Gangland - 6/14/18

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land By Jerry Capeci

A Bookie's Sentencing — And The House That Ronnie G Built

Robert (Rob) Pisani, a Howard Beach bookmaker and a buddy of acting Bonanno capo Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo for more than 10 years, is up for sentencing next week. Originally facing 20 years, the feds gave him a plea agreement calling for 15-to-21 months for collecting an illegal debt from a deadbeat gambler — one of the best deals among the dozen defendants in the 55-count racketeering indictment.

Prosecutors seem to regret making it, though. In their sentencing memo, they have dug pretty deep to find bad things — even an alleged Giallanzo threat to a victim that Pisani had nothing to do with — in an effort to make sure he gets not a day less than 21 months. They surely wouldn't mind if the judge gave him more, but the plea agreement prevents them from asking.

Nothing's changed since November when the agreement was signed and Pisani pleaded guilty before Chief Judge Dora Irizarry. And there may be a few reasons for the government's full court press. But the one that jumps off the pages of the sentencing memo is that Pisani sold Ronnie G the home that "Giallanzo turned into a mansion constructed with illicit proceeds" — loanshark earnings that he made over the years with Pisani's help.

As Gang Land reported in March, the U.S. Attorney's office has been "obsessed" with the spectacular five-bedroom home that Ronnie G built, and it was a key bone of contention in plea talks. Sources on both sides of the case say prosecutors insisted from day one that in order for Ronnie G and his top crew members to avoid taking their chances at trial, he would have to sell the house.

Prosecutors see the house, which Giallanzo's wife bought from Pisani in May of 2015, according to Property Shark, an online real estate database, as an "important symbol" of mob success that had to be crushed. And even before Ronnie G & Company were indicted, the feds sought to seize the property in a civil suit alleging that illicit funds were used "to purchase, construct and renovate" the home.

For those in the market for an ultra-luxe custom-built home that sits on an 80 by 100 foot corner lot at 164-04 86 Street in lovely Howard Beach, you can pick it up for a cool $2.89 million. Based on photos, the Mafia Palace puts to shame the joint that Tony Soprano and his wife Carmela called home for seven years in the reel-life version of the New Jersey mob.

It boasts two fireplaces, a surround-sound system throughout the home, a gym, a full bar, and a salt-water heated pool with a waterfall that sits in a resort- style back yard, according to a Realty Executives of Forest Hills online listing, complete with 53 pictures.

The house has a lovely custom-designed gourmet eat-in kitchen with a large island, top of the line appliances, and a banquet-size dining room, according to the listing. There is radiant heat throught the home, which has three full bathrooms and two half-baths. The first floor and basement have tile heated floors.

The gym, which has weights, barbells, a sign reading, "ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE," and some high-tech and expensive looking exercise machines not in Gang Land's wheelhouse, is in a completely finished, high ceiling basement that also has a full kitchen, media room, a built in fish tank, a wine room, and a cedar closet.

The listing notes that the front steps are heated, and that there are pavers thoughout the property that also include radiant heat (wiseguys don't like to shovel snow, you know). There are two laundry rooms and a central vacuum system. And outside, in the back yard, there's a top of the line out- door kitchen with an ice maker. And there's a full sprinkler system, and, naturally, a security system.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors Lindsay Gerdes and Keith Edelman state that they "challenge" the account that Pisanis gave the Probation Department about the sale of the house to the Giallanzos. They argue that the Judge can use that information to give Pisani the maximum 21 months called for in his plea agreement.

Specifically, they wrote that when Pisani sold the house, he received "approximately $700,000 in cash and the cancellation of an approximately $300,000 to $350,000 debt he owed Giallanzo." That's contrary to what he reported about the sale to probabation officials, who prepared a PreSentence Report (PSR) for Judge Irizarry.

Basement Living Room"In connection with the sale of his home," the prosecutors wrote, Pisani wrongly stated that "Elizabeth Giallanzo owes the defendant a $410,000 mortgage balance that is not collectible."

"In fact, the 'mortgage' is the cancellation of a debt the defendant owed to Giallanzo," they wrote, asserting that Mrs. Giallanzo owes Pisani nothing, and that he "has no intention on collecting any of that loan and has never taken steps to actually collect on that loan."

To back up their claim, they state that when Elizabeth Giallanzo, as the official owner of the house, agreed to sell the house as a condition of her husband's plea agreement, the documents she submitted state that she "does not currently and has never owed the defendant any money in connection with the sale."

They note that the "financial disclosure form" that Ronnie G completed in connection with his sentencing "makes no mention" of any mortgage or debt that Mrs. Giallanzo owes Pisani.

Defense attorney Seth Ginsberg hasn't filed his own sentence memo yet, but the prosecutors wrote that in his response to the government's "challenge" of Pisani's PSR statement about the house sale, the lawyer explained it away as much ado about very little "that should not be included in the PSR because (it is not a crime and) the defendant was not charged with this conduct."

Prosecutors, in their last words on that subject, say that Pisani's "false statement" about the house sale is relevant conduct about "the history and characteristics of the defendant."

As part of his plea deal, prosecutors dropped their move to seize the popular All American Deli he operates in Broad Channel where Pisani allegedly allowed Ronnie G to conduct mob business for the four and half months he "worked" there when he got out of prison in 2013. Pisani agreed to accept a $50,000 fine, which he will be required to pay on sentencing day later this month.

Regarding Giallanzo's alleged threat that Pisani insists he never heard about, prosecutors say that it concerned the deadbeat gambler, who "heard that Giallanzo was saying that he was going to hit (him) with a bat" if he didn't pay debts he owed both Pisani and Ronnie G.

Prosecutors concede that Pisani was "not aware" of the baseball bat threats against the gambler, but argue that he should have foreseen that possibility since he asked Giallanzo, "an infamous and widely feared organized crime figure in Howard Beach" to collect his debt. They note that Pisani waited until Ronnie G was released from prison in 2013 — more than a year after the gambler reneged on the $6000 he owed him — before asking him to collect it.

They also concede that even though Ronnie G and Gene Borrello, the violent home-invasion specialist who flipped and is the government's key witness in the case "were the primary actors in the conspiracy to collect the unlawful debt" for Pisani, he still deserves the full 21 months behind bars.

"The defendant was not relying on Giallanzo's negotiation skills," wrote Gerdes and Edelman. "He was relying on Giallanzo's well-known and well-earned reputation as a violent mobster."

Governor Cuomo Hits ILA When It's Down

There's more bad news for the International Longshoremen's Association, which lost its latest effort in a decade-long plan to kick the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor off the New Jersey docks on June 1 when a judge ruled that mob taint was still evident on the piers. Now, Gang Land has learned, Governor Cuomo has selected an old ILA nemesis to serve as New York's representative on the 65-year-old waterfront watchdog.

Cuomo recently nominated Paul Weinstein — an attorney who convicted Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, his son Andrew, an ILA vice president, and a bunch of mobsters of labor racketeering on the docks — to serve a three year term as New York's Commissioner on the bi-state agency.

Weinstein and outgoing Commissioner Ronald Goldstock, the former head of the state Organized Crime Task Force, each declined to comment. But Waterfront Commission executive director Walter Arsenault confirmed to Gang Land that Cuomo nominated Weinstein last month and that he is expected to take office when he is approved by the state senate. It is a $45,000 a year part-time position.

A partner at Emmet, Marvin & Martin, a Manhattan law firm where he currently focuses "on white collar criminal defense and investigations, and complex civil matters," Weinstein was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn for 18 years. He spent 14 of them in the criminal division, retiring in 2007 as the unit's deputy chief. He also worked in the civil division for four years.

Weinstein oversaw a three year FBI sting that led to the conviction of 44 mobsters and associates from all five families in a 2001 racketeering indictment. He was also the lead prosecutor in a 2003 labor racketeering case in which Gigante, the family's current boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo, and four other mobsters were convicted.

He was also the lead prosecutor in a controversial 2005 labor racketeering case that targeted several top ILA officials. Former ILA executive vice president Albert Cernades copped a guilty rather than go to trial along with Genovese mobster Lawrence (Fat Larry) Ricci, then ILA executive officer Harold Daggett, who has been ILA president since 2011, and former ILA executive, Arthur Coffey.

It didn't mean much to the 60-year-old Ricci, who was allegedly the Genovese crime family's representative on the waterfront, but the three defendants were acquitted in November of 2005 of all charges following a seven week trial. Three weeks into it, Ricci disappeared.

The trial continued without Fat Larry, with his empty chair a constant reminder of his absence. When the jury announced its verdict, his body was in the trunk of a car parked in Union, N.J. Ricci's decaying remains were found two weeks later.

At the trial, Daggett portrayed himself as a victim of gangsters, in particular, the key government witness, turncoat Genovese mobster George Barone, an admitted killer and former ILA official who flipped when he learned the mob had marked him for death.

The most dramatic government trial testimony concerned a 1980 confrontation between Barone and Daggett in the back of an East Harlem fruit stand. Barone testified that he put a loaded gun to Daggett's head and threatened to kill him, stating: "I will blow your fucking brains all over the room."

Daggett wept on the witness stand as he recalled the incident and told the jury that he was so terrified that he wet his pants as Barone shouted, "This is my fucking local. I'll kill you and your wife and children if you take my local away from me."

Barone testified that he had ordered Daggett to the meeting after he heard that Daggett was involved in a plot to kill him and take over his local.

"We had a very strong berating of Mr. Daggett," recalled Barone. "He was definitely afraid of what was about to happen to him."

Daggett, who announced a tentative six-year agreement last week between the ILA and waterfront employers from Maine to Florida, declined to comment yesterday about Newark Federal Judge Susan Wigenton's ruling that upheld the Waterfront Commission's sway over the New Jersey piers, or Cuomo's nomination of Weinstein as its New York Commissioner.

Wigenton wrote that "it is in the public interest for the Commission to continue its investigatory and regulatory work" on the docks.

In her ruling, the judge noted that the NJ Commissioner, Michael Murphy, had "recused" himself from the lawsuit regarding his state's efforts to take over the policing the Garden State piers, but that outgoing NY Commissioner Goldstock stated he "fully authorizes and ratifies" the Waterfront Commission's lawsuit to block New Jersey from usurping the Commission's mandate.

Waterfront Commissioners preside over meetings concerning proposed new rules and regulations for employers and union workers and hearings regarding allegations of wrongdoing by dockworkers that could lead to suspensions or dismissals from their jobs.

Ask Andy: Mafia Transfers

Over the years, many wiseguys and mob associates, unlike the actors and actresses who sported black eyes in clever TV cigarettes ads in the 1970s and said they'd rather fight than switch, have not only wanted to move from one family to another, quite a few did more than once.

The movers include mobsters from New York's Five Families — including one who later became a member of the Mafia Commission — as well as wiseguys from crime families across the country who later had the very bad form to play ball for Team America and Uncle Sam.

The mobster who holds the unofficial record is a very oldtime Mafioso named Nicola (Nick) Gentile, who emigrated to New York from Sicily in 1903, and became a made man in Philadelphia some years later. All told, he belonged to six borghatas, including the Porto Empedocle family in Sicily, according to his 1963 memoir, Vita Di Capomafia.

In the U.S., Gentile was also on the books with families in San Francisco and Kansas City, as well as New York clans we now call the Bonanno and Gambino families. He was a Gambino soldier when he fled to Italy in 1937 to escape from a drug case.

Back then, Gentile wrote in his book, much of which was attested to by Joe Valachi, a Luchese associate who was made by the Bonannos and later switched to the Genoveses, a boss would write a letter introducing the soldier to his new boss. He said that a typical transfer letter could read: "Nicola is a good person. He will make an excellent employee for your corner store." Obviously it was done in this manner so as to preserve Cosa Nostra secrecy.

Long-time Buffalo boss and Commission member Stefano Magaddino moved from the Bonanno family to Buffalo when he got jammed up on a murder charge and felt his best option was to move there. When the Buffalo Boss, Joe DiCarlo, died in 1922, Magaddino took the throne. In 1931, when the Commission was first formed with seven members, he was part of the ruling group.

Infamous mob turncoat Aladena (Jimmy the Weasel) Fratianno also switched, without the approval of his boss, Frank DeSimone, when the Weasel was released on parole in 1960, from Los Angeles to the Chicago Outfit. The LA leadership was not happy with Fratianno.

But 15 years later, The Weasel was courted by the new LA hierarchy, which asked the feared Fratianno to support their new acting boss, Louis Tom Dragna, who wasn't known as a tough guy. The Weasel quickly agreed, figuring he could finally make some serious money in LA. This time The Weasel followed proper protocol. He arranged a meeting with Chicago boss Joey Aiuppa, who gave his blessing for Fratianno to return to the West Coast.

Nicholas Bianco, a Providence gangster who moved to New York and hooked up with the Crazy Joe Gallo gang in the 1960s was made by New England boss Raymond Patriarca Sr. in 1963 in a failed effort to negotiate a peace treaty between the Gallos and newly elected boss Joe Colombo.

The plan failed, but Bianco got a transfer to the Colombo family, where he stayed until shortly after Colombo was gunned down in 1971, when he switched back to New England. In 1990, when Patriarca Jr., who had succeeded his father as boss, was convicted of racketeering and imprisoned, Bianco was elected boss. He was convicted a year later, and died in prison in 1994.

Albert (Kid Blast) Gallo and buddy Frank (Punchy) Illiano left the Colombo orbit and moved to the Genovese family as part of yet another attempt to resolve a long running Colombo dispute. Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano was a Colombo associate when he moved to the Gambinos following a dispute his with his Colombo family superiors.

Whether by letter or personal relationships, rarely did a Cosa Nostra boss allow a member who was bringing in big money switch, unless some financial agreement was reached. Transfers are a Cosa Nostra way of life, but they are rare occasions these days. With the great decline in the number of active families, there are far fewer places to move.

[NickyEyes1]

Sounds like that crew got all that heat on them because of that fucking house lol.

Found the listing, amazing house.

https://www.realtyexecutives.com/office ... id37979958

[Wiseguy]

Sounds like that crew got all that heat on them because of that fucking house lol.

Found the listing, amazing house.

https://www.realtyexecutives.com/office ... id37979958

Beautiful home. But Ronnie G should have known it would only put a bigger target on his back.

"Don't flash nothin!"

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post Chucky.

Home is gaudy as fuck. Money can’t buy class.

Wonder what Ronnie G’s ‘cover job’ is.

[Cheech]

thanks Chucky

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Giallonzo crib pics:

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Ask Andy pics:

[gohnjotti]

Just shows the wealth gap in the mob. Ronnie G was filthy, gaudy rich and yet his capo uncle Vinny Asaro had to get a job making soup to make ends meet.

[Stroccos]

Thanks for posting

[Cheech]

Just shows the wealth gap in the mob. Ronnie G was filthy, gaudy rich and yet his capo uncle Vinny Asaro had to get a job making soup to make ends meet.

@TJ was making this point in another thread but he got shut down. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Fughedaboutit]

Thanks for the post Chucky.

Home is gaudy as fuck. Money can’t buy class.

Wonder what Ronnie G’s ‘cover job’ is.

I don't know I think it is beautiful, especially the interior...I think it is well done

The outside front probably looks gaudy because it takes up all the space on the lot, but put that on a few acres and I think it would look nice

[JIGGS]

The Armone brothers used to run with the Bonanno Family once upon a time. Although I couldn't tell ya if they were straightened out at the time. My guess is no.

JIGGS

[Ivan]

Thanks for posting Chucky, always appreciated.

I think the house is lovely and in pretty good taste considering that it belongs to a mafioso. He needs to get an elliptical machine for the gym though.

[TommyGambino]

Thanks for the post Chucky.

Home is gaudy as fuck. Money can’t buy class.

Wonder what Ronnie G’s ‘cover job’ is.

Fuck is wrong with you mate, that's a beautiful house