Ten Members And Associates Of The Gambino Crime Family Arrested In Coordinated U.S.-Italian Takedown: Defendants Charged In Brooklyn Federal Court With Racketeering Conspiracy Involving Violent Extortions, Assaults, Arson, And Union-Related Crimes

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York released the below information:

A 16-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging 10 defendants with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation, and union-related crimes committed in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries. All ten defendants are in custody and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.  In connection with the arrests, federal authorities executed search warrants, one of which resulted in the seizure of multiple firearms from an associate of the Gambino crime Family. 

In a coordinated operation, Italian law enforcement today arrested six organized crime members and associates who are charged with, among other crimes, mafia association and connected criminal offenses. One individual remains at large.

The defendants are Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino,” an alleged captain in the Gambino organized crime family, Diego “Danny” Tantillo, Angelo Gradilone, also known as “Fifi,” and James LaForte, alleged Gambino soldiers, Vito Rappa, alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia member and Gambino associate, Francesco Vicari, also known as “Uncle Ciccio,” alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia associate and Gambino associate, and Salvatore DiLorenzo, Robert Brooke, Kyle Johnson, also known as “Twin,” and Vincent Minsquero, also known as “Vinny Slick,” alleged Gambino associates. 

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent-in-Charge, Northeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Edward A. Caban, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), and Elizabeth Crotty, Commissioner and Chair, New York City Business Integrity Commission (BIC), announced the charges.

“As alleged, for years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.  “Today’s arrests reflect the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, to keep our communities safe by the complete dismantling of organized crime.” 

Mr. Peace expressed his appreciation to the New York Waterfront Commission, the Office’s law enforcement partners in Italy, including the Prosecutor of Palermo, the Polizia di Stato, the Servizio Centrale Operativo, and the Squadra Mobile of Palermo.

“These defendants learned the hard way that the FBI is united with our law enforcement locally and internationally in our efforts to eradicate the insidious organized crime threat.  Those arrested are alleged to have taken part in a racketeering conspiracy in an attempt to control the carting and demolition industries in the city.  The FBI will continue to lead the fight against organized crime and ensure that individuals willing to cross the line face punishment in the criminal justice system” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Smith.

“Today’s arrests should serve as a warning to others who believe they can operate in plain sight with apparent impunity – the NYPD and our law enforcement partners exist to shatter that notion,” stated NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “And we will continue to take down members of traditional organized crime wherever they may operate.”

“An important part of the mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations of fraud involving labor unions and their affiliated employee benefit plans. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate these types of allegations,” said DOL-OIG Special Agent-in Charge Jonathan Mellone.

“Investigating these matters is at the heart of BIC’s mission to ensure the industries under our regulation do not pose a risk to public safety. These arrests demonstrate that the influence of organized crime will never go unchecked,” stated BIC Commissioner and Chair Elizabeth Crotty.  “BIC thanks the NYPD, FBI, EDNY, and our other agency partners for their collaboration and excellent work on this case.”

As alleged in the government’s court filings and summarized below, members and associates of the Gambino crime family used violent extortions, fraud, theft and embezzlement schemes to infiltrate the carting and demolition industries to enrich themselves and the Gambino crime family, including by laundering criminal proceeds.  For example, in the midst of a financial dispute between Tantillo and the owners of Demolition Company 1, Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on the dispatcher for Demolition Company 1, which left the dispatcher bleeding and seriously injured.   

Extortions Related to the Carting and Demolition Industries

Tantillo, Rappa, Vicari and Johnson engaged in a violent extortion conspiracy relating to the demand and receipt of money from John Doe 1, who operated a carting business in the New York City area.  The extortion scheme involved threatening John Doe 1 with a bat, setting fire to the steps to John Doe 1’s residence, attempting to damage John Doe 1’s carting trucks, and violently assaulting an associate of John Doe 1.   In addition, Tantillo and Vicari were captured on judicially-authorized wiretaps discussing threats they made to John Doe 1 and John Doe 1’s father-in-law.  On one call, Rappa stated that Vicari “acted like the ‘Last of the Samurai,” describing how Vicari picked up a knife and directed John Doe 1’s father-in-law to threaten to cut John Doe 1 in half in order to get John Doe 1 to make extortionate payments.  After John Doe 1 ultimately made a payment of $4,000 to Vicari, Vicari and Rappa met and sent Tantillo a photo of Vicari raising a small champagne bottle, as in a toast.

In addition, Tantillo, Brooke and Johnson engaged in two separate violent extortion schemes of Demolition Company 1 and its owners over purported debts owed to Tantillo and a company operated by Tantillo and Brooke.   Brooke violently assaulted one of the owners on a street corner in midtown Manhattan.  In another instance, as mentioned, Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on a dispatcher at Demolition Company 1, which left the dispatcher bleeding and seriously injured.  Pictures of the victim dispatcher were then circulated to various people in the carting and demolition industries. 

Frauds and Union-Related Crimes in the Carting and Demolition Industries

The defendants also committed a series of crimes to steal and embezzle from unions and employee benefit plans and rigged bids in the demolition and carting industries.  As part of one such scheme, DiLorenzo provided Rappa with a “no-show” job at DiLorenzo’s demolition company so that Rappa could receive paychecks and union health benefits, among other benefits.  Similarly, Tantillo arranged for Gradilone to receive a “no-show” job at a construction company with which Tantillo was associated, which enabled Gradilone to receive paychecks and union health benefits to which he was not entitled.  Tantillo and Johnson also conspired to secure a “no-show” job for Johnson, so that Johnson could similarly receive union health benefits.

Tantillo also embezzled from employee benefit plans by using laborers from a non-union company, Gane Services, Inc., to perform work for union companies operated by Tantillo, and failing to make contributions for such work as required by collective bargaining agreements.

In addition, Tantillo, DiLorenzo and their co-conspirators conspired to rig bids for lucrative demolition contracts in New York City.  Among other things, Tantillo and DiLorenzo coordinated that their companies exchange bidding information to secure a project on Fifth Avenue. 

Additional Charged Schemes

The defendants also perpetrated a series of other crimes throughout the New York and New Jersey areas from 2017 through 2023.  Their pattern of racketeering activity included additional extortions, retaliating against a federal witness, and money laundering, among other crimes, as detailed in court documents.  For example, in September 2023, Lanni and Minsquero coordinated an assault on proprietors of a restaurant in New Jersey, including physically assaulting a woman at knifepoint.  In addition, LaForte, having previously been convicted of a felony, illegally possessed a firearm in or about May 2023. 

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  The defendants variously face maximum sentences between 20 and 180 years’ imprisonment. 

 The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew R. Galeotti, Anna L. Karamigios, and Andrew M. Roddin are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Emme Moosher.

The Defendants:

JOSEPH LANNI (also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino”)
Age:  52
Staten Island, New York

DIEGO TANTILLO (also known as “Danny” and “Daniel”)
Age:  48
Freehold, New Jersey

ROBERT BROOKE
Age:  55
New York, New York

SALVATORE DILORENZO
Age:  66
Oceanside, New York

ANGELO GRADILONE (also known as “Fifi”)
Age:  57
Staten Island, New York

KYLE JOHNSON (also known as “Twin”)
Age:  46
Bronx, New York

JAMES LAFORTE (also known as “Jimmy”)
Age:  46
New York, New York

VINCENT MINSQUERO (also known as “Vinny Slick”)
Age:  36
Staten Island, New York

VITO RAPPA (also known as “Vi”)
Age:  46
East Brunswick, New Jersey

FRANCESCO VICARI (also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio”)
Age:  46
Elmont, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-443 

My Threatcon Column: Five Eyes On Threats From China And Emerging Technologies

Counterterrorism magazine’s website posted my latest Threatcon column. 

You can read the column via the below link or the below text:

IACSP - ThreatCon Articles

On October 17^th, there was an historic meeting of the “Five Eyes” intelligence agency chiefs.

The chiefs of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership - the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - traveled to the U.S. at the invitation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The Five Eyes partnership grew from a 1946 agreement after the end of World War II to share intelligence and coordinate security efforts. The five member countries have a long history of trust and cooperation, and they share a commitment to common values.

As reported by the FBI, the Five Eyes leaders launched the first Emerging Technology and Securing Innovation Security Summit in Palo Alto, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. In addition to the Five Eyes, the summit also had in attendance, business leaders, government representatives, and members of academia who discussed threats to innovation, and how to work together to advance both economic security and public safety.

The summit offered a “fireside chat” with all five chiefs and hosted by former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice. The intelligence chiefs spoke of current threats to private sector organizations in their respective countries, and there were later closed-door discussions with the intelligence chiefs and members from the private sector about the threats posed by China and emerging technologies.

During the fireside chat FBI Director Christopher Wray called the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the foremost threat to global innovation and stated that partnerships are the best way to fight back.

"There is no greater threat to innovation than the Chinese government, and it is a measure of how seriously the five of us and our services take that threat that we have chosen to come together to try to highlight that, raise awareness, raise resilience, and work closely with the private sector to try to build better protection for innovation—especially in a place like Northern California, but, really, across all five of our countries," Wray said.

Wray also spoke of the FBI’s commitment to collaborating with Five Eyes and private sector partners to safeguard emerging technologies from theft and exploitation—including the potential misuse of artificial intelligence.

“I think I speak for all of my colleagues that everybody wants to be on the right side of this,” Rice said during the discussion. “We want to do so in accordance with our values, with the way that we've innovated over the years. But there are very few people any longer who are blind to what the People’s Republic of China is doing.”

Wray said the threat posed by the CCP was unique due to its scale and scope. He likened it to a web, every strand of which became more brazen and more dangerous.

Wray went on to say that the Chinese government has a long track record of simultaneously hurling a multitude of tactics at its economic espionage targets. According to Wray, the tactics range from online hacks and human intelligence operations to business dealings that may seem benign but actually further the party’s aims.

"At the same time, we've seen aggressive uses of human intelligence now powered by professional social media, while China also hides information about its own companies and harasses and arrests foreign professionals to make it harder and harder for our businesses to detect and avoid harmful investments, joint ventures and other transactions intended to facilitate the theft of their IP and data," Wray said.

Wray also noted that China has the largest hacking program of any nation-state, and the Communist Chinese program intentionally targeted organizations with large customer bases so it can rob hundreds or thousands of victims at once. China’s new aim, Wray said, was to utilize stolen AI technology to further bolster its hacking efforts, an effort he called outrageous.

According to Wray, when choosing their targets, the Chinese doesn’t discriminate between new and veteran companies, rural or big-city settings, or a focus on a singular industrial sector when it chooses its targets for economic espionage and tech theft.

"We have found that, more often than not, the answer to the question, 'Is this a technology they're targeting?' is 'Yes,'" he said. “Over the last several years, the Bureau has witnessed an approximately 1300% uptick in the number of investigations that are somehow related to Chinese attempts to pilfer intellectual property, trade secrets, or similar intelligence,” Wray said.

Whether technology theft occurs through traditional spying or nefarious cyber means, the aftershocks of technology theft can be felt both on Wall Street and Main Street, Wray noted. The FBI director illustrated this dual impact by pointing to the example of a wind turbine company whose intellectual property was stolen by China, leading to both a market-gap plummet and mass layoffs.

Ken McCallum, the British Director General of MI5, added, “You don’t need to be working at a billion-dollar company or be the dean of a prestigious college to end up on the CCP’s radar, because, in 2023, if you’re anywhere close to the cutting edge of tech, you may not be interested in geopolitics, but geopolitics is interested in you."

The Five Eyes partners unveiled “Five Principles to Secure Innovation” - Five Eyes launches the Five Principles of Secure Innovation (npsa.gov.uk). These principles, according to the FBI, were crafted by the Bureau’s U.K. partners but will be implemented across the Five Eyes coalition, including understanding how bad actors can illicitly obtain technology that doesn’t belong to them and securing one’s environment, products, partnerships, and growth.

"Those bits of guidance are co-created with people in the sectors to be pragmatic, to be workable, to avoid stifling the very openness and innovation that you're trying to protect in the first place," said MI5 Director General Ken McCallum during the summit.

The FBI, specifically, is also fighting the tide of stolen innovation through constant contact between the Bureau's 56 field offices and industry, investigations, disruption of Chinese attempts to steal intelligence, and by sharing lessons learned from private sector partnerships,

Wray also soke of risks posed by artificial intelligence.

"We worry about AI as an amplifier for all sorts of misconduct," Wray said. “I anticipate AI making existing bad actors even more dangerous.”

Wary added that AI can be used in a multitude of malicious ways. It can be used to detect vulnerabilities, craft code, perform advanced spearphishing, or even make virtual kidnappings more believable by mimicking the voices of children who’ve allegedly been taken.

Wray also expressed concern about the potential for China to use stolen personal and corporate data to train up pilfered AI technology and make its looted machine learning models even stronger.

“But it can also be exploited by would-be terrorists,” Wray warned.

"Among the ways in which AI can be misused in the terror space, we’ve seen people essentially using AI to circumvent safeguards built into some of the AI infrastructure that some of these companies have built to do searches for, you know, how to build a bomb, for example, or ways to obfuscate their searches for how to build a bomb," he said. "We’ve seen AI used to essentially amplify the distribution or dissemination of terrorist propaganda, you know, for example, putting it into other languages in a way that’s more coherent and more credible to potential supporters."

Wray noted that private sector partnerships were vital to countering this misuse of emerging technology so that companies can implement appropriate safeguards for how their innovation can be used.

He said that the FBI is "acutely attuned" to the risk faced by Silicon Valley-based AI companies.

Wray labelled the Chinese government the "number one threat to innovation," arguing it had made economic espionage a central component of its national strategy. 

"The FBI have, over the last several years, had about a 1,300 per cent increase in investigations that are, in one way or another, related to attempts to steal intellectual property or other secrets by some form of the Chinese government, or some arm of the Chinese government," Wray said. "It wasn't that long ago, when I checked, we were opening a new investigation, again, specifically focused on China and its efforts to steal intellectual property and other secrets, about every 12 hours."

Paul Davis’ Threatcon column covers crime, espionage and terrorism.

GE Aerospace Agrees To Pay $9.4 Million To Resolve Allegations Of False Claims Act Violations

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts released the below link:

BOSTON – GE Aerospace, an operating division of the General Electric Company, has agreed to pay $9,413,024 to resolve allegations that its Lynn, Mass. manufacturing plant (GEA Lynn) sold parts to the United States Army and the United States Navy that were either not properly inspected or were nonconforming, in violation of the False Claims Act. 

Headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, GE Aerospace manufactures aircraft engines that it sells to U.S. military customers. Engines that GEA Lynn sells to U.S. military customers must meet the requirements established by engineering drawings. To meet those requirements, GEA Lynn further requires employees to follow manufacturing planning instructions including parts inspections, among other requirements. GE Aerospace admits that, at times from July 24, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2019, GEA Lynn did not conduct required parts inspections and sold engines containing parts that did not meet certain required specifications to U.S. miliary customers. Specifically: 

1.     Between July 24, 2014 and Aug. 11, 2017, GEA Lynn did not consistently use functional gauges to inspect features on certain parts; 

2.     Between July 24, 2014 and Sept. 2018, GEA Lynn omitted at least two inspections of curvic features on certain part numbers; and

3.     Between July 24, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2019, GEA Lynn sold engines to the U.S Army and the U.S. Navy that contained unallowable metal fragments. 

“The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Inspector General, is fully committed to protecting the DoD procurement process,” said Patrick J. Hegarty, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Northeast Field Office. “Failing to inspect parts as required by contract specifications compromises military systems and potentially endangers the lives of U.S. service members. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners and the Department of Justice to investigate DoD contractors that submit false claims to DoD agencies and threaten the DoD supply chain.”

“The provision of non-conforming parts for Department of Defense aircraft engines could pose a substantial threat to warfighter safety and readiness,” said Greg Gross, Special Agent in Charge Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Economic Crimes Field Office. “We thank our law enforcement partners and the Department of Justice for their significant efforts on this complex investigation. NCIS remains committed to ensuring the integrity of the DoD procurement process.”

“The results of this investigation shows that our agents, and those of our partner law enforcement agencies, are relentless in their pursuit of those who attempt to defraud the U.S. Government and put our Warfighters lives at risk,” said Supervisory Special Agent John Scarlett, Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, Major Procurement Fraud Field Office, Northeast Fraud Resident Agency. “This case should send a clear message to all who do business with the Department of the Army that we are committed to identifying and stopping contractor fraud.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Levy, DCIS SAC Hegarty, NCIS SAC Gross, and DCIS SSA Scarlett Northeast Fraud Resident Agency made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lindsey Ross and Alexandra Brazier of the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit handled the matter. 

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Parodied Studio Notes By Having Shakespeare Punch Burt Reynolds

 As I’ve noted here before, I was and am a huge fan of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. 

The TV series, now appearing on MeTV, offered tales of the supernatural, fantasy, horror and other dramas. One favorite episode was pure satire.

Rod Serling (seen in the above photo) wrote the clever and funny script which was based no doubt on his own negative experiences with TV studio executives and corporate sponsors. 

In The Bard, a talentless would-be-writer (Jack Weston, seen in the above photo with John Williams) conjures up William Shakespeare to help him write a television play. But when the great Bard visits the set and meets a famous stage method actor (Burt Reynolds doing a fine parody of Marlon Brando – which is perhaps why Brando hated Reynolds, who looked like the young Brando), he is none too pleased. 

Slash/Film.com offers a look back at Rod Serling’s The Bard.        

There's a piece of advice that every writer gets at some point in their career, and it goes like this: "Write what you know." 

It's not bad advice if you don't take it too literally. "Write what you know" doesn't mean that you should only write about your own autobiographical experiences, it means that when you do write from experience you'll probably be able to write more truthfully, more meaningfully, and in more detail than if you had to make it all up from scratch. Even if you write about strange new planets filled with creatures totally unlike anything found on Earth, you're probably better off finding an angle that speaks somehow to your personal interests, your beliefs, or your memories. 

The irony of course is that as writers keep on writing, eventually "what they know" the most about is being a writer. You may have noticed that a whole heck of a lot of Stephen King characters are novelists. And you may have noticed that Hollywood types love to make movies and TV shows about working in Hollywood.  

"The Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling was no exception to this rule, so although he wrote a lot of different stories about a lot of topics that spoke to him in various ways, he wasn't above writing the occasional tale about why the entertainment industry is a terrible place. Sometimes it's a story about how Hollywood Westerns are insipid and irresponsible. And sometimes it's a story about how Hollywood studios would ruin the works of William Shakespeare if he were alive today. 

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

The Twilight Zone Parodied Studio Notes By Having Shakespeare Punch Burt Reynolds (slashfilm.com)

You can also watch The Bard via the below link:

Watch The Twilight Zone Classic Season 4 Episode 18: The Bard - Full show on Paramount Plus 

Two Nigerian Nationals Sentenced To Prison For International Scheme That Defrauded Elderly U.S. Victims

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

Two Nigerian nationals who were extradited to the United States from Spain were sentenced to 128 and 87 months in prison for their roles in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme. With today’s sentencing, five defendants who were extradited from the United Kingdom and Spain in connection with this matter have been sentenced.

According to court documents, Ezennia Peter Neboh, 48, who was sentenced today to 128 months of incarceration, was the lead defendant of a group of fraudsters who sent personalized letters to elderly victims in the United States, falsely claiming that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain and that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left for the recipient by a family member who had died years before in Portugal. Victims were told that before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for delivery fees and taxes and were instructed to make other payments. Victims sent money to the defendants through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims. The defendant and his co-conspirators also convinced former victims to receive money from new victims and then instructed those former victims to forward the fraud proceeds to others.

On Oct. 23, the Honorable Kathleen M. Williams sentenced another defendant who was also extradited from Spain, Kennedy Ikponmwosa, to 87 months of imprisonment. Three other co-defendants who were extradited from the United Kingdom also received prison sentences. On June 21, Judge Williams sentenced Emmanuel Samuel to 82 months in prison; on July 25, Judge Williams sentenced Jerry Chucks Ozor to 87 months in prison; and on August 29, Judge Williams sentenced Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham to 90 months in prison, for their roles in the scheme.

“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue, prosecute and bring to justice transnational criminals responsible for defrauding U.S. consumers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We thank our colleagues at the Spanish National Police and the Ministry of Justice for assisting with the successful investigation and extradition of these defendants. This prosecution is a testament to the critical role of transnational collaboration in tackling transnational crime.”

“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has a long tradition of protecting American citizens from these types of schemes and bringing those responsible to justice,” said Inspector in Charge Juan A. Vargas for the USPIS Miami Division. “This result is a testament to the dedicated partnership between the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the USPIS to protect our citizens from these scams.”

“HSI has a long history of aggressively pursuing criminals to ensure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown for HSI Arizona. “When criminals indiscriminately target the elderly or otherwise vulnerable, the impact and harm is particularly long-lasting. These sentences send a message to those around the world who think they can escape our laws - anyone who engages in or facilitates deceptive practices like these will not go undetected. HSI will continue to work tirelessly to hold those criminals accountable and bring justice to victims.” 

The Consumer Protection Branch, USPIS and HSI are investigating the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorneys Josh Rothman and Brianna Gardner of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Europol and authorities from the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal all provided critical assistance.

If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Justice Department hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. English, Spanish, and other languages are available.

More Than 1,000 Veterans Flock To New DeSantis Coalition Just 2 Weeks After Launch: 'Service Above Self' - Florida Gov Ron DeSantis Is The Only Military Veteran In The Presidential Race

Andrew Mark Miller at FoxNews.com offers a piece on how military veterans are flocking to presidential candidate and Navy veteran Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the only military veteran in the presidential race.   

FIRST ON FOX: Over 1,000 veterans have joined the National Veterans Coalition recently launched by GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, his campaign tells Fox News Digital.

 

The DeSantis campaign launched the coalition in South Carolina two weeks ago touting the Florida governor’s status as the only veteran in the presidential race on both sides of the aisle while highlighting his "Mission First" military and national defense policy unveiled this summer.

 

"Leadership is a privilege and should be earned, not given," Congressman Rich McCormick (R-GA), a decorated Marine Corps and Navy veteran, who is the national chair for the Veterans for DeSantis Coalition, told Fox News Digital. "Veterans from across the nation are lining up to support Ron DeSantis for president because he is the only candidate in this race who has worn the flag on his sleeve and truly understands what it means to put service above self. It's a dangerous world, and we need a commander-in-chief who is ready to go on Day One." 

You can read the rest of the piece and listen to an interview with Governor DeSantis via the below link:    

Over 1,000 veterans flock to new DeSantis coalition just 2 weeks after launch: ‘Service above self’ | Fox News

The Spectator Audio Interview With Nicholas Shakespeare, The Biographer Of Ian Fleming, The Creator Of James Bond

I just listened to a fine audio interview of Nicholas Shakespeare (seen in the below photo), who wrote the new biography of Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond thrillers. 

Sam Leith of The Spectator interviewed Nicholas Shakespeare about Ian Fleming’s role in WWII naval intelligence, which Shakespeare noted was much more important to the war effort than previously thought, based on recently declassified documents. 

Nicholas Shakespeare also spoke of Ian Fleming’s personal life and his role as a journalist prior to WWII and afterwards, as well as what Fleming thought of actor Sean Connery as James Bond in the early Bond films. 

As an Ian Fleming aficionado, I look forward to reading Nicholas Shakespeare’s Ian Fleming: The Complete Man when it becomes available in the United States. 

You can listen to the interview via the below link:  

Nicholas Shakespeare: The Complete Man | The Spectator

You can also read my previous post on Nicholas Shakespeare and Ian Fleming: The Complete Man via the below link:  

Paul Davis On Crime: British Book Launch of Nicholas Shakespeare's New Biography Of The Late, Great Thriller Writer Ian Fleming