FBI Informer In Huge RICO Case Is A Professional Bowler Too

Gang Land Exclusive!John RubeoJohn (J.R.) Rubeo was a teenager working card games at his father's social club when he developed close bonds with two important bold-faced names with influence in the powerful Genovese crime family that enabled Rubeo to snare 46 mobsters and associates from five crime families in the biggest mob racketeering case in years, Gang Land has learned.

Rubeo, 41, snookered one of his old buddies, capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello, during the five years he wore a wire for the FBI. But law enforcement sources say the wired-up J.R. never got anywhere near the other powerful friend he made during the early 1990s, Anthony Fiorino, the brother-in-law of current family boss, Liborio (Barney) Bellomo.

It wasn't for lack of trying. When he began cooperating, Rubeo told authorities of his ties to Fiorino, a former carpenters union official who lost his union post because of his links to organized crime in 1995. He told the feds that in April of 2011, seven months before he flipped, Fiorino met privately with Parrello in the basement of his restaurant, Pasquale's Rigoletto, to iron out a dispute over a $10,000 debt that Fiorino had helped a businessman collect, according to FBI documents obtained by Gang Land.

Pasquale ParrelloRubeo told officials of the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Westchester District Attorney's Office, the DEA, and the FBI that the reason why Fiorino, 56, had taken such a shine to the 15 years-younger J.R. in the early 1990s, was "because he was a great bowler," according to an FBI report by agent William Inzerillo.

In fact, according to three FBI reports in November and December of 2011 that detailed many of Rubeo's crimes and his numerous organized crime links, bowling is what links the businessman, Rubeo and Fiorino.

As it turns out, Rubeo has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association since 2002. He has a 190 average, and is currently ranked the 174th top bowler in the country. And in a Las Vegas tournament last March, while he was still the key undercover operative in the Parrello probe, he finished 16th of 69 bowlers in the roll off, earning himself $700 in prize money, according to the PBA website.

Anthony FiorinoMore about Rubeo's bowling for dollars, and bowling alley ripoffs later.

First the $10,000 dispute. It began, according to agent Inzerillo, when the businessman, nicknamed "Judge," was "screwed out" of his winnings in a Super Bowl pool. Rubeo brought him to meet a mob associate named "Mad Dog" who agreed to collect the cash in exchange for a 25% finder's fee. But things got complicated when the businessman also sought help from Fiorino, who used his own influence to get the $10,000 the next day.

That didn't cut any ice with Mad Dog. He still wanted his $2500 finder's fee. When he threatened both Rubeo and the businessman, J.R. quickly sought Parrello's help. In the end, Mad Dog got his $2500 fee. And, according to agent Inzerillo, when Fiorino and Parrello emerged from Rigoletto's private basement session, Patsy blew his stack, and shouted nine prophetic words to Rubeo: "You cause me nothing but trouble in this place."

Liborio BellomoActually, the young hoodlum had been bringing trouble to Parrello since he was a teen. At age 14, Rubeo managed to get in hock for $2,000 to a loanshark who enlisted a crew of Albanian gangsters to collect. Even after John Rubeo Sr., 73, a longtime Genovese associate and close Parrello pal, made good on his son's debt, the gangsters were still looking to rough him up. That's when the elder Rubeo brought J.R. to Pasquale's Rigoletto to tell Patsy about it, and Parrello "subsequently squashed the threat," according to the FBI documents.

That's what cemented a bond between the two, one that lasted for 20 years, right up until the day in November of 2011 that Rubeo was nailed on drug trafficking charges and he decided to turn on Patsy to save his own skin.

As Rubeo grew up, he developed a love of both bowling and hustles. While hanging out in bowling alleys in the Bronx and nearby suburbs, where Rubeo lived, the enterprising young gangster also planned and executed some good old fashioned armed robberies, according to agent Inzerillo.

John RubeoAn ambush armed robbery is what Rubeo and two cohorts pulled off in 2010 to the same bowler-friend whose $10,000 Super Bowl pool winnings caused Parrello to utter his prophetic words about the troubles that J.R. would bring to him and his landmark Arthur Avenue eatery.

Rubeo's original plan had been to rob the bowling alley, the Paradise Lanes in Yonkers, and grab $20,000 in cash he knew the businessman was carrying that night. But instead, Rubeo alerted his ski-masked cronies when their victim left the bowling alley. They ambushed him in front of his Bronx home, pistol whipped him, and robbed his cash and his Rolex watch, according to agent Inzerillo's report.

In the end, Rubeo's partners in crime told him they got only $4000 in the robbery, and his total score that night, was $1000, according to the FBI report.

Around the time that Rubeo joined the PBA tour, he was running a card game in Yonkers and sought out Fiorino for help dealing with a gun-toting drug dealer who gambled in his club on credit, skipped out on $700 in debts he owed, and "wrecked the club one night," Inzerillo wrote.

Joseph Gorgone Jr.Fiorino wasn't much help, Rubeo told authorities.

He wasn't able to collect the $700, or any money for repairs, according to the documents. Instead, he suggested that Rubeo hire Joseph Gorgone Jr., the son of Colombo mobster Joe Black Gorgone "to work the door as security for $150 a night." That didn't work out too well either. Gorgone Jr. "ended up having a falling out with both (Rubeo) and Fiorino," wrote Inzerillo.

Fiorino did give Rubeo a pretty important lesson in life about the problems that dealing drugs can cause, one that he subsequently ignored, however, to his detriment.

That occurred when he was working at a Bronx gym owned by Fiorino and the physical fitness enthusiast and anti-drug proponent learned that he "sold five pills to a girl" who also worked at the gym and Fiorino fired him, according to FBI agent Inzerillo.

Judge Richard SullivanFiorino, a former paddleball champ, could not be reached for comment.

Not learning that lesson caused Rubeo lots of grief in late 2011. It also turned out to haunt Parrello and 45 other mob-connected defendants who were hit with racketeering conspiracy charges last August and are awaiting trial on charges that — technically, at least — can cost them 20 years behind bars.

Meanwhile, prosecutors have told Judge Richard Sullivan they plan to add more charges against some of the defendants within two months. They didn't identify the unlucky ones, or the new charges, but listed Parrello and Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino among a dozen defendants they want to prosecute in the first of four trials in the case.

Genovese capo Eugene (Rooster) O'Nofrio tops a list of 11 defendants in the second of four trials the government says it will need to prosecute all 46 defendants in the unlikely event that most, if not all, accept plea deals to resolve their charges.

Persico In Last Ditch Appeal Of Historic 100 Year Sentence

Carmine PersicoThe feds say the 100 year sentence that Carmine (Junior) Persico got in the Mafia Commission case is old news, and that he and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals should fuhgeddaboudit. But the never-say-die crime boss insists that the facts and the law are on his side, and it's high time the appeals court does the right thing about that in the historic 32-year-old case.

In a persuasive final legal brief filed last month, attorney Anthony DiPietro cited scores of FBI documents and other evidence he's unearthed in recent years, stating they show that Persico was convicted and sentenced for crimes he didn't commit. All things considered, DiPietro argued forcefully, 32 years behind bars under those circumstances is long enough for the 83-year-old Mafia chieftain.

Some of DiPietro's arguments are tough for the feds to refute, since they're based on the government's own evidence: At trial, prosecutors "proved" that Perisco was the boss of the Colombo family in 1972. They also "proved" that he had taken part in a Mafia Commission vote to whack Carmine (Lillo) Galante in 1979. But thanks to mob intelligence gathered since, we now know that's not how it happened when Galante got his at Joe And Mary's Italian Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Anthony DiPietroSince 2002, several Bonanno turncoats, including former boss Joseph Massino, have told the FBI that Galante's murder was a family affair, authorized by then-boss Philip (Rusty) Rastelli, not the Mafia Commission. Unfortunately for Persico, even though he's almost certainly right, it doesn't help his appeal. He's in the same legal jackpot that bedeviled codefendants Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and Christopher (Christy Tick) Furnari.

After the trial, it was also conclusively proven that Salerno wasn't the actual boss of the Genovese family, as the government had successfully argued. Neither was Furnari consigliere of the Luchese family. But both mobsters were unable to upset their Commission trial convictions. And Persico can't use Massino's post-trial info about Galante's murder to upset his conviction or sentence either. Legally speaking, that information is like water under the bridge, gone forever.

But attorney DiPietro argues that the government's failure to turn over so-called Brady material — information that the government possesses before trial that tends to establish innocence of defendants — to Persico that it had prior to the Commission trial denied the gangster a fair and just sentence. The lawyer has asked the Second Circuit to reverse a ruling last year by Manhattan Federal Judge Kevin Duffy that upholds Persico's 100 year prison term and to order a new sentencing for Persico.

Carmine Galante Murder SceneThat would be a mistake, argue prosecutors Matthew Podolsky and Michael Ferrara in the government's final brief. They state that Duffy correctly ruled that the government "did not breach its Brady obligations," that Persico's sentence was not "illegal," and that in any event, each claim was "time-barred," or too old for him to contest.

DiPietro counters that prior rulings by appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to say otherwise about the Brady and illegal sentence issues that Persico had raised, and arguing that Duffy's ruling on both issues last year made them, and the entire question of whether they were "time-barred," ripe for a review by the appeals court.

Duffy ruled that numerous FBI documents that placed others atop the Colombo family in the 1970s, and noted Perisco's ascension to family boss was in November 1980, more than a year after Galante was killed, were only "preliminary" and "speculative information" and not Brady material that was required to be given to Persico for trial.

Kevin DuffyDiPietro insists that "neither the law nor facts support the district court's findings" because the "Government explicitly stated" in the documents that that the information "was of high quality and from credible sources" and "also utilized the information" to obtain court approved wiretaps and bugs as well as "indictments and arrest warrants."

"Undisclosed documents" showed, the lawyer wrote, that "the FBI was receiving similarly consistent information from multiple undercover sources" that the Mafia Commission had named Thomas DiBella as "boss of the Colombo family and as a sitting member of the 'Commission'" and that "Government sources also reported to the FBI that DiBella's relinquishment of such roles was not until 1980 [after Carmine Galante had been murdered]."

Even if prosecutors truly believed that the government's information was "speculative," they still had a legal obligation under the Brady doctrine to turn it over to the defense, DiPietro wrote.

To support that argument, the lawyer quoted a 2006 Second Circuit opinion that stated: "f there were questions about the reliability of the exculpatory information, it was the prerogative of the defendant and his counsel – and not of the prosecution – to exercise judgment in determining whether the defendant should make use of it."

Mathew Mari"Overall," concluded DiPietro, "the facts and circumstances present in Mr. Persico's case warrant this Court's granting of a new sentencing proceeding, because even the strongest interest in the finality of judgments does not require the continued imprisonment of one who is actually innocent of the crimes for which he has been punished."

Or as co-counsel Mathew Mari put it yesterday: "The government's self-declared war on organized crime is over. It's time to let the last surviving prisoner of war go home to spend the rest of his days with his family. Even POWs have a right to go home."

Judge John Keenan To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Judge John KeenanCarmine (Junior) Persico probably won't applaud this, but Manhattan Federal Judge John Keenan will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award next month from the American College of Trial Lawyers. But the long-imprisoned Mafia boss can't really complain about the treatment he got from the venerable jurist at his lengthy 1985-86 racketeering trial.

Keenan did give Persico 39 years, certainly a long stretch. And he called him "a tragedy." But he didn't hit him with 59 years, as he could have. And he said some nice things to Persico when he meted out the hefty prison term, which pales by comparison to the 100 he got in the Commission case, and would have ended years ago but for his Commission trial conviction.

''You are one of the most intelligent people I have seen in my life,'' said Keenan, who had presided for eight months over the racketeering conspiracy trial of Persico, his son Alphonse, and seven other mobsters that ended with all nine defendants being convicted.

Alphonse PersicoThe judge also noted that Persico had comported himself "like a gentleman" throughout the trial, and that he had heard similar reports about his behavior at the Commission trial. The judge added that Persico "did a very good job'' as his own lawyer in that trial, which began right after the Colombo family racketeering trial had ended.

Since his appointment to the federal bench in 1983, Keenan has handled a number of headline cases, including the bribery trial of the late Miss America and NYC Cultural Commissioner, Bess Myerson, and the fraud-racketeering trial of Imelda Marcos, the widow of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Throughout his 60 plus years of public service, Keenan, who began his career in 1956 under legendary Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan, has maintained, as he stated in 1976 when he was named a special New York State anti-corruption prosecutor that "justice be done … in an ethical and professional manner."

Daniel FamaIn 2014, Keenan reminded prosecutors of that credo when he dressed them down after they finally decided to drop a fatally flawed murder charge against Gambino family associate Daniel Fama for a 1990 mob rubout that the judge had questioned from the start, and for pushing him to order Fama held without bail for eight months because they had a strong case.

Keenan chastised prosecutors for not talking to Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, the key mob turncoat witness about the murder before they charged Fama with the killing, since Gravano was not a "fellow," the judge reminded them sarcastically, who "hasn't received a lot of publicity over the years," and who was behind bars and easy for them to contact.

A Manhattan native, Keenan graduated Fordham Law School in 1954 and served two years in the Army before becoming an assistant district attorney. In 1975, he convicted former police officer William Phillips, a key witness in the Knapp Commission inquiry into police corruption, of the 1968 murders of a prostitute and her pimp in a controversial case.

Salvatore GravanoIn addition to his work for the Manhattan DA's office, and as an anti-corruption prosecutor, Keenan also served as Criminal Justice Coordinator for Mayor Ed Koch, and briefly as head of the now-defunct New York State OTB before President Reagan appointed him to the bench.

Last year, a ninth-floor courtroom at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse was named the Honorable John F. Keenan Ceremonial Courtroom in his honor.

The American College of Trial Lawyers, comprised of attorneys considered by their peers to be among the top one percent of trial lawyers across the country, will present Keenan the group's Leon A. Silverman Award, named in honor of a past president, at its spring meeting on March 22.

Thanks gangstereport. That was a good one.

What do you guys think about Persico? There may be FBI documents where sources say Tom DiBella was the boss, but their significance depends on who the sources are. A low level guy might not know that he was just acting boss while Persico was in prison. Michael Franzese says this was the case. Then again, I'm pretty sure in the Scarpa files he says DiBella was the official boss at some point. Bosses and captains were being switched around all the time according to him.

Then you've got Massino saying the Galante hit was a Bonanno family matter, which makes sense considering Galante wasn't really the boss and the shooters were Bonanno guys. But then you've got them high-fiving Gambinos afterwards outside the Ravenite.

Good read but carmine need to give it up he never going home.

They had 007 greg scarpa was telling the fbi shit since 1958. He told them he was made in 1951 became a capo under profaci was broken down by colombo but reported directly to him. Scarpa was in the know everything in brooklyn he told them gambino put dibella in charge 1974 75. Dibella inducted loads of guys like mike franses an greg jr. The feds new it but had there story set already just like fat tony was the boss.

John rubeo guy must have broke his fathers heart.

I was thinking the same thing..how many years was the kid facing when he chose to be a sound man?? He had to be doing whatever he was selling. Awful. Wonder if the old man reached out to Patsy ??

Can't believe Parello kept such dead weight around. Two thousand bucks? That's a month's rent in most of NYC. He must have felt he needed these guys around for the muscle. The restaurant itself brings in thousands per day.

This guy Rubeo was caught selling drugs. Wonder what drug and how much weight? That will give an indication of how much time he was looking at.

Mob informant against Philly boss “Skinny Joey” Merlino admits destroying evidence, ignoring deal with prosecutors

link

What drug was he selling and how much?

Coke, it was enough to began cooperating.

Cocaine. If the numbers are right, then Rubeo had more than Bobby Jr, so over three kilos if it is top quality then one key can fetch anywhere from 25,000 to 35,000 dollars. More when they go to 8 balls, but a gram on high quality can fetch a profit of 10 to 20 dollars. It is all profit if they got it directly from Columbia, which is 1500 to 2500 dollars a kilo, depending on the quality.

If Patsy was his captain he would know Rubeo was dealing right?

It should work that way, but I got the feeling Rubeo was doing it on the sneak. If so then their is his motive for flipping, not prison time, but that he got caught selling coke without clearing it first, and he was warned once before, which means he was afraid of the Genovese finding out, and would have been killed down the road.

His interview with the John and Gene show was really good.