking distance to the home of one of Barney's closest friends, capo Ralph (The Undertaker) Balsamo.

Balsamo, who was one of three Genovese wiseguys who helped Bellomo celebrate his 65th birthday at Gigante, an upscale Italian eatery in Eastchester last year, and his wife Jennifer live in Tuckahoe, a short and pleasant 13-minute stroll away, across a pedestrian bridge over the Bronx River, according to Google Maps.

Unfortunately, Barney and Nancy will not be able to visit Ralph and Jennifer at their home for several years without putting The Undertaker in more trouble than he's in right now. Balsamo, 52, is under strict home incarceration restrictions as he awaits a recommended prison term between 37 and 46 months at his sentencing next month for racketeering and gambling.

Bellomo, who unlike his Bronx-based Mafia boss peer, Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso, steered clear of ex-cons and assorted wiseguys when he was released from prison in 2008 after a long stretch, can see anyone he wants these days. But not so for Balsamo. And when he concludes whatever sentence he gets, he is likely to have several years of post-prison supervised release to deal with.

But when that day comes, his buddy Barney and Nancy Rossi are planning to be a leisurely short stroll away across that pedestrian bridge living in what will most likely be a lovely home on one of the 83-or-so tree-lined streets in the upscale Crestwood section of Yonkers.

By then, the case against Lisa Rossi, whose firm was incorporated in 2014, and took up residence at 501 East 116th Street in East Harlem two years later, will likely have been resolved, and it will be something that she, her sister Nancy, Bellomo, and the Balsamos, can all joke about.

It's not a laughing matter now, though. Rossi, 52, was heard telling Wecker, "Stop telling people I'm an owner. I'm a pass through," in one of many tape-recorded calls that allegedly tie her to labor racketeering scams. She faces up to 25 years if convicted of the main charge, namely enterprise corruption.

Wecker, 82, whose Genovese crime family ties go back to the 1980s when he often hung out at the legendary Palma Boys Social Club in East Harlem with Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, has state and federal labor racketeering convictions on his rap sheet, but nothing in the past 20 years.

Rossi is charged with enabling Wecker's firm, JM3 Construction to "increase its government-subsidized affordable housing business" by using LNR to obtain contracts it couldn't get without her help from May 3, 2016 to November 9, 2021, according to the indictment, which lists several alleged "overt acts" that tie her to the long-running scam. They include:

On August 1, 2017, she "executed a sham contract to make it appear that LNR Construction" would perform as a "subcontractor on the project located " on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

On January 16, 2021, Wecker was tape-recorded stating "in substance" that his company, JM3 Construction, "was paying Lisa Rossi $2500 per week because they were falsely listing her as a WBE (Woman-owned Business Enterprise) subcontractor" on a building project in New Rochelle.

On April 21, 2021, Wecker was tape-recorded telling Lisa Rossi, "You don't do shit. Waiting for you for five years for you to get your fucking state license . . . you had money coming in without doing fucking nothing."

The next day, Rossi told Wecker, "Stop telling people I'm an owner. I'm a pass-through," meaning that her company was merely a woman owned company that was used to obtain subsidized building contracts that were illegally fulfilled by Wecker's drywall company or other non-WBE subcontractors that Wecker hired.

And on June 4, 2021, during a discussion about Wecker's use of LNR Construction "on a project connected to a developer scheduled to serve a prison sentence," Wecker told Rossi, "I used your name, made you some money."

The next scheduled court appearance for Rossi, Wecker and six codefendants in August 1.



The Judge Gets A Lesson In Bonanno Family Shorthand

Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who may at this point have presided over more trials and related proceedings involving members of the Bonanno crime family than any other judge in history, was intrigued by the shortest of three talks tape-recorded by a cooperating witness that was played during the hearing on Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso's current problems with the law.

The taped talk conversation was about a Bonanno mobster who had never been before him, and whose name he had never heard.

"This a very interesting conversation," the judge said about the April 29, 2021 conversation between cooperating witness Andrew Koslosky and Colombo capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo. The transcript, he noted, was "only about 19 lines long, but it says a lot and I'm just curious about it."

The number of real lines, excluding all the short, and skipped lines, of the taped talk, is eight. Gang Land prints the entire transcript, below. It starts with the wired-up Koslosky asking Vinny Unions:

"You had dinner last night, right?"
"Yeah," Ricciardo replies, "I had to go have dinner with this — they're not happy with this John, I can tell you that."
AK: "They talked about that last night?"
VR: "Yup, couple skippers of theirs was there, and they spoke about it at the eyeglass place, too. Jerry spoke to Mike about it. Jerry's his skipper."
AK: "Yeah."
VR: "And they just about had it with this broad, maybe that's why he went away, I don't know."

Among the questions Garaufis had for prosecutor Gibaldi and FBI Agent Butler, was, "Who's John?"

The judge also wanted to know who were the "Jerry" and the "Mike" that Vinny Unions was telling Koslosky about, since Koslosky, who was supposed to be helping the feds make their cases, was asleep at the switch and not drawing out any explanations from Ricciardo.

The judge also asked "Whose skippers" they were talking about? And who was doing the talking about it at the "eyeglass place"?

And for the record, even though the judge knew the answer, "For those who are not aware of what a skipper is," Garaufis asked Butler: "What do you know it to be?"

A skipper, said Butler, "is a position of authority in the Cosa Nostra," adding: "It's also known as a captain or a capo."

John, Butler testified, was John (Bazoo) Ragano, a Bonanno soldier who was involved in criminal activity with the Colombos, and who was one of the 15 defendants charged in that case, although not with racketeering. Ragano, as Gang Land readers know, pleaded guilty in the Colombo case, and was sentenced to 57 months in prison.

Jerry was Bonanno capo Jerome Asaro, Butler testified, and Mike was family boss Mikey Nose Mancuso, who was Asaro's superior in the crime family. And they were the duo who were talking about it at RealEyes Optical.

Lastly, the judge said, "And they just had it with this broad, maybe that's why he went away," quoting the last line of the transcript. "What does it mean he went away?"

Ragano "was having issues with his girlfriend at that time," said Butler and "disappeared." Both Bazoo and his Bonanno family superiors, he said, were "worried about causing an incident" that would cause heat with law enforcement officials and lead to legal problems for both Ragano and other members of the crime family.

Butler testified that the dispute between Bazoo and his girlfriend involved "physical" activity as well as some tire slashing activity, and that Ragano decided to make himself scarce because if their feud escalated into violence it could "endanger" members of the Bonnano crime family.

If Ragano did "hurt his girlfriend," how would that endanger or impact Mancuso? Garaufis asked.

"If law enforcement was to be brought in on something this small, it could turn into a much larger investigation and endanger other members of the crime family," said Butler, including Mancuso, "the alleged boss of the crime family."

Thus ended the lesson.

[Dr031718]

[AntComello]

“Keller who often exchanged pleasantries with her old friend she called "Binny" or "Binny Binster" before giving the phone to MASSINO, who was obviously the real reason for the call.“ Capeci is losing it lol referring to Mancuso as Massino lol

[JohnnyS]

Credit to John Pennisi. He had that Barney story months ago.

[TommyGambino]

Maybe just a bad picture but Barneys girl looks awful

[TommyGambino]

“Keller who often exchanged pleasantries with her old friend she called "Binny" or "Binny Binster" before giving the phone to MASSINO, who was obviously the real reason for the call.“ Capeci is losing it lol referring to Mancuso as Massino lol

I mean after all these years you d think he would proof read it haha

[JohnnyS]

.

[AntComello]

“Keller who often exchanged pleasantries with her old friend she called "Binny" or "Binny Binster" before giving the phone to MASSINO, who was obviously the real reason for the call.“ Capeci is losing it lol referring to Mancuso as Massino lol

I mean after all these years you d think he would proof read it haha

Right lol

[stubbs]

Interesting, Jerry has Johnny Joe as the family’s underboss and Aiello as a capo. On reddit, people were quoting a recent Scott article with Aiello as underboss.

Then a few days ago, Scott saying that if Mancuso goes back to jail, Spirito Sr would serve as acting boss and Aiello staying as UB. But, also there being a council of sorts with Vinnie TV, Johnny Palazzolo, Johnny Sciremammano (sp), and Tommy DiFiore on the council to help Aiello and Spirito run the family.

Not trying to start an argument, just pointing out the differences.

Either way, it’s interesting that Aiello seems to be so powerful considering he’s what, 42? In those photos from that bust a decade ago where he got pinched with Nicky Santora and those other guys Aiello looks like 20 years old.

Also, this is probably the best GL post there’s been in a long time.

[outfit guy]

Credit to John Pennisi. He had that Barney story months ago.

He gets them from the FEDs. Do you believe he created that podcast that has the professional introduction and set?

[outfit guy]

Maybe just a bad picture but Barneys girl looks awful

Not awful but maybe a little "beat up" for her age.

[TommyGambino]

Maybe just a bad picture but Barneys girl looks awful

Not awful but maybe a little "beat up" for her age.

Looks like a bull dog chewing a wasp

[Makaveli]

Maybe just a bad picture but Barneys girl looks awful

Not awful but maybe a little "beat up" for her age.

I think we need a better angle. Anyone seen her socials ?

[CornerBoy]

im a handsome bastard and some of my pictures are awful so mayebe Sh

[AntComello]

I mean she don’t like that bad to me. I bet she looks way better in person.