Gangland September 19th 2024

[Dr031718]

Different Plea Deals For Brothers In City Of Brotherly Love Racketeering Case

Gambino mobster James (Jimmy) LaForte agreed to a sentence of 11 and a half years last week when he pleaded guilty to a massive business lending scheme the feds say netted some $100 million. That's four more years than his older brother Joseph accepted in his own plea deal with the feds.

In the end though, Joe LaForte, the ringleader in the nine-year-long scam may make out better with the law than Jimmy, Gang Land has learned.

One reason is that Philadelphia Federal Judge Mark Kearney hasn't decided yet whether Jimmy LaForte getting 137 months behind bars is enough, given his record as a violent enforcer. Another is that the wiseguy is awaiting trial on racketeering charges in Brooklyn, where the plea deal he rejected called for up to 115 additional months behind bars, a total of more than 20 years in the Big House.

According to the charges Jimmy LaForte displayed some especially violent behavior while in the City of Brotherly Love. LaForte last year bashed an attorney for a rival firm in the head with a metal object, a wound that required seven staples in his skull to close his wound. Two days later, he told a cooperating witness and his wife that he had just "put a guy in the hospital" and would "come for the girls," their daughters, if he didn't "retract" his "lies" against their company, Par Funding.

The assault charge is backed up by surveillance videos on February 28 of last year. They show a short, stocky guy wearing a black medical mask, a black knit cap, black gloves, and a black winter coat over a grey hoodie, "jog" up behind the attorney at 3:17 pm just as the camera loses them. Six seconds later, another camera picks him up running away. He is spotted four minutes later putting his jacket into a trash can a few blocks away, according to an arrest complaint.

A minute later, with the hoodie still up over his head, but after taking off his hat and face mask, the guy is seen getting into a taxi, which dropped him off five minutes later, at 3:27 PM. At that point, James LaForte is seen in full face, holding what appears to be the black hat and gloves that he apparently decided to save for another day, according to the photo in the complaint.

On March 2, LaForte, 47, was tape recorded making threatening phone calls to a former Par Funding employee who had flipped, and to his adult daughters, telling one "that he knew she was (the employee's) daughter and that he knew where she lived," according to a court filing in the case.

The judge told prosecutors and LaForte's lawyer that the agreed upon sentencing range "sends the wrong message about the protection of the judicial system … and witnesses."

Jimmy LaForte's sentencing guidelines are between 110 to 137 months of confinement. Unlike plea agreements in New York, where the sentencing guidelines are advisory, they are mandatory in Philadelphia, provided the judge accepts the sentencing range. That's what Judge Kearney did when Joseph (Joe Mack) LaForte admitted a slew of crimes after opening a Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) business in 2011 after getting out of prison for a $14 million Ponzi scheme.

Joseph, 53, pleaded guilty to racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, defrauding the IRS, and obstruction of justice charges for conspiring with his brother to assault attorney Gaetan Alfano and to threaten the entire family of an ex-employee who cooperated. He also admitted criminal possession of a weapon, a .38 caliber handgun agents found during a search of his home.

Kearney accepted Joseph's plea deal, but the first one worked out by lawyer Joseph Corozzo and prosecutors Matthew Newcomer, Samuel Drake and Eric Gill, containing the same guidelines, was scotched by higher ups in the U.S. Attorney's Office because it did not include Joe Mack's involvement in his brother's assault of the lawyer and his threats against the entire family of the cooperating witness.

Joseph LaForte's agreement, which calls for restitution of $10.5 million to the IRS and $1.6 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue in taxes, puts the "actual fraud loss" between $9.5 and $25 million. But prosecutors will say the loss is closer to $100 million while Corozzo has argued that it's $9.5 million.

When the judge questioned the sentencing range in James LaForte's plea agreement and raised the issue of renegotiating his plea deal, prosecutors took a few minutes to confer with defense attorney Thomas Mirigliano. They agreed that the sentencing range was appropriate, they told Kearney, who agreed to take LaForte's guilty plea, and reserve a final decision on the issue.

On sentencing day, both sides are expected to agree that the sentencing range is appropriate and reasonable, but disagree on the sentence that Kearney should mete out, with Mirigliano pushing for the 110-month low end and the feds arguing that LaForte deserves a 137 month sentence.

In Brooklyn, Judge Frederic Block put off yesterday's scheduled status conference in the racketeering case against Jimmy LaForte and nine others until next month due to a scheduling conflict with a civil trial the judge has been presiding over this week. So it's unclear what impact the wiseguy's Philadelphia guilty plea will have on the case.

Mirigliano, several other lawyers contacted by Gang Land, as well as the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office declined to talk about the case.

But there is at least one major aspect of the Philadelphia case which does have an impact on the one in Brooklyn that charges four Gambino wiseguys and six others with fraud, numerous extortions, and thefts from union benefit funds as part of a racketeering conspiracy between 2017 and last year.

It involves LaForte, who is also charged with obstruction of justice and illegal possession of a weapon in the Brooklyn case, and the lead defendant in the case, capo Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni, according to filings in the case

Par Funding, and another so-called Merchant Cash Advance industry company linked to Jimmy LaForte "kicked up" more than $1.5 million in tributes to the Gambino crime family, according to a court filing by prosecutors Matthew Galeotti, Anna Karamigios, and Andrew Roddin.

The tribute payments were from two companies that were "owned or operated by LaForte," and allegedly funneled to Lanni-controlled companies disguised as so-called "loans," the prosecutors stated in a detention memo they filed when the indictment was unsealed last year.

All 10 defendants in the Brooklyn case rejected government plea offers last month.

Lanni's offer, calling for a recommended prison term between 168 and 210 months, was the longest. Laforte, who was already being held without bail for his brutal assault in Philadelphia and is the only defendant who is still detained in the Brooklyn case, rejected a plea offer with sentencing guideline between 92 and 115 months.

Ex-Hubby Of Real Housewives Of New Jersey TV Star Dina Manzo To Admit Guilt In Stalking His Ex-Wife And The Home Invasion Robbery Of Her And Her New Husband

Mob-connected restaurateur Thomas Manzo, who was convicted in June of ordering the brutal 2015 assault of the boyfriend of ex-wife Dina Manzo, the star of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, has agreed to plead guilty to charges involving the home invasion robbery of Dina and her new husband two years later, Gang Land has learned.

Manzo is slated to resolve charges he stalked Dina and fiancé David Cantin from 2015 to 2019 and orchestrated the 2017 assault and armed robbery of the couple in their Holmdel NJ home. During the assault, two Luchese gangsters recruited by Manzo punched Dina in the face, stole her engagement ring and $500 in cash after the couple returned home from the First Holy Communion of Dina's goddaughter.

Manzo has agreed to "plead guilty to certain counts" of the state charges lodged against him in Monmouth County Superior Court. The guilty plea is scheduled to come on October 16, 2024, a day after Manzo is slated to be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison in Newark Federal Court for ordering the bloody assault of Cantin at a strip mall in July of 2015 by Luchese mobster John Perna, according to court filings in his federal case.

The restaurant owner's decision to cop a plea deal to resolve the state charges in which he and gangster James (Jimmy Ball) Mainello are awaiting trial, was disclosed by the feds in their failed attempt to revoke Manzo's bail for violating several conditions of his release. Prosecutors had asked a judge to have him begin his prison term on Monday, a month before his official sentencing date.

The federal prosecutors did not seek Manzo's detention following his conviction even though federal statutes mandate the immediate jailing of persons convicted of violent crimes. They appear to have come to regret that move.

Prosecutors had argued that Manzo's detention was "warranted and mandatory" because he had exhibited a "cavalier approach to the conditions set by this Court for detaining him at home with electronic monitoring." They asserted that Manzo had repeatedly violated the conditions since he was convicted of racketeering charges involving the assault, and of obstruction of justice in the ensuing years.

In addition to ignoring rules requiring him to obtain permission to leave his home, Pre Trial Service officials told prosecutors that "Manzo was taking advantage of this Court's permission to meet with counsel in this case" by getting lawyers "having nothing to do with this case" contact "PTS to schedule and permit such meetings."

One of "Manzo's unauthorized trips" was "close to the residence of one of the Government's trial witnesses," the prosecutors wrote. "An unauthorized trip is an unauthorized trip," they wrote, "and Manzo should be detained and not making any."

"Finally," prosecutors wrote, "the Government learned from PTS" that Manzo "brazenly ignored" a PTS directive to seek "permission for most, if not all" of his trips and "immediately visit(ed) a funeral home" without notifying or obtaining permission from PTS. That was the "proverbial last straw," they wrote, that pushed the usually staid agency to seek his remand.

In their filings with Judge Susan Wigenton, the prosecutors argued that his sentencing should not be adjourned, and if it is, he should begin his prison term that day, regardless.

Prosecutors have not stated their assessment of the sentencing guidelines for Manzo since his conviction in June. But the 57-year-old restaurant owner could be looking at a double digit sentence next month. He was found guilty of racketeering for ordering the assault on Cantin and of obstruction of justice for trying to hide the fact that he gave Perna a free wedding reception for 272 guests in return for his savage assault with a "slapjack" against Cantin.

In a filing before trial, prosecutor Kendall Randolph noted the "extremely serious" assault charge alone called for up to 20 years and a guidelines sentence of six and a half years. She did not mention that Manzo could get another five years if found guilty of obstruction of justice. And it's likely that prosecutors will state in their sentencing memo that Manzo is planning to plead guilty to his involvement in the 2017 home invasion of Dina and David's home.

But on Monday, Wigenton heeded arguments from Manzo's lawyers that while he may have violated his bail conditions several times, none of them, which included his attendance at a funeral and at a zoning board issue, were alleged to have been violent actions or alleged threats by their client and she rejected the government's push to jail him.

For the next month, Manzo has "Home Incarceration, with electronic monitoring," the judge wrote. And to make sure he got the message, Wigenton added: "24-hour lock-down except for medical necessities and court appearances, or other activities specifically approved by the court."

'They're Thick As Thieves,' But Skinny Joey And George Borgesi Have Gone Their Separate Ways

George Borgesi wasn't at the "going away" party for Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino at Pasquale's Rigoletto in December of 2014 before he began a four month stretch behind bars. And Borgesi was identified as a capo in the borgata's induction ceremony that was conducted by then acting boss Michael (Mikey Lance) Lancellotti the following year. But there's no question, sources tell Gang Land, that Borgesi is running the crime family which has shelved Merlino.

For whatever reason, the sources say, within the past year, Borgesi took over the helm of the Philadelphia crime family from Lancellotti with the blessings of all concerned parties, including the Genovese and Gambino crime families, as Gang Land disclosed last week.

And Borgesi, who was convicted of racketeering along with Merlino in 2001 and sentenced to the same 14 year prison term as his then-boss, and who was a regular supporter of his Mafia boss at his 2018 racketeering trial in Manhattan Federal Court, most likely has the blessings of Skinny Joey.

"They're thick as thieves," laughed one source. "They are part of the same neighborhood crew since they were kids," said another source. "An inner circle all the say. You can't get any tighter."

But back on December 9, 2014, Skinny Joey brought Mikey Lance and Dominic (Baby Dom) Grande to the going away party that Genovese capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello threw for him at his landmark Arthur Avenue eatery. Parrello, Merlino and the other wiseguys who attended the bash did not know it was funded by the FBI, as part of a sting operation that would cause a lot of grief for Skinny Joey.

The following year, Borgesi was present during the October 11 induction ceremony that was conducted by Lancellotti and tape recorded by turncoat inductee Anthony Persiano. After being introduced to the wired-up new member as a caporegime, Borgesi stated only one word, "Congratulations," according to the transcript that was obtained by Gang Land.

As Borgesi and the Gambinos allegedly work to revive a joint project involving the demolition and carting industries in a Philadelphia suburb that was put on hold because of fears that Merlino's podcasts might bring heat from the feds, "The SKINNY With Joey Merlino" podcast continues, but without any mention of the news that his crime family has put him on a shelf.

It's not something that Merlino can confirm or deny because either option will violate mob protocol that bans any public discussion about Cosa Nostra.

As more than one pundit has told Gang Land, being put "on a shelf" is a bonus for Merlino. Not only is he earning money legitimately, it will help him beat any racketeering cases that the feds bring since that means he's got no wiseguy rights or responsibilities. It follows that he's effectively withdrawn from the mob, a tactic that onetime acting mob boss John (Junior) Gotti used to his advantage to stymie the government's efforts two decades ago.

We asked Edwin Jacobs, Merlino's longtime attorney, who along with the late John Meringolo, managed to convince most of the jurors at his 2018 trial that Skinny Joey wasn't guilty, if his client had withdrawn from the mob.

The cagey lawyer didn't say yes, but he certainly implied that would be his defense, if the feds were to charge him with racketeering again, noting that the last time he was even alleged to be a wiseguy, was in 2018.

"The last case brought against Joe Merlino dates back to 2016," Jacobs said. "That was tried to a conclusion in February of 2018, which is six and a half years ago. And 2016 is eight years ago," he continued. "People are free to draw their own conclusions from that enormous passage of time regarding any charges being brought against Joey Merlino," the lawyer concluded.

[Amershire_Ed]

Thanks for posting

[Wiseguy]

So, unless I've missed it, is Borgesi official boss or acting boss?

[Cheech]

FWIW Borgesi was at Joeys trial in new york every day. Think about that…

[JohnnyS]

Wow so Lancelotti was still running the family up until last year.

Thanks for posting.

[Cheech]

Wow so Lancelotti was still running the family up until last year.

Thanks for posting.

What in that provides the wow?

[CornerBoy]

FWIW Borgesi was at Joeys trial in new york every day. Think about that…

hi cheech- what are you trying to illustrate or highlight? thx

[Cheech]

FWIW Borgesi was at Joeys trial in new york every day. Think about that…

hi cheech- what are you trying to illustrate or highlight? thx

Maybe they had a subsequent disagreement after the podcast but as you know it takes dedication going to someones trial every day. Its extremely boring and the courthouse he was at in manhattan wasn’t exactly close to philly. Its a few hours I believe. Takes some dedication. You gotta really love the person you are going to support. Reading in between the lines him going says a lot.

[JohnnyS]

Wow so Lancelotti was still running the family up until last year.

Thanks for posting.

What in that provides the wow?

Speculation was he stepped back a few years ago due to health issues. I remember G&D reporting something like that and also saying that it looked like Borgesi was running things.

[Cheech]

Wow so Lancelotti was still running the family up until last year.

Thanks for posting.

What in that provides the wow?

Speculation was he stepped back a few years ago due to health issues. I remember G&D reporting something like that and also saying that it looked like Borgesi was running things.

they've swung and missed a lot. its unfortunate.

[OcSleeper]

Speculation was he stepped back a few years ago due to health issues. I remember G&D reporting something like that and also saying that it looked like Borgesi was running things.

About a year ago or so Schratwieser still had Lancellotti as acting boss and hadn't heard anything about Borgesi being acting boss. He's referred to Mazzone as the former underboss and said he's been replaced but didn't say by who. To make it more confusing, Schratwieser has also gone back and forth with calling Mazzone the underboss since his incarceration.

[JeremyTheJew]

Kinda confusing….
On one hand the headline makes it look like there was issues

Then he says he wasn’t seen in 2014 - but was seen everyday at 2018 trial …..

Almost spells it out at that this is a good out for Joey..,,

[DonPeppino386]

Different Plea Deals For Brothers In City Of Brotherly Love Racketeering Case
The assault charge is backed up by surveillance videos on February 28 of last year. They show a short, stocky guy wearing a black medical mask, a black knit cap, black gloves, and a black winter coat over a grey hoodie, "jog" up behind the attorney at 3:17 pm just as the camera loses them. Six seconds later, another camera picks him up running away. He is spotted four minutes later putting his jacket into a trash can a few blocks away, according to an arrest complaint.

A minute later, with the hoodie still up over his head, but after taking off his hat and face mask, the guy is seen getting into a taxi, which dropped him off five minutes later, at 3:27 PM. At that point, James LaForte is seen in full face, holding what appears to be the black hat and gloves that he apparently decided to save for another day, according to the photo in the complaint.

SO many cameras out there now, but sometimes I still am impressed at how the feds can track someone from them so easily.

Thanks for posting!

[Uncle Pete]

I don’t know how much I buy that Joey’s podcast would bring any extra heat from the law. He arguably was the hottest guy out when he was on the street and the Feds were already throwing every rat they had after him. I think if he was to try to remain boss and was meeting with made guys in Philly and Florida discussing business, he would bring way more heat on not just himself but also on anyone he met with or spoke too.

[SonnyBlackstein]

FWIW Borgesi was at Joeys trial in new york every day. Think about that…

Agree. This has to be a ploy vs coup.


Cui Bono?