'Ndrangheta laundering money in Germany

Berlin – Italian mafia organisations are investing billions of euros into Germany to hide their profits from the Italian authorities, organized crime experts said in Berlin on Friday.


“Germany is one of the most important sanctuaries, if not the most important,” Italy’s top anti-mafia lawyer Alberto Cisterna told German Press Agency dpa.


Since German reunification 20 years ago, he said former East Germany had become a key area for Italian mafia organizations to launder their profits.


Cisterna was part of an Italian delegation meeting German investigators in Berlin for a conference on ways of tackling organised crime.


Laura Garavini, a mafia expert in Italy’s Democratic Party, said eastern Germany was particular popular with the ‘Ndrangheta organisation from Italy’s southern Calabria region.


“In the first few years, when the east drew capital from all sorts of directions and nobody paid too much attention where it was coming from, the mafia channelled investments into real estate, tourism and the restaurant business,” Garavini said.


German investigators have also traced ‘Ndrangheta money to the Frankfurt stock exchange.


Cisterna said the mafia bosses presented themselves in Germany as serious businessmen, when in fact they were laundering money.


“If they pay 700,000 euros (860,000 dollars) into the bank each day, nobody suspects a thing if they own, say, a supermarket – even if it does not sell anything,” the lawyer said, adding that Germany’s prosperity made the country ideal.


“The best place to hide a grain of corn is in a corn shed,” Cisterna added.


Garavini said the mafia felt safe in Germany, in the assumption that it would be harder to confiscate their assets outside of Italy. She appealed for lawmakers to make use of a new EU regulation which enabled investments to be seized abroad.


Doing so had helped to fight the mafia in Italy, Garavini told

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/326094,italian-mafia-laundering-profits-in-germany-finds-conference.html

Mob Money special on CNBC

It’s the world’s most secretive business, an old school operation that generates billions…tax free.

On Wednesday, June 23rd at 9PM ET, CNBC presents “Mob Money,” a special presentation of “American Greed,” narrated by Stacy Keach that takes viewers inside the inner-workings of a mob family. From loan-sharking and labor racketeering to illegal gambling and murder for hire to its recent invasion into Wall Street it’s all part of the life and death business of organized crime.

The one-hour program chronicles the rise and fall of the DeCavalcante Family—a smaller family operating quietly west of the Hudson River and based in Elizabeth, NJ. Growing in the shadows of the powerful “Five Families” of New York City, the DeCavalcante’s were known by the derogatory term “Farmers” because of their Garden State roots, but they were just as deadly as their New York cousins. This Family’s story bears many similarities to the HBO hit series, “The Sopranos.” Viewers will see how this Family matures, becomes successful…and then eventually, bows to its weakness, bringing the Family down, crumbling to its knees.

The way the mob does business isn’t all that different than any other big corporation. There’s a corporate structure. And there are investments and returns on those investments. In 2002, the FBI estimated the mob’s annual earnings at between $50 and $90 billion dollars a year. Mob bosses take their business as serious as any CEO with one major exception…the way organized crime deals with the competition--making them some of the most violent criminals around. Nothing and no one stands in their way.

The hour profiles Vincent “Vinny Ocean” Palermo, a soldier who, after a struggle for power, takes over the DeCavalcante Family. Under Palermo’s leadership, viewers will see how the Family makes money, where investments are made, who gets promoted and just how bad rats are for business.

But, it will be a mob heist orchestrated by wanna-be wiseguy Ralph Guarino that ultimately brings this mafia family to its knees and forces Guarino to make the ultimate betrayal—lead a double-life as a wiseguy and informant. He wears a recording device so everything that happens to the DeCavalcantes—the murders, the extortions, the beat-downs—all goes right into the fed’s ear. The program uncovers how the old ways of Omerta, the vow of loyalty and silence, has passed as the threat of longer prison times loosens tongues as gangsters scramble to save themselves. No family and no boss is safe anymore… even Palermo turns on his own family eventually becoming an FBI informant and ultimately going into the witness protection program.

For more information and special web exclusives, logon to mobmoney.cnbc.com.

CNBC’s “Mob Money” is produced exclusively for CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, by Kurtis Productions.

Sharon Barrett is the executive producer for Kurtis Productions and Bernie Dudek is the producer from Kurtis Productions. Charles Schaeffer is the Executive Producer for CNBC. Ray Borelli is the Vice President of Strategic Research, Scheduling and Long Form Programming.
http://www.newsonnews.net/cnbc/3365-cnbc-presents-mob-money.html

Mafia Boss Angelo Bruno Home up for sale -Mobsters

The South Philly house where mob boss Angelo Bruno was shot and killed 30 years ago is up for sale.

Bruno’s former home at 934 Snyder Avenue is on the market for $250,000. His daughter, Jean, said she’s planning to move to New Jersey.

Known as the “Gentle Don,” Bruno was killed by a shotgun blast to the head in March 1980 as he sat in a car in front of the three-bedroom rowhouse. His driver, John Stanfa, was also injured.

Angelo Bruno helped the Philadelphia mob rise in prominence during the 60s and 70s. His death sparked years of infighting with dozens of slayings.

Jean Bruno said Stanfa did the house’s brickwork. He’s now serving five consecutive life sentences for racketeering http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/phiadelphia_mob_bosss_house_fo.html

body found was Genovese boss Bingy Arillotta's brother-in-law Gary D. Westerman

William M. Bennett confirmed Wednesday that federal and state investigators uncovered the remains of organized crime associate Gary D. Westerman in a wooded area in Agawam in April.
Westerman, missing since 2003, had long been believed a victim of a mob hit, according to investigators. The search for his body unfolded in earnest in the wake of speculation this spring that alleged Mafia boss Anthony J. Arillotta apparently turned government informant.

Westerman, 48, had spent years in prison for drug and armed robbery convictions; he also was Arillotta’s brother-in-law.

Arillotta, 41, was charged with the 2003 murder of his predecessor, Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, in an indictment in federal court in Manhattan on Dec. 29. The charges were not unsealed until February, however, and Arillotta virtually disappeared from the federal prison where he was being held without bail in late March.

Investigators steadfastly refused to discuss his status as a potential informant, but a horde of FBI agents and state police soon appeared at a residential plot at 160 Springfield St. and dug at a site in the woods behind the home for days. It concluded abruptly after a medical examiner’s truck pulled away after midnight on April 9.

An old friend of Arillotta’s rented the home, investigators said, but was not believed to be complicit in Westerman’s disappearance.

“I can confirm it’s Gary Westerman and that it was a homicide,” Bennett said.

The district attorney refused to provide further details about a cause of death or motive.

Sources familiar with the investigation have said previously that Westerman was shot twice in the head.

Since the Bruno murder investigation was transferred from here to New York, it is expected that charges linked to Westerman’s slaying will originate there also. Several men have been charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment there that includes the alleged murder-for-hire plot and other accusations of organized crime conspiracies that straddled Western Massachusetts and that state.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/body_found_in_agawam_confirmed.html

New England Crime Family, Kevin Hanrahan cold case mob murder

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Court documents reveal the Federal Bureau of Investigation has received new information in the 1992 gangland slaying of reputed mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan.

The Target 12 Investigators have learned the FBI is now re-examining the murder based on information from two criminal informants.

The new information came to light in court documents filed in February. According to the documents, an FBI informant — described as a Taunton, Mass., bookmaker — said he was being shaken down for protection money by Hanrahan.

In response, the document states the informant and another man pay a visit to a man named Gordon O'Brien to complain about the shake-down. The affidavit describes O'Brien as "a significant organized crime figure in Southeastern Massachusetts."

According to the documents, the informant claims that during that meeting, O'Brien made a phone call to Frank "Cadillac Frank" Salemme in Boston, then-mob boss of the New England Crime Family.

Within days of the call, according to the affidavit, Hanrahan was murdered.

The document does not disclose who pulled the trigger, but it does reveal the FBI is investigating Salemme for allegedly ordering the hit.

Salemme’s attorney, Steven Boozang of Boston, Mass., said the theory is ridiculous.

"Obviously someone has gotten into trouble and they're trying to get themselves out of trouble," said Boozang. "I know one thing, [Salemme] is an old school guy. He wouldn't have a conversation about anything on the telephone. It just simply would not happen."

Salemme, who federal authorities say was the head of the Patriarca crime family in the early '90's, was released from prison last spring. Boozang said at 76 years old, Salemme is trying to leave his former life behind, "riding off into the sunset" in an undisclosed location.

The new information is part of a criminal complaint against reputed mafia captain Anthony "The Saint" St. Laurent. St. Laurent is accused by the FBI of shaking down several Taunton bookmakers for protection money from 1988 to 2009. He has not been implicated in the Hanrahan mu http://af11.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/hollywood-goodfella-anthony-fiato-fbi-likescadillac-frank-salemme-in-patriarca-mob-cold-case/
Enrico Ponzo, a reputed Patriarca mobster who allegedly aligned himself with a rival faction in an attempt to prevent the ascension of Francis P. "Cadillac

Mobsters: Coming face-to-face with a hit man

It was a haven for mobsters and corruption beginning in the Strip’s early years through the 1980s. By the time Saturday’s speaker, Frank Cullota, co-author of his autobiography Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness, moved to Las Vegas from Chicago, the Strip was lined with casino/hotels, mostly under the control of the mob. There were a myriad of rackets in the city, and murder was the final payoff for those who didn’t follow the code.

Bugsy Siegel once famously said of Syndicate members, “We only kill each other.” Then he was murdered in 1947.

The Mob Chronicles is a new series of talks featuring real stories from the people who lived them. The subject and design of the show holds a morbid fascination for many, and Las Vegas is a ripe source of personalities and stories. Because there is a certain mystique, a curious romance attached to these things, the general public wants to hear what was behind the glamorized accounts in books and movies.

Those who lived it will tell you that the glitz surrounding such a life had a dark underbelly. The reality could mean being arrested, doing time, even killing lifelong friends or being murdered by them yourself. It was a life that was mostly dangerous, but also had humorous moments.

Frank Cullotta told the audience how he grew up in a life of crime, embarking along the path his father walked when he was only ten. He reeled off the crimes he had committed like a grocery list: 300 burglaries, 50 armed robberies, arson and then the chiller—2 murders and 2 attempted murders. As he spoke in a flat voice, devoid of emotion, it was obvious that to him it was just business.

He said he and Tony “the Ant” Spilotro became boyhood friends in Chicago. After Tony learned who Cullotta’sfather was, an unbreakable bond was created. Apparently Cullotta’s father had once saved Spilotro’s father’s life. Photographs flashed on the screen as he spoke, starting from the time they were boys until Cullotta moved to Las Vegas at Spilotro’s request and became the infamous mobster’s lieutenant. He headed a cartel of swindlers, arsonists and killers known in town as the Hole in the Wall Gang. One of the captions on the screen said it all… Tough guys grow up fast. http://www.examiner.com/x-24363-Las-Vegas-Writing-Examiner~y2010m5d10-Coming-facetoface-with-a-hit-man

relatives of Montreal Mafia, Vito Rizzuto: win tax case

The tax appeals in respect of the sale of the Olifas Marketing Group shares by the former shareholders were settled in favour of the taxpayers, allowing their tax appeals in full,” said Ian Morris, a partner with Morris & Morris LLP, a Toronto tax law firm.

Christina Ham, a Department of Justice lawyer on the case, confirmed a settlement had been reached but would not comment on its terms.

The case was scheduled for a hearing next month in Toronto, in the Tax Court of Canada, as 10 former OMG shareholders appealed a decision by the Canada Revenue Agency to disallow their claimed tax deductions from the sale of their shares.

The company has since been sold to new owners and operates under a different name.

The case revealed that silent investors in OMG, the company that won government contracts in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, London and Windsor, included Giovanna Rizzuto, who is Rizzuto’s wife, and their three children: Nick, who was killed in an unsolved murder in December, Leonardo and Bettina, all of Montreal. Their shares were bought in the name of Nino Campoli in 1999, soon after Toronto approved a pilot project for OMG to place recycling and garbage bins on its streets.

Other shareholders included Giancarlo Serpe and two of his relatives; company founder Salvatore Oliveti and his wife, Loredana, all of Vaughan; and Toronto businessman Filippo Calabro.

Mr. Campoli is the son of Frank Campoli, who married Mrs. Rizzuto’s cousin and remained close to the powerful Mob boss, who is now in prison in the United States for his role in three gangland murders in New York City.

Police have watched Mr. Serpe meet with several Toronto-area mafiosi over the years.

Most of the shares in OMG were sold three weeks after police in Montreal pulled a Jeep over in 2002 and demanded a breath test from its driver. Officers found Vito Rizzuto behind the wheel and the Jeep registered to OMG.

The company denied any relationship to the mobster and the mobster denied any connection to the company. Nonetheless, each of the Rizzuto family members involved claimed almost $419,000 in proceeds from the sale of OMG shares, according to court filings.

There is no allegation of illegality in the transactions. The issue was whether the government properly disallowed the deductions on their 2003 and 2004 tax returns.

The tax agency claimed the OMG shares did not qualify because too little of the value of the assets were used in an active business in Canada.

Earlier this year, Vito Rizzuto’s father, Nicolo, 85, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in Montreal and paid $209,000 in fines after $5.2-million in unclaimed income was found in Swiss bank accounts held in the name of others.

Similarly, in 2001, Vito Rizzuto settled a dispute over undeclared revenue from shares in a different firm that were in the name of others, including Mr. Campoli. He paid a $400,000 settlement.