http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/10/03/1003artuso.html

By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, October 03, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — After six days of deliberations, a federal jury returned resounding guilty verdicts Friday in a sweeping racketeering conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and money laundering case against four men prosecutors argued were associated with organized crime.

Jurors convicted Vincent Artuso, his son John Vincent Artuso, and Gregory Orr on all the charges they faced. The panel convicted as well Philip E. Forgione on racketeering and fraud charges, but acquitted him of more than a dozen individual money laundering charges.

All the men face potential lengthy prison terms when sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks Dec. 15. Each charge alone carries a maximum possible penalty of 20 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Shockley and J. Brian McCormick presented evidence the men conspired in the sale and leasing of four office buildings own by ADT Security Services to defraud the company of at least $11 million over five years, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. They depicted Vincent Artuso as the leader of the South Florida crew of the Gambino crime family who directed the enterprise. The other men were depicted as associates but non-members of the crime family.

A defense attorney for John Vincent Artuso said outside court that the guilty verdicts stunned all those on the defense team. Miami attorney Mike Pasano said he told jurors the notion that there is a branch of the Gambino family operating in South Florida is "ludicrous."

"I'll continue to say it's ludicrous - until or unless someone can show me some real evidence, I'll never agree it's anything but ludicrous."

Attorney David Markus, who defended Gregory Orr, said there are good issues that will definitely be appealed. "It's a shame that the jury obviously struggled. They were deliberating over a week," Markus said.

A coterie of ladies who accompanied the men in court over the course of the trial began crying as the verdicts were read, their sobbing getting louder at growing number of guilties.

"Oh my God! What's wrong with them?" one blurted out about the jurors.

The men remained stone faced, Artuso looking up at the ceiling, his son looking back toward his fiancee and mother.

A fifth defendant, Robert Gannon, was earlier acquitted by the judge of the charges against him.

Called by prosecutors at trial to give a glimpse of mob operations was Lewis Kasman, the self-proclaimed adopted son of John Gotti, now residing in Boca Raton.

According to a media release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office after the verdict, Artuso supervised and directed members of an enterprise, including his son, Orr, Forgione and William Larry Horton, in the commission of various frauds against numerous victims throughout the United States and against ADT, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd.

I saw that, Lilo. Funny, I just mentioned Artuso's pastry shop in the food thread the other day. Same family.

And by the way, this doesn't bode well for Junior. "Retired" or not, guilty or not, the Feds are trying him in Florida for a reason.

Artuso was one of the shooters in the Castellano hit wasn't he?

All five New York Families have always had crews in Florida. Other Families have members there as well.

The law is obsessed with "Gotti". Junior has proved that he has retired, but the law still goes after him, so they can be seen to look good at smashing leaders and so forth.

In totality, the US government has failed spectaculatly at smashing the families of NY.

Well, maybe they haven't "smashed" them into oblivion, because, let's face it, people are always going to gamble and need to borrow money. But the government has done a pretty good job of putting boss after boss away.

Research aside, I'll speak from experience. I grew up in the heavily Italian Belmont section of the Bronx and still live in the northeast Bronx when I'm not in Florida. I'll tell you this much: these guys are nowhere close to what they were. And I ain't no kid. I'm 49 years old, which is old enough to remember when they were a powerhouse.

Will the government ever completely eliminate them? No, but they'll never be what they were.

Exactly.

Lompac you gotta remeber that law enforcment has brought them down to such a point that they're all basically regional in influence now. It's almost like they're nothing more than some more organized italian-american street gang now to be honest, don't get me wrong, the mob is still the mob but... eh, not as powerful as they used to be, I wouldn't be surprised if a gangbanger decides to hop up and do a driveby on a wiseguy soon.

Not true at all, Ludovico. The FBI considers La Cosa Nostra as the strongest criminal organization in the country. Sure in places like New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Denver, and Dallas the mob is done. However in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Montreal, Tampa/Florida, Las Vegas, California, and Kansas City the Mob still is considered very strong and have a lot on influence. Are they as strong as they were in 1980? No, but the Mob is still very powerful in the underworld. Some dumbass gangbanger wouldn't be that fucking stupid to clip a made guy, not gonna happen.