They carried interesting mob nicknames like “Frankie the Fixer” and “Ralphie Head” and were part of the gang dubbed Delco Nostra, but their cases ended quietly with pleas, including one entered Nov. 20 by 43-year-old Louis “Bent Finger Louie” Monacello.

Wednesday, Monacello of South Philadelphia, said to be a Philly mob enforcer, quietly answered, “Yes,” to questions posed by Judge Frank T. Hazel. The defendant admitted guilt to charges of conspiracy corrupt organization and conspiracy to commit perjury.

Monacello was one of more than a dozen people arrested in 2008, most of whom have entered pleas for their participation involving a bookmaking ring as part of Delco Nostra — which authorities said was a lucrative organization operating in southeastern Pennsylvania.

When asked by Hazel if he was admitting what the commonwealth said he did, the defendant answered, “Yes, I do.”

He was among those charged after a five-year Pennsylvania State Police probe ranging from corrupt organization to money laundering.

Monacello admitted he conspired in a “pattern of racketeering activity” between 2002 and February 2008 in what authorities said involved illegal activity encompassing Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

As part of the plea agreement worked out by Chief Deputy State Attorney General Eric Olsen and Philadelphia defense attorney Robert Mozenter and approved by Hazel, Monacello will serve 11-and-a-half to 23 months in Delaware County’s prison.

His term will begin 10 a.m. Jan. 5

Nicholas “Nicky the Hat” Cimino, 49, of Wallingford, the reputed leader of the lucrative bookmaking ring, also entered a guilty plea last February and he was likewise sentenced to an 11-and-a-half- to 23-month sentence.

During the investigation, a state grand jury linked Cimino with the Philadelphia mob, citing his close association with Monacello. The grand jury report alleged that Cimino paid Monacello, an alleged associate and enforcer for the Philadelphia crime family, a regular sum of money every month as a “tax” on his illegal casino in Ridley operated in the rear of a building in the 400 block of MacDade Boulevard.

Mozenter said Monacello operated a trade school and a bar but has lost his businesses and was forced into bankruptcy. He said Monacello is now employed in the construction trade.

Under the terms of the plea, Monacello will be eligible for work release.

The defendant said, “No,” when asked by Hazel if he had any comment.

The conspiracy to commit perjury at the time involved Philadelphia attorney Gregory Quigley, 37, who pleaded guilty last year for his part in the plan.

Olsen had said that Quigley conspired with Monacello to have a witness lie to the grand jury.

That witness, Frankie “The Fixer” DiGiacomo, didn’t carry through with the purported plan to lie, according to authorities. During a preliminary hearing in November for Monacello, authorities said DiGiacomo was among three witnesses ready to take the stand for the prosecution had Monacello gone forward with the hearing instead of waiving the proceedings.

Quigley, 37, of Philadelphia, entered a plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit perjury and was sentenced to five years probation and fined $5,000.

Monacello was scheduled to stand trial Monday, but he — as did the others before him — apparently decided not to gamble on those proceedings and agreed to the plea deal.

Source: delcotimes

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Merlino and his mother are seeking a license that would permit their company, Bayshore Rebar of Pleasantville, to work in the Atlantic City casino industry.

Merlino’s father, Lawrence “Yogi” Merlino, and his cousin, Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, were mobsters, he admits. But Joseph N. Merlino claims Bayshore is free of any mob influence and is unrelated to his father, who died in 2001 while in the witness protection program.

Ronald Chance, who investigated mob ties to the construction industry in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of Labor, said Bayshore was founded and run by the elder Merlino.

“Larry Merlino created Bayshore,” Chance said. “Bayshore was the minority company of Larry Merlino.”

Chance said Merlino listed his wife as the owner to get around requirements that a portion of some contracts be awarded to companies owned by women or minorities, and had his son on the payroll as well.

He testified during a hearing of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that Phyllis Merlino and the younger Joseph Merlino were listed as company officers, but Lawrence Merlino was the real boss in the mid-1980s.

That testimony is important because it contradicts the Merlinos’ claim of how Bayshore was founded — as a legitimate company free of any mob taint or influence from Lawrence Merlino.

The Merlinos’ lawyer, John Donnelly, flatly denied Chance’s testimony.

“He’s absolutely, unequivocally dead wrong,” Donnelly said. “It’s already found to have been untrue by the Casino Control Commission.”

Chance testified his agency began investigating Lawrence Merlino in the 1980s after an ironworker whose wife had just given birth was hit with a $4,300 hospital bill. The worker went to his union to ask why the hospital said he had no insurance coverage and was told to see a higher-up in the union, who in turn referred him to see “the boss,” Lawrence Merlino, Chance testified.

Confronting him at a work site in Atlantic City, Merlino grabbed the worker by the throat, told him to open his mouth, stuck a gun inside it and promised he would kill the worker if he ever saw him again, Chance testified.

An investigation determined that Merlino’s main company, Nat-Nat, had not been making required payments to a union benefits fund, Chance testified.

The hearing is due to resume Friday.

Source: courierpostonline

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As Fox 29’s Dave Schratwieser and the Inquirer’s George Anastasia report, there are a few surprises in the details.

Source: myfoxphilly

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For nearly 20 months, investigators say, Jack Buscemi Jr., 51, and Andrew Micali, 33, turned the high-stakes poker lounge of the Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa into their cash cow, walking away with an estimated $2 million in winnings.

Problem was, their game wasn’t poker. It was bookmaking. Illegal sports betting.

Yesterday, the two cashed out.

Buscemi and Micali each were sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Michael Donio, who called their operation “highly organized” and extremely profitable.

Authorities say the bookmaking ring, which included wire rooms in Philadelphia and ties to computerized offshore betting establishments, generated about $60 million in wagers during a 20-month period that began in 2006.

Investigators with the New Jersey State Police also allege that Buscemi, Micali, and several of their associates engaged in loan-sharking and money-laundering. The operation produced about $2 million in profits for the two lead defendants, officials said.

Buscemi, Micali, and about 20 others were arrested in November 2007 after a two-year investigation by the state police, dubbed Operation High Roller.

Authorities say the ring had ties to organized crime, but Donio said yesterday that he did not find that in the evidence provided by the Attorney General’s Office.

“This type of gambling activity is, in my view, simply a crime of greed,” Donio said.

The judge said that leadership roles played by Buscemi and Micali warranted the maximum prison sentences he imposed.

One reputed mob figure, suspected hitman Anthony Nicodemo, 37, of South Philadelphia, was charged in the investigation. He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to conspiracy.

While the judge may not have adopted the view of state investigators who said the operation was mob-linked, he did endorse their description of the gambling ring as highly organized, extremely lucrative, and audacious.

The case was built around wiretaps, video surveillance, and informant testimony.

Much of it focused on Micali, who allegedly ran the day-to-day operations in the poker lounge.

A former South Philadelphia resident who now lives in Ventnor, Micali literally set up shop there, authorities said.

He would sit at a poker table with stacks of money – chips and cash – in front of him and use a laptop to track games and betting lines.

Video-surveillance cameras, they said, followed him as he settled up with gamblers who had won or lost. Micali also maintained a safety deposit box in the casino where he kept cash, they said.

Neither Buscemi, of Mullica Hill, nor Micali was questioned about the operation yesterday. Both entered guilty pleas several months ago.

Buscemi, described by authorities as one of the biggest bookmakers in the Philadelphia area, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money-laundering. He was charged with being the leader of the gambling operation.

Micali, who pleaded guilty to loan-sharking, was accused of managing the enterprise.

Buscemi also was ordered to pay slightly more than $50,000 in fines and forfeitures. The forfeitures included a 2002 Chrysler automobile seized during the investigation.

Micali was assessed $125,000 in fines and forfeitures.

Each was led away in handcuffs to begin serving his sentence in state prison.

Officials with the Borgata cooperated in the investigation, in which two former casino workers were also charged.

In comments before he was sentenced, Micali asked the judge for leniency for his codefendants, who he said were friends and, in some cases, like family to him.

He did not plead for leniency in his own case.

“My mom always said that if you do something wrong, you have to deal with the consequences,” he said, his voice cracking. “Today I’m here to deal with the consequences.”

Micali’s mother and girlfriend were among those arrested when the case broke. Charges against them have been substantially downgraded.

Six minor defendants were sentenced to probation by Donio during a series of related hearings in his third-floor courtroom. All pleaded guilty to promoting gambling and were placed on three years’ probation.

Those sentenced were Matthew Zambanini, 29, of Hockessin, Del., and William DePena, 40, John Findlay, 32, Dominic Grande, 29, and brothers Joseph Baldino Jr., 25, and Frank Baldino, 22, all of Philadelphia.

Frank Baldino was also sentenced to 150 hours of community service.

The others were sentenced to from 90 to 270 days in the Atlantic County Jail, but can work off the time by periodically reporting for a jail-run community work program as long as they maintain permanent employment.

The judge also imposed fines ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 on those defendants.

To date, 13 defendants in the case have been sentenced. Five others are awaiting sentencing.

philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20090228_Two_men_get_prison_in_A_C__gambling_ring.html

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