Goes into the Millions he made over the course of 2 decades running w/ the Colombo Family in the 90s and 2000s.........
Saracino also profited from his participation in the
crime family. In 1995, Saracino earned tens of thousands of
dollars with his share of the approximately $200,000 in proceeds
from the robbery of Chemical Bank on Hempstead Turnpike in East
Meadow, New York. He also participated in a score of burglaries
of banks and other commercial establishments and thefts from
trucks. (PSR ¶¶ 92-95).
Through these crimes and more, Saracino earned a
reputation as a lethal mob soldier. He is a murderer,
extortionist, drug dealer, loanshark, thief and obstructionist.
He spent his twenties putting “notches” on his belt by taking
life by his own hand. Such craven behavior brought him respect
and power in the Colombo crime family; by the 2000s, Saracino was
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a soldier with close bonds to the family’s street boss Gioeli and
Gioeli’s confident, captain Dino Calabro.
Significantly, Saracino traded on his reputation and
the reputation of Gioeli’s crew for murder and other acts of
violence to launch and maintain a lucrative loansharking
business. Sebastian Saracino testified that at the time of
Saracino’s arrest in June 2008, Saracino had more than $500,000
in outstanding loanshark loans owed to him. (T. 4352). Calabro
similarly testified that Saracino had lent out “hundreds of
thousands of dollars.” (T. 1056). Gordon testified Saracino had
extended numerous loanshark loans between the mid-1990s and 2007
and as of 2008, Gordon alone owed Saracino $120,000 in
outstanding loanshark loans. (T. 2974-75).
Saracino’s commitment to crime and the Colombo crime
family continued even after his June 2008 arrest. First, he made
efforts to maintain his loansharking operation while he was
incarcerated. For example, prior to his arrest, he made sure
Gordon and his brother Sebastian Saracino had access to the list
of individuals who owed money to him. (T. 3013, 4351). Saracino
wanted to ensure that they would continue to collect payments
from the loanshark customers he extorted. On the day of
Saracino’s arrest, the FBI recovered a leather folder from a car
belonging to Saracino’s wife containing a calculator and a ledger
pad with names and numbers, which corresponded to loanshark
amounts owed to Saracino. (T. 2599-2601; see T. 3012-14 (Gordon
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testifying that Saracino’s “book” or “leather binder” had the
“information of all his [loanshark] customers; what they paid,
how much they owed”); GX 342 (ledger recovered on June 23, 2008),
501(I) (excerpt of a consensual recording between April Saracino
and Gordon on June 23, 2008 in which April states “I think I have
the book in my truck.”)).
In addition, Saracino’s post-arrest efforts were
revealed on several consensual recordings made by Thomas
McLaughlin after Saracino’s arrest. Anthony Russo, then a
Colombo crime family acting captain, associate Larry Sessa and
McLaughlin discussed Saracino’s attempts from jail to collect
Saracino’s outstanding loansharking proceeds. For example, on a
consensual recording made on September 21, 2010, Anthony Russo
told McLaughlin that Russo had received a message from Saracino
regarding the outstanding loans owed to Saracino and that Sessa
had given one of the debtors a “massive beating.” An excerpt of
a draft transcript of the recording follows:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
First of all, I gotta message
straight from the horse’s
mouth. . . . Dino’s [Dino
Saracino] wife [April
Saracino] wanted to know who
is AR [Anthony Russo’s
initials].
Who is that?
[Sarcastically] I don’t know.
Who’s AR?
AR? Oh you. 48
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Document 1767 Filed 05/15/13 Page 50 of 59 PageID #: 13629
RUSSO:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
Okay. And he said, “I got a
message from my husband [Dino
Saracino] for you to go see AR
and tell him I don’t want no
one going to see my wife
[April Saracino] with any kind
of monies.”
***
That’s another thing. That’s
another thing. I gotta list
[of individuals who owed money
to Dino Saracino].
***
Yeah, Fatso [a nickname for
Sessa] must have been keeping
it quiet so he can run around
and fuck
No, he’s been telling me
everything since day one. He
came to me when he first got
the list. Said, What do we do
with this list? I said, Stop
being so concerned about this
poor kid right now because
what are you gonna do, get in
trouble for this kid.
Listen to me, he ain’t running
around for nothing.
No, of course not. Whatever
he’s doing, he’s doing.
There’s this one kid I told
him that we need to find, that
he needs to find that owes a
lot of money.
First of all, why’s this kid
Buzz [UI] for it.
He was gonna bring the money.
How much is it?
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MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
MCLAUGHLIN:
RUSSO:
It’s $200 a month.
How much does he owe?
I don’t even know.
15,000?
No, I think it was like
12,000.
And he wants to give him 200 a
month? It just went up to
500.
(A copy of excerpts of the recording is enclosed on Exhibit B in
a file named “message from Dino.wav”). This conversation about
Saracino’s post-incarceration efforts to collect loanshark money
is further corroborated by Gordon’s recordings of Saracino’s
wife, who had been enlisted by Saracino to assist in Saracino’s
loansharking business (see T. 2976; GX 501(I)), as well as
records of the Metropolitan Detention Center (“MDC”) that reveal
that Sessa, using an alias, was depositing money into Saracino’s
account.
