GL NEWS 3/5/2020

[Bklyn21]

This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

25 Years Later: SOSDD For Frank Gioia Junior; Locked Up, Facing Life Behind Bars
Gang Land Exclusive!Frank GioiaIt's a different state. It's a different crime. And he's got a different name. But more than a quarter century after ex-Luchese wiseguy Frank Gioia Jr. decided to leave his life of mob crime behind him, he again finds himself behind bars.

Gioia, 52, is currently awaiting trial on charges in a major federal indictment. And like other defendants in a similar bind, he is looking for a way to get out of his pre-trial detention as quickly as possible, and — most importantly — avoid what could be the rest of his life behind bars.

But it's unlikely that Gioia, the turncoat Luchese mobster from New York, will be able to swing the same deal he did back in 1994 when he talked his way out of a likely life sentence for drug dealing by becoming a government witness.

Frank GioiaThis time he's facing charges in Phoenix, Arizona, of orchestrating a $64 million bust-out fraud scam involving the opening and closing of restaurants in dozens of cities across the country. And this time, there are no high-level mobsters or drug dealers that Gioia, a.k.a Frank Capri, the name he received through the Witness Security Program, can finger for the feds.

The only person he could give up is his mom, the former Mildred Gioia, who is charged with him under her new name, Debbie Corvo, in a 16-count fraud and money laundering indictment. Along with Gioia's sister, and his mobster old man, Frank Sr., his mother also relocated to the Grand Canyon State in the early 2000s following Gioia Jr.'s release from prison.

There is no mention anywhere in the public filings that Capri is the Luchese turncoat mobster whom the feds credited with helping to convict more than 70 mobsters, drug dealers and a cop killer. But there is no doubt that they are the same person.

Toby KeithIn fact, reliable sources tell Gang Land that the federal judge sealed the courtroom for Gioia-Capri's initially scheduled detention hearing on a defense motion last month in an effort to shield him from possible reprisal for his very public role as a cooperating witness. The attorney, as well as the prosecutor, declined to explain why the courtroom was sealed.

Capri, who has been jailed since his arrest a month ago, is slated for a bail hearing today in Phoenix Federal Court where prosecutors are seeking a permanent order of detention to keep him from absconding with untold millions of dollars in cash, diamonds and art work they say that he allegedly acquired through monumental fraud scams over the years.

In a government filing that seeks to detain him as a flight risk and an economic danger to the community, assistant U.S. attorney Monica Edelstein alleges that Capri used "multiple elaborate schemes" to get property developers in dozens of cities to give him many millions of dollars for construction costs "that he pocketed rather than utilized" to build restaurants as he had agreed.

From 2008 through last year, Gioia-Capri allegedly raked in more than $64 million by contracting to build restaurants named for famous country music singers in Arizona and "close to 50 cities around the U.S." But he failed to fulfill the overwhelming majority of his contracts and diverted "significant portions" of the funds "to Capri's personal use," according to Edelstein's filing.

Gioia-Capri companies actually built — or at least began building — several of the 40 Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants that were promised from 2009 to 2015 that opened for business. But all went belly up, and are the subject of millions of dollars in civil judgments against Capri and his businesses, according to the Arizona Republic, which broke the Toby Keith story in 2017.

In order to maintain the luxurious life-style he had created when the Toby Keith scheme dried up, the indictment alleged that Gioia-Capri began a second bust-out scheme in 2015 that involved 20 proposed restaurants that were licensed by the Rascal Flatts country music band. But only one — in Stamford Connecticut — ever opened, and that closed down last year soon after it opened.

This time, Gioia-Capri used nominees, including a former girlfriend, Tawny Costa, who is not charged with any crimes, to carry out that scheme, in an effort to shield him and his mother from any obvious links to the boondoggle, according to a court filing by IRS agent Brad Palmer.

Rascal Flatts"Like the first venture," Palmer wrote, "Capri exercised all decision-making and financial authority over the new venture despite not being listed on the incorporation documents" or on "any associated bank accounts." Capri allegedly used nominees to process and cash the numerous checks that came in. The money was then transferred to accounts that were controlled by the one-time gangster.

Palmer wrote that while Capri hasn't had a personal bank account for "at least 10 years," the feds have evidence that he "benefitted from close to 100 different bank accounts" over the years and had "purchased millions of dollars' worth of artwork, jewelry, including loose diamonds, and multiple luxury vehicles," which have either been sold or hidden away.

Capri, who was driving a Black 2013 Lexus that was owned by his mom when he was arrested, has "owned many high-end vehicles" that were not registered in his name over the years, wrote Palmer. These included, the agent wrote, "three Ferraris, an Infiniti, a Bentley, a Rolls Royce, a Land Rover, a BMW and a Cadillac Escalade."

Tawny CostaInvestigators have also determined, Palmer wrote, that Capri's sister, who is not named in the indictment, "kept some of the diamonds in the event Capri needed to access them at a later time," that "some of the artwork" and "the majority of these high value items have been sold." But the feds still haven't been able to locate "the proceeds from their sales," he wrote.

Palmer stated that Capri used millions of dollars he made from his fraud schemes to purchase numerous homes, condominiums, and other properties from Chicago to California that he has sold off and has transferred to unknown accounts that he controls through accomplices who remain under his control.

Noting that Capri "has proven adept at creating and using false identities," and that he has essentially deserted his two children with his former girlfriend Tawny Costa "last summer," Edelstein argues that the only way to assure that Capri will not flee is to keep him locked up behind bars.

And because "he still has access to money both in unknown accounts" and accounts controlled by cohorts, she argued that would give Capri the means to flee if he were free on bail.

The prosecutor argues that since Capri faces a guideline prison term between 324 and 405 months that "effectively amounts to a life sentence" if he were found guilty of the "conservative estimate" of a $64 million fraud, he has "a powerful incentive to flee" if he were released. That's why he should remain behind bars to await trial.

Monica Edelstein"No conditions or combination of conditions could adequately protect the community from his criminal activity because the proffered evidence shows that defendant Capri is adept at convincing others to do the work on his behalf," Edelstein wrote.

"What is abundantly clear from the facts in the indictment," she continued, "is that when restrictions are imposed on defendant Capri, he breaches the terms imposed with impunity. He simply does not believe that the rules apply to him."

The government obviously feels a bit different about Gioia's mom. Corvo, 68, was released on an unsecured personal recognizance bond. Her next scheduled court appearance is April 7.

Meanwhile, Gang Land wonders: Is there something about Phoenix that makes ex-turncoat wiseguys from New York who had joined Uncle Sam's team go right back to a life of crime all over again? We'll have to ask Sammy Bull Gravano about that the next time we run into him.

Defense Lawyer: Wiseguy Deserves 'Time-served' In No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Case
Anthony LicataIf there ever was a mob case that exemplifies the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished adage, it's the prosecution of Anthony (Anthony Suits) Licata. The Gambino wiseguy faces the music today for coming to the aid of a widow who, after taking over her late husband's business, learned she was being ripped off by a slimy body and fender man that her late hubby had hired six months before he died.

The feds hit Licata with charges of "economic extortion." This alleged crime took place when Anthony Suits told said slimeball that he should both call the widow and apologize, and if possible, pay her back the money he'd finagled out of her shop. All of which then happened.

If Anthony Suits had suggested this friendly resolution of the matter on Judge Judy he'd have gotten a big round of applause from the audience.

Instead, Licata spent six months behind bars after he was ordered remanded as a dangerous felon. He didn't get out until prosecutors disclosed that Anthony Suits had told the afore-mentioned slimeball: "Don't worry, no one's going to hurt you, you don't have to pay if you don't want to." At his sentencing today, Licata is looking at up to 10 more months behind bars, according to his plea deal with the feds.

Matthew KirshehAccording to court filings, that's because Licata admitted threatening "economic harm" to the rival auto body shop that Matthew Kirsheh had opened up in New Jersey after stealing $55,000 from Katherine Indelicato, the Staten Island widow. Indelicato was in a bad way and especially vulnerable. She survived a heart attack in October of 2016 — five months after her husband had suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 55.

In the feds' Bizarro World account of the episode, the crime occurred on March 9, 2017 when Anthony Suits leveled a "threat of economic harm, namely, a threat to the viability of (Kirsheh's) business" when he visited Kirsheh at the auto repair shop that he had recently opened in the Garden State. The threat came when Anthony Suits "directed" Kirsheh to call the woman, apologize to her, and agree to pay her back — all of which he did, according to prosecutors in the case.

That confrontation took place after Indelicato, the owner of Wave Street Auto Body in Staten Island told Licata, who would regularly "stop by the shop to see how I was doing," that Kirsheh was stealing her blind, she wrote in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz.

Judge William KuntzMrs. Indelicato wrote that she had told Licata that she discovered when she went back to work following a week-long hospitalization, and a short convalescence at home, that Kirsheh was "defrauding me and my customers and was stealing" from me when she "tried to organize and understand the status of the old and new work at the shop."

In her letter seeking leniency for the 51-year-old Licata, Mrs. Indelicato wrote that "Anthony was a true and kind friend to me" and that Kirsheh, a "nephew of a family friend" identified as John Doe #1 in court filings, was the real criminal in the case.

She wrote that she told Licata that she learned after returning to work in the fall of 2016 that Kirsheh was "directly collecting the money" for work he was doing "after hours" in her shop and had "set up a Paypal account" to receive other payments, but she "hesitated" to take Licata's advice and fire him.

Allen FrankelEven after she "caught Matt red-handed in the middle of the night taking tools and equipment out of the shop" and learned he was "setting up his own body shop in New Jersey," she still did not want to press charges "and make things any more difficult for Matt" out of her allegiance to his family, Indelicato told Judge Kuntz.

"I just wanted my property back," Mrs. Indelicato wrote, stating that she, her son and Licata all got together with Kirsheh at a Staten Island diner meeting that Licata had set up "so we could work things out" on March 20, 2017.

"We worked out an agreement that Matt would return the items he stole from me," including "the rims and tires off of my son's car," but "Matt never made good on his promise," Mrs. Indelicato wrote. She stated that she "decided to drop it" because she had "more pressing issues to deal with," including "running the shop by myself and taking care of my health and my family."

Most importantly, Mrs. Indelicato insisted, "At no time, were any threats made to Matt." In fact, "the opposite" was true, she wrote. "We still treated him cordially" and was "saddened" that Kirsheh "would try to turn the tables and divert his wrongdoings onto" Anthony Suits who "was only trying to help me and does not deserve to go to jail," she added.

Charles CarnesiProsecutors originally cited that meeting as a reason why Licata should be detained but later reversed themselves when they let the Court know that Kirsheh had told the FBI that Suits had told him not to worry, and that no one was going to hurt him.

Citing Mrs. Indelicato's letter, and the government's concession that it doesn't have even a "preponderance of evidence" that Licata leveled "an express(ed) or implied threat of bodily injury" against Kirsheh, attorneys Allen Frankel and Seth Ginsberg have asked Kuntz to impose a "time-served" sentence and send Anthony Suits back home to his wife and family.

Ironically, Licata, whose release on home detention last year shortly before the death of attorney Charles Carnesi, triggered praise for the late lawyer by Kuntz and his courtroom deputy, Andrew Jackson, is being sentenced on what would have been Carnesi's 71st birthday.

Last year, while Frankel was getting an okay for Licata to attend Carnesi's wake, Jackson told him that "Carnesi was a distinguished attorney and a gentleman" and Kuntz stated that "Carnesi was a highly regarded attorney who was well respected by the judges in the Eastern District and that all the judges were very saddened to hear of his passing," Frankel told Gang Land.

Johnny T — 'I'm innocent Of The Murder' — Cops A Plea Deal For Seven Years
John TortoraAfter maintaining his innocence as he stewed behind bars for 20 months for a 1997 stabbing death in Yonkers that the feds say was a mob hit, Genovese mobster John (Johnny T) Tortora couldn't restrain himself when the judge told him that prosecutors could argue he took part in it at his sentencing for obstruction and gambling charges that had nothing to do with killing.

"I'm innocent of the murder," Tortora stood up and shouted at Manhattan Federal Judge Sidney Stein. "I want everyone to know that I had nothing to do with that murder."

After defense lawyer Barry Levin told Stein that prosecutors had dismissed the murder charge, that his client had nothing to do with it, and that the defense would prove his innocence if the government alleged it, Stein noted that the plea agreement did give the defense that right.

Following that recompense, Tortora's guilty plea to resolve the case of the very unusual stabbing mob hit proceeded with no further outbursts.

All told, Tortora, 63, faces up to seven years behind bars — five years for obstructing justice in 2017, the year before he was charged with ordering the killing of police informer Richard Ortiz, and two years for the misdemeanor charge of the interstate transmission of wagering info from 1997 to 2018.

Carmine FrancomanoIn addition to dropping the tenuous murder count — defense investigators had obtained information that key government witness, Carmine Francomano Jr., had not only ordered, but witnessed the killing — the government also threw out a host of other racketeering charges against Johnny T and dropped a demand that he forfeit $250,000 as part of the deal.

As Gang Land reported back in January, years ago the Yonkers Police Department obtained evidence that Francomano Jr. had gotten a cohort who was initially arrested for the killing, Abdill (Chino) Saez, to kill Ortiz after he gave Yonkers Police info that cops used to shutter a social club run by his dad, Luchese mobster Carmine (Snappy) Francomano in the early 1990s.

And while the plea agreement does allow prosecutors to argue that Tortora "was responsible" for the November 11, 1997 murder of Ortiz it's unlikely that they would make that claim since its likely — in Gang Land's view — that the defense information about the killing makes more sense and is more accurate than the government's theory.

No sentencing date has been set for Tortora, who has been detained without bail since his arrest in August of 2018

[TommyGambino]

Who is licatas captain

[TommyNoto]

How bored must the Feds be to go after such Mickey Mouse stuff. Imagine wasting away your year investigating this. How is that a crime that deserves jail time anyway ? unless I’m missing something

[JohnnyS]

Who is licatas captain

My guess is George Lombardozzi. I have Licata in Daniel Marino's crew in the mid/late 2000's.

[Griz23]

The Frank Gioia stuff is interesting. He had his whole family involved in this stuff. That was quite a scheme he had going with the restaurants.

[bert]

Gioia got a break by cooperating, was sent to Arizona, and went back to the same stuff. I thought the marshall service or FBI kept track of the guys activities. If Gravano had not been arrested by locals he could have run his drug ring forever. Arizona seems like a popular spot for relocated rats, the state should sue to keep them out.

Very good gangland this week. I was expecting a big Sonny Franzese write up but so much has been written already Capeci decided to skip it fo now. Plus Michael F. is out there every day doing another interview regarding Sonny.

[Clackclack]

How bored must the Feds be to go after such Mickey Mouse stuff. Imagine wasting away your year investigating this. How is that a crime that deserves jail time anyway ? unless I’m missing something

Agreed. Nothing about that case makes any sense.

[TallGuy19]

The Frank Gioia stuff is interesting. He had his whole family involved in this stuff. That was quite a scheme he had going with the restaurants.

The scheme was destined to fail though. He was blatantly ripping people off for tens of millions of dollars. The only way to avoid getting arrested would be to flee to Russia, China, or some other country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

[dack2001]

Bet he thought because he was with the Feds, he'd get a pass. He's probably scheming as we speak right now to deliver to the Feds an even bigger target. That's how it works, he probably thinks he can keep gaming the system and giving his time to others.

[gohnjotti]

Who is licatas captain

My guess is George Lombardozzi. I have Licata in Daniel Marino's crew in the mid/late 2000's.

Could also be whoever the 18th Ave. captain is, considering Licata was operating in the heart of the 18th Ave./Dyker Heights stomping grounds with those Colombo family mobsters. That would mean his captain is one of the Zips, maybe someone with a bit more knowledge can tell me how probable that is.

[Bklyn21]

Who is licatas captain

I was wondering the same thing ? Who does he report to ? Whats his background ? Who he came up with etc etc... We see that now often that they grab one or 2 guys like they are operating independent with nothing else to go on

[Griz23]

The Frank Gioia stuff is interesting. He had his whole family involved in this stuff. That was quite a scheme he had going with the restaurants.

The scheme was destined to fail though. He was blatantly ripping people off for tens of millions of dollars. The only way to avoid getting arrested would be to flee to Russia, China, or some other country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

Oh I agree it seems pretty dumb to do this when you turned informant. Did he not think they would catch on? Also what is the need to have purchased up to 10 cars. You can only drive one at a time.

[Bklyn21]

The fact he made sure to word what he said correctly as to not try and threaten or scare the guy Matt in any way says alot . They all figured just his presence alone at an arranged meeting would be enough to scare the guy into coughing up everything . He says dont worry you don't have to give anything back if you don't want to , Nothing will happen blah blah blah and the guy still didn't give back most of the stuff he supposedly stole . Licata was probably making side deals with this Matt guy and making out on both ends like a traditional sitdown where most of the time both captains representing whoever make out win or lose and split the proceeds . If he really did mean what he was saying than whats the point of being a gangster ?? Lmao , Man how times have changed , These guys are scared of they're own shadows , I can see them writing out scripts and going over what they're gonna say and how over and over like actors reading a script

[Lefty_Ruggiero]

Surprised there was not a Franzese column. Maybe next week?

[JohnnyS]

Who is licatas captain

My guess is George Lombardozzi. I have Licata in Daniel Marino's crew in the mid/late 2000's.

Could also be whoever the 18th Ave. captain is, considering Licata was operating in the heart of the 18th Ave./Dyker Heights stomping grounds with those Colombo family mobsters. That would mean his captain is one of the Zips, maybe someone with a bit more knowledge can tell me how probable that is.

Its possible, gohn but I don't believe so. The 18th ave captain is Joe Lanni btw.

Licata came up with William 'Billy' Scotto they were close to long time Marino crew member John Gammanaro. Licata was indicted with Scotto and Manny Garofalo in an extortion case some years ago and Scotto was indicted with Gammanaro when Gammanaro was acting captain.