Chicago Tribune
Prominent businessman, and fed informant, dead of apparent suicide
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-prominent-businessman-and-fed-informant-dead-of-apparent-suicide-20131030,0,5903174.story

A prominent Bridgeport businessman who wore a wire for the feds, helping convict a former Cook County commissioner and a former Chicago alderman, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his plumbing business, authorities said.

Michael DiFoggio, 58, was found with a single gunshot wound to the head around 10 p.m. Tuesday at his family business, DiFoggio Plumbing in the 3200 block of South Shields Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

An autopsy is scheduled for today, but police said there was no sign of foul play and the death was an apparent suicide.

DiFoggio's wife had filed for divorce less than two weeks ago, according to court records. DiFoggio called his wife and said he was going to kill himself, a police source said. Officers went to the company Tuesday night and found him lying on the floor, police said.

A well-connected Bridgeport businessman, DiFoggio began cooperating with the feds in 2010 and ultimately made undercover recordings that ensnared former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano and others.

DiFoggio pleaded guilty in December 2012 to a tax-evasion charge in federal court, admitting that he hid income from his construction and plumbing business for seven years from the Internal Revenue Service. He also admitted using money intended for his business, MDF Construction, for his personal use, including $300,000 he used toward the purchase of a boat.

DiFoggio faced up to 21/2 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but Assistant U.S. Attorney William Ridgway had told U.S. District Judge Robert Dow that prosecutors would not recommend what sentence should be imposed on DiFoggio as long as he continues to cooperate.

That could have allowed DiFoggio's attorneys to seek probation. He had also agreed to pay restitution on the more than $730,000 he owed the IRS.

In June 2012, Moreno was charged with bargaining with DiFoggio for "a little piece" of the profits in return for winning backing for the waste transfer station a few months after he had been appointed to a Cicero panel looking to attract business to the west suburb.

"I don't want to be a hog; I just want to be a pig," Moreno is alleged to have explained in one exchange with DiFoggio. "Hogs get slaughtered; pigs get fat."

Prosecutors have charged that Moreno pocketed the envelope stuffed with $5,000 in cash and then signed a letter promising to support the development of the DiFoggio-backed station.

"I love it," authorities have quoted Moreno, who then served on an economic development board in Cicero, as saying before DiFoggio handed over the alleged payoff.

Moreno has plead guilty to the charges in that case and two other fraud schemes and could face up to 17 1/2 years in prison.

Last month, Medrano was found guilty at trial in a separate 2010 bribery scheme to influence a bandage contract at Stroger Hospital. He also was found guilty at trial earlier this year for plotting with a Nebraska businessman to pay off a Los Angeles official for a mail-order pharmaceutical contract with the Cook County hospital system.

DiFoggio had not been called to testify in any of the cases he was involved in.

According to Cook County court records, DiFoggio and his wife married in Chicago in January 2010 and had lived together at their home on South Normal Avenue until their separation in July.

His wife, 47, cited irreconcilable differences in filing for the divorce on Oct. 18, the records show. The couple had no children together.

The 10-page filing asked that the couple's property -- including real estate, a boat, vehicles and joint retirement accounts -- be divided equitably. It also stated that DiFoggio earned "a substantial income" from investment accounts he had on his own.

Michael "Bird" DiFaggio Jr. was the son of a 26th Street Crew Associate, Mike "Blaster" DiFaggio Sr. The family is extremely well-known in Bridgeport and the father was close with the LaPietra brothers.

Very well-known 11th Ward powerhouse. He did a lot of deals with the Caruso brothers through their Chinatown allies Tommy "Tommy D" DiPiazza, Richie Ferro and Ray "Rayjo" Tominello. Tommy D and Richie are the sons of bookmakers, while Tominello got his start working for Dom Cortina in the 70s/80s.

Bird's cooperation with the FBI really surprised a lot of people.

The DiPiazza's were also heavily tied into Giannoulis. Here is a YouTube clip of Alexi or "Ali G" as people love to call him thanking fundraiser sponsors at an event that Joey DiPiazza threw for him a few years back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sINj-5vH-Nw

a bridgeport snitch setting people in cicero up for the feds

sounds like another "chicago" suicide

In the NBC write about this story, it says he'd been shunned in the neighborhood and was told he was no longer welcome at the Old Neighborhood Italian American Club. ChiTown, do 26th Street guys still hang there or what?