In SDNY
Bonanno
Racketeering
Trial Tales Of
Vinny TV and
Louie Ha Ha
Leave Jury
Cold Double
Acquittal
By Matthew
Russell Lee
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 15 – In the rackeeting
trial of Joe Cammarano and
John "Porky" Zancocchio that
resulted in acquittal, in the
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
the afternoon of March 5 ended
with a government witness
authenticating audio tapes he
recorded in his pizzeria
which, it seemed, one of the
defendants was trying to take
from him. He said he preferred
Vinnie TV over Joe C. and
Porky - who smiled and waved
when his name was mentioned -
but that he tried to get along
with them, including by going
to Porky's restaurant Bella
Donna. He said that all the
made guys were there on
Fridays.
Like a
happy hour, commented Judge
Alvin Hellerstein, to some
laughter including among the
jury. (Later Judge Hellerstein
would stay to hear and grant a
motion to dismissed a sexual
orientation discrimination and
retaliation claim against
SUNY. Such is the schedule of
a Federal judge.) The trial
was wrapping up - and
ultimately resulted in
acquittal: on March 13 the
jury acquitted the two of
racketeering and conspiracy to
commit extortion charges. Gina
Castellano, the lead
prosecutor, had said they
"worked together and with
other members of the mob to
commit crime after crime —
extortion, loan-sharking, drug
dealing, assault and fraud.
These two men led a
sophisticated criminal
organization that took
whatever they wanted from
whoever they wanted through
intimidation,” she said. But
unlike with the Millbrook
Houses in The Bronx, for
example, this prosecution
didn't work. We'll have more
on this. March 5 had ended
with Stephen Sabella being
questioned about racist
Facebook posts and a scar his
step-brother left on his head.
Stephen Sabella testified that
the defendant John Zancocchio
gave him a black eye and a
broken tooth and stole his
busienss from him, some $2
million in all.
"I can't stand
him," Stephen Sabella said.
But he went beyond that, and
posted on Zancocchio's
daughter's Facebook wall
insults against her bi-racial
daughter. He called Zancocchio
himself a "stuttering MF-er;"
Zancocchio's lawyer referred
to "my client's disability."
He cross examined: you know
her from Bella Mama Rose,
right? She's a good person,
right? Judge Alvin Hellerstein
sustained an objected by
Stephen Sabella managed to
work into his response, yes
she is a nice person. He said
he wasn't sure how Facebook
worked, how many people saw
his posts.
A liquor salesman
posted a photo with Zancocchio
calling him a classy guy;
Stephen Sabella replied online
that he was surprised, unless
the salesman meant a thief and
robber. When Stephen Sabella
was beaten up a second time
outside his home he decided to
cooperate with the government.
But, he admitted, he continued
with a gambling book and some
drug sales, "just marijuana,"
he said. Asked if his father
was arrested in Florida for
cocaine he followed Judge
Hellerstein's sustaining the
government's objection and did
not answer.
Still one
wondered how this might hurt
his credibility with the jury,
one of whose members told
Judge Hellerstein that Stephen
Sabella's name was mis-spelled
in the transcripts that were
passed out to the jurors.
Stephen Sabella explaining his
own calls was one thing - but
another government witness was
asked to authenticate a series
of calls about "meet you in
twenty minutes," "I can't hear
you I'll call you right back"
and the like. At one point
classical hold music came one
and Judge Hellerstein quipped,
Is Mozart a part of this case?
Cammarano's laughed followed
suit, saying "I object."
Perhaps the music was Vivaldi.
Judge
Hellerstein's is a classy
court room, where he has waxed
poetic of defendants like
Norman Seabrook and Murray
Huberfelt, why do good people
do bad things. The phrase has
yet to be heard in this trial.
Earlier on March 4, the
government put on the stand an
expert on La Cosa Nostra, to
whom the defendants objected
without avail. He described a
system in which proposed new
"made men" must be circulated
to all of the five families to
see if there is any objection,
akin to the silence procedure
in the UN Security Council
with its five permanent
members. Because of the high
level of incarceration, a
previous rule of new members
only being allowed in to
replace deceased one has been
waived - each year, each
family can bring in an
additional two members.
Similarly, the requirement
that made men be 100% Italian
has been changed such that
only the father must be
Italian. He said surveillance
of wakes is "of incredible
value to law enforcement.. The
understanding is visual, a
hierarchy, you put the dots
together." And slowly, perhaps
too slowly, in this SDNY
courtroom, the dots are being
put together. Back on February
28, beyond testimony by the
Business Integrity Commission
now looking in sham unions,
the head of security for the
Peninsula Hotel certified the
one-night stay of Zancocchio
for a mere
$295, saying
the normal
rate was $795.
Zancocchio's
lawyer on
cross
established
that the three
other couples
staying at 700
Fifth Avenue
in the
Peninsula that
night each
paid with
their own
credit card,
including
yesterday's
carting
witness
William
Cioffi. Then a
retired NYPD
detective
Kevin Hui, now
with FSA
Capital, came
on to describe
his
surveillance
of a one story
building next
to a car wash
on March 22,
2015. Thus are
cases built -
or not. On
February 27
Cioffi
described in great detail how
demolition debris was dumped
on a construction site on
Staten Island. There was a
price war on such dumping, and
a company called Silver Star
stopped paying. And so the
witness or rather his wife
signed checks to the site's
owner; the witness signed a
non prosecution agreement and
now testified again Cammarano
today in a sweater and
Zancocchio whose last name he
said he never knew. TD Bank
handled the funds; the
Peninsula Hotel was a place to
stay overnight in Manhattan.
The trial is motoring along,
the prosecution said. Even
ending the week on Thursday at
4 pm, the government's
evidence will conclude next
Wednesday. But what might the
defense have up its (sweater)
sleeve? Earlier on February 27
Judge Alvin Hellerstein
disallowed several of the
questions of Zancocchio's
lawyer John Meringolo. Judge
Hellerstein has told the jury
to be sure not to read
anything written about the
case or broadcast, presumably
including Periscope
live-streams. Two audio
captures of initial government
witness Lovaglio were
disallowed, one with U.F.
a/k/a Unidentified Female
a/k/a "my ex-fiance" as the
prosecution said Lovaglia
called her. There will be ten
to twenty more minutes of
cross, ten minutes of
re-direct. Judge Hellerstein
has requested a glossary of
names, or a chart with
photographs like "before the
age of automation." But the
prosecution and defense
couldn't agree to what should
go in the chart. The chart or
easel or something like it
will be part of summations.
For now the trial continues:
watch this site. When
Lovaglio described his current
eight year New York State jail
sentence he recounted being
insulted by the step son of
the owner of a sushi
restaurant owner on Staten
Island. "I assaulted him with
a glass," Lovaglio deadpanned.
The man's eye no longer works,
and he would not accept money
to make the criminal complaint
go away. Now Lovaglio is suing
his NYPD handler for telling
him not to take a lesser plea,
for assuring him he wouldn't
do a day in jail. He is in a
"private detention facility."
Judge Hellerstein wanted to
know what they meant. It's a
private prison.
Later in
the morning, after several
audio tapes Lovaglio recorded
while wearing a wire for the
government were played, he was
asked to confirm that the
Bonanno crime family used hand
signals to refers to some
people: an ear tug, the chin,
and for the named defendant
Joe Cammarano, a hand sweeping
over the top of the head. Why,
Judge Hellerstein asked.
"Because
he has nice hair," Lovaglio
shrugged. Cammarano and some
sitting behind him laughed,
seemingly with pride.
Listening to Lovaglio try to
get associates to talk for his
audio recorder, one wondered
if the jury will wonder if he
isn't playing them, too. But
if he lies he loses the
prospect of the Fed's helping
him on the racketeering he's
pled to, with the 5K
letter. Watch this
site. On February 26
when Lovaglio described a loan
of $200,000 at four percent a
week and mentioned a "Johnny
Sideburns" whose photograph
was put on-screen for the
jury, Judge Hellerstein had
two questions. "Where are the
sideburns?" he asked. There
were none in the
photo.
"We just give
nicknames," Lovaglio said.
When Hellerstein said that a
weekly interest rate of four
points was 100% a year,
Lovaglio deadpanned, I think
it's more, Judge. And so it
is: not unlike the payday
loans that the US Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau is
settling
on without
restitution...
Earlier on
February 25 a prison sentence
of life plus five years was
imposed for a Bronx murder by
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon.
She presided over the trial in
which Stiven Siri-Reynoso was
convicted of, among other
things, murder in aid of
racketeering for the death of
Jessica White, a 28 year old
mother of three, in the Bronx
in 2016. Jessica White's
mother was in the court room;
she was greeted by Judge
McMahon but declined to speak
before sentencing.
Siri-Reynoso was representing
himself by this point, with a
back-up counsel by his side.
Judge McMahon told him,
"You're a very smart man... a
tough guy, a calculating
person... You are a coward,
sent a child to do it for
you... Your emissary shot the
wrong person, a lovely lady...
It was a vicious, evil attack
against the good people of
that neighborhood." When she
imposed the life plus five
sentence, a woman on the
Jessica White side of the
courtroom cried out, yes
Ma'am, put the animal away!
Later, after Siri-Reynoso
ended asking how he can get
more documents about the case,
a woman on his side of the
courtroom said, "No te
preocupes, muchacho, Dios sabe
lo que hace" - don't worry,
God knows what he is doing.
But does He? Earlier on
February 25 when the
government tried to defend its
2018 change of policy or
practice on Special Immigrant
Juvenile status in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge John G. Koeltl had many
questions about the change. He
asked, are you saying that all
the decisions before 2018 were
just wrong, under a policy in
place but not implemented at
the time? In the overflow
courtroom 15C the largely
young audience laughed, as the
government lawyer tried to say
it wasn't a change of policy
but rather an agency
interpretation of the statute.
Shouldn't there have been
notice and comment rulemaking
under the Administrative
Procedure Act? The government
said the argument proffered
for this was about the Freedom
of Information Act (on which,
as Inner City Press has noted,
the US Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency
has similarly reversed its
policy 180 degrees without
justification). SDNY Judge
Koeltl demanded t know if the
government is arguing that no
juvenile court in New York,
California (and maybe Texas
for other reasons he said) is
empowered to grant relief. The
answer was far from clear -
but where the ruling is going
does seem so. Watch this site.
The Bangladeshi Central Bank
which was hacked for $81
million in February 2016, on
January 31 sued in the US
District Court for the
Southern District of New York.
Now the first pre-trial
conference in the case has
been set, for 2 April 2019
before SDNY Judge Lorna G.
Schofield. Inner City Press
will be there.
In Dhaka, the
Criminal Investigation
Department which failed to
submit its probe report into
the heist on time has now been
ordered by Metropolitan
Magistrate
Sadbir Yasir
Ahsan
Chowdhury to
do so by March 13 in
Bangladesh Bank cyber heist
case.
In the U.S.
District Court for Central
California, the unsealed
criminal complaint against
Park Jin Hyuk lists four email
addresses involved in
spear-phishing Bangladesh Bank
and among others an unnamed
"African Bank;" one of these
addresses is said to also have
communicated with an
individual in Australia about
importing commodities to North
Korea in violations of UN
sanctions.
To the Federal
Reserve, Inner City Press has
requested records relating to
the Fed's role with response
due in 20 working days - watch
this site. In the SDNY, the
case is Bangladesh Bank v
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp
et al, U.S. District Court,
Southern District of New York,
No. 19-00983. On February 3 in
Dhaka Bangladesh Bank's
lawyer Ajmalul
Hossain
said it could take three years
to recover the money. The
Bank's deputy governor Abu
Hena Razee Hasan said those
being accused -- in the civil
not criminal suit -- include
three Chinese nationals.
Ajmalul Hossain said the Bank
is seeking its hacked million
plus interest and its expenses
in the case. He said US
Federal Reserve will extend
its full support and that
SWIFT, the international money
transfer network, also assured
of providing all the necessary
cooperation in recovering the
hacked money. The
Philippines returned $14.54
million in November 2016, so
$66.46 million has yet to be
retrieved. Now defendant RCBC
Bank of the Philippines has
hired the Quinn Emanuel law
firm to defend it, and it
already fighting back in
words. RCBC’s lead counsel on
the SDNY case, Tai-Heng Cheng,
said: “This is nothing
more than a thinly veiled PR
campaign disguised as a
lawsuit. Based on what we have
heard this suit is completely
baseless. If the Bank of
Bangladesh was serious about
recovering the money, they
would have pursued their
claims three years ago and not
wait until days before the
statute of limitations. Not
only are the allegations
false, they don’t have the
right to file here since none
of the defendants are in the
US." But it seems the funds
were transferred to and
through the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York. And as Inner
City Press reported in the US
v. Patrick Ho case last year,
the wiring of funds through
New York can confer
jurisdiction. Inner City Press
will be covering this case.
The first paragraph of the 103
page complaint reads, "This
litigation involves a massive,
multi-year conspiracy to carry
out one of the largest banks
heists in modern history right
here in New York City. On
February 4, 2016, thieves
reached into a bank account at
the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York (“New York Fed”) and
stole approximately $101
million (out of the nearly $1
billion they attempted to
steal). The bank account was
held for the benefit of
Bangladesh Bank, which is
Bangladesh’s Central Bank.
Bangladesh Bank has had a
45-year banking relationship
under which it has placed its
international reserves with
the New York Fed. The New York
Fed is a critical component of
the United States’ central
banking system and its link to
the international financial
system." Bangladesh's lawyers
on the case are "COZEN
O’CONNOR John J. Sullivan,
Esq. Jesse Loffler, Esq.
Yehudah Gordon, Esq." We'll
have more on this.
Debaprasad
Debnath, a general manager at
the central bank’s Financial
Intelligence Unit, Joint
Director Mohammad Abdur Rab
and Account and Budgeting
Department General Manager
Zakir Hossain all left Dhaka
to head to New York, for the
filing of the lawsuit, which
Inner City Press will be
following.
They say the
Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, which on January 29 was
instructed by the US State
Department to allow Juan
Guaido to access Venezuelan
accounts, will be helping its
Bangladeshi counterpart to get
to the bottom of the
hack. Those eyed include
Philippines’ Rizal Commercial
Banking Corporation or RCBC
and some of its officials, and
Philrem Service Corporation,
casino owners and
beneficiaries. Ajmalul Hossain
QC, a lawyer for the central
bank, is with them to file the
case.
It is an
interesting twist on the SDNY
as venue for the money
laundering and FCPA
prosecution of Patrick Ho of
CEFC for bribery in Chad and
to Uganda - in this case, too,
the money flowed through New
York. Inner City Press intends
to cover the case.
***
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