Gangland August 15th 2024

[Dr031718]

Bazoo: They're Sandbagging Me! The Feds Are Using A 'Throw-It-Against-The-Wall-And-Hope-Something-Sticks Approach' To Nail Me At Trial

Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano says he's been sandbagged and he's mad as hell about it.

He says prosecutors shouldn't be allowed to play tapes that caught him allegedly espousing violence to stool pigeon Andrew Koslosky at his upcoming loansharking trial. Why? Because he says they withheld their plans to use the once-renowned singer's tape recordings against him for more than five months, Gang Land has learned.

Sandbagging is the clever strategy of raising your opponent's hopes by checking your bets in poker, or minimizing your strengths in other conflicts, until the very end. But Ragano and his attorneys say that kind of maneuver is foul play in the criminal justice system. In a court filing, they argue that the feds should be punished for not disclosing their plans to use Koslosky recordings until late last month.

In an unusual request, the lawyers asked Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez to defer ruling on the pre-trial issues until September 23 when "the government has agreed to produce . . . a more specific reasoned approach" to the evidence it plans to use. Until now, the lawyers wrote, it has used "scattergun tactics" in an effort "to depict Mr. Ragano as violent by its throw-it-against-the-wall-and-hope-something-sticks approach."

"The government's seemingly unlimited approach" to introduce any evidence that "portray(s) Ragano as violent" is "not tempered by any reasonable or principled limitation," the attorneys wrote. "Other than this scattergun" approach that suggests "implicit violence, there is a dearth of specific evidence to establish that the defendant made extortionate attempts to collect the loan" he had given to mob associate Vincent Martino in 2021, the lawyers wrote.

Attorneys Joel Stein and Ken Womble reminded Gonzalez that back on February 26, he "directed the parties to review" the "massive" discovery from the prior racketeering case against Bazoo, in which he was charged with loansharking against the same victim, to determine what evidence "the government intended to" turn over to the defense in the current case.

In February, Ragano was charged with using extortionate means in a bid to force Martino to pay off the debt for eight months, beginning in November of 2022 when Bazoo pleaded guilty to loansharking. Then he started worrying that Martino might be a snitch. On July 5, 2023, in a showdown at a Queens junkyard, Bazoo ordered Martino to take off all his clothes. Despite being buck naked, Martino still managed to tape-record Ragano threatening "to fucking slap the shit out of" him if he didn't pay off the loan.

But the feds played their cards close to the vest. It wasn't until some six months after Ragano was re-indicted, that prosecutors first told the Court and Ragano that they planned to use snippets of four Koslosky recordings at his trial. They also have held back from the defense the recordings that the cooperating witness had made during the investigation that led to Bazoo's indictment in September of 2021, the lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors Devon Lash and Andrew Reich had told Gonzalez in their filing that Koslosky and Martino would testify that during discussions they had with Ragano in 2021, the wiseguy told them that he was an "inducted, member of the Bonanno crime family" and had spoken of "his willingness to break the law and use violence" to get his way.

Koslosky was arrested by the FBI in April of 2021. He was wired-up during the months before Ragano and 13 members and associates of the Colombo family were arrested, according to court records. In the blockbuster racketeering case four months later, family leaders were charged with a 20-year-long shakedown of a union leader orchestrated by capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo.

The Koslosky tapes captured a series of threats and references to prior violent acts by Bazoo, the prosecutors wrote. His words, they said, will back up testimony by Martino and Koslosky that "based on statements Ragano made to them and their own observations, Ragano was quick to anger and spoke often about his willingness to use violence against others to accomplish his goals."

In taped talks on April 19, and April 27 of 2021, Ragano was caught telling Koslosky the tale of how he retaliated against a woman by throwing a garbage can at her car and slashing tires on several vehicles. "If I gotta go back to jail, I'll go back to jail," he said. In a later reference to his conflict with the woman, they wrote, Bazoo stated: "I'm going to burn everything."

Speaking about a marijuana scheme he and his pals had hatched, Ragano was also allegedly heard on a June 1, 2021 tape, bragging to Koslosky that, "I got guys that could go rob the farmer if I wanted to," the prosecutors wrote.

Stein and Womble countered that "the government's belated proffer of summaries and snippets of the undisclosed recordings is unfair." They wrote that the talks occurred three years ago, and the snippets have no relationship to the charges, and are not evidence of loansharking, which require the feds to prove that Bazoo used extortionate means to try and collect the loan.

For failing to "comply with the Court’s order" and by violating their "continuing discovery obligations" to turn over evidence that prosecutors plan to use against Bazoo in a timely manner, the defense stated in their August 9 court filing that "the Court must exclude this proffered evidence" from their client's upcoming trial. It is scheduled to begin October 7.

A day earlier, on August 8, the lawyers noted, the prosecutors "did not include the recordings" that Koslosky had made between April 11, 2021 and September 14, 2021, when Ragano was charged in the Colombo family case with drug dealing, fraud and loansharking against Martino in their "third discovery production" to the defense since February.

"If (the tapes are) not precluded," the attorneys argued, "there (would be) no effective sanction for the government's lengthy failures" to fulfill its obligations to adhere to the "the court's directive" to determine the evidence it intended to use at trial back in February.

In addition, the lawyers wrote, the prosecution argument to permit Martino and Koslosky to testify that Ragano was also known by the nickname "Maniac," was "a thinly disguised pretext to make an impression on the jury while providing no legitimate or relevant purpose," and should be rejected out of hand by the Court.

Despite the "Maniac" nickname, they stated, Martino still "boldly" confronted Ragano at the salvage yard where he worked on July 5, 2023. It also didn't dissuade him from "borrowing money" from Bazoo, and does nothing to prove "the acts charged in the indictment," the lawyers stated.

Guilty Times Seven: Players In Mob-Orchestrated Construction Kickback Scheme Take Pleas As Top Defendants Play Wait-And-See

Seven individual defendants have now copped guilty pleas in the vast state labor racketeering case brought last year against two dozen members and associates of the Gambino and Genovese family charged with stealing $5 million from builders of dozens of Manhattan high-rise apartments and hotels, Gang Land has learned. Charges against two others have been dismissed.

Sources tell Gang Land that most of the remaining 15 individual defendants are likely to resolve their cases with guilty pleas to lesser charges in the 83-count indictment. But the major players in the case — Gambino capo Frank Camuso, Genovese soldier Christopher Chierchio, and the central figure in the scheme, Robert (Rusty) Baselice — are expected to hang tough.

Baselice, 52, is a former vice president of the Rinaldi Group, a Secaucus-based contractor who allegedly received $4.2 million in payments from contractors who had received $100 million in subcontracts from Baselice's company. The kickbacks were allegedly funneled to a separate Staten Island company he controlled.

The alleged bribery and bid-rigging scheme ran from 2013 until 2021, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. In addition to Chierchio, 56, and Camuso, 60, the other major players awaiting trial in the case are close associates of the Gambino wiseguy, mobster Louis Astuto and mob associate Paul Noto, according to court filings.

Chierchio and his plumbing company RCI PLBG Inc., received $13 million in subcontracts from Baselice and teamed up with him to steal $300,000 from a developer, according to court records. At Baselice's direction, the wiseguy allegedly funneled $175,000 in kickbacks to companies owned by others, including Camuso.

Camuso, the top of the long food chain, allegedly received $750,000 in kickbacks from five companies owned and operated by Astuto and Noto. That money was deposited in accounts of three companies that the Staten Island based capo controlled, according to prosecutors.

Among those who pleaded guilty are contractor Vincent Badali, who received $15 million in subcontracts from Baselice and stole more than $1 million from developers in cahoots with Astuto and Noto, according to court filings. Badali, 62, wangled a conditional discharge plea deal calling for him to forfeit $250,000.

Badali, who funneled $750,000 in kickbacks to companies owned by Baselice, Astuto and Noto, from two companies he owned, according to court records, pleaded guilty to commercial bribery. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October. He dissolved one of his companies; the other received a deferred prosecution.

The case against Gambino associate Mario (Buddy) Garafola who was accused along with his wife Jeanine of funneling $238,900 in kickbacks to Camuso through their construction company in 2017 and 2018, is sealed. But sources say the charges against Mario Garafola were recently dismissed when he was deemed too sick to proceed.

Garafola's attorney and the DA's Office declined to comment about the case. But sources say that prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against the nephew of turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano after confirming that the gangster was too sick to defend himself of the charges.

The charges against Jeanine Garafola and their company, Earth Structures, Inc, are still pending before Supreme Court Justice Miriam Best, and like the pending cases of most of the remaining defendants, have been adjourned until November 1.

Four defendants who pleaded guilty to lesser charges of criminal facilitation, petty larceny or conspiracy this month received conditional discharges; a fifth defendant, a worker for one of the companies in the kickback scheme, pleaded guilty two weeks ago to conspiracy charges in return for a sentence of 100 hours of community service.

Prosecutors also agreed to a dismissal of the charges against another defendant, sources say, when his attorney established that the evidence they had was faulty, sources say.

All the remaining defendants — other than Chierchio, who is serving a five-year federal prison term for his involvement in the $100 million ripoff of three Lottery winners — are free without bail as they await trial in the case. They were released without bail when they were arrested in January of 2023.

Feds Try Hardball With Gambino Gangsters In Brooklyn, But Go 0 For 10

The feds tried to play hard ball with Gambino capo Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni and his nine codefendants in their pending racketeering indictment, Gang Land has learned. They even tried it with the mob underling who prosecutors credit with stopping his inebriated skipper from burning down a Jersey Shore eatery last year.

But sources tell Gang Land that the pitch by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office went wide of the mark. The sources say that all of the defendants, from Lanni, whose plea offer was the stiffest at 168-to-210 months, to Vincent (Vinny Slick) Minsquero, whose offer of up to three years was the most lenient, all checked their swings and refused to even nibble at the offers.

Vincent Minsqueroanni, who also faces charges of assaulting the husband and wife owners of Roxy's Bar and Grille Restaurant in Toms River last year on the Friday night of Labor Day weekend, is awaiting trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for allegedly overseeing several multimillion dollar a year Gambino family racketeering schemes in the metropolitan area from 2017 until last year.

On September 1 of 2023, Lanni and Minsquero both "became belligerent" when they were kicked out of the Roxy after they "got into an argument with another patron," according to a detention memo that prosecutors Matthew Galeotti, Anna Karamigios and Andrew Roddin filed following the takedown of the 10 defendants last year.

As they were escorted out, Joe Brooklyn "referred to himself" as a "Gambino" and told one of the owners, the prosecutors wrote, that he would "burn this place down with you in it." About 18 minutes later, Lanni was seen on a surveillance video across the street "purchasing a red gas container, walking to a pump, and trying briefly to fill the container with gas before apparently being dissuaded by Minsquero and a gas station attendant," the prosecutors wrote.

The video also shows Vinny Slick "returning the gas container" to the clerk with the still steaming Joe Brooklyn trying to stop him.

Mobster Diego (Danny) Tantillo, who is charged with three separate extortions of rivals in the demolition industry, including an arson and a hammer assault, as well as several thefts from employee benefit plans, rejected his own plea offer of 151-to-188 months.

Mob associate Kyle (Twin) Johnson turned thumbs down on a plea deal offer of 121-to-151 months. The prosecutors stated "Johnson is a longstanding associate of the Gambino crime family who repeatedly assisted Tantillo" in several extortion attempts "by finding individuals to damage" trucks of business rivals and who oversaw the assault of another Tantillo victim in 2020.

The sources say Gambino soldier James (Jimmy) Laforte, who allegedly "kicked up" more than $1.5 million in tributes to the Gambino family disguised as so-called "loans" to Lanni-controlled companies, and is also awaiting trial on racketeering charges in Philadelphia, rejected a plea deal calling for 92-to-115 months.

Mobster Angelo (Fifi) Gradilone, a close pal of Danny Tantillo who is charged with embezzling health and welfare benefit funds with Tantillo from 2019 to 2021, said no to a plea deal calling for 41-to-51 months, as did mob associate Robert Brooke, who was allegedly involved in an extortion scheme with Tantillo to shake down the owners of a New Jersey demotion company in 2019 and 2020.

Gambino associates Vito (Vi) Rappa, a member of the Sicilian Mafia, and Francesco (Uncle Ciccio) Vicari, an associate of the Sicilian Mafia, who were allegedly involved in extortion schemes with Tantillo, according to the prosecutors, also rebuffed plea deals. Rappa's called for 37-to-46 months; Vicari's 33-t0-41 months.

And mob associate Salvatore DiLorenzo, who is charged along with Tantillo with embezzling union benefit funds and with defrauding a rival demolition company in 2020 and 2021 spurned a plea deal calling for 37-to-46 months in prison.

A status conference in the case is scheduled for next month.

[Dapper_Don]

Thanks for posting

[AntComello]

Thanks for posting

[Tonyd621]

Thank for posting. Whatever happens to the fields they were digging? No dice either, huh?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post Dr.

Can someone post the picture of Minesquero? Cheers

[TommyGambino]

Judge gonna throw the book at Lanni and Tantillo

[Tonyd621]

Judge gonna throw the book at Lanni and Tantillo

The plea deals don't seem that appealing.
.

[Bing Bang 74]

Thanks for the post Dr.

Can someone post the picture of Minesquero? Cheers

Vincent Minsquero.tiff

[Tonyd621]

Chierco only got 5 Years for the lottery rip-off scam? Call me nuts but that almost seems worth it

[Blunts]

Thanks for posting.

Those are some really heavy plea deals. They must have something solid if that is the best they are offering. Will be interesting to watch it play out. Lanni fucked up massively that night he went off on a rampage. That will not look good for him regardless of the rest of the case. He is bound to get a stiff sentence but might as well roll the bones if that is the best the gov has to offer.

[Blunts]

Chierco only got 5 Years for the lottery rip-off scam? Call me nuts but that almost seems worth it

Yea that one seems like a decent risk to reward scenario. If he has enough of that stashed away he can do 5 years and be done with everything.

[AntComello]

Chierco only got 5 Years for the lottery rip-off scam? Call me nuts but that almost seems worth it

Shit I’m right there with ya. I remember how big the figures were in that case. Wonder how much he had to give back.

[7digits]

Chierco only got 5 Years for the lottery rip-off scam? Call me nuts but that almost seems worth it

Yea that one seems like a decent risk to reward scenario. If he has enough of that stashed away he can do 5 years and be done with everything.

Why would he be done, this is like his 2nd federal convicted for being involved in making tens of millions and he didn’t get out last time, not sure why he would get out this time

[7digits]

Chierco only got 5 Years for the lottery rip-off scam? Call me nuts but that almost seems worth it

Yea that one seems like a decent risk to reward scenario. If he has enough of that stashed away he can do 5 years and be done with everything.

Why would he be done, this is like his 2nd federal convicted for being involved in making tens of millions and he didn’t get out last time, not sure why he would get out this time, there’s never been a better time to be a wiseguy then right now