tagged w/ gotti
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Check out this video of Stupid Guidos arguing over pasta sauce, Gossip girls, and American IdolCheck out this video of Stupid Guidos arguing over pasta sauce, Gossip girls, and... more
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Lews Kasman, shown seated (far r.) beside John (Dapper Don) Gotti, admitted hiding $80,000 scam from feds.
The late John Gotti's "adopted son" admitted Friday he continued his criminal ways while working as an FBI informant.
Lewis Kasman had a lot of 'fessing up to do in a Florida courthouse where he's star witness against reputed Gambino gangster Vincent Artuso.
The trial is essentially a rehearsal for his next turn on the stand at the upcoming murder trial of John A. (Junior) Gotti in Tampa. "I came down here to Florida to get away from the rat race," Kasman, 51, said, prompting laughter from those who got the joke.
The FBI recruited Kasman as a snitch 12 years ago, when the elder Gotti was still boss of the Gambinos. He was promoted to full-fledged cooperating witness in 2005 as the mob family struggled with internal turmoil and some Gotti relatives leaned on Kasman for money.
Even a $12,000-a-month retainer from the feds wasn't enough to keep Kasman straight.
Under the noses of his handlers, Kasman tipped off a pal who was under investigation for selling steroids, lied to his wife's divorce lawyer, withdrew money from his children's trust fund and scammed a businessman out of $80,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian McCormick asked why he hid the scam from the FBI, and Kasman replied, "I wanted to keep the 80 grand."
The prosecutor played secretly recorded tapes of Kasman and Gambino consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo discussing the dysfunctional Gottis.
"He [John Sr.] died hating that kid [John Jr.], you know that," Kasman told Corozzo.
At one point, as Kasman was testifying, a loud clanking noise was heard, caused by construction work in another part of the courthouse.
"There must be a rat in the building," one spectator cracked.Lews Kasman, shown seated (far r.) beside John (Dapper Don) Gotti, admitted hiding... more
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John A. Gotti was arrested at his Long Island home early Tuesday morning on federal racketeering and murder conspiracy charges tying him to three murders, including a storied mob killing authorized by his father, according to a person briefed on the case.
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Louis Lanzano/Associated Press
Mr. Gotti, 44, was taken into custody by the F.B.I. at his Oyster Bay home, and was expected to be arraigned in Manhattan federal court later in the day, the person said. The charges, brought by federal prosecutors in Tampa, Fla., accuse Mr. Gotti, whose late father was the head of the Gambino organized-crime family, of playing a role in the three murders, committed in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
At least two other men — Michael Finnerty and David D’Arpino — were also arrested on Tuesday and charged with racketeering in connection with the case, the person said. Mr. Gotti was also charged with narcotics conspiracy, the person said.
A lawyer for Mr. Gotti, Seth Ginsberg, said, “We’re confident that there is no strength to the allegations and that he will prevail once again.”
Mr. Ginsberg said that his client would probably transported to Tampa quickly for arraignment there in United States District Court.
He added, "I think Herman Melville already wrote this story,” referring to the government’s persistent pursuit of Mr. Gotti, who has been tried three times before, always ending in mistrials. Federal authorities say Mr. Gotti served for a time as the acting boss of the Gambino family, but at each of the trials, Mr. Gotti insisted that he had left the Mafia life.
In September 2005, after a six-week federal trial that included charges that he ordered the June 1992 kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels and WABC radio talk-show host, a divided jury failed to reach verdicts on three charges — kidnapping, racketeering and extortion and conspiracy — and voted not guilty on a fourth charge of securities fraud.
A retrial on the three unresolved charges ended in a mistrial in March 2006 when, after hearing from more than a dozen witnesses, the jury deadlocked for a second time.
Prosecutors made a third attempt in in September 2006, but after a six-week trial, jurors again failed to reach a verdict, though they said they believed Mr. Gotti was guilty of organizing the kidnapping of Mr. Sliwa. At that point, the prosecutors, lacking any new evidence, chose not to try him a fourth time in the case.
The latest charges, leading to the arrest on Tuesday, involve the 1990 shooting of a Gambino soldier and construction contractor, Louis DiBono, who was found shot seven times — with four bullets to his head — slumped in a Cadillac sedan in the parking garage of the World Trade Center.
The elder Mr. Gotti, who was convicted of murder and racketeering in federal court in Brooklyn in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison, was found guilty of authorizing the killing of Mr. DiBono, along with four others. Mr. Gotti died in prison in 2002 at age 61.
Jurors at his trial heard the elder Mr. Gotti, whose speech was often punctuated with expletives, boasting that Mr. DiBono was killed because he ignored orders to report to him.
“He’s going to die because he refused to come in when I called,” the elder Mr. Gotti said. John A. Gotti was arrested at his Long Island home early Tuesday morning on federal... more
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A law enforcement official said John A. ``Junior'' Gotti. has been arrested on a murder conspiracy charge.A law enforcement official said John A. ``Junior'' Gotti. has been arrested... more
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