Gangland News 2/8/2024

[Dr031718]

Sweet Retreat: While Waiting To Help The Feds Catch A Big Mob Fish In Court, Wealthy Snitch Trawled For Big Prey In Caribbean Waters

The FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were so concerned that their key snitch in the $100 million Lottery Winners ripoff case might get whacked by the Colombo crime family that they allowed him to live in a Caribbean condo for more than a year until he was due to testify at the trial of disgraced Lottery Lawyer Jason (Jay) Kurland, Gang Land has learned.

The government's fears were so real, according to the attorney for Francis (Frank) Smookler, that the scammer-turned-cooperator did not return to the New York area until after the death in April of 2022 of Andrew (Mush) Russo. Sources say Smookler fingered Russo as the official boss of the Colombo family when he began cooperating shortly after his August 18, 2020 arrest.

The revelations about the unusual off-shore witness relocation due to fears of mob retaliation were disclosed at the December sentencing of the wealthy cooperating witness whose ties to the late Colombo boss go back to his youth.

Until Russo died, the attorney declared at Smookler's sentencing, "the peril" that his client faced was "quite real" because "at the time Smookler (began) his cooperation," Frangesco (Frankie) Russo, a grandson of the Mafia boss and a codefendant against whom Smookler had agreed to testify, was detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center as a danger to the community.

The attorney didn't spell out the details, but law enforcement sources tell Gang Land that the feds were "concerned" about retaliation by the Colombos because Smookler was a witness against Russo's grandson.

The Mafia boss had known Smookler "since he was a child" and "lived a stone's throw from Smookler's house" on Long Island in Brookville where he was free on bail. But after the feds closed in on the massive lottery scheme, "the government believed it prudent at that time for the Smooklers to leave the country," attorney Kevin Keating stated, according to a transcript of the proceeding obtained by Gang Land.

The fact that Genovese soldier Chrisopher Chierchio, who ended up taking a plea deal was a codefendant of Frangesco Russo at the time, was another factor why Smookler was "in great peril," the lawyer said.

Keating reminded Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis that he had approved the move, after the Smookler mailbox was filled with dirt, and snow, several times and after a "car pulled up the long driveway" with its "lights blaring on the house" at "two in the morning" before leaving, and the feds opted to relocate the family before the threats escalated into violent actions.

Smookler, his wife, and their three children lived "out of the country" for about 15 months, and returned from their Caribbean hideaway "only after Andew Russo had passed away," said Keating. That's when Russo's grandson Frangesco agreed to cooperate "and was released from the MDC," the lawyer said.

Sources say that Keating's account about the dangers the feds believed Smookler faced are essentially accurate. That seemed confirmed when Manhattan federal prosecutor Danielle Kudla did not contradict anything the lawyer said about the relocation at the sentencing, which she would have been required to do if he had misspoken.

Kudla did not detail any dangers that Smookler faced in the months after his arrest, but she told Garaufis that "there was a security concern both to Mr. Smookler and his family at that time." That made his decision to cooperate one "that he could not take lightly," she said, while praising his all-out cooperation both before and during Kurland's trial.

Not only did Smookler give the feds important info "very early on" before Frangesco Russo cooperated and "before the government had cracked Mr. Kurland's phone," Kudla said. He also gave the feds info that led to an indictment of two defendants who stole $12 million from hundreds of victims in a construction loan fraud scheme, and two others who were charged with stealing $88 million from thousands of victims in a boiler room fraud.

Neither Keating nor AUSA Danielle Kudla mentioned where the Smookler family lived for the 15 months that ended in the Spring of 2022, or who paid for it. Technically, they weren't out of the United States, according to court records. They were living on St. John, the smallest of the three U.S. Virgin Islands.

Frank Smookle displays his prze winning fishKeating said that leaving their "beautiful life" was "not such an easy thing to do." Among the trappings of their high-class lifestyle included three kids in $50,000 a year private schools, membership in two country clubs and a small fleet of luxury cars. Among them was a $146,000 Mercedes Benz, a $128,000 Range Rover, and a $194,000 Bentley Bentayaga.

But if he had to leave those perks behind, Smookler did manage to enjoy one of his favorite pastimes, sport fishing. He had boasted online about his prowess with a rod and reel during the Lottery Winners ripoff scheme. He had caught marlin, sailfish, mahi-mahis, barracudas and sharks in scenic destinations like The Sea of Cortez, Key West Florida, Bahamas, St. Thomas, Aruba, St. Maarten, Venezuela, Panama, Antigua and St. John.

While hiding out on St. John, he boated a 39.5 pound mahi-mahi at an annual Virgin Islands fishing event and earned a Top Angler trophy.

"We had an idea it was a bigger one than the other fish we'd caught, so we thought we had a chance (at the top prize)," Smookler told reporter Carol Bareuther, who described Smookler as "an avid fisherman, yet first-time tournament winner."

Kudla is a prosecutor in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office that took over the case in July of 2021 because Kurland's trial lawyer and a top official of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office were married. She played no role in allowing Smookler to live in a condo in St. John that sources say was purchased with money he and Russo had stolen from Lottery winners in the case. That was arranged by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

The condo, where Russo and his fiancé enjoyed a week-long vacation last summer, was sold as part of the $3.5 million that Russo and Smookler have each agreed to forfeit, according to court filings. The duo, who have been friends for 25 years, also owned a $1.4 million home in North Miami Florida that was sold ten days after they were arrested, and forfeited.

One difference in their cooperation agreements is that Smookler, who made millions as an investment banker for sport stars and celebrities including Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Strahan and Spike Lee, was required to pay his $3.5 million in full a week before he was sentenced, which Judge Garaufis noted he had done at the start of the proceeding.

According to Keating, Kudla and Garaufis, Smookler was an excellent cooperator who spilled his guts to the feds about every detail about the ripoff scheme that he and his cohorts pulled off, was an excellent witness at Kurland's trial, and deserved the no jail sentence that he received as a reward.

Smooker horsing around with Jay KurlandBut the 50-year-old former stock broker brought a lot of baggage into court with him when he faced the music. And before he walked out with an unusually crafted sentence of probation, Smookler heard some insightful observations and thoughts about his work as a criminal and as a witness from Judge Garaufis, who's seen many a cooperating witness in his 23 plus years on the bench.

Between 2012 and 2015, Smookler was involved in three domestic violence incidents with his wife. In 2012, he was convicted of harassment and disorderly conduct stemming from an incident in which his wife left their home and crashed her car while intoxicated. Smookler lied to the police about the cause of the accident. The two later incidents were not reported to the police, but Smookler told the feds about them.

He also ran afoul of authorities during his 20 years as a stockbroker. He was suspended twice and fined $5000 each time by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for serious violations. In 2002, FINRA suspended him for 90 days for improperly terminating his employment at a brokerage, and in 2016 for 30 days for falsifying books and records, according to a government sentencing memo.

When it was time to impose sentence, Garaufis focused on the massive crime, which Smookler "did not create" but who "was a very canny, very intelligent, and very successful individual in pursuing the fraud against" three Lottery Winners, as well as "his improved behavior" since his arrest.

"There's always that lingering concern," said Garaufis, "that this is all being done for today, for me, so that he can get the best possible outcome from his deplorable conduct. And that he's been very good at doing that. He knew to cooperate right away," in order to get a cooperating agreement and a government plea for leniency.

"But he knew what to do, because he's really smart," the judge continued. "The big question mark that lurks in my mind (is) what the future will bring," he said. "That's because he was excellent at what he did. He was really smart. And maybe this is all just to get past December 20th, 2023.

And that's just always my concern about sentencing someone as talented as Mr. Smookler at doing what he did," Garaufis said. "What he did well. What he did right. And what he did not so right. And what he did wrong."

The judge listened to Keating say his client was a changed man due to the pain and suffering he's endured since 2020, and he was now a working stiff who gets up at 5AM each day and "rides the train to the city." And to Smookler say, "I owe my life to my wife" who was in court to support him, and that he tried to "help correct the wrong" he had done, and hoped he had succeeded.

Garaufis gave him five years probation, with a few special conditions: Each year, he has to make "full disclosure of his financial records," including any "commingled income, expenses, assets and liabilities" and his tax returns to the Probation Department, and assist it in any way it sees fit to make sure he doesn't open any other accounts without its approval.

The judge will receive "an annual report" about Smookler's "progress on probation" and if after three years the Probation Department "believes that no further supervision is necessary," he will "consider" ending it and allowing him to "go on with his life without probation," Garaufis said.

Feds Withheld Evidence Linking Prominent Restaurateur To Albanian Mafia At Trial Of Aging Genovese Wiseguy

It's hardly anything like Sugar Ray Robinson's famous left hook that the famed boxer used to dramatically flatten opponents like Gene Fullmer back in 1957.

But like Sugar Ray's so-called "perfect punch," the jab that aging mobster Anthony (Rom) Romanello launched at the chin of restuarant owner Bruno Selimaj in his Manhattan steakhouse back in 2017 is still being discussed and debated almost seven years later.

Romanello was convicted of extortion last year stemming from the one-punch assault that a jury stated had stemmed from an argument with Selimaj over an unpaid debt that two of his relatives owed a Queens bookmaker.

But now comes word from attorney Gerald McMahon that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn withheld tape-recorded evidence linking Selimaj, the prominent Manhattan restaurateur who was the key witness against Romanello, to the Albanian Mafia.

The lawyer asserts that the feds are guilty of "prosecutorial misconduct" that could upset the conviction of the 86-year-old wiseguy.

McMahon claims that a three-year-old taped conversation that prosecutors only turned over to the defense last week, reveals that an Albanian gangster is heard calling Selimaj a member of the Albanian Mafia, and that Romanello threw his punch right after Selimaj told him about his Albanian Mafia ties and began yelling at the wiseguy.

McMahon says the December 13, 2019 talk backs up a defense claim that the knuckle sandwich his client doled out had nothing to do with extortion to collect a gambling debt.

Prosecutors stated they were sending the tape to probation officials to assist them in preparing their Pre-Sentence Report for the judge. But the lawyer argued it was important evidence that should have been turned over to the defense before trial.

During the discussion, which was translated from Albanian to English by the feds, the gangster, identified only as "DI," is heard telling a woman — possibly his sister — that he got several calls from Italian gangsters asking him to tell Selimaj not to testify against the "old man." But DI said he never relayed the message because he feared that the FBI would arrest him for threatening Selimaj.

DI tells the woman that Rom had loaned Bruno and his brother Nino money for their restaurants "with interest." But he doesn't implicate Rom in any crimes, and he never identifies the "Italians" who called him during the discussion. Bruno owns the Club A Steakhouse and Nino owns Nino's Restaurant and both were government witnesses at the trial.

In the discussion, DI tells the woman — she calls him "my brother" a couple of times and begged him to "not get involved" in the dispute — that he got several calls from Italian gangsters asking him to tell Bruno not to testify against the "old man." But he didn't, DI said, fearing that if he did the "FBI would put me in jail" for "pushing him not to go to trial (and) testify."

During the conversation, DI states that he had met Romanello in prison in the past and that during the past week he'd gotten calls from "Italians," including "some very big ones" telling him to warn Bruno off. "And today, he continued, "some other Italians called me (and) one of them said that if he puts my brother in jail he [Bruno] is going to have problems."

"One of them told me," DI stated at another point, "if they send him (old Italian) to prison, it's better for him (Bruno) to go to Montenegro, and we are even going to go to Montenegro" if he does, said DI, adding that he told "them" that was their "business" but he didn't "want to hear that kind of talk" and "go to jail for nothing. So I said, 'No.'"

Ironically though, the taped conversation seems to buttress an obstruction of justice charge against Genovese mobster Joseph Celso, who was acquitted of obstructing a November 2019 grand jury investigation into the extortion of Bruno Selimaj by Romanello and Celso. Celso, 50, was also acquitted of the extortion, but found guilty of conspiring with Rom to use extortion to collect an $86,000 gambling debt owed by Selimaj relatives.

Like McMahon, Celso's lawyer, Gerard Marrone, was also informed about the tape, but he has been mum about the discussion. But more than likely Marrone will pan the discussion as irrelevant at sentencing, since his client was acquitted of obstruction.

"The exculpatory value of the recording (for Rom) is obvious," McMahon wrote in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Komitee. He argued that the government's failure to turn it over before trial was a clear violation of the requirement that all so-called Brady Material be turned over to the defense before trial, not a month before sentencing.

"He [Bruno] has complained that (Romanello) gave Bruno money with interest rate, and the old man went to get his money and he [Bruno] started yelling at the old man, saying I am Albanian mafia and so the old man hit him," DI tells the woman in the snippet McMahon highlighted in his letter to Komitee.

The conversation shows "that Bruno was yelling at Mr. Romanello, not vice versa," the lawyer wrote. "It recites that Bruno told Mr. Romanello that he was Albanian mafia which Bruno denied under oath at trial; it recites that defendant hit Bruno immediately after Bruno told him he was Albanian mafia, corroborating that the one punch assault was due to the insults and threats by Bruno rather than because Mr. Romanello was trying to collect a gambling debt."

In his filing, the attorney asked Komitee to "schedule a prompt hearing to determine the reasons for, and the scope of, the prosecutorial misconduct" by the trial prosecutors. He noted they had been warned about their "Brady obligations and the possible consequences of violating" them by Komitee and a Magistrate judge at the start of the case.

Judge Komitee ordered prosecutors to respond to McMahon's Brady Violations claim by February 12. Both defendants were remanded, and are scheduled to be sentenced next month.

BOP Bussing Bazoo Back To Brooklyn For An Early Reunion With His Sentencing Judge

As Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano makes his way back to Brooklyn from his digs in Loretto Pennsylvania in the coming days — or perhaps weeks — the 61-year-old wiseguy surely knows that Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez is not going to be happy to see him.

The last time the judge laid eyes on Ragano, back in April, he gave him 30 months less time behind bars than the government had sought for the recidivist mobster. The judge also delayed his surrender date for a couple of months so Bazoo could attend the wedding of a relative in July.

The feds had asked the judge to give the wiseguy the 87-month high-end of the sentencing guidelines for the loansharking, drug dealing and a $500,000 fraud. Those were crimes he had begun committing in July 2020 while he was still on post-prison supervised release following a 51-month stretch for racketeering. Although he promised that sentencing judge he was going to now do better, after release he went back to his old ways.

But Gonzalez heeded Bazoo's assurances when he faced the music for his latest crimes that this time he'd truly gone on the straight and narrow. Bazoo told how he had reunited with the son he'd ignored for 20 years, had turned over a new leaf, and had behaved himself since he was released on bail due to the awful conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in December of 2021.

But according to a missive that Gonzalez just received from the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, on the same day that Ragano appeared before him in April of last year saying he had turned a new page, he was in the middle of a loansharking conspiracy that had begun in November of 2022. He was also allegedly using extortionate means to try and collect a loanshark debt from yet another crime victim.

And according to the three count indictment that was filed last week, Bazoo continued behaving like a bozo, even using his brief freedom to attend his relative's wedding before he reported to his current digs in the low security prison in Loretto PA, to get into more mischief.

On July 5, 2023, according to the indictment, Bazoo, "did knowingly and intentionally use intimidation and threaten" a victim identified only as John Doe in an effort to stop him from telling the feds about the threats Ragano had been using against him since November of 2022.

In rejecting a plea for an even more lenient sentence, Gonzalez told Ragano that "the fact that you began to engage in (criminal) conduct while on supervised release" also "weighs heavily on me," and added, "I'm hoping it won't happen here."

Hope springs eternal. Maybe next time.

Editor's Note: Gang Land is a taking a slide next week. We'll be back with more real stuff about organized crime in two weeks, on February 22.

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post

[AntComello]

Thanks for posting…what a joke that Rom case is.

[Ivan]

I'm a simple man. I see the name "Garaufis," I skip to the next story.

[DonPeppino386]

I'm a simple man. I see the name "Garaufis," I skip to the next story.

LMAO

[DonPeppino386]

Thanks for posting! Looks like Rom might get lucky here.

[Cheech]

Anyone else with a sub that finds themselves going back and reading old articles? I do it..

[Dr031718]

Anyone else with a sub that finds themselves going back and reading old articles? I do it..

I do it all the time.

[sharpieone]

Thanks for posting…what a joke that Rom case is.

Total mockery of the justice system. A fucking federal case for an old man. The gambler won big and wouldn’t pay. Gambling is now legal.

[Cheech]

Thanks for posting…what a joke that Rom case is.

Total mockery of the justice system. A fucking federal case for an old man. The gambler won big and wouldn’t pay. Gambling is now legal.

Its really nuts. Obvious vendetta against the guy

[Cheech]

Anyone else with a sub that finds themselves going back and reading old articles? I do it..

I do it all the time.

Glad Im not the only one

[Blunts]

Thanks for posting. Nothing at all is right about this Rom case. The Feds obviously have a grudge that they will not let go. The guy is 86 and remanded in MDC for this until sentencing and is facing 3 years. What a joke.

[Ivan]

Anyone else with a sub that finds themselves going back and reading old articles? I do it..

I have a Gangster Report sub and I looked up all the old Paul Carparelli articles from like 8 years ago the other day.