Gangland 8/13

[Dr031718]

No one except his lawyer had the audacity to suggest that lowlife mob associate Paul (Paulie Tickets) Mancuso, a scam artist who stole $10 million from dozens of elderly pensioners from 2008 to 2013, would ever fork over even a thin dime of the $3,266,250 he was ordered to repay. The attorney, naturally, was wrong; everyone else, including his federal judge, was right.

Some 15 months after he got out of prison, Mancuso, 53, owes his 25 listed victims $3,302,617. For those without a calculator app, that's $36,367 more than he owed when he was released from prison on May 28, 2019. That's because he hasn't made any restitution payments and the new total includes interest and late fees.

Mancuso had gotten a break on his restitution — and his prison term, 51 months — at his September 21, 2016 sentencing. Prosecutors had sought a prison term of 63 months, a year longer than called for in sentencing guidelines. But the judge didn't want to grant Paulie Tickets the hearing that would have been required in order to give him a longer stretch behind bars, since that would have delayed his sentencing and the start of his incarceration.

"I think it's time Mr. Mancuso finally deals and faces up to the ruination and the damage he has caused to a lot of people," said Newark Federal Court Judge William Martini. "I'm going to remand him."

Judge William MartiniOn his own behalf, the longtime Genovese associate had voiced shame, and remorse for the hurt he had caused his victims — many of them in their 70s and 80s. He also assured Judge Martini that he would "make sure that everyone in this courtroom that is upset with me gets paid back every dollar that they are owed" when he was released.

His victims had paid for non-existent tickets to playoff games and the Super Bowl, as well as parcels of real estate that didn't exist in New York, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey and the Bahamas. Others had made investments in countless other Paulie Tickets scams. They collectively told the judge they didn't buy Paulie's pledge. So did assistant U.S. attorney Francisco Navarro. "With Paul Mancuso, if his lips are moving, he is lying and he should not be trusted," said the prosecutor.

Martini agreed with Mancuso's victims, and prosecutor Navarro, who reminded the judge that Paulie Tickets had begun a "meticulously planned and executed fraud" while he was "working as a confidential source for the FBI" even after he was "repeatedly warned" not to "engage in illegal activity."

Stacy Biancamano"There is no doubt in my mind I will be able to pay everyone in this courtroom back," Mancuso had told the judge after several victims had come to court and detailed how Paulie Tickets had ripped them off. "I will do the right thing by everyone in this courtroom once I have the opportunity to work again because my capabilities are very far and beyond a normal working person," Mancuso insisted.

The judge wasn't buying. He told Mancuso attorney Stacy Biancamano to "not get carried away" with trying to back up her client's claim that he would "pay back every dollar" that he stole "once he is released" from prison. "I don't believe he is genuine," said the judge, who openly doubted Paulie Tickets' intent to pay back the "life savings" he stole from the retirees "whose lives he ruined."

"Frankly," Martini continued, "knowing his history, he could be conning me, just like he conned the FBI."

"Look," Martini told Biancamano after she argued that her client had changed his stripes and would make good on his boasts: "You can't convince me, you know, that he has made this full recovery and that he is a really great guy. You know he's not ever going to repay these people."

Pasquale StisoMartini cited the trial of Mancuso's partner in crime, disbarred attorney Pasquale (Pat) Stiso, as further reason to question Mancuso's good faith.

Martini recalled that he had presided over Stiso's trial, and had heard and seen how Mancuso had orchestrated a "significant fraud for five years" and had "ruined the lives of most of these people who invested with him."

"I don't believe what Mr. Mancuso said," the judge said. "I've seen the ruination he has caused to their lives. And I saw how he went back to them repeatedly for more investments, knowing that he was just gambling it away and living his own lifestyle based on their money," Martini said.

The government disclosed Mancuso's status as a deadbeat two weeks ago when the FBI located $8058 it had seized from Paulie Tickets and $4058 it got from Stiso back on March 7, 2013, the day they arrested both men. Stiso, 59, who was convicted and sentenced to 41 months after rejecting a no-jail plea deal, had only paid $435 of $460,000 in restitution he owed to three victims, according to assistant U.S. attorney Jordan Anger.

Noting that "there is a preference for the immediate payment of restitution" under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, Anger asked Martini to authorize the FBI to turn the money it has had for seven years over to the Clerk of the Court so it can be distributed, pro rata, to their respective victims, on behalf of Mancuso and Stiso.

Craig CarpenitoIn his response to the government's co-called "Turnover Order," Stiso had no objection to it, using his seized cash to lower his restitution bill. But in a 24-page filing that included receipts totaling $35,000 for payments he made to the court on the day he was sentenced, Stiso wrote that his restitution bill was $440,000 and that he had made more than $2000 in additional payments while he was behind bars and since his release from prison last year.

Stiso told the Court back in June that he intends to file a longshot habeas corpus motion challenging his sentence on the grounds that it somehow violated the Constitution or U.S. laws. He has until tomorrow to file an "all-inclusive" motion "addressing all alleged grounds and claims for relief," according to a ruling last month by Judge Martini.

At trial, Stiso toyed with the idea of testifying that he was also a Mancuso victim, but decided against that when Martini ruled that Navarro could question him about an obstruction of justice conviction he had years ago. As it turns out, it's hard to envision Stiso doing any worse by taking the stand and pointing his finger at Paulie Tickets. His jury took 90 minutes to convict him on all 10 counts of his fraud indictment.

The office of Newark U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito declined to discuss Stiso's claims about his restitution, or whether prosecutors were seeking to attach any Mancuso assets in an effort to pay his restitution bill. The FBI was also mum about why it took seven years to turn over the $12,000 it seized from Mancuso and Stiso since were both convicted in 2015. Biancamano did not respond to a Gang Land request for comment.

New Federal Judge Hits Mob Star's Hubby Hard In Her First Time At Bat

Judge Rachel KovnerRachel Kovner, the newest member of the federal judiciary in Brooklyn, introduced herself to the defense bar with a bang last week — in particular to lawyers who represent reputed organized crime defendants. The judge's dramatic intro came at the sentencing of longtime mob associate Lee D'Avanzo, the hubby of former Mob Wives reality TV star, Drita D'Avanzo.

An assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan from 2009 to 2013, Judge Kovner hammered D'Avanzo with a prison term of 64 months. This was was 18 months longer than the maximum 37-to-46 month sentence called for in the plea agreement that prosecutors had worked out with D'Avanzo's attorney.

Kovner, who clerked for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2008, and served as an assistant to the Solicitor General in Washington from 2013 to 2019, was nominated for a judgeship by President Trump in May of 2019. Judge Kovner took her seat on the federal bench in October.

James Froccaro"She certainly sent a message that she's a force to be reckoned with on sentencing day," said one defense lawyer. "It was a little surprising, and duly noted because they (judges) tend to go along with sentencing guidelines in plea deals that are designed to keep trials at a minimum," the attorney said, adding with a chuckle: "I wonder if she skipped that class during judge school."

In his court filings, and during the in-person court proceeding, the first in Brooklyn Federal Court since the coronavirus pandemic, defense attorney James Froccaro argued that a 37-month sentence, "more than three years," the lawyer noted, was "sufficient but not greater than necessary" punishment for his 51-year-old client.

Froccaro conceded that D'Avanzo's crime, possessing two loaded guns — a .38-caliber revolver and a 9 mm. handgun — in his home was a "serious crime." But he argued that since there was no allegation that he had used either gun, and had taken responsibility in a "very timely" fashion, he deserved a prison term within the plea agreement that he had worked out with the government.

Lee D'AvanzoAssistant U.S. attorney Devon Lash noted that the government had miscalculated D'Avanzo's sentencing guidelines in the plea agreement — they were, as the probation department determined, the prosecutor wrote, actually 57-to-71 months based on the gangster's long criminal record. But she asked Kovner to impose a sentence within the agreed-upon 37-to-46 month guidelines.

But while officially pushing for a guidelines sentence, Lash listed many reasons why D'Avanzo deserved a longer sentence — namely six convictions for a slew of crimes over an 18-year-period, including robbery, drug dealing, and several bank heists — as well as keeping "two firearms loaded with hollow point ammunition" is his Staten Island home.

Drita D'AvanzoBefore imposing sentence, Judge Kovner noted that storing two loaded guns "in his house with his kids" was a "really serious crime." Since two prior prison terms "of approximately 60 months" did not stop D'Avanzo from committing "serious crimes," the judge stated there was a "specific need for deterrence" in the sentence she would mete out.

"I am going to give him what the probation department recommended, 64 months," said Kovner. The judge also gave D'Avanzo two years of post-prison supervised release, and ordered the forfeiture of the two loaded weapons that cops found at his home in December.

Outside the courthouse, Drita D'Avanzo, the outspoken Mob Wives co-star who attended the sentencing with her two daughters, declined to comment after the sentencing. "The sentence was unfair," one of their daughters told the Daily News. "It's bullshit."

Froccaro told Gang Land yesterday that he and his client are considering whether to make use of a provision in his plea agreement that gives him the right to appeal any prison term greater than 51 months.

Money Got In The Way When Stevie Wonder Stood Ready To Face The Music

Steven CreaLuchese underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea surely wasn't happy about it. But he was ready to face the music and be sentenced last week to spend the rest of his life behind bars for ordering the murder of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish. But the hook-up for the remote session didn't cooperate. As a result, they couldn't get it done within two hours, so they're planning to finish what they started in two weeks.

At one point, Crea, who was taking part in the proceeding from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn could not be heard or seen. But following a few phone calls to the MDC, Stevie Wonder could be heard giving his one word, "Yes," or "No," answers to questions posed by White Plains Federal Court Judge Cathy Seibel.

There are a few other reasons why the proceeding dragged on too long to be completed electronically via a telecommunication procedure that has become commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, and why the sentencing is now tentatively slated to take place on August 27.

The big reason for the longwinded proceeding that caused it to be suspended was money. Lots of it — $2.4 million — that the government wants Crea to forfeit through a novel application of the racketeering statutes.

Judge Cathy SeibelThe government says that Crea should forfeit the $1.3 million principal of a loan he gave to contractor Randolph Silverstein, along with $1.1 million in interest he earned even though everything about the loan was legal. Under the racketeering statutes, the governments says that the money is forfeitable because Silverstein used the loan to win a $26.5 million building project from which Silverstein, not Crea, earned up to $1 million through illegal overbilling practices.

The forfeiture issue, which the government first raised in March, four months after the verdict, was fully briefed by both sides, as Gang Land reported in June. But Judge Seibel spent about an hour quizzing Crea attorneys Robert Franklin and Anthony DiPietro and prosecutor Hagan Scotten on the matter, before issuing a tentative ruling that she wasn't sure was correct, the judge said.

The judge stated she may request further legal briefs on the issue, or conduct a hearing before issuing a final ruling, which will likely be appealed by Crea, if he is ordered to forfeit any money to the government. She ordered both sides to try and agree on a tentative schedule and submit it to her today.

Randolph SilversteinSeibel ruled that Crea did not have to forfeit the $1.1 million in interest that he received from Silverstein, noting that there was no evidence that Stevie Wonder extorted the loan payments from Silverstein. There was also no evidence he was involved in the money Silverstein stole through inflated and phony invoices he submitted to Bronx Lebanon Hospital.

But for reasons that Gang Land was unable to discern, the judge ordered Crea to forfeit $1.3 million to the government, the amount of the principle of the loan that he tendered to Silverstein. Franklin had argued that not only was the loan legal, but that $800,000 of the loan principle was money that was in trust for family members who had nothing to do with the case. Seibel dismissed that complaint on the grounds that Crea was responsible for the money.

While the money issue is far from being resolved, the prison term that Crea will receive, whenever the second call on his sentencing takes place, will be life behind bars, the same sentence that his three convicted codefendants received at their sentencings, when money wasn't an issue.

[JohnnyS]

thanks for posting

[Tonyd621]

What they are doing to Crea... they take a loan that the state admits was legal and turns into a rico predicate... i dont get it. They dont make em much like Crea anymore.

[Fughedaboutit]

What they are doing to Crea... they take a loan that the state admits was legal and turns into a rico predicate... i dont get it. They dont make em much like Crea anymore.

Feds have been playing dirty for years, this comes as no surprise.

[TommyGambino]

Sentenced to life in a bullshit case and they are stealing his money too haha, ruthless.

[mafiastudent]

Sentenced to life in a bullshit case and they are stealing his money too haha, ruthless.

Not only that. The judge wasn't going to let his attorneys appeal that principal but was going to let the government appeal the interest. Plus the 40 grand they want for Datello payments.

She specifically said: "The defendants can request a hearing. I don't know what the point is." And there was a lot of back and forth because the government didn't want them to have a hearing. At one point AUSA Hagan told the judge she wasn't required to give the defendants a hearing. It was a mess.

[Cheech]

Poor Crea. Has to give back all the money he stole.

Thats the game. These guys know that.

[mafiastudent]

Sentenced to life in a bullshit case and they are stealing his money too haha, ruthless.

Not only that. The judge wasn't going to let his attorneys appeal that principal but was going to let the government appeal the interest. Plus the 40 grand they want for Datello payments.

She specifically said: "The defendants can request a hearing. I don't know what the point is." And there was a lot of back and forth because the government didn't want them to have a hearing. At one point AUSA Hagan told the judge she wasn't required to give the defendants a hearing. It was a mess.

*Scotten. His name is Hagan Cordell Scotten. I always say Hagan for last name instead of Scotten.

[Cheech]

Dont want to go to jail for life? Dont be the underboss for one of the 5 families. The feeling bad for these guys posts has been crazy lately.

This is the gig guys. I rob and you try and get me. Well they got him. Dems the breaks

[Fughedaboutit]

Poor Crea. Has to give back all the money he stole.

Thats the game. These guys know that.

So what? How they got him is Bullshit.

[mafiastudent]

Poor Crea. Has to give back all the money he stole.

Thats the game. These guys know that.

He didn't steal money. Read Capeci. The loan was legit. So why should he have to pay the principal if he doesn't have to pay the interest? That doesn't even make sense.

[moneyman]

A hospital was ripped off in the process, these guys are all scumbags.

https://nypost.com/2017/06/04/lucchese- ... l-project/

[mafiastudent]

A hospital was ripped off in the process, these guys are all scumbags.

https://nypost.com/2017/06/04/lucchese- ... l-project/

Once again. Read Capeci. It was a Silverstein scam. Crea wasn't involved. Read the testimony.

[moneyman]

A hospital was ripped off in the process, these guys are all scumbags.

https://nypost.com/2017/06/04/lucchese- ... l-project/

Once again. Read Capeci. It was a Silverstein scam. Crea wasn't involved. Read the testimony.

True but Capeci also says at the end of the article Crea was responsible for the money. So either way he is closely associated with this Silverstein lowlife.

[mafiastudent]

A hospital was ripped off in the process, these guys are all scumbags.

https://nypost.com/2017/06/04/lucchese- ... l-project/

Once again. Read Capeci. It was a Silverstein scam. Crea wasn't involved. Read the testimony.

True but Capeci also says at the end of the article Crea was responsible for the money. So either way he is closely associated with this Silverstein lowlife.

Capeci didn't say that. He was paraphrasing judge's words. I'll look through my notes to see what she said about that exactly.