Little mobster's wire has big fish on a hook
Monday, March 06, 2006
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
With white hair, an easygoing manner and a well-known name throughout North Jersey, Peter Caporino didn't fit the Hollywood stereotype of an FBI informant.
"Petey Cap," as he is known, had a house in Hasbrouck Heights, a social club in Hoboken and lifetime ties to the Genovese crime family.
So when word spread last fall that Caporino had secretly snitched on his mob associates, some figured his defection was the desperate act of an aging wiseguy hoping to save his wife, his disabled daughter and himself.
They would be wrong.
An FBI agent's affidavit shows that Caporino, 69, has been a government informant for more than a decade, that he helped identify more than 50 mobsters and that his tips also federal, state and local investigations.
Filed in federal court in Newark, the statement elevates Caporino to new heights among mob cooperators. It also dispels any notion that the Mafia in New Jersey, though clearly weakened, is dead.
If anything, Caporino's recorded conversations with reputed crew boss Joseph Scarbrough suggest business as usual for the state's dominant crime family.
There's talk of buried weapons, hidden records, hijacked goods, lucrative loansharking and regular payments to the wife of an imprisoned underboss. There's the four-figure "tributes" that Caporino pays Scarbrough each month to ensure his own gambling ring continues under the umbrella of mob protection.
CUTTING THEIR LOSSESThere's also the backbiting of "family" politics and the discussion of less delicate topics, such as whether to lend more money to a Jersey City man who already owes $50,000 -- or to cut him off forever.
"If we have to kill him, I'd much rather do it for 50 than 150," Scarbrough allegedly told Caporino during one January 2003 conversation, "because that's out of our pocket."
Scarbrough, a 66-year-old West Orange resident known as "Big Joe," is among a dozen alleged crime family associates facing trial later this month on federal racketeering, extortion or gambling charges. Prosecutors contend the group ran a sophisticated numbers, sports betting and loan-sharking operation from Jersey City and Hoboken, and used threats of violence to squeeze money from Greek business owners.
Caporino, according to court papers filed by the government, spent more than two years building the key evidence in the case: Recording roughly 800 hours of conversations with fellow mobsters and others, including unidentified public employees.
In return, Caporino, whose criminal record spans four decades, spared himself another trip to jail. Last fall, a Superior Court judge in Hudson County, citing Caporino's remarkable assistance, gave him a five-year suspended prison term for running a gambling operation in 2001 and 2002. Caporino didn't even attend the sentencing.
The affidavit by FBI Special Agent Jason Brown suggests the cooperation was even more extensive than previously disclosed. Prosecutors submitted it under seal to a federal judge in July 2004 to support their bid for a search warrant on Scarbrough's home and car.
Scarbrough's attorney, Michael Koribanics, included the affidavit in a motion he filed to dismiss the federal indictment or force the government to disclose more about their cooperator. He did not indicate how he got the document and has declined to comment.
The document never names Caporino, but attorneys familiar with the case say the conversations it describes between the defendants and the informant identified as "Cooperating Witness-1" leave no doubt that he is Caporino. And the U.S. Attorney's Office doesn't dispute it.
Prosecutors have described Scarbrough as a high-ranking associate of the family who oversaw bookmaking and loan-sharking operations from his own Hoboken club. His criminal record dates to 1958 and he allegedly reported directly to Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico, the reputed captain and family consigliere.
The agent's sworn statement ticks off at least 18 recorded conversations between Caporino and Scarbrough between July 2002 and June 2004. The talks seem to be a mix of business and pleasure, with Scarbrough bouncing from salesman, to boss, to friend.
In one, he boasts of his role in a burglary that netted $300,000. In another, he describes a murder he participated in, according to the affidavit. He also tells Caporino he ran with the "Hole in the Wall Gang," an infamous and violent Las Vegas-based burglary crew whose exploits were featured in the movie "Casino."
LOTS OF SWAG
The agent's statement painted Scarbrough's house as a way-station for hijacked electronics, jewelry and other "swag" -- slang for items stolen without a gun.
Scarbrough allegedly told Caporino about a fence named Barry who for decades had trafficked stolen jewelry and designer suits. He said he bought his wife a $20,000 sapphire-and-diamond ring from Barry for only $4,000, and that the ring had been stolen in a Connecticut burglary.
In August 2002, Scarbrough sold the informant a $3,000 Dell laptop for half its retail price, the court filing says. Agents later traced the serial number and confirmed that the computer had been shipped from New Jersey but never reached its destination, instead written off as "missing in transit."
Caporino also paid Scarbrough monthly commissions -- typically about $4,000 -- that he earned from his own gambling racket. Scarbrough allegedly said he needed the money to make his own tribute payments to Dentico and to Ida Manna, the wife of jailed reputed Genovese captain Anthony "Bobby" Manna.
It was loan-sharking that Scarbrough found most lucrative, according to the affidavit. In one March 2003 conversation, he told Caporino that he had extended more than $100,000 in loans -- earning 2 or 3 percent interest a week. Another defendant, Billy Napolitano, explained that he and Scarbrough used an unidentified attorney to make their loansharking income look legitimate, the statement said.
BURIED EVIDENCE
For much of the time, however, the men were wary of being caught, the agent reported. By spring 2004, Scarbrough was sure his phones were tapped and his house bugged. He told the informant in one conversation that he kept his records and guns "buried in plastic bags in several locations," including a neighbor's yard and a nearby park, according to the affidavit.
He also allegedly told Caporino to store his own records on compact discs, and to place the discs inside music CD cases because agents were unlikely to pore through a suspect's music collection.
The encroaching federal investigation was also hurting business.
Early in 2004, Scarbrough allegedly complained that he needed to "straighten out" a Bloomfield debtor who was slow to make payments on a $100,000 loan, but that he couldn't because the feds were watching. He also railed about Michael Crincoli, another reputed Genovese soldier, who had vouched for the borrower.
"Crincoli has been setting Scarbrough up to look bad in front of Larry Dentico," the affidavit states. "Scarbrough said the next time Crincoli says anything negative about the way he's handling the loanshark operation, Scarbrough will 'knock him on his ass.'"
Caporino's tapes are expected to be the centerpiece of the trial scheduled to begin on March 20 before U.S. District Judge William Martini. If Caporino takes the stand, defense attorneys are hoping to pounce.
In pretrial motions, Michael Koribanics, Scarbrough's attorney, argued that the long-term use of Caporino by the government amounts to outrageous prosecutorial misconduct. He asked the judge to dismiss the charges or hold an evidentiary hearing before the trial on the use of Caporino.
PLAYING BOTH SIDES?
He said Caporino had the best of both worlds -- the ability for years to openly profit from a gambling racket because he was working with the FBI.
"The only one who gained was Mr. Caporino. He gained by continuing his widespread bookmaking, extortion, extensions of credit and running a lottery. All done with the government's approval and help," Koribanics wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz, in her reply, countered that Scarbrough's claims are "devoid of legal and factual merit" and don't come close to meeting the threshold to throw out the charges.
Brown's affidavit said his investigation of Dentico began in October 1999. By 2002, the information from the man described as "Cooperating Witness-1" had helped investigators get two federal wiretaps and "numerous" search warrants.
The agent wrote that he also relied on two other two confidential sources -- one who had been feeding the FBI for more than a decade. The other had been cooperating for less than a year, but claimed to have more than 20 years in the crime family.
Unlike Caporino, neither is in a position to testify, the agent said.
Four other defendants already have pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Among them was Dentico, an 82-year-old with a house in Seaside Heights, whose plea deal mirrors one he struck in an unrelated case in Brooklyn. Under the terms of each, Dentico faces up to 63 months in prison.
Like the rest of the defendants, he has refused to cooperate with investigators.
John P. Martin covers federal courts and law enforcement. He can be reached at (973) 622-3405 or at jmartin@starledger.com.
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