David Schoen, representing Orena, delivered the bombshell Brooklyn Federal Court filing — including a 1971 law enforcement document identifying Persico as a member of the FBI’s “Top Echelon Informant Program.” The 50-year-old paperwork was revealed through a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed against the Justice Department.
Schoen said he hesitated to go public with the charge until doing some digging to verify the shocking story.
“Independently of this document, two lawyers who represented Mr. Persico in the past have said that they had solid reason to believe that this information is accurate, as did another cooperating witness who gave examples that he believed proved the point,” Schoen wrote in a Friday email to defense lawyer Anthony DiPietro. “I would never have filed such a document without having taken these steps.”
In another email, Schoen said he heard from a former Colombo associate declaring “the assertion is 100% right.” The mobster was a cooperating witness who testified against two of Schoen’s clients.
“I met with the DOJ inspector General and two FBI agents. ... All agreed that the document reflected exactly what it has been represented to reflect,” he said. “I avoided filing this document for quite some time because of the seriousness of it and the implications.”