Juries Hear Different Versions Of Mob Racketeering Conspiracy

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering organized crime trials for Bigtrial.net.

There's racketeering conspiracy and then there's RACKETEERING CONSPIRACY!

Federal juries on opposite sides of the Delaware River began dealing with the differences today as the jury in the retrial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi started deliberations in his eight-week old trial and the jury in the fraud case against mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo, the son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, heard opening arguments in his case.

The Ligambi jury got the case in federal court in Philadelphia shortly before 11 a.m. and deliberated for the rest of the day without a verdict. The panel is due back tomorrow. The case, against Ligambi and his co-defendant and nephew George Borgesi, is built around allegations that the two mobsters ran an organized crime enterprise that generated tens of thousands of dollars through illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion.

Scarfo, Elkins Park businessman Salvatore Pelullo and five others went on trial at the same time in federal court in Camden. The government alleges that Scarfo and Pelullo orchestrated the systematic looting of a Texas-based mortgage company, FirstPlus Financial, by secretly taking  control of the board of directors in June 2007. Over the next 10 months, authorities allege, Scarfo and Pelullo lined their pockets with cash for the company. The take? A staggering $12 million.

The difference underscores what lawyers in the Ligambi case have argued continuously -- that the government has taken a penny ante gambling case and turned into into a mob conspiracy.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/juries-heard-two-different-versionis-of.html

Jury Deliberations Set To Begin In Philly Mob Trial

 

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is coering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net.

 

A jury is expected to begin deliberating early tomorrow in the racketeering conspiracy retrial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his nephew and co-defendant George Borgesi.

The anonymously chosen panel of 10 women and two men heard more than two hours of closing arguments this morning and then sat through  two more hours of Judge Eduardo Robreno's explanation of the laws that apply to the case.

Robreno's methodical charge is expected to conclude tomorrow morning shortly after court is brought back into session at 9:30 a.m. Deliberations will begin once the judge completes his explanation.

Arguments today were a reprise of defense and prosecution positions outlined for the jury Monday.
Ligambi's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr. continued with the two themes he had offered earlier --  the mob in Philadelphia no longer exists and the government failed to provide evidence to back up its charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor returned to the issues he had underscored in his opening statement back on Nov. 7. "What this case is about is how the mob makes money through crime," he said.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/jury-deliberations-set-to-begin-in-mob.html#more

Collins, Crime & Sergeant Cuff

As Steve King at todayinliterature.com notes, on this day in 1824, the Victorian mystery novelist Wilkie Collins was born.

Though many of Collins's twenty-five novels are now little-read, his "gaslight thrillers" were once very popular, and two -- The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868) -- have not only stayed in print but grown in reputation. Critics and historians view Collins as a master of suspense and the first in English crime fiction to bring psychological depth and literary flair to tales so sensational and lurid that they would otherwise belong to the crime tabloids. Collins attributed his popularity to the old adage, 'make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, make 'em wait,' which he said he borrowed from the music hall, though it might just as easily have come from his good friend Charles Dickens. Whatever Collins's formula, Victorian England lined up at the publisher's to get his next installment -- and sang "The Woman in White Waltz," and wore 'Woman in White' perfume, and bought out the first printing of that book in a day. It has not been out of print since, and has been turned into a play and a handful of movies.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.todayinliterature.com/today.asp?Search_Date=1/8/2014

Federal Judge Sentences 'Jihad Jane' To Serve 10 Years In Prison For Role In Plot To Commit Murder Overseas

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information yesterday:

WASHINGTON—Colleen R. LaRose, aka “Jihad Jane,” 50, was sentenced today to serve 10 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements, and attempted identity theft. LaRose, a former resident of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to the charges on February 1, 2011. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Petrese B. Tucker.

The sentencing result was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Zane David Memeger, and Special Agent in Charge Ed Hanko of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division.

“Today, Colleen LaRose is being held accountable for her efforts to provide support to terrorists and encourage violence against individuals overseas,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “I want to thank the many agents, analysts, and prosecutors who helped bring about today’s result.”

“This case clearly underscores the evolving nature of the terrorist threat we now face in this country,” said U.S Attorney Memeger. “The Internet has made it easier for those who want to attack the American way of life to identify like-minded individuals to carry out their terroristic plans. While today’s significant sentence will help protect the community from any future threat posed by the defendant, we as a nation must remain vigilant in identifying and stopping others who are susceptible to engaging in acts of homegrown violent extremism.”

“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to those attracted to a terrorist ideology,” said Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Hanko. “Our Joint Terrorism Task Forces and partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities remain committed to tracking terrorists at every level, whomever and wherever they are.”

LaRose was charged by indictment in March 2010. A superseding indictment was filed in April 2010, adding co‑defendant Jamie Paulin Ramirez, a U.S. citizen and former resident of Colorado. Ramirez pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on January 8, 2014.

According to documents filed with the court, LaRose and her co‑conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

LaRose and her co‑conspirators used the Internet to establish relationships with one another and to communicate regarding their plans, which included martyring themselves, soliciting funds for terrorists, soliciting passports, and avoiding travel restrictions (through the collection of passports and through marriage) in order to wage violent jihad. LaRose also stole another individual’s U.S. passport and transferred it in an effort to facilitate an act of international terrorism.

In addition, LaRose received a direct order to kill a citizen and resident of Sweden and to do so in a way that would frighten “the whole Kufar [non‑believer] world.” LaRose agreed to carry out her murder assignment, and she and her co‑conspirators discussed that her appearance and American citizenship would help her blend in while carrying out their plans. LaRose later traveled to Europe and tracked the intended target online in an effort to complete her task.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Philadelphia, the FBI Field Division in New York, the FBI Field Division in Denver, and the FBI Field Office in Washington, D.C. Authorities in Ireland and Sweden provided assistance in this matter. The Office of International Affairs in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division also provided assistance. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Matthew F. Blue, Trial Attorney from the Counterterrorism Section in the Justice Department’s National Security Division. 

Philly Mob On Trial: Closing Arguments Offer Differnet Stories In Ligambi Racketeering Trial

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net.

The federal government is still fighting a war it won more than a decade ago, the lawyer for mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi told a jury this afternoon while asking the panel to reject the prosecution's case against his client and co-defendant George Borgesi.

"There was a sea change in 1999," Ligambi's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr. told the jury. La Cosa Nostra in Philadelphia, he said, "is a shell" (of what it once was). "It's every man for himself...The FBI won the war."

And the result, said Christopher Warren, Borgesi's attorney, is a case built around "a theater of the absurd."

Those were two of the high points of more than two hours of spirited closing argument by the defense today in the racketeering conspiracy retrial of Ligambi, 74, and Borgesi, 50.

The prosecution, to no one's great surprise, presented the anonymously chosen jury panel with a decidedly different take, painting the two defendants as leaders of an organized crime family that engaged in gambling, loansharking and extortion and that used its reputation for violence to further the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the case.

"La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours, Our Thing," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han. "It was Joe Ligambi's thing. It was George Borgesi's thing."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/closing-arguments-offer-diffrerent.html

'Sworn Sword' A Book Of Action And Contemplation

My friend and former editor Frank Wilson reviewed James Aitcheson's Sworn Sword for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

You can read the reviw via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/literature/20140105_Book_review___Sworn_Sword__a_book_of_action_and_contemplation.html

You can also read Frank Wilson's literary blog Books Inq via the below link:

http://booksinq.blogspot.com
 
 

MI6 Had 'Blind Faith' In Kim Philby For Years After Soviet Agent Fears

Peter Day and Neil Tweedie at the British newspaper the Telegraph offer a piece on how British intelligence had faith in British intelligence officer Kim Philby, despite the evidence that he was a traitor and a Soviet spy.

MI6 continued actively to protest the innocence of Kim Philby for years after he helped fellow Soviet agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to flee to Russia, according to a newly released Downing Street file. 
 

The head of the Secret Intelligence Service said it would be “un-English” to brand Philby a traitor on suspicion alone, pointing out that the master-spy had helped unmask other Soviet agents, including Maclean.
 

“It is entirely contrary to the English tradition for a man to have to prove his innocence even when the prosecution is in possession of hard facts,” argued Major-General Sir John Sinclair, chief of the SIS in the mid-1950s. “In a case where the prosecution has nothing but suspicion to go upon there is even less reason for him, even if he were able to do so, to prove his innocence.”
 

The blind faith placed in Philby by his old service despite compelling evidence of his treachery is disclosed in documents prepared in 1963 for Harold Macmillan, the prime minister, after Philby’s defection to the Soviet Union from Beirut in January of that year. Sinclair’s defence, dating from 1955, is contained in the previously Top Secret file.     

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10552357/MI6-had-blind-faith-in-Kim-Philby-for-years-after-Soviet-agent-fears.html