Gangland news . 26th March 2020

[Hailbritain]

By Jerry Capeci

Manhattan DA's Office Targets Gambino Capo As A Construction Industry Racketeer

Gang Land Exclusive!Frank CamusoMob busters in New York and New Jersey have targeted a Staten Island-based Gambino crime family capo and a slew of crew members in a wide-ranging extortion, bid-rigging, money laundering and commercial bribery probe involving the burgeoning construction industry in both states, Gang Land has learned.

Sources say that police conducted a series of coordinated search warrant raids of homes, cars and businesses in the two states last month looking for evidence tying Frank Camuso, a powerful 56-year-old wiseguy with no prior arrests, and several of his crew members to labor racketeering schemes going back more than five years.

The sources say the NYPD and the New Jersey state police conducted searches of Camuso's $1.5 million home in the Huguenot section of Staten Island. The cops also raided the Jersey City apartment and 2019 Cadillac of Camuso crew member Louis Astuto as part of a bi-state investigation by the Construction Fraud Task Force of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Louis PerocelliSources say police in New York and New Jersey have linked numerous other wiseguys and mob associates to alleged Camuso schemes going back to 2014, including Gambino associate John (The Hammer) Laforte, who owns a construction company in Staten Island. Also linked to the operation is wiseguy Louis Petrocelli, who has been spotted in several clandestine meetings with Camuso in recent months.

According to a search warrant affidavit obtained by Gang Land, NYPD detectives used tape-recorded talks that were picked up during the investigation to observe Laforte, 52, and Camuso discussing alleged illegal schemes several times in "a secluded area near Tottenville High School in Staten Island."

Astuto, 55, is the son of the late Louis (Louie Fats) Astuto, a well-respected Gambino soldier who died in the early 1990s shortly after he copped a plea deal to a 1988 rubout for John Gotti. Sources identify Astuto as a key Camuso henchman and a major focal point of the investigation.

In an affidavit seeking permission to search Astuto's home and car, and to seize several cell phones he's been using, NJ state trooper James Porch wrote that "Astuto has utilized multiple cell phone numbers during the course of this investigation," including several that "were the subject of New York court-authorized eavesdropping."

Louis AstutoPorch did not detail any specific conversations in his affidavit, but stated that there were many calls and texts in recent months between Astuto and Laforte — who was using a telephone in his girlfriend's name — that investigators believed concerned bid rigging and other labor racketeering activity.

And Astuto, using the same cell phone he used to text and call Laforte, Porch wrote, has had scores of communications with Petrocelli, who was spotted by NYPD detectives meeting "with Camuso, Laforte, and other Gambino crime family members at (the Café Luna) restaurant in Staten Island on December 11."

According to Porch's affidavit, and other documents obtained by Gang Land, police also searched the New Jersey offices of three construction companies, including the Rinaldi Group, a major New York City builder headed by Anthony Rinaldi. Documents indicate those searches sought records linking the company to shakedown efforts by Camuso & Company. The other firms named in the affidavit, are Dora Energy and Dora Solutions, of Holdmel.

Anthony RinaldiThe Rinaldi Group declined to comment. But company chief Anthony Rinaldi sounds like an interesting guy: His online bio states that he was once scouted by major league baseball teams as a potential prospect as catcher. And his mother is in the Amateur Bowlers Hall of Fame.

He also apparently backstopped ex-convicts in need of a job. Sources say that at least one target of the probe, mob associate Robert (Rusty) Baselice, who was snared in a major money laundering scheme by the Queens District Attorney's Office in 2010 and served six months in prison in a plea deal, is a former employee of the Rinaldi Group.

In the search of the Rinaldi Group's office in Secaucus, and in Camuso's home, investigators were looking for "financial records evidencing Baselice's assistance to Rinaldi Group subcontractors in exchange for payment, and consequent falsification of business records," according to the Porch affidavit.

Sources say that in addition to Baselice, 48, mob associate Paul Noto, 40, who was nailed along with several Bonanno and Gambino associates on drug dealing charges in 2009 and received a four year sentence in a plea deal, is also a target of the far reaching probe by the DA's office.

Robert BaseliceIn the searches of Camuso's home, and of the Rinaldi Group offices, police were seeking financial records linking kickbacks in the form of work done by a Rinaldi Group subcontractor or "off-the-book payments" by "wire transfer, check, credit card, cash, PayPal, or any other payment method" to Camuso, Baselice, Astuto or Noto.

Gang Land was unable to obtain any details about the fruits of those searches, or reach most of the named targets of the DA's investigation yesterday.

The Manhattan DA's office declined to discuss the probe, including whether former ADA Diana Florence, the longtime head of the DA's Construction Fraud Task Force, who resigned last month after a case she handled was dismissed because she failed to turn over Brady Material to a defendant, had any involvement in the Camuso investigation.

On behalf of Camuso, attorney John Meringolo said his client "is a legitimate businessman who categorically denies any and all allegations made by any investigatory agency."

Seven Years Later, Thieving Union Boss Vincent Fyfe Loses His $300,000 A Year Job

Vincent FyfeSeven years after the feds nailed him for swindling members of his Brooklyn-based union, the grandson of the late Vincent (Chin) Gigante finally got the bum's rush from his cushy post atop the labor organization that was long controlled by the legendary Mafia boss.

Earlier this month, Gang Land has learned, Vincent Fyfe was escorted from the building at 8402 18th Avenue in Brooklyn where he had long ruled as the $300,000 a year president of a local union representing wholesale liquor salesmen.

"It came as a complete surprise two weeks ago," said a member of Local 2D of United Food & Commercial Workers. "They suspended Fyfe and a few vice presidents. But you could tell it was a much more serious thing with Fyfe," the source continued. "They escorted him out of the building."

The union, however, took its sweet time about it. Leaders of the 1.2 million-member UFCW waited three and a half months after Fyfe finished testifying in Manhattan Federal Court against a crony of his granddad's Genovese crime family.

Vincent GiganteFyfe, who admitted on the stand that he was hired at the union thanks to his grandfather's intervention, agreed to cooperate in 2012 after the FBI caught him taking kickbacks on union insurance deals. Fyfe agreed to wear a wire and finger Gigante's son Vincent Esposito for extorting $10,000 a year from him. As part of the deal, the feds agreed not to inform Fyfe's union about his own stealing until the case was over, even though federal law prohibits labor racketeers to work for a union.

That sweet agreement left the union boss sitting pretty as he hauled in about $2 million in salary as president of Local 2D in the seven years he was working undercover.

Technically, Fyfe's role as a cooperating witness ended when he completed his testimony against Genovese soldier Frank (Frankie G) Giovinco and walked out of the courtroom on November 26 to insults from Esposito's sisters, Carmela and Lucia, who called him "a piece of shit."

The failure of union bigs to bounce Fyfe from his lucrative post that day, or two days later, when Gang Land reported his testimony, left members scratching their heads. It became even more of a puzzle the following week when the story of Fyfe's testimony and the crimes he committed appeared in The New York Post and the Daily News.

David YoungThe FBI, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, the UFCW and Fyfe's lawyer, Joseph Giaramita, declined to comment.

Whatever the hesitation on the part of powerful international union executives, it ended two weeks ago, sources say, when UFCW President Anthony (Marc) Perrone assigned an international vice president, David Young, the Director of the UFCW's Northeast Region, as a trustee to serve as Local 2D's interim president until elections can be held later this year.

Young began his career in the labor movement in Staten Island as an A&P cashier as a member of Local 342 in 1994. In 2014, after his appointment as Regional Director, he wrote in a UFCW editorial that it was important for union members "to talk about the values the UFCW has always stood for." Young, however, was mum about his appointment as a trustee at Local 2D. He failed to reply to Gang Land calls or emails.

Judge Paul CrottyIt's unclear whether Young's role as interim president of the 1600 member union will boost his VP earnings, which were $215,099 in 2018, the last year that union reports are on file with the Department of Labor. Unlike many workers who have been laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, Local 2D workers are not suffering — at least financially — during the coronavirus crisis because they work in the unaffected liquor distribution industry.

Fyfe, 46, pleaded guilty to embezzling money from Local 2D between 2005 and 2009, as well as taking part in two kickback schemes before 2012, when the feds busted him and he agreed to cooperate, according to his testimony at Giovinco's trial. Fyfe faces up to 11 years in prison but stated on the stand he hopes to get "no years" in return for his cooperation with the feds.

Beyond that, the details of Fyfe's own scams and the case against him remain sealed, even though prosecutors consented to unseal the court file back in January in response to a Gang Land motion to do so. Gang Land argued that the general public, as well as union members whom Fyfe stole from, have the right to access court proceedings and documents in all criminal cases absent compelling reasons not to do so.

Fyfe's lawyer objected to the unsealing, however, and on January 23, Judge Paul Crotty issued a handwritten one-sentence ruling: "The sought after material will be disclosed after Fyfe is sentenced; but not before that time."

Vincent EspositoIn a motion to reconsider on January 27, Gang Land, citing the government's consent to release the information, petitioned Judge Crotty to reverse his decision and unseal the entire file. We also noted that the U.S. Supreme Court and appeals courts require judges to give explicit reasons why court records should remain sealed when no extraordinary or compelling reasons exist.

Fyfe, we wrote, was "the elected representative of 1600 union members, who are both victims of his admitted corrupt activities, and members of the public. They have the right to be made aware of his crimes and be given the opportunity to attend Fyfe's sentencing and address the court regarding the defendant's sentencing — not learn about it after it happens."

Fyfe's lawyer again asked that the court papers remain sealed and Crotty has left them that way

Now that union members have seen their longtime president unceremoniously ousted from his job, you'd think a federal judge would want them to understand exactly what kind of scams he ran on them.

Frankie Loc's Lawyers: His Life Sentence For Murder Is A 'Miscarriage Of Justice'

Frank LocascioAlmost 30 years ago, a federal judge sent him away for life after he was convicted alongside mob boss John Gotti. Now, a former federal judge is trying to win his freedom.

In a fiery filing in Brooklyn Federal Court, former Massachusetts Federal Court Judge Nancy Gertner argues that long-imprisoned Gambino wiseguy Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio was wrongly convicted of murder and should be set free.

Gertner is part of a he four-member legal team that this week submitted a killer memorandum of law filled with many hard facts and solid legal reasons explaining how Locascio was wrongly convicted of murder 28 years ago next month at the so-called mob trial of the century. The 87-year-old mobster, the lawyers state,should be released from his prison hospital before he dies there for a crime he didn't commit.

Using "newly discovered evidence" from turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano as her linchpin, Gertner makes a compelling case that Locascio wasn't just "wrongly convicted" of the 1990 murder of Gambino mobster Louis DiBono. He was, and "is innocent" of the rubout that that was ordered by Mafia boss John Gotti, she writes.

In a 35-page filing, Gertner and three members of her firm, William Fick, Daniel Marx and Amy Barsky, asked Brooklyn Federal Judge I. Leo Glasser to set their client free after conducting a hearing on all the issues in the case that began in December 1990.

Nancy GertnerGertner asserts there are no technical legal hurdles that prosecutors can use to insure that Locascio suffers the same fate as Gotti, who died in a prison hospital in 2002. But even if they do come up with one, she argues that Locascio's claim of "actual innocence" trumps any such obstacle that prosecutors can cite in their reply to Glasser next month.

Gravano's assertion that he told the prosecution team before the trial that Locascio had no role in either planning or carrying out the conspiracy to murder DiBono, also warrants a reversal of his conviction, says Gertner. That's because the government's failure to provide Locascio that information was a so-called Brady Violation because prosecutors withheld crucial material from him that tended to prove his innocence.

In his affidavit, Gravano stated that he "told the Government everything I knew about . . . the Di Bono murder." But he said he was told "to only answer the questions that were asked of me" while he was on the witness stand. As a result, he "did not, at trial, volunteer the information concerning Frank Locascio's lack of involvement in the DiBono murder and conspiracy," he states in his two page affidavit.

Judge I. leo GlasserGravano's exculpatory information "would have had a reasonable probability of resulting in a different verdict" for the two counts for which he was sentenced to life in prison, wrote Gertner. For that reason alone, she states, those convictions should be tossed and Frankie Loc should be re-sentenced to 20 years and released.

"Mr. LoCascio's conviction and life sentence for DiBono's murder is a fundamental miscarriage of justice," wrote Gertner, who sat on the Boston Federal Court bench for 17 years.

The filing traces the tangled history of how Gravano's insider knowledge of DiBono's killing remained buried for decades. Frankie Loc's bid to get Gravano to talk began in 2002, shortly after Gotti's death, when Locascio had his attorney reach out to Sammy Bull's lawyer.

At the time, Gravano was under indictment for a New Jersey murder of which he was later exonerated. But lawyer Anthony Ricco "responded that he would not permit Gravano to speak with anyone working on behalf of Mr. Locascio," wrote Gertner.

Salvatore Gravano The former judge added that it would have been "dangerous" for Locascio to have a close friend, relative or old pal of both men contact Sammy Bull regarding his knowledge of the DiBono murder during the years that Frankie Loc was serving his life sentence.

He had good reasons to be concerned, she stated. When Gravano was asked by a prosecutor during his testimony at the 2003 trial of Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro "how he would have reacted if a former acquaintance had approached him without warning on the street in (Phoenix) Arizona," Sammy Bull replied, "I probably would have shot him."

As a result, it wasn't until 2018 that Locascio first received Gravano's affidavit regarding his innocence in the DiBono murder.

If the government wants to dispute any of those facts, there are plenty of witnesses available ot testify at a hearing, said Gertner. Among them are attorney Ricco, as well as the lawyer that Locascio hired in 2002, Thomas Harvey.

Prosecutors can also ask Gravano himself , who pleaded guilty to taking part in 19 mob rubouts during the 1970s and '80s, about his "disposition" to shoot anyone who approached him on his then home turf in Phoenix. That's a hearing Gang Land is eager to attend.

[Hailbritain]

Camuso

[Hailbritain]

Petrocelli

[Hailbritain]

Astuto

[gohnjotti]

Looks like Jerry Capeci put all that lockdown time to good use. Great article!

[givememysocks]

Just posted a pic of frank and louis in mugshots. They both seem to also have ties to Genovese soldier Ernest Montevecchi

[Bklyn21]

It's about time ! John Is related to Joe the cat Laforte , Louie fats Astuto's son and Camuso finally get they're day ! The Gambino family in recent years has totally went the way of Labor racketeering recently really hard , Not like they weren't involved but another industry thats totally dominated and corrupted is the plumbing and Steam fitters industry along with NYC sewers and water mains . These guys are the ones doing road work on every city street these days ripping up the streets and doing work on pipes and roadways . The Steam fitters are totally corrupted and have been along with the commercial and residential plumbing industry . I wonder if we'll see any indictments or inveatigations come out of those industries in the next couple of years, God knows they can go after local assemblyman , Politicians and Mobsters dor they're roles in all these industries . Good article

[JohnnyS]

Good article this week. Thanks for posting.

[JohnnyS]

Louis Astuto owns Xcess gentlemen's club (used to be called Curves) on Staten Island which was raided in the Bonanno takedown 2018. Another link between Frank Camuso and the former Bonanno admin.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/7516-uni ... a-suspects

[TommyGambino]

Surprised they don't have anything else on Camuso, no prior arrests, what kind of time is he looking at?

[TommyGambino]

It's about time ! John Is related to Joe the cat Laforte , Louie fats Astuto's son and Camuso finally get they're day ! The Gambino family in recent years has totally went the way of Labor racketeering recently really hard , Not like they weren't involved but another industry thats totally dominated and corrupted is the plumbing and Steam fitters industry along with NYC sewers and water mains . These guys are the ones doing road work on every city street these days ripping up the streets and doing work on pipes and roadways . The Steam fitters are totally corrupted and have been along with the commercial and residential plumbing industry . I wonder if we'll see any indictments or inveatigations come out of those industries in the next couple of years, God knows they can go after local assemblyman , Politicians and Mobsters dor they're roles in all these industries . Good article

You know when astuto was.made

[slimshady_007]

Great gangland Might sound like a broken record but it’s only a matter of time until Camuso gets pinched. I wonder what crew he came up in and when he was inducted. Hopefully an indictment sheds light on his background and who sponsored him.

[Cheech]

Gohn called this a year ago. Nice job gohn

[gohnjotti]

Gohn called this a year ago. Nice job gohn

Vaguely remember that, Slim’s been calling it too. Camuso’s probably been sleeping with one eye open ever since they busted his Bonanno buddies.

[Cheech]

Gohn called this a year ago. Nice job gohn

Vaguely remember that, Slim’s been calling it too. Camuso’s probably been sleeping with one eye open ever since they busted his Bonanno buddies.

he has, shout out to slim. I bet since Lovaglio got picked up hes been a bit anxious