Gangland 12-21-2023

[Dr031718]

Amid Much Confused Legalese Talk, Skinny Teddy Persico Got A Nickel Behind Bars

He's not the boss of the Colombo crime family. And if capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico was the heir apparent boss, as the feds say, his lawyer says, "That ship has sailed," and he's not interested. But the most important fact about last week's sentencing of the 60-year-old wiseguy is that he got a five-year prison term that will keep him in federal custody for two more years.

Skinny Teddy's crime family status has been a bone of contention for years. During its investigation, the FBI wrongly stated in affidavits that Persico — nephew of the late longtime family boss Carmine (Junior) Persico — was the boss of the crime family when, in fact, Andrew (Mush) Russo had the top spot. When the duo were indicted in 2021, the feds stated that Persico had been slated to take over in 2023, when his post-prison supervised release ended.

But law enforcement sources say that Persico — who told Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez that he was "ready and willing to accept any" sentence the judge felt he deserved — was very quietly serving as the family's acting boss in 2021 up until Skinny Teddy and the crime family's hierarchy and three other Colombo mobsters were hit with racketeering charges.

"He was running the show," a law enforcement source told Gang Land. "That's why we saw so many guys visiting him while he was, quote, 'working' at his body shop in Staten Island," the source said.

The sources say the family's current acting boss is 66-year-old Robert (Little Robert) Donofrio. A former ally of the rebel faction headed by former acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena, Donofrio switched sides and fought alongside mobsters loyal to Skinny Teddy and his late uncle Carmine who died behind bars.

With his fiancé, Nicole Russo — she filed a letter extolling Teddy Persico as a "remarkable" man who "works incredibly hard and would give anyone, even a stranger, a helping hand" — nodding her head in support, Persico said he wanted "to go home and move my family and business to New Jersey" and "get out of the New York City area" when he completes whatever sentence he gets.

"I'm getting old," he said. "This is not how it should be. I need to change myself. I'm not looking to hurt anybody like I did in the past."

Russo, who wrote that she has "been with Theodore" for 15 years, owns Vintage Collision, the auto-body shop where Persico "worked" and was visited by several Colombo wiseguys who were also indicted and who have also pleaded guilty in the case.

In seeking leniency for Persico, lawyer Joseph Corozzo noted the "harsh" 26 months he has spent behind bars at the "ongoing disgrace" known as the Metropolitan Detention Center. The attorney also stated that his client, like every "defendant is a double sided coin who has positive and negative attributes." Corozzo argued that Skinny Teddy intends to stress his positive attributes when he concludes whatever prison term he gets and move his home and business to the Garden State.

The feds weren't buying. "Persico's most consistent employment has been for the benefit of the Colombo Crime family," countered assistant U.S. attorney Devon Lash, who argued that Skinny Teddy was a mobster for life and that just like he did following every prior prison term, he would resume his career as a Colombo family wiseguy whenever he got out of prison.

Lash asked Gonzalez to impose a prison term of 71 months, which was the maximum sentence she was permitted to ask for under the original plea agreement between the parties.

Persico's five year sentence is the longest stretch that any defendant charged in the labor union shakedown has received thus far. In fact, it is two years longer than the below guidelines sentence that family consigliere Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo received last week.

Even so, Persico's prison term can easily be considered a good one for him even though it's nine months longer than the "guidelines sentence" between 41 and 51 months that Corozzo sought last Friday.

That's because when Skinny Teddy pleaded guilty and admitted taking part in the shakedown of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union, the sentencing guidelines of the often-convicted Persico were listed as 63-to-78 months due to an extensive "criminal history" that went back to 1988, when he was convicted of drug dealing.

In addition, his plea agreement prohibited Skinny Teddy — he was released from prison in 2020 following a 12-year sentence for racketeering and he also faced two years for committing his crime while on supervised release — from contesting any term up to 105 months as excessive.

But at the same time, the feds can also like the sentence — and sources say they do — even though it's 11 months less than what Lash asked the judge to mete out. That's because Gonzalez agreed with Corozzo that the high end of Perisco's corrected guidelines was 51 months, and that Persico was not a supervisor of the union extortion and did not deserve an enhanced sentence.

Corozzo had used government evidence to establish that Skinny Teddy had not joined the "extortion conspiracy" until after he was released from prison "in the spring of 2020," and he "did not exercise control and authority over the participants" in the scheme that had begun 20 years earlier without his knowledge.

But Gonzalez stated that "an upward variance" of nine months above the 51-month high end of the new guidelines sentence "was appropriate." The judge stated that Persico had "demonstrated a complete disregard for his conditions of supervised release," just as he had done twice before following his release from prison following convictions for drug dealing and racketeering.

Based on Bureau of Prisons protocol that reduces the actual time behind bars of all inmates by so-called "good time" of about 15 per cent, Persico, who was detained without bail as a danger to the community when he was arrested on September 14, 2021, will serve a total of 51 months and be released in time to celebrate Christmas — of 2025.

Prosecutor Lash and Michael Gibaldi had sought 46 months for DeMatteo, the consigliere during the scheme. But Gonzalez agreed with the argument by his attorney Gerald McMahon that his client was minimally involved in the union scheme and deserved a below guidelines sentence. The judge allowed DeMatteo, 68, to spend the Christmas holidays at home, and to self-surrender to his assigned prison next year.

'Gambino' Joe Released On $2.8 Million Bond. Luckless Co-defendant Will Spend Xmas In Jail.

Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni, the mob capo who proudly announced he was a "Gambino" as he allegedly threatened to burn down a Jersey Shore eatery whose owners threw him out on Labor Day weekend, has been released on bail to await trial for racketeering. Lanni will be joined at trial with three wiseguys and six mob associates who were arrested with him last month.

One of them, mobster James (Jimmy) Laforte, is charged with racketeering in Philadelphia and detained there without bail on charges of using violence including the assault of an attorney. Only mob associate Kyle Johnson, charged with extortion and assaults of several victims for mobster Diego (Danny) Tantillo three years ago, still remains behind bars in New York.

U.S Magistrate Judge James Cho agreed with defense lawyers that a $2.8 million bond secured by properties that Lanni and friends of his posted as collateral was sufficient to safeguard the public from violence by Joe Brooklyn and also assure the government that he would not run away when he was released from the federal lockup in Brooklyn.

Since his arrest on state assault and other charges in September, Lanni has spent about six weeks behind bars at state and federal lockups in New York and New Jersey.

He is not charged with any violence in the 16-count racketeering indictment. But he is the highest ranked mobster in the case, and the feds say Joe Brooklyn is a dangerous ex-con who should be locked up while awaiting trial because he allegedly assaulted the husband and wife owners of the Roxy Bar & Grille in Toms River hours after they called police and had them thrown out three months ago.

The owners called the cops, according to a detention letter filed by prosecutors Matthew Galeotti, Anna Karamigios and Andrew Roddin after Lanni and codefendant Vincent (Vinny Slick) Minsquero "got into an argument with other patrons of the bar."

In their request for bail, lawyers Michael Bachrach and Fred Sosinsky noted that "Lanni had spent a significant amount of money during that afternoon on food and drinks and became upset when staff at the restaurant requested that he and Minsquero leave the premises rather than the patrons with whom they had been having words."

The lawyers argued that even if the government allegations about their client are true — namely that Lanni "referred to himself" as a "Gambino," told one of the owners he would "burn this place down with you in it," and that he would have done so if he weren't physically prevented from doing so by Vinny Slick — those actions do not require detention.

"Assuming for the sake of discussion," they wrote, "that Mr. Lanni demanded an apology and even made a threat to the owners before leaving and then further harassed the owners in his quest to have them apologize, this conduct does not involve the type of obstruction of justice or threats made to a witness that are contemplated" by statutes that permit detention rather than bail.

"There is no evidence," Bachrach and Sosinsky wrote, that Joe Brooklyn "made any efforts to have the owners drop any complaint against him," or that he attempted to "interfere with their cooperation with law enforcement."

And Lanni did not "threaten or harass the owners to dissuade them from cooperating with law enforcement" because it never occurred, the lawyers wrote. They argued that was "a far cry from the conduct" that is described by the statutes and appeals court rulings as "obstructive conduct supporting detention."

Johnson's court appointed lawyer, Paula Notari, argued in court filings that Johnson's case was a cruel example of how the criminal justice system does not treat working class people fairly when they cannot afford to post million-dollar properties as collateral.

She noted that other defendants charged with greater involvement in the scheme were released on bonds worth millions — something her client can't afford. Tantillo was released on a $5 million bond secured by eight properties, while Lanni's $2.8 million bond is backed by seven properties. Mobster Angelo (FiFi) Gradilone got out on a $1 million bond secured by the homes of relatives.

Meanwhile, Johnson is stuck behind bars since his relatives and friends have no property they can post to guarantee a personal recognizance bond of her client, Notari wrote.

In her filings, the attorney noted that Johnson, 46, is not a mobster, but an associate and that three other associates who've been granted bail, allegedly had more "direct participation" in extortion and assault than Johnson. Her client has been a construction worker for "the past ten years," she wrote, and the government has "no evidence" that Johnson was "anything but a legitimate worker."

Johnson has several convictions, but none worse than his codefendants who've been granted bail. She said her client had offered to sign a $200,000 personal recognizance bond, secured by his "two closest family members," his son, a U.S. Navy corpsman, and his brother, an NYC worker, and a "friend of more than 10 years." That would assure the safety of the community, and Johnson's appearance in court, the lawyer wrote.

"Johnson should not be prejudiced because unlike the eight other defendants who were granted bail, he is indigent, and he does not have access to significant financial resources that will allow him to post real property," Notari wrote.

"His proposed bail package, risking the financial security of his immediate family, including his brother and son, along with his longtime friend, presents considerable moral suasion for Mr. Johnson's compliance with his conditions of release," she wrote.

But Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollok, and Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block, who reversed another magistrate judge's detention of Tantillo, and Gradilone, disagreed. So Johnson, unlike his codefendants, will celebrate Christmas at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Octogenarian Wiseguy Guilty In One Punch Extortion Of Manhattan Restaurateur

Genovese mobster Anthony (Rom) Romanello is planning to appeal his immediate jailing after his conviction of the one punch extortion of prominent Manhattan restaurateur Bruno Selimaj. His convicted accomplice, Joseph Celso, is also cooling his heels behind bars after attending a Genovese Xmas party while the jury was deliberating their fate.

It took two Brooklyn Federal Court juries three days to convict the duo of using extortionate means back in 2017 to collect an illegal $86,000 gambling debt that two relatives of Selimaj and his brother Nino owed to Michael Regan, a major Queens bookmaker. Nino Selimaj owns Nino's, a popular Upper East Side Italian restaurant. Trial testimony took three days.

The videotaped punchout of Bruno Selimaj at his now shuttered Lincoln Square Steakhouse on May 11, 2017, was triggered by the refusal of Selimaj's nephew Fiton (Toni) Selimaj and his brother-in-law, Eldar (Eddie) Dervisevic, to fork over the $86,000 they had lost to Regan shortly after they had won, and been paid, $100,000, according to trial testimony.

That's Regan's runner, Luan (Lou) Bexheti leading Dervisevic through a Rite Aid into a parking lot to collect the $100,000 he had won from Regan on February 18, 2017. That was about a month before Toni Selimaj lost $6000 and Eddie Dervisevic lost $80,000 that led up to the knuckle sandwich that Romanello gave Bruno Selimaj at his steakhouse six years ago.

Toni Selimaj testified that he met Bexheti while he was a waiter at his uncle Bruno's Club A Steakhouse and began placing bets with him. He later introduced his brother-in-law Eddie to Bexheti, he testified. Toni had a $5000 weekly account, and wagered $1000 a game. Eddie, whose father is a very successful businessman, had a $25,000 account, and could bet up to $5000 on a sporting event, Toni testified.

Toni said he never had a winning week. But Eddie scored big, and collected $100,000 in cash from Robert Utnick, a member of Regan's bookmaking operation. He picked up his cash meeting up with Utnick outside the Rite Aid store in the parking lot, Toni testified.

He was never threatened, but he learned that his uncle was punched in the mouth over the debt that he and Eddie owed the bookmaker, he testified. He added that Eddie's father gave him the money his son owed the bookie, and Toni gave it to his uncle Nino, who testified that he paid the debt to Celso, whom he had known for years.

Romanello, 86, was convicted of extortion, and extortion conspiracy. Celso, 51, was found guilty of being part of the conspiracy, but was acquitted of extortion, and of obstruction of justice. They each face maximum sentences of 20 years, but their guidelines will be much lower.

The jury that began its deliberations on Thursday, December 7, was unable to reach a verdict in two days. On Monday, December 11, an alternate juror replaced a member of that panel who was unable to continue. That jury reached a verdict a few hours later.

Judge Eric Komitee revoked bail for both mobsters under a statue that strongly suggests that defendants convicted of extortion be jailed to await sentencing. It is slated for March 4. Celso, who was found guilty only of extortion conspiracy and whose role in the crime was merely being there when Rom punched Bruno Selimaj in the mouth, sunk his chance of remaining free when prosecutors told Komitee that Celso had violated his bail conditions on the weekend before his conviction by attending a Genovese family Christmas party in Congers, NY.

Sources tell Gang Land that the bash was attended by many persons that Celso should not have been hanging around with. They included Ernest (Ernie) Muscarella, 80, whom the FBI carries as the crime family's underboss, and capo Michael (Hippy) Zanfardino, 55.

Zanfardino was involved with other Genovese gangsters in a shooting war in the 1990s with the Tanglewood Boys, a rival gang tied to the Luchese crime family. He beat two trials connected to the violence, but pleaded guilty to racketeering and two murder conspiracies and numerous extortions in 2003. Sources say Hippy has risen in stature since his release from prison in 2016.

Celso's lawyer, Gerard Marrone said he was "happy about the outcome because the jury acquitted Joe of two major counts." He noted that "it's very easy to convict someone of conspiracy, especially when the government gets in all this Mafia stuff that was supposed to be excluded" from the trial. "l am definitely planning to appeal the conviction," Marrone added.

Romanello's attorney, Gerald McMahon, told Gang Land that he has appealed his client's jailing while he awaits sentencing and is hopeful of winning his client's release from the MDC.

Asked about his claim that Rom's prosecution was "the most frivolous case" he had encountered in 45 years as an attorney, and that the government would fail to put Romanello behind bars, as it did two prior times, McMahon blamed pro-government rulings by Komitee for the outcome.

"That's what you get when you have a judge who's looking to convict the defendants," he said. "He sold out the defendants and they got a conviction."

Editor's Note: It makes no difference whether you celebrate Christmas, or whether you believe in Santa Claus: Gang Land wishes you and everyone close to you a Merry Christmas.

[Dr031718]

Michael Zanfardino

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting. Wonder which crew Hippy is running?

[AntComello]

Is this Regan guy connected to anyone?

[StandUpGuy]

Is this Regan guy connected to anyone?

Genovese associate/bookie.

[Mukremin]

Thanks for sharing, was hoping more on the Christmas party but we can add Michael Zanfardino as a Capo.

[OcSleeper]

Thanks for posting

Thanks for sharing, was hoping more on the Christmas party but we can add Michael Zanfardino as a Capo.

Just as you finish your chart too damn Capeci

[Mukremin]

Thanks for posting

Thanks for sharing, was hoping more on the Christmas party but we can add Michael Zanfardino as a Capo.

Just as you finish your chart too damn Capeci

It never ends

[moneyman]

Is the first time Hippy has been identified as Captain? Maybe he has taken over for Calisi/Balsamo Bronx crew while they are in jail?

[Dr031718]

Is the first time Hippy has been identified as Captain? Maybe he has taken over for Calisi/Balsamo Bronx crew while they are in jail?

Yes,this is the first time I have seen Hippy identified as a captain

[Wiseguy]

Yes,this is the first time I have seen Hippy identified as a captain

Last I recall, he was identified as a soldier in court documents in 2010.

[Shellackhead]

Hippy got made in prison right? Or right before he got locked up in the 90s, I remember reading an article about the Tanglewood Boys & he was described as this Hitman for the Genovese family, respected figure in the gangs view

[SonnyBlackstein]

Is the first time Hippy has been identified as Captain? Maybe he has taken over for Calisi/Balsamo Bronx crew while they are in jail?

Capeci did not say acting.

So you'd assume a separate crew or replaced officially.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Didnt Cicale HATE Hippy?

This'd be killing him.

[slimshady_007]

No surprise Hippy is a capo now. He’s been close with Barney’s crew for a long time. It’s crazy how tightly knit that whole Bronx/Uptown crew is.