His last name is Blagojevich but his first name is Robert. He's the older brother of the embattled Illinois governor.
Who is Robert Blagojevich and why was the FBI listening to his cell phone calls?
Robert Blagojevich has been his 'brother's keeper' since last August or at least the keeper of his brother's multi-million dollar campaign fund, a political fund that Robert Blagojevich's lawyer says is likely to be indicted before it's all over.
The I-Team found that one of the most puzzling questions about the governor's brother concerns someone else's campaign fund.
On election night 2002, when Rod Blagojevich watched the returns roll in and won his first term as Illinois governor, brother Robert was there with him. But at the same time, according to state election records, Robert's financial services firm had an interest in another Illinois elected official, Betty Loren Maltese.
Maltese is the controversial and now imprisoned mayor of Cicero.
For more than two years, Maltese' bulging campaign fund had invested millions of dollars through a company headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the firm Invest Financial Corporation. Its CEO at the time was Robert Blagojevich, the governor's older brother.
State records show that between July of 2000 and September of 2002, Robert Blagojevich's company paid Maltese' campaign fund nearly $3.3 million. The dozens of entries are listed as investment dividends, interest and proceeds from the sale of U.S. Treasury bills.
Some of the investment payments from Robert Blagojevich's company occurred even after Mayor Maltese was convicted of swindling $12 million from the town through an insurance firm.
Lawyer Michael Ettinger, who represents the governor's brother in the current federal investigation, was unaware of the link to Betty Loren Maltese.
On Wednesday at the I-Team's request, Ettinger had Robert Blagojevich review the state records and Blagojevich reported that "he knows nothing about it" and that the investments must have been made by some other affiliated bank even though his was listed 41 times.
Since taking over as chairman of his brother's campaign fund, Robert Blagojevich has been paid $12,500 a month.
The FBI listened to as many as 50 phone calls between Robert, his brother the governor and others. Many of the calls were from Nashville, Tennessee where Robert Blagojevich lives in a stately colonial. The former U.S. Army commander is a real estate developer there, and a key fundraiser and board member for the YMCA.
"Selfless person, doesn't want recognition. Actually would rather not have it," said Michael Check, Nashville YMCA. But when federal authorities charged the governor last month, his brother was "fundraiser a" in the criminal complaint. In one conversation the governor allegedly told his brother that he wanted to collect cash upfront for the appointment to Barack Obama's Senate seat.
It was just a few months earlier, in May, that Robert Blagojevich gave the commencement speech at his alma mater, University of Tampa.
Oddly, even though his brother the governor also attended University of Tampa, Robert did not once utter his brother's name during the speech.
As for the Betty Loren Maltese financial affair, there are Blagojevich family ties to the crooked mayor of Cicero.
Governor Blagojevich and ex-mayor Maltese have one friend in common: Eddie Vrdolyak, the former Chicago alderman and longtime village attorney in Cicero. Gov. Blagojevich's first job was as a clerk in Vrdolyak's law firm and it was a relationship that rekindled when Blagojevich was elected governor. Vyrdolyak himself is now headed to federal prison for a kickback scheme involving one of the governor's top appointees.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
Sunday, January 25, 2009
FRONTLINE/WORLD TELLS THE INSIDE STORY OF AN ANTI-MAFIA MOVEMENT IN ITALY
Near the start of this episode of the PBS international newsmagazine FRONTLINE/World, Vincenzo Conticello, a restaurant owner in Palermo, Sicily, describes his first run-in with the Mafia: “A man I had never seen before asked to meet with me and said: ‘I’m your tax collector. ... Pay me $800 a month, and you’ll have no more problems.’” Conticello continues: “I looked at him. I felt an intense fear. Still to this day, when I think about it, my heart drops. I lost my breath. The Mafia was right there in front of me.” The surprising tale of what happened next to Conticello would open a new chapter in the region’s long history of Mafia dominance and provide the dramatic spine of a story that would resonate through Italy. “I realized that it wasn't just my personal battle,” Conticello tells FRONTLINE/World. “It was the battle of an entire city.”
In Taking on the Mafia, airing Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE/World producer and reporter Carola Mamberto tells the inside story of how the restaurant owner—backed by an upstart anti-Mafia movement of young people and an elite anti-Mafia law enforcement team—combined for a rare victory in the nation’s uphill battle against mob bosses who have kept the country in their grip for decades.
“The Mafia feeds itself as if it were Dracula, this vampire that bites into people and sucks the economy,” says Lirio Abbate, whose controversial recent exposé on the Mafia led to an attempt on his life. “Shop owners and businessmen are scared, and so they pay and don’t report it. Some are so terrified that they’ll deny it in court, even if they are caught on film.”
To catch mafiosi in the act and to persuade their extortion victims to cooperate, the police have undertaken an extensive surveillance effort. In the case of Conticello’s restaurant, the police cameras rolled as one mobster after another entered the restaurant to get him to pay the extortion which locals call “the pizzo.” “In Palermo, 80 percent of businesses pay the pizzo,” one of Sicily’s top anti-Mafia cops, Jacopo Mannucci, tells FRONTLINE/World. “Even market stands pay protection. They pay $80 to $150. For larger companies, the payments can be thousands of dollars, up to $15,000 per month.”
Paying the pizzo to the Mafia has been a pillar of Mafia power for decades, but after a series of high-profile Mafia murders in Palermo, an anti-Mafia spirit began to grow among the city’s next generation, among them two young people considering opening a pub who instead started a protest movement after they realized they’d be forced to give a larger part of their profits to the mob. “Why [did we decide] to focus on the pizzo rather than drugs, weapons or other shady deals?” Laura Nocilla and Raffaele Genova, the founders of the Goodbye Pizzo movement, tell FRONTLINE/World. “Because we immediately realized that it was the tool for the Mafia to create a culture that accepts their control of the territory. If you take that away, everything else the Mafia does will collapse.”
Ultimately in this story, members of the Goodbye Pizzo movement—young people, shop owners and even some members of the Palermo establishment—pack a Palermo courtroom as the restaurant owner Conticello faces his moment of truth and points a finger at one of the men who had tried to shake him down, leading to some rare Mafia prosecutions. “What I have made is a small opening, a small hole,” Conticello says. “We have to hammer every day so that it becomes bigger, and we can advance in this ongoing war.”
In Taking on the Mafia, airing Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE/World producer and reporter Carola Mamberto tells the inside story of how the restaurant owner—backed by an upstart anti-Mafia movement of young people and an elite anti-Mafia law enforcement team—combined for a rare victory in the nation’s uphill battle against mob bosses who have kept the country in their grip for decades.
“The Mafia feeds itself as if it were Dracula, this vampire that bites into people and sucks the economy,” says Lirio Abbate, whose controversial recent exposé on the Mafia led to an attempt on his life. “Shop owners and businessmen are scared, and so they pay and don’t report it. Some are so terrified that they’ll deny it in court, even if they are caught on film.”
To catch mafiosi in the act and to persuade their extortion victims to cooperate, the police have undertaken an extensive surveillance effort. In the case of Conticello’s restaurant, the police cameras rolled as one mobster after another entered the restaurant to get him to pay the extortion which locals call “the pizzo.” “In Palermo, 80 percent of businesses pay the pizzo,” one of Sicily’s top anti-Mafia cops, Jacopo Mannucci, tells FRONTLINE/World. “Even market stands pay protection. They pay $80 to $150. For larger companies, the payments can be thousands of dollars, up to $15,000 per month.”
Paying the pizzo to the Mafia has been a pillar of Mafia power for decades, but after a series of high-profile Mafia murders in Palermo, an anti-Mafia spirit began to grow among the city’s next generation, among them two young people considering opening a pub who instead started a protest movement after they realized they’d be forced to give a larger part of their profits to the mob. “Why [did we decide] to focus on the pizzo rather than drugs, weapons or other shady deals?” Laura Nocilla and Raffaele Genova, the founders of the Goodbye Pizzo movement, tell FRONTLINE/World. “Because we immediately realized that it was the tool for the Mafia to create a culture that accepts their control of the territory. If you take that away, everything else the Mafia does will collapse.”
Ultimately in this story, members of the Goodbye Pizzo movement—young people, shop owners and even some members of the Palermo establishment—pack a Palermo courtroom as the restaurant owner Conticello faces his moment of truth and points a finger at one of the men who had tried to shake him down, leading to some rare Mafia prosecutions. “What I have made is a small opening, a small hole,” Conticello says. “We have to hammer every day so that it becomes bigger, and we can advance in this ongoing war.”
Underworld Histories 2: Chicago
IF YOU were an underworld mobster would you really like the nickname "The Clown", or "The German" – or what about "Mad Sam"?
Then there's "Joe Batters" – sounds like someone who works at a fish and chip shop, doesn't it?
But they are all real-life and real scary members of Chicago's underworld: Joey "The Clown" Lombardo (also known as Lumpy), Frank "The German" Schweihs and Samuele "Mad Sam" DeStefano.
Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo (also known as Big Tuna) was the chief executive of the Chicago Outfit, that city's notorious crime gang founded by none other than Al Capone. According to this doco, Accardo earned the Joe Batters moniker because of "his talent of breaking skulls with a baseball bat".
Underworld Histories 2: Chicago is littered with such marvellously rich quotes which could be discarded as the stuff of comic book gratuitousness if it weren't recorded fact.
Like this quote from a former mob member about an associate who was being tortured with an ice pick: "Billy wouldn't come up with anything, so finally they stuck his head in a vice and they started tightening until . . ."
(OK, look away now, or up to the ceiling, like the camera does in Reservoir Dogs when they're ripping that guy's ear off, because I'm about to give you the end of this quote and it's a bit squeamy. So skip to the next paragraph if you need.)
". . . until his eyeball popped out. Then they cut his throat."
Eeee-yuk. Horrible, horrible stuff . . . but you just have to watch it somehow – like a train wreck. Or like when I saw Huey Lewis from the '80s band Huey Lewis And The News playing the part of celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago on Broadway a few years back.
He was awful . . . eye-poppingly awful. It was a wonder a Chicago mobster on vacation in New York didn't open his violin case and rat-a-tat-tat him right there on stage. But back to America's "second city".
Underworld Histories 2: Chicago details the rise and fall of the Outfit from the Prohibition days of the 1920s through to the wild and wicked '60s and '70s and touches on how the city now copes with its bloody heritage, saying law enforcement agencies now have the upper hand on mobsters.
"For the people of Chicago," the narrator (who's Rory O'Shea, by the way, but who really sounds like he's channelling Phil Hartman's Simpsons character Troy McClure) says, "organised crime is the history and the foundation of the city."
The underworld of Chicago was just that. The city is located on the banks of Lake Michigan and in the mid 19th century much of it was built on stilts to avoid flooding. The bullets and bashings went on in the gloomy shadows around those stilts. But there were a few light moments in the history of the Outfit – the classic being Mad Sam DeStefano.
There's some great footage of him arriving for a pre-trial in the mid-1960s.
He's carried into court on a stretcher and he's rambling incoherently through a bullhorn to the crowds outside.
It looks like a scene from Get Smart. But once again, there is a seriousness behind all this.
DeStefano was convicted of rape and sentenced to three years' imprisonment when he was just 18. He was known as Mad Sam for his sadistic torture methods and the way he'd froth at the mouth and laugh uncontrollably when being interviewed by police.
Considered by some to be a devil worshipper, he also built his own sound-proof torture chamber in his basement.
If ever Heath Ledger had needed an archetype for The Joker, then this was the guy.
Actually, come to think of it, Huey Lewis doesn't look too horrendous against these mobsters. Now that's scary.
Thanks to Geoff Shearer
Then there's "Joe Batters" – sounds like someone who works at a fish and chip shop, doesn't it?
But they are all real-life and real scary members of Chicago's underworld: Joey "The Clown" Lombardo (also known as Lumpy), Frank "The German" Schweihs and Samuele "Mad Sam" DeStefano.
Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo (also known as Big Tuna) was the chief executive of the Chicago Outfit, that city's notorious crime gang founded by none other than Al Capone. According to this doco, Accardo earned the Joe Batters moniker because of "his talent of breaking skulls with a baseball bat".
Underworld Histories 2: Chicago is littered with such marvellously rich quotes which could be discarded as the stuff of comic book gratuitousness if it weren't recorded fact.
Like this quote from a former mob member about an associate who was being tortured with an ice pick: "Billy wouldn't come up with anything, so finally they stuck his head in a vice and they started tightening until . . ."
(OK, look away now, or up to the ceiling, like the camera does in Reservoir Dogs when they're ripping that guy's ear off, because I'm about to give you the end of this quote and it's a bit squeamy. So skip to the next paragraph if you need.)
". . . until his eyeball popped out. Then they cut his throat."
Eeee-yuk. Horrible, horrible stuff . . . but you just have to watch it somehow – like a train wreck. Or like when I saw Huey Lewis from the '80s band Huey Lewis And The News playing the part of celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago on Broadway a few years back.
He was awful . . . eye-poppingly awful. It was a wonder a Chicago mobster on vacation in New York didn't open his violin case and rat-a-tat-tat him right there on stage. But back to America's "second city".
Underworld Histories 2: Chicago details the rise and fall of the Outfit from the Prohibition days of the 1920s through to the wild and wicked '60s and '70s and touches on how the city now copes with its bloody heritage, saying law enforcement agencies now have the upper hand on mobsters.
"For the people of Chicago," the narrator (who's Rory O'Shea, by the way, but who really sounds like he's channelling Phil Hartman's Simpsons character Troy McClure) says, "organised crime is the history and the foundation of the city."
The underworld of Chicago was just that. The city is located on the banks of Lake Michigan and in the mid 19th century much of it was built on stilts to avoid flooding. The bullets and bashings went on in the gloomy shadows around those stilts. But there were a few light moments in the history of the Outfit – the classic being Mad Sam DeStefano.
There's some great footage of him arriving for a pre-trial in the mid-1960s.
He's carried into court on a stretcher and he's rambling incoherently through a bullhorn to the crowds outside.
It looks like a scene from Get Smart. But once again, there is a seriousness behind all this.
DeStefano was convicted of rape and sentenced to three years' imprisonment when he was just 18. He was known as Mad Sam for his sadistic torture methods and the way he'd froth at the mouth and laugh uncontrollably when being interviewed by police.
Considered by some to be a devil worshipper, he also built his own sound-proof torture chamber in his basement.
If ever Heath Ledger had needed an archetype for The Joker, then this was the guy.
Actually, come to think of it, Huey Lewis doesn't look too horrendous against these mobsters. Now that's scary.
Thanks to Geoff Shearer
Friday, January 23, 2009
$5,000 Reward Offered for Capture of Chicago Gangster
Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is asking for the public's help in locating GILBERTO VARGAS, age 31, whose last known address was 6134 North Kedzie in Chicago. VARGAS has been the subject of a nationwide manhunt, coordinated by Chicago FBI's Joint Task Force on Gangs (JTFG), since October of 2008 when he was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago with violation of federal drug laws.
VARGAS is alleged to be a member of the Spanish Cobras street gang and is believed responsible for overseeing the distribution of crack cocaine at various locations throughout the City of Chicago. VARGAS was among 30 suspected gang members and associates who were charged in October of 2008 as the result of an investigation code named "Operation Snake Charmer". VARGAS is one of only two defendants from this investigation, who is still at large.
VARGAS is described as a Hispanic/male, 31 years of age, 6'2" tall, medium build, weighing approximately 180 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes and slight facial hair. He is also known to use the street name of "Twin" as he has a twin brother with the same name, Gilberto Vargas. VARGAS has the letters "MOB" tattooed on his left arm and the phrase "Trust no nigga, Love no bitch" tattooed on his stomach.
In appealing to the public for help in locating VARGAS, Mr. Grant announced that a reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to his location and arrest. Anyone recognizing VARGAS or having any information as to his current whereabouts is asked to call the Chicago FBI at (312) 421-6700.
VARGAS has an extensive criminal record, including charges for crimes of violence, and as such should be considered "Armed and Dangerous".
The Chicago FBI's Joint Task Force on Gangs is comprised of FBI Special Agents and Detectives from the CPD, Gang Crimes Unit.
The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
VARGAS is alleged to be a member of the Spanish Cobras street gang and is believed responsible for overseeing the distribution of crack cocaine at various locations throughout the City of Chicago. VARGAS was among 30 suspected gang members and associates who were charged in October of 2008 as the result of an investigation code named "Operation Snake Charmer". VARGAS is one of only two defendants from this investigation, who is still at large.
VARGAS is described as a Hispanic/male, 31 years of age, 6'2" tall, medium build, weighing approximately 180 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes and slight facial hair. He is also known to use the street name of "Twin" as he has a twin brother with the same name, Gilberto Vargas. VARGAS has the letters "MOB" tattooed on his left arm and the phrase "Trust no nigga, Love no bitch" tattooed on his stomach.
In appealing to the public for help in locating VARGAS, Mr. Grant announced that a reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to his location and arrest. Anyone recognizing VARGAS or having any information as to his current whereabouts is asked to call the Chicago FBI at (312) 421-6700.
VARGAS has an extensive criminal record, including charges for crimes of violence, and as such should be considered "Armed and Dangerous".
The Chicago FBI's Joint Task Force on Gangs is comprised of FBI Special Agents and Detectives from the CPD, Gang Crimes Unit.
The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Upper Level Black Mafia Gangster Pursued by U.S. Marshals on America's Most Wanted
Paul Buford: Deputy U.S. Marshals in Detroit say they're hot on the trail of an elusive gang member, wanted for his role in the upper echelon of the Black Mafia Family criminal organization. Paul Buford has a long, violent criminal past, and he's the only fugitive not yet captured as a result of the DEA's first wave of national BMF arrests.
Darryl Crenshaw: Deputy U.S. Marshals say accused Connecticut girlfriend-killer Darryl Crenshaw slipped into Mexico to escape from authorities. But an AMW tipster remembered seeing that familiar face in a Mexican jail -- and helped take Crenshaw down.
Marjan Rroku: When two teenage Albanian sisters met Marjan Rroku at a Bible study group, they thought he was a great guy. But five years later, he had taken the life of one sister and sent the other fleeing to the US. After a close encounter on a Washington D.C. Metro train, police fear the killer is in pursuit again.
Jose Sastre-Cintron: Police say when a man known as Jose Sastre-Cintron proudly flashed his gun at a house party in Harrisonburg, Va., people knew there'd be trouble. But no one could have guessed just how much: before the melee was through, cops say Sastre-Cintron would shoot an 18-year-old girl, steal a car, and disappear into the night.
Greg Adrian: Cops in the City Of Angels are on the lookout for a father accused of physically and sexually abusing his own 12-year-old daughter in November of 2007. When Adrian's daughter blew the whistle on his latest string of abuse, police say he fled to Vegas. Now, Los Angeles detectives believe that Adrian is in the north Las Vegas area and could be traveling in a 1990's, red, 4-door Honda sedan.
Danny Williams: Cops say that Danny Williams shot two unarmed men after a neighborhood barbecue. Now, police need your help to get this armed and dangerous thug off the streets.
Unknown Sandra Brady Killer: It was one of New Mexico's most mysterious unsolved Jane Doe cases: a pair of hikers found a murder victim, buried in a shallow grave in the unforgiving desert. But when AMW brought you the story two weeks ago, a tipster called our hotline and helped cops crack the case. The "Boots" Jane Doe now has a name: Sandra Jean Brady.
Robert Fisher: Cops in Scottsdale, Ariz. say Robert Fisher murdered his entire family and blew up their home to cover his tracks. Police are working a few promising leads and they're re-analyzing some of the physical evidence recovered from Fisher's abandoned getaway to get a better DNA profile.
Unknown Phillip Washington Killer: Dallas money courier Phillip Washington, 50, was brutally killed while he made his last stop of the night a year ago, and his tragic death was caught on surveillance tape. Now, one of his old friends -- a prominent local journalist -- has come to AMW.com to get his family some justice.
Cameron Pitre: According to cops, Cameron Pitre murdered his ex-girlfriend on Nov. 23, 2008. Police say Pitre had become increasingly hostile, and Ashley Hardey, his ex-girlfriend, was very cautious in his company. Despite her wariness, Ashley was murdered when police say Pitre forced his way into Ashley's home and shot her multiple times.
Darryl Crenshaw: Deputy U.S. Marshals say accused Connecticut girlfriend-killer Darryl Crenshaw slipped into Mexico to escape from authorities. But an AMW tipster remembered seeing that familiar face in a Mexican jail -- and helped take Crenshaw down.
Marjan Rroku: When two teenage Albanian sisters met Marjan Rroku at a Bible study group, they thought he was a great guy. But five years later, he had taken the life of one sister and sent the other fleeing to the US. After a close encounter on a Washington D.C. Metro train, police fear the killer is in pursuit again.
Jose Sastre-Cintron: Police say when a man known as Jose Sastre-Cintron proudly flashed his gun at a house party in Harrisonburg, Va., people knew there'd be trouble. But no one could have guessed just how much: before the melee was through, cops say Sastre-Cintron would shoot an 18-year-old girl, steal a car, and disappear into the night.
Greg Adrian: Cops in the City Of Angels are on the lookout for a father accused of physically and sexually abusing his own 12-year-old daughter in November of 2007. When Adrian's daughter blew the whistle on his latest string of abuse, police say he fled to Vegas. Now, Los Angeles detectives believe that Adrian is in the north Las Vegas area and could be traveling in a 1990's, red, 4-door Honda sedan.
Danny Williams: Cops say that Danny Williams shot two unarmed men after a neighborhood barbecue. Now, police need your help to get this armed and dangerous thug off the streets.
Unknown Sandra Brady Killer: It was one of New Mexico's most mysterious unsolved Jane Doe cases: a pair of hikers found a murder victim, buried in a shallow grave in the unforgiving desert. But when AMW brought you the story two weeks ago, a tipster called our hotline and helped cops crack the case. The "Boots" Jane Doe now has a name: Sandra Jean Brady.
Robert Fisher: Cops in Scottsdale, Ariz. say Robert Fisher murdered his entire family and blew up their home to cover his tracks. Police are working a few promising leads and they're re-analyzing some of the physical evidence recovered from Fisher's abandoned getaway to get a better DNA profile.
Unknown Phillip Washington Killer: Dallas money courier Phillip Washington, 50, was brutally killed while he made his last stop of the night a year ago, and his tragic death was caught on surveillance tape. Now, one of his old friends -- a prominent local journalist -- has come to AMW.com to get his family some justice.
Cameron Pitre: According to cops, Cameron Pitre murdered his ex-girlfriend on Nov. 23, 2008. Police say Pitre had become increasingly hostile, and Ashley Hardey, his ex-girlfriend, was very cautious in his company. Despite her wariness, Ashley was murdered when police say Pitre forced his way into Ashley's home and shot her multiple times.
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