Here is a little history on Joey Todaro III—Joseph “Big Joe†Todaro Jr’s son. It has long been said Joey Todaro III has never been involved in the rackets. However, there is evidence he was involved, at least as an associate, in the telemarketing schemes the mob ran in the city during the ‘90’s. Here is a quote from a Buffalo News article from 1993, just before Joey got married to Dana Panepinto:
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Buffalo telemarketing companies also include sons and grandsons of mobsters and others known to associate with organized crime figures:
Joseph Todaro III, the son of the man the FBI identifies as Buffalo's mob boss, Joseph Todaro Jr., was a supervisor at Logik Enterprises, at 496 Elmwood Ave., until four months ago, when the FBI raided other companies.
Here is the whole article. It is very interesting with a lot of info:
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RAIDS ON TELEMARKETING FIRMS FIND NUMEROUS TIES TO ORGANIZED CRIME
By MICHAEL BEEBE AND DAN HERBECK | Published June 27, 1993
When the FBI raided the offices of Very Impressive Products, a company affiliated with RFG Enterprises, they found evidence of what they had suspected in Buffalo's telemarketing industry -- ties to the Buffalo mob.
VIP's checking accounts were used for employee payrolls, as well as for paying the company president, Rocco F. Guadagna, and another man, Frank BiFulco, FBI agents were told.
Guadagna had been a bartender at Mulligans Cafe through the mid-1980s, living in a $41,000 two-family home in North Buffalo. Since starting his own telemarketing company in 1988, he now heads an $11 million-a-year business and lives in a $250,000 home in Clarence.
Although Guadagna never has been tied to organized crime, BiFulco is identified by the FBI as a longtime soldier in the Todaro crime family in Buffalo and one of the local mob's wealthiest members.
On a salary of about $60,000 a year as an administrator of Laborers Local 210 health and pension fund, "Butchie BiFocals," as he is known, drives a 1992 Mercedes Benz and a 1987 Jaguar, docks a cabin cruiser on the Niagara River and owns considerable real estate in Buffalo.
BiFulco, 48, has no public connection to the telemarketing business, but a number of checks made out to him from VIP, which are now in the FBI's possession, leaves investigators with the strongest link yet about the mob's involvement.
"Frank BiFulco is not an owner of the company," said Guadagna's attorney, Thomas C. D'Agostino. He refused to discuss why company checks would be made out to BiFulco, other than to say "there is absolutely nothing wrong." Yet sources said BiFulco is not the only member of organized crime in Buffalo involved in telemarketing.
Gaetano "Tommy Chooch" Miceli, 65, named by the FBI as a member of the local mob council as long ago as 1975, is associated with New Life Marketing at 1444 Hertel Ave., law enforcement sources said.
John Catanzaro, 50, is associated with the same company, these sources said. Catanzaro, a former steward for Laborers Local 210, also has been identified as a member of organized crime. He reached a plea agreement in 1989 and admitted he accepted money in a no-show scheme.
Buffalo telemarketing companies also include sons and grandsons of mobsters and others known to associate with organized crime figures:
Joseph Todaro III, the son of the man the FBI identifies as Buffalo's mob boss, Joseph Todaro Jr., was a supervisor at Logik Enterprises, at 496 Elmwood Ave., until four months ago, when the FBI raided other companies.
"He does not hold a position nor does he hold any ownership interest in Logik Enterprises," said Robert L. Boreanaz, Logik's attorney.
Frank Tripi, whose father was acquitted of murder and mob-related gambling charges, is listed in state records as Logik's president.
BiFulco's 15-year-old stepson, Carmen Gallo, a Lafayette High School student who was killed by drug dealers last month, was a salesman at Logik. After his killing, Logik employees flooded the East Side with their business cards and offers of a $20,000 reward in the slaying.
Samuel Amoia Jr., the grandson of former Buffalo mob boss Sam Pieri, is secretary-treasurer of LoMoia Enterprises at 1300 Hertel Ave. Amoia served a prison term for dealing cocaine in 1988. His brother Joseph faces cocaine charges in Las Vegas.
Michael A. Muscarella, the president of New Life Marketing, has been arrested for gambling. Muscarella is best known as the owner of the vehicle that police say was used as a getaway car in the 1978 shooting of mobster Billy Sciolino.
Joseph Mosey Jr., described by Buffalo police as an associate of organized crime figures, was one of the city's first telemarketers and was accused of defrauding customers in New York, California and Vermont through his Allied Publishers Services. Police say he has tutored many of Buffalo's younger telemarketers. Mosey formerly owned Bison Chrysler-Plymouth with Robert Sciolino, Billy Sciolino's brother.
Larry Panaro, vice president of North American Enterprises, at 3673 Delaware Ave., faces trial in Las Vegas on money laundering charges. His cousin, Victor, is serving a life sentence on drug and murder convictions. Las Vegas police said Larry Panaro boasted that he had family connections to the Buffalo mob.
Steve Sacco, a principal in Promotions Unlimited, is the son of former Buffalo police officer Richard Sacco and nephew of the late John Sacco, a mob associate who was briefly an FBI informant against the mob. Steve Sacco was arrested for burglary and drug possession in Las Vegas in 1989 while he was making more than $70,000 a year in telemarketing. He paid a $990 fine. Sacco's father, Richard, was dropped from the Police Department after the FBI recorded him telling his brother John the best ways to perform a contract killing.
Vincent Spano is the manager of North American Enterprises. Spano is a convicted gambler who has been linked to the mob by the FBI. The federal government seized the Washington Square restaurant, owned by Spano's father-in-law, because it was used for gambling.
Copied this from what I posted on the Buffalino thread. Might do this with some other posts I posted on that thread that are related to the history of the Buffalo Crime. family.
A little more on Joey... It seems the feds were interested in possible mobsters on his guest list. I'd like to know who they were. I've heard, but have no proof, that the Musitano's and the Papalia's/Violi's were there from other mob bulletin boards. Here is more info about the wedding from an article titled OFF MAIN STREET, written in September 1993 in the Buffalo News by a staff writer:
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Undercover wedding guests
Did Madonna really turn up at the Labor Day wedding reception of Buffalo restaurateur Joseph Todaro III and Dana Christine Panepinto, former captain of the Buffalo Jills?
No, but a lively Madonna look-alike, part of a troupe of entertainers from New York City, was among the main attractions at the gala reception at Samuel's Grande Manor in Clarence, following a ceremony at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Amherst.
"It was like a Vegas sideshow, fantastic entertainment," said one guest of the reception.
"It was great, a beautiful wedding. I thought at first she was the real Madonna," said one guest.
The guest list reportedly topped 900, including some government officials, prominent attorneys and priests, but not counting security guards, who were there carrying radios.
The Buffalo FBI office has been taking an interest in the guest list for months because Todaro III is the son of Joseph Todaro Jr. and grandson of Joseph Todaro Sr.. The two elder Todaros have long been alleged by authorities -- but never proven in any courtroom -- to be leaders of Buffalo's Mafia family.
"It was a very tasteful ceremony and a fun reception," said one Buffalo businessman who was there. "No Godfather stuff, nothing heavy-handed. The centerpieces of the wedding were the bride and groom, which is exactly the way it should be. I believe the FBI had agents out there taking license plate numbers, but I didn't see them."
When asked if agents were there, Buffalo FBI spokesman Paul Moskal said he could not comment.
