Made Man makes big donations to Brooklyn Machine

 

 

NY Post

He really is “connected.”

The reputed wiseguy behind Brooklyn’s Plaza Auto Mall has been handing out campaign cash to local Democrats — including the borough’s district attorney and its party boss, The Post has learned.

John Rosatti’s Plaza Motors of Brooklyn donated $2,020 to DA Eric Gonzalez for his winning 2017 campaign and the next year gave $2,000 to Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, who in January 2020 succeeded longtime leader Frank Seddio as head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

The following month, Plaza donated another $10,000 to the party, records show.

John Kaehny of the good-government group “Reinvent Albany” said pols “should be vetting contributions in order to make sure that there’s no attempt to influence them.”

“What did this guy expect for his contribution — that’s the question the campaigns should ask themselves,” he added.

Before amassing a reported $400 million fortune, Rosatti, 77, was identified by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement as an alleged soldier in the Colombo crime family, according to a 1993 decision by the state’s Casino Control Commission.

The ruling, which rejected a bid to bar Rosatti pal and reputed Colombo family member John Staluppi from the state’s casinos, cited testimony that confidential informants claimed Rosatti became a Colombo associate in 1980 and was sworn in as a “made member” in 1994.

D.A. candidate Katz holds campaign fundraiser at mob connected restaurant

 

NY Post

Aren’t these the guys she’s supposed to be putting away?

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz boosted her campaign for district attorney by holding a fund-raiser at a mobbed-up eatery in Rego Park, The Post has learned.

Sources said Katz partied with supporters Tuesday night at the Barosa Italian restaurant, which is co-owned by reputed Genovese associate Frank Barbone.

Barbone, 47, has twice been convicted in illegal-gambling cases, including one in Queens for which he served a 1 ¹/₂ to 4 ¹/₂- year prison term.

He’s currently on supervised release in the other — in which he admitted to a Manhattan federal judge that gangsters might drop by his place from time to time.

Barone was present at the restaurant during Katz’s fund-raiser, for which tickets cost $150 each, sources said.

“Shouldn’t she know where the owner is a mobster?” a source wondered.

In 2016, Barbone was among 46 reputed gangsters busted in what the feds called a “sprawling and long-running racketeering conspiracy” that involved four of New York’s “Five Families,” as well as the Philly mob run by Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino.

Prosecutors said Barbone ran an illegal sports-gambling operation with reputed Genovese member Alex Conigliaro, with whom he was also convicted in 2000 on state gambling charges.
 
In 2017, Barbone struck a plea bargain that got him a one-day, time-served jail sentence, and three years supervised release.

 Katz campaign spokesman Grant Fox said: “It’s surprising that Melinda’s opponents, who are tripping over themselves claiming to be reformers, are floating this kind of half-baked opposition research to hurt someone who paid his debt to society and now runs a popular restaurant that has hosted events for candidates on both sides of the aisle.”

The caption is already there...

Bid riggers busted

From the Daily News:

Two men were charged with a bid-rigging scheme to fix construction prices at a luxe Brooklyn development, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

Christopher Chierchio and Anthony Molohnic were arrested and charged with colluding to avoid competition on bids for plumbing, sprinkler, and heating and air conditioning at the new luxury condo building on Baltic Street.

Chierchio — a reputed Genovese mafia soldier — was also charged with tax fraud for evading $94,094 in personal income taxes since April 2016, and could face up to 19 years in prison, according to the attorney general’s office.

Queens newspaper publisher may do 20 years in prison

From the Daily News:

A Queens newspaper publisher found herself on the wrong side of a headline after authorities said she was messing with the mob.

Patricia Adams, publisher of The Forum, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of witness tampering in a bizarre offshoot of a loansharking case involving the Bonanno crime family, according to Brooklyn federal prosecutors.

Instead of simply signing off on a story about the scheme, Adams became a key player, using her weekly newspaper to bully a woman out of testifying against a Bonanno associate accused of sexually harassing the woman at his Broad Channel deli.

The harassment accusation against Robert Pisani threatened the freedom he enjoyed after posting $500,000 bail in a $26 million loansharking scheme in and around Howard Beach, officials said.

Adams allegedly stepped in, and tried to make the woman’s father talk his daughter out of cooperating with federal law enforcement.

Days ahead of Pisani’s bail revocation hearing, the local newswoman played hardball with the victim’s dad and said she’d dirty up the daughter in her paper, prosecutors said.

Judge Brian Cogan agreed to release Adams late Wednesday on $150,000 bond. Adams also had to put up her house as collateral.

She’ll be under house arrest, so if she wants to go out and interview people for the paper, she’ll have to get the green light from pretrial services, Cogan said.

Adams is looking at up to 20 years if convicted.

Serial bank robbers caught

From the Daily News:

Three men — including the son of a slain Gambino foot soldier — were arrested Tuesday morning for brazenly raiding $5 million in cash and valuables from several New York City bank vaults, officials said.

The crew — composed of Michael Mazzara, 44, Charles Kerrigan, 40, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 36 — used a gas welding torch to cut through the banks’ roofs and vaults.

The burglars pocketed money and items such as jewelry and baseball cards, many of which were heirlooms Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office said in a criminal complaint.

Heastie scored big off mafia guy

From the NY Post:

The state’s newly minted Assembly speaker, Carl Heastie, accepted cash from a mobster convicted of racketeering and steered thousands more to a man who did time for manslaughter, records show.

Between 2003 and 2008, more than $2,800 flowed into the Bronx Democrat’s campaign coffers from Tri-State Employment Services and its top executives, including reputed Bonanno associate Neil Messina, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison last April in connection with a 1992 home-invasion murder.

Heastie also directed at least $250,000 to the Bronx Business Alliance. The now-defunct nonprofit’s head, John Bonizio, was convicted of manslaughter in 1982 for bludgeoning a man to death with a baseball bat. Bonizio also made a plea deal after being indicted in the same year for trying to bribe an NYPD detective.

“Associations like these seriously undermine his attempts to show that the Assembly Democrats have turned the page,” a Democratic operative said of Heastie.

“As someone who is totally undefined in the public eye, this is a troubling first impression.”

Whole lotta DOB inspectors busted for bribery

From the Daily News:

Nearly 50 city building inspectors, construction contractors and two alleged mob associates surrendered to authorities early Tuesday as part of a massive pay-to-play scheme where builders are accused of paying city employees to fast-track their projects.

A solemn stream of suspects, a mix of men and women, were led out of the 1st Precinct stationhouse in Tribeca early Tuesday in handcuffs and loaded into four vans as dawn broke across the city and a light snow fell.

The suspects said nothing as they were paraded past reporters. Most lowered their heads and tried to cover their faces with their coats as they were taken to court, where bribery charges are expected to be filed against them Tuesday afternoon.

The arrests come as construction in the city has dramatically increased in recent years.The arrests come as construction in the city has dramatically increased in recent years.

Some of the suspected schemers tried to hide their faces while being escorted by police. The arrests come as construction in the city has dramatically increased in recent years. The scheme had been playing out for years, officials said. E

About a dozen of the suspects are city building inspectors, and the rest are private and contractors scooped up in yearlong probe led by the Department of Investigation and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Rackets Division, a police source told the Daily News.

Two suspects have mob links, the source said.

Former mob joint may turn into something interesting

I noticed the other day that the former Casablanca restaurant/catering hall, which was once owned by mob boss Joe Massino and seized by the Feds, has building permits posted. And it may one day soon become something useful! Check it out:

An unholy alliance

From the Daily News:

The developer slated to build two apartment buildings alongside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine hired a firm with alleged past mob ties and a deadly safety record to demolish a one-story metal shed on the church grounds in Morningside Heights.

The Brodsky Organization tapped Brooklyn-based Breeze National Inc., a firm formerly headed by alleged Luchese crime family associate Toby Romano Sr., who was convicted in 1988 of bribing a health inspector to overlook violations at an asbestos removal job.

The firm, which has logged several safety violations and had two of its workers killed on the job, is now headed by Romano’s son, Toby Jr.

“I think it’s an inappropriate choice of a demolition company to be working in our neighborhood,” said Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell (D-Morningside Heights), whose district includes the site and has not supported the Cathedral’s latest development scheme.

Breeze National was booted off Columbia University’s West Harlem expansion project in 2012 after worker Juan Ruiz was killed and two others were injured during the demolition of a W.131st St. warehouse. The federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration slapped Breeze National the firm with a $9,800 fine, which the firm settled for $4,900 last September.

The demolition firm hauled Columbia to Manhattan Supreme Court later that year, seeking payment for its work and damages for alleged defamation.

Cool sign on former First German Sport Club is gone

The First German Sport Club of Brooklyn is next door to yesterday's renovation project.  It's been on the market for a long time.  You can read some of its history here.  It closed when a mafia gambling ring operating out of it got busted.
Yesterday, I noticed that the lettering on the sign was gone, and a "coming soon" sign is now on top of it advertising World Financial Center.  I'm hoping they're moving from Himrod Street, but I'm not holding my breath.  Someone really should fix that siding!

Big mob bust (with Viagra!)

From the NY Post:

Manhattan prosecutors today announced a big blow against the Bonanno crime family: the indictment on enterprise corruption charges of seven crew members, including jailed Donnie Brasco-era gangster and alleged underboss Nicholas "Nicky" Santora.

Two leaders of Teamsters Local 917, which handles liquor store and parking lot employees, were additionally indicted for allegedly helping the Bonannos gain loansharking and book-making footholds among members.

They are the local's president, Nicholas Bernhard, and shop steward Scott O'Neill, of Howard Beach.

Investigators had pulled an illegal, loaded gun from under the pillow of Bernhard's Congers, NY, bed when search warrants were executed on the suspects in February, a source told The Post.

Additional illegal firearms had been seized at that time from Bernhard's home and from that of alleged soldier Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, including a Tech-9 pulled from a stash of guns in Santoro's Staten Island house.

"Many mistakenly believe that the mob has disappeared entirely except when you watch HBO," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., told reporters.

"Whatever name it's called, the Mafia, La Cosa Nostra, the Mob, this indictment demonstrates that organized crime is still operating in New York City and still has its hooks in the labor movement," Vance said in announcing the fruits of a two-year joint investigation by his office and the NYPD Organized Crime Control Bureau and Organized Crime Investigation Unit.

The top enterprise corruption charge against the nine men includes pattern acts involving the traditional mob mainstays: loansharking, offshore gambling, extortion, union corruption and weapons possession.

But in a nod to more modern tastes, the gangsters allegedly also dabbled in the distribution of Viagra, Cialis and the suburban party drug Oxycodone.

The Sunset Diner in Greenpoint and the Jackson Hole Diner in Queens were favorite meeting spots, a source said.

Illegal stickers have ties to mafia and fake charity

From WyckoffHeights.org:

Residents of Ridgewood and Bushwick likely have noticed the multitude of new “Cash for Cars" stickers that have appeared on signs and telephone poles throughout the neighborhood in recent weeks. These ads promise “300 & up" but provide no information about the entity behind them, just a phone number - 347-246-1637.

Seeking more information I recently called that number. A woman answered - "Cash for cars!" - and offered $200 and a tax receipt for $500 in exchange for my (fictitious) 20-year-old sedan. Asked if the tax receipt meant they were a non-profit, she replied that they worked with several non-profit organizations and that the money raised went “to the troops and the kids." Pressed for more information she said the tax receipt would be from the “Foundation of Dreams."

An internet search for the Foundation of Dreams turned up no such organization registered in New York State. Some websites suggested that a North Carolina-based Foundation of Dreams was associated with an address in Queens, but I found nothing definitive.

A search for the Cash for Cars telephone number turns up dozens of similar ads online, many in local newspapers’ classifieds. Most are as vague as the recent stickers but a few refer to a “Troops Relief Fund".

State records show that a Troops Relief Fund Inc was registered in 2008 by John Lomonaco of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The not-for-profit’s 2009 IRS filing (available on Guidestar.org) states “This organions [SIC] mission is to help the US Armed Forces by soliciting donation [SIC] and distributing these assets to organization [SIC] that help the US Armed Forces."

IRS filings from 2009 to 2012 show revenue of almost $150,000, with most of that spent on salaries, rent, utilities, advertising, and other expenses. Just $2,900 (or 2%) was spent on “donations" by the organization (the nature of these donations is not explained).

Further research finds that the organization’s secretary - an Ozone Park resident - is also secretary for Bless the Kids Fund Inc, a Hewlett NY not-for-profit which in 2009 reported revenue of $549,491 from “car sales" with 7% of that going to charity.

According to IRS filings the vice president of Bless the Kids Fund is a Mark Lomonaco, whose Facebook page features a photo of a Troops Relief Fund tow truck and a post from November 2012 promoting Foundation of Dreams, Bless the Kids and Troops Relief Fund, and with the same phone number as the recent sticker ads.

Mark Lomonaco turns out to be a former associate of Carmine Agnello (one-time Gambino Family soldier and John Gotti son-in-law). In 2000 Agnello, Lomonaco and five others were arrested and charged as the result of an investigation into organized crime in the scrap metal industry, during which an undercover police-run scrap yard in Queens was firebombed.

A 2001 press release by the Department of Justice stated that Lomonaco and the other defendants plead guilty to racketeering, extortion, arson, income tax fraud, and obliteration of vehicle identification numbers.

This is the best blog post I have read in a long time. GO GET 'EM!

Digging for missing mafia members

From DNAinfo:

The FBI began digging for a body Monday in the former Queens home of notorious mob power James “Jimmy The Gent” Burke, who was famously portrayed by Robert De Niro in the movie "Goodfellas," sources told DNAinfo New York.

FBI Evidence Collection specialists and agents from the Organized Crime Division descended into the basement of Burke’s family home at 81-48 102 Rd. in South Ozone Park about 8 a.m. armed with jackhammers and sledge hammers.

Sources said the feds recently obtained information from a new cooperating informant linked to the Gambino and Bonanno crime families who told them he believed a hood who disappeared decades ago was buried in Burke’s basement or backyard.

The sources say the dig is not related to the fabled 1978 Lufthansa Heist, where Burke, portrayed as Jimmy Conway by De Niro in "Goodfellas," and his fellow wiseguys pulled off an $8 million robbery at JFK, which at the time was the largest robbery in history and was featured in the film.

Many of the suspects eventually were murdered.

Only the body of Burke's closest friend, Thomas DeSimone, who was played by actor Joe Pesci, has never been found, but sources say they are not looking for his remains at Burke’s home.

Looks like Jimmy the Gent had an illegal conversion in his cellar.

The gang that couldn't stay straight

From the Daily News:

Both Smith and his co-defendant, Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), had colorful online profiles that portray radically different realities from the scheming, crooked lives prosecutors say they were actually leading.

On the Web, Smith and Halloran were legends in their own minds, fighting for the people of Queens, thousands of whom were reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Meanwhile, in hotel rooms and idling cars, prosecutors say, they were hatching plans to bribe men they thought were developers — but were really working for the FBI — to obtain power or just plain old cash.

The two worlds merged Tuesday when both men joined four others in federal court, facing charges that make crystal clear there’s more to the picture than a tweet or two.

From the Daily News:

While the city’s five crime families ran multimillion-dollar rackets in waste management, the Garment District and construction, the elected officials allegedly peddled their influence for far less.

Halloran collected $38,000, Stevenson received less than $20,000 cash and Bronx GOP Chairman Joseph (Jay) Savino sold out for just $15,000, officials charged.

John Gotti spent more on his wardrobe while running the Gambino family.

From the NY Times:

The link between corrupt politicians and steakhouses would appear to be so obvious that corrupt politicians would avoid them altogether, especially since there are apparently as many hidden microphones as shrimp cocktails at a given table. But still they come. Experts on either side of the napkin offered theories.

“They’re men,” said Ben Benson, the owner of the former steakhouse that bore his name. “Men go to steakhouses. The power lunches, the power dinners — it’s what the steakhouse is all about.” Dim lighting, plush booths; there is an unspoken promise of discretion in a steakhouse. As Mr. Benson put it, they are “clubby.” One of his restaurant’s most memorable decorations was itself a reminder of a famous steakhouse crime: a large picture of the mobster Paul Castellano shot dead in front of the steakhouse Sparks in 1985. “Eat at Ben Benson’s,” the poster read. “It Won’t Kill You.”

From the NY Post:

Halloran converted in the 1980s from Catholicism to the pre-Christian Germanic religion, whose believers drink mead or whiskey from horns and dress like characters in a Renaissance fair.

He learned about their tough disciplinary code when he committed an undisclosed act against a female “thrall” — or probationary servant.

He was stripped to his waist, strapped to a tree and flogged with a belt 11 times.

I propose similar punishment for his recent alleged crimes.

Still too many mobsters in the garbage industry

From the NY Post:

A rogue’s gallery of would-be businessmen hoping to win a city license to operate as a waste hauler is rejected each year by the Business Integrity Commission because of their shady past or mob ties.

And you should hear their whining.

The city’s BIC, which regulates 2,000 individuals, rejects about 4 percent of applicants in its mission to keep the corruption-prone industry free of bad apples and the Mafia, officials say. The agency also weeds out questionable would-be vendors from municipal markets.

BIC officials say the need for vigilance remains strong.

Earlier this month, the NYPD and FBI rounded up 32 alleged mobsters tied to the Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families who were purportedly involved in the garbage-hauling industry.

They were accused of maintaining a grip on carting companies in the greater metro area, often by masking their involvement through figures who front for them.

None were licensed by the BIC, officials said.

British actor meets Midville wiseguys

Mob-owned firm off Columbia project

From the Daily News:

The mob-linked demolition company running jobs on which two workers have died as part of Columbia’s West Harlem expansion has been booted from the project, the Daily News has learned.

Brooklyn-based Breeze National, which was demolishing a building on W. 131st St. that collapsed in March, killing one worker and injuring two others, is no longer on the job at the Manhattanville construction site.

Breeze has been doing work at six additional properties on the 17-acre expansion site, according to records.

Juan Vicente Ruiz, Sr., 69, died when a wall of the building came crashing down in March. His family is now suing the Ivy League school, charging the construction site was unsafe.

Inspectors had issued a previous stop work order and assessed Breeze with violations for failing to notify the city that it was starting demolition and failing to properly safeguard the people and property that were affected.

It wasn’t the first time a Breeze National worker died on a Columbia demolition job. Two years ago, 51-year-old Jozef Wilk fell to his death while demolishing a Columbia-owned building on Broadway.

Breeze spokeswoman Sarah Berman declined to comment on the firm’s removal, but said “it has not been deemed they did anything wrong” in connection with the March collapse, adding that the cause was likely a structural defect.

Columbia contractors have crooked histories

From the Daily News:

In the two years since Columbia University began work on its controversial West Harlem campus expansion, the Ivy League institution has engaged the services of a slew of contractors with checkered records, the Daily News has learned.

One firm was implicated in a bid-fraud scheme at a Brooklyn hospital, and two were cited in bribery investigations. That’s in addition to Breeze National, the mob-linked demolition company handling the jobs in which two workers have been killed.

Columbia says on its website it is the biggest client of Brooklyn-based Eagle Two Construction, owned by Roxanne Tzitzikalakis, whose father Demetrios Tzitzikalakis pleaded guilty to grand larceny and falsifying business records for bilking the city out of cash at his former company, Foundation Construction Consultants.

State controller Thomas DiNapoli found in an audit last week that the ex-con father plays an active role in running the company — and that Eagle won six contracts at SUNY Downstate Medical Center where forged bids or bids from affiliates posing as competitors were submitted.

After the Daily News inquired about the allegations against Eagle, Columbia spokeswoman Victoria Benitez said the firm has been suspended from consideration for contracts, pending the outcome of DiNapoli’s investigation.

Utility work on Columbia’s expansion project has been contracted to Felix Associates and MFM, which records show share a Westchester address and officers.

Felix was identified by Con Edison as the firm accused of bribing 11 Con Ed supervisors, who were arrested in 2009 for demanding more than $1 million plus goodies like Giants tickets in return for letting the company jack up costs.

Other demolition work on the expansion project is being handled by Par Environmental. The Suffern, N.Y., firm, then known as Par Wrecking, was cited in a 2008 federal indictment for paying $35,000 to a Gambino crime family associate to allow them to ignore labor agreements on a Newark garage demolition.

The expansion project, which encompasses 64 properties on 17 acres, has been slapped with 59 building code violations, 13 stop work orders and four lawsuits alleging unsafe working conditions.

Human trafficking mobsters plead guilty

From the Daily News:

Two wiseguys pleaded guilty Friday to extortion charges related to a racketeering scheme that the feds say stocked mob-controlled New York strip clubs with smuggled eastern European women, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced.

Alphonse Trucchio, a Gambino family capo, and Christopher Colon, a Gambino associate, pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to extorting two Queens strip clubs, Perfection in Woodside and Rouge in Maspeth, Bharara said.

Trucchio faces eight to 10 years in prison and Colon six to eight years when they are sentenced May 17.

Judge Richard Berman revoked their bail following their pleas of guilty.

The two were among 20 suspects busted last November in what prosecutors said was a scheme by the Mafia and the Russian mob to import women from Russia and neighboring countries into New York to work as strippers.