The Annual National Firearms Law Seminar will be held on Friday, May 20, 2016 as part of the NRA Annual Meetings. The gold standard in firearms law classes, this day-long seminar provides legal instruction for attorneys and all others interested in Second Amendment law. CLE credit for all states is available.
Topics will include: current constitutional challenges across the country, how to best analyze and bring constitutional cases, executive orders and dangers from the administrative agencies (including the VA and Social Security Administration gun grabs), FFL compliance issues and ATF’s new guidance on who is a "firearms dealer," firearms instructor liability, preemption cases across the country, rights restoration, and gun trusts after 41F. The special luncheon speaker will be LtCol. Oliver North, who will give us his thoughts on arming our military personnel on U.S. soil.
Registration for attorneys is only $245 and $150 for non-attorneys through April 29th. Special pricing is available for active-duty military and police and current law students. Tuition includes the course, study materials, continental breakfast, luncheon, and meet & greet reception.
Seating will be limited. For more information and to register, please visit the Seminar website at http://lawseminar.nrafoundation.org/ or call 1-877-NRF-LAWS.
Saturday, April 02, 2016
Friday, April 01, 2016
In Capone's Shadow: Former Teacher Writes Book on Frank Nitti
Book Review of "After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer"" Nitti""" by Mars Eghigian reviewed by Wally Spiers
Even the title of Mars Eghigian Jr.'s new book reflects the fact that Frank Nitti has always been in the shadow of the flamboyant Al Capone.
"After Capone. The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank (the Enforcer) Nitti
," (437 pages, 75 pages of notes, Cumberland House Publishing Inc.) tells the story of the quieter Nitti who ran the Chicago Mob for more than a decade after Capone built the organization from bootlegging liquor.
The book offers insight to gangland events of the time in Chicago and other connected cities -- not just what happened but also why it happened. It tells of the transformation of the mob from Prohibition busters to gambling and protection racketeering.
Nitti actually was named Francesco Raffele Nitto when he was born in Italy. He Anglicized it to Frank Nitto but even then his last name was constantly misspelled.
Eghigian, of Belleville, is a former horticulture teacher at Southwestern Illinois College and now is a financial planner.
Why, then, a book on a Chicago crime boss? Eghigian said his grandfather came to the metro-east about the time of World War I and established a dry cleaning business on 13th Street in East St. Louis. "When I was a kid I would hear stories at dinner," he said. "My family knew of the local mobsters and protection rackets, like the Master Cleaners and Dyers Association.
"They told stories like the exploding suits."
Exploding suits?
Apparently, to make their points about the need for protection, mobsters would have agents drop off suits or coats in which flammable material had been sewn in the lining. When the heat of the presses hit the material, it would explode, scaring the wits out of everyone.
Eghigian said he found that there really was not much published information on Nitti. "Nobody wrote abut him, at least not accurately," he said.
Eghigian asked a friend who also was an author, former FBI agent Bill Roemer, about the gangster. "He said, 'Nitti was just one of those guys who fell through the cracks. Why don't you write a book?'" Eghigian said. Then Roemer provided Eghigian with a lot of leads.
Eghigian said he has really worked on the book since 1991. Instead of vacations at the beach, he would be in libraries and microfilm files, digging out information.
He found that Nitti ran Chicago after the imprisonment of Capone, even during Nitti's own 18-month prison sentence. In fact, Nitti was in charge for much longer than Capone, until Nitti committed suicide in 1943.
"My goal was to put out a professional project, to do the work. I thought I had time. Nobody had touched Nitti for more than 40 years. Luckily I was right," Eghigian said.
Eghigian is working on other projects now in relation to crime and gangs. He said it is nice to see the results of all his work. "It was a fun project," he said. "It's really fun to see it finished."
Thanks to Wally Spiers
Even the title of Mars Eghigian Jr.'s new book reflects the fact that Frank Nitti has always been in the shadow of the flamboyant Al Capone.
"After Capone. The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank (the Enforcer) Nitti
," (437 pages, 75 pages of notes, Cumberland House Publishing Inc.) tells the story of the quieter Nitti who ran the Chicago Mob for more than a decade after Capone built the organization from bootlegging liquor.The book offers insight to gangland events of the time in Chicago and other connected cities -- not just what happened but also why it happened. It tells of the transformation of the mob from Prohibition busters to gambling and protection racketeering.
Nitti actually was named Francesco Raffele Nitto when he was born in Italy. He Anglicized it to Frank Nitto but even then his last name was constantly misspelled.
Eghigian, of Belleville, is a former horticulture teacher at Southwestern Illinois College and now is a financial planner.
Why, then, a book on a Chicago crime boss? Eghigian said his grandfather came to the metro-east about the time of World War I and established a dry cleaning business on 13th Street in East St. Louis. "When I was a kid I would hear stories at dinner," he said. "My family knew of the local mobsters and protection rackets, like the Master Cleaners and Dyers Association.
"They told stories like the exploding suits."
Exploding suits?
Apparently, to make their points about the need for protection, mobsters would have agents drop off suits or coats in which flammable material had been sewn in the lining. When the heat of the presses hit the material, it would explode, scaring the wits out of everyone.
Eghigian said he found that there really was not much published information on Nitti. "Nobody wrote abut him, at least not accurately," he said.
Eghigian asked a friend who also was an author, former FBI agent Bill Roemer, about the gangster. "He said, 'Nitti was just one of those guys who fell through the cracks. Why don't you write a book?'" Eghigian said. Then Roemer provided Eghigian with a lot of leads.
Eghigian said he has really worked on the book since 1991. Instead of vacations at the beach, he would be in libraries and microfilm files, digging out information.
He found that Nitti ran Chicago after the imprisonment of Capone, even during Nitti's own 18-month prison sentence. In fact, Nitti was in charge for much longer than Capone, until Nitti committed suicide in 1943.
"My goal was to put out a professional project, to do the work. I thought I had time. Nobody had touched Nitti for more than 40 years. Luckily I was right," Eghigian said.
Eghigian is working on other projects now in relation to crime and gangs. He said it is nice to see the results of all his work. "It was a fun project," he said. "It's really fun to see it finished."
Thanks to Wally Spiers
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Read #Golden by @JeffCoen and @ChaseJohn to learn how How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself out of the Governor's Office and into Prison
No one did political corruption quite like Rod Blagojevich
. The 40th governor of Illinois made international headlines in 2008 when he was roused from his bed and arrested by the FBI at his Chicago home. He was accused of running the state government as a criminal racket and, most shockingly, caught on tape trying to barter away President-elect Barack Obama’s US Senate seat. Most politicians would hunker down, stay quiet, and fight the federal case against them. But as he had done for years, Rod Blagojevich proved he was no ordinary politician. Instead, he fueled the headlines, proclaiming his innocence on seemingly every national talk show and street corner he could find.
Revealing evidence from the investigation never before made public, Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself out of the Governor's Office and into Prison, is the most complete telling yet of the Blagojevich story, written by two Chicago reporters who covered every step of his rise and fall and spent years sifting through evidence, compiling documents, and conducting more than a hundred interviews with those who have known Blagojevich from his childhood to his time in the governor’s office. Dispensing with sensationalism to present the facts about one of the nation’s most notorious politicians, the authors detail the mechanics of the corruption that brought the governor down and profile a fascinating and frustrating character who embodies much of what is wrong with modern politics. With Blagojevich now serving 14 years in prison, the time has come for the last word on who Blagojevich was, how he was elected, how he got himself into trouble, and how the feds took him down.
. The 40th governor of Illinois made international headlines in 2008 when he was roused from his bed and arrested by the FBI at his Chicago home. He was accused of running the state government as a criminal racket and, most shockingly, caught on tape trying to barter away President-elect Barack Obama’s US Senate seat. Most politicians would hunker down, stay quiet, and fight the federal case against them. But as he had done for years, Rod Blagojevich proved he was no ordinary politician. Instead, he fueled the headlines, proclaiming his innocence on seemingly every national talk show and street corner he could find.
Revealing evidence from the investigation never before made public, Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself out of the Governor's Office and into Prison, is the most complete telling yet of the Blagojevich story, written by two Chicago reporters who covered every step of his rise and fall and spent years sifting through evidence, compiling documents, and conducting more than a hundred interviews with those who have known Blagojevich from his childhood to his time in the governor’s office. Dispensing with sensationalism to present the facts about one of the nation’s most notorious politicians, the authors detail the mechanics of the corruption that brought the governor down and profile a fascinating and frustrating character who embodies much of what is wrong with modern politics. With Blagojevich now serving 14 years in prison, the time has come for the last word on who Blagojevich was, how he was elected, how he got himself into trouble, and how the feds took him down.
Exploring the Myth of the Mafia's Grip
Book Review of An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America, by George De Stefano
Cliches exist until they are challenged.
Analyze this: a thumbnail history of Italian Americans.
A Southern European immigrant group, disembarking in America in huge numbers from the late 19th century to the early 20th, comes to be associated with what an 1876 New York Times editorial calls "A Natural Inclination Toward Criminality." No matter that crime remained the ultimate multiethnic, equal-opportunity business. As the perception grows, so-called native-born Americans also aren't sure the new immigrants are white.
A black man
, convicted in 1922 of miscegenation in Alabama, gets off when an appeals court rules the prosecution failed to prove his Sicilian wife was Caucasian. In 1930s Hollywood, directors choose non-Italians - Romanian Jew Edward G. Robinson and Yiddish stage actor Paul Muni - to play fictional crime bosses such as Rico "Little Caesar" Bandello and Tony "Scarface" Camonte.
Forty years later, two classic '70s films - The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II - raise the link between Italians and crime, denounced by antidefamation protesters, to the level of American myth. Or so say many film and cultural critics.
In 1999, The Sopranos - the much-honored cable series that happens to return tonight - takes the same association for its theme, making high TV art of the traumas suffered by members of the immigrant group in adjusting to modern suburban life.
In the more than 100 years since Italians began arriving here in numbers: Two Supreme Court justices. One president of Harvard (Neil Rudenstine). One of Yale (A. Bartlett Giamatti). Painter Frank Stella. Architect Robert Venturi. Novelist Don DeLillo. Lots of big-time doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Pretty much no movies or TV series about them. Conclusion? Irrational stereotyping? Vicious bias? Reverent mythmaking? Selective realism? Collective insanity?
"The conventions and cliches of the Mafia myth," writes New York culture critic George De Stefano, "not only define a genre; they have to a large degree defined Italian Americans... . 'The Mafia' is now the paradigmatic pop-culture expression of Italian American ethnicity, despite the fact that gangsters never constituted more than a tiny percentage of the massive southern Italian immigration to America."
No argument, so let's shift to pop-cult mode: Leave the potboiler junk, take the De Stefano - a detailed, textured meditation on what it all means. De Stefano isn't an ethnocentric screamer about stereotyping of Italian Americans. Third generation, leftist and gay, the New York-based journalist grew up in working-class Bridgeport, Conn. He supports multiculturalism, and doesn't think Italians invented every implement of civilization from forks to statues. He's less badda-bing than yadda-ying in his cultural bent. That means his yeoman's precis of growing Italian American scholarship by writers such as Robert Orsi, Fred Gardaphe, and Richard Gambino profits from a clear framework.
Whether De Stefano is summarizing causes of 19th-century Italian immigration, sketching the Mafia's origin in Sicily, or dissecting the appeal of Hollywood mobster characters, he catches links to evolving capitalism, discomfort with modern society, psychological urges for strong father figures, and other complex topics not usually addressed by opponents of Mafia pop culture.
Like many writers on the subject, he eventually finds himself overwhelmed by movie and TV depictions of the Mafia. At times, De Stefano, falling into a familiar trap, sounds desperate to include any example Google or Nexis turned up. Nonetheless, he correctly appreciates that for most Americans, "It's not an exaggeration to say that The Godfather is the Torah, and everything else is commentary."
Remember Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail? Fox declares: "The Godfather is the I Ching. The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom. The Godfather is the answer to any question." David Chase, creator of the characters in The Sopranos, who themselves constantly allude to Mafia films, similarly says that "for a lot of wiseguys, The Godfather is like the Koran."
It's at this point that De Stefano argues for a radical difference between Italian Americans and other ethnic groups in regard to stereotypes. Often, he notes, "it is Italian Americans themselves who write, direct and act in these films and TV shows." The distinction hardly persuades: As the already controversial "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" routine at the Oscars reminded us last week, Italian Americans have company in pandering to showbiz stereotypes to get ahead.
Yet here, as elsewhere in his "on the waterfont, therefore cover the waterfront" book, De Stefano provokes hard thought about why the Mafia, to the exclusion of almost every other dimension of Italian American life, stays lodged "in the Mind of America."
A short answer De Stefano implies, but does not flesh out: The problem is not what Italian American artists and stars give us, but what they don't. Think of those with enormous clout in the movie business: Pacino. De Niro. Scorsese. Coppola. They've rarely used that clout to spotlight less cliched sides of Italian American life. Where is the Italian American Oprah, promoting quality art on the order of Beloved, or the Broadway version of The Color Purple?
Couldn't Scorsese and De Niro have made a film about Sacco and Vanzetti instead of dubbing voices for Shark Tale? Might Pacino play Pietro Di Donato instead of the overexposed Shylock? Dream on. Rare are Hollywood exceptions like idealistic actor John Turturro, with his brave 1992 film, Mac, about working-class Italian Americans, and Stanley Tucci, director of Big Night (1996), about two brothers trying to launch an authentic Italian restaurant.
De Stefano rightly observes that "some Italian Americans are ready and willing to perpetuate unflattering and even belittling images of themselves. If the Mafia image is a kind of minstrelsy, as anthropologist Micaela di Leonardo claims... Italian Americans have done their part to keep the minstrel show running." The self-stereotyping doesn't end with the mob - De Stefano reminds us of the Fonz, Rocky Balboa, Tony Manero, and more.
In his overly optimistic conclusion, De Stefano cites all sorts of recent cultural bubbling: the establishment by New York's Guild of Italian American Actors of a repertory theater in 2004; the development of the John Calandra Italian American Institute at City University of New York; the rise of prominent writers such as poet Dana Gioia (now Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) - as a counterweight to the entertainment industry's same old habits.
One wonders, though, whether much will change until celebrated Italian American movie stars and directors concede, before an industry determined to drown them in stereotypes, what Michael Corleone admits to Sen. Pat Geary in The Godfather: "We're part of the same corruption."
De Stefano and his publisher could do worse than tweak the title on the paperback edition to An Offer We Can Refuse. Italian American stars who can't get unstereotypical projects greenlighted - for lack of the Mafia hood, or "the blue-collar bore, the dumb but lovable stud" - are both badfellas and dumbfellas.
Rememberaboutit!
Thanks to Carlin Romano
Cliches exist until they are challenged.
Analyze this: a thumbnail history of Italian Americans.
A Southern European immigrant group, disembarking in America in huge numbers from the late 19th century to the early 20th, comes to be associated with what an 1876 New York Times editorial calls "A Natural Inclination Toward Criminality." No matter that crime remained the ultimate multiethnic, equal-opportunity business. As the perception grows, so-called native-born Americans also aren't sure the new immigrants are white.
A black man
, convicted in 1922 of miscegenation in Alabama, gets off when an appeals court rules the prosecution failed to prove his Sicilian wife was Caucasian. In 1930s Hollywood, directors choose non-Italians - Romanian Jew Edward G. Robinson and Yiddish stage actor Paul Muni - to play fictional crime bosses such as Rico "Little Caesar" Bandello and Tony "Scarface" Camonte.Forty years later, two classic '70s films - The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II - raise the link between Italians and crime, denounced by antidefamation protesters, to the level of American myth. Or so say many film and cultural critics.
In 1999, The Sopranos - the much-honored cable series that happens to return tonight - takes the same association for its theme, making high TV art of the traumas suffered by members of the immigrant group in adjusting to modern suburban life.
In the more than 100 years since Italians began arriving here in numbers: Two Supreme Court justices. One president of Harvard (Neil Rudenstine). One of Yale (A. Bartlett Giamatti). Painter Frank Stella. Architect Robert Venturi. Novelist Don DeLillo. Lots of big-time doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Pretty much no movies or TV series about them. Conclusion? Irrational stereotyping? Vicious bias? Reverent mythmaking? Selective realism? Collective insanity?
"The conventions and cliches of the Mafia myth," writes New York culture critic George De Stefano, "not only define a genre; they have to a large degree defined Italian Americans... . 'The Mafia' is now the paradigmatic pop-culture expression of Italian American ethnicity, despite the fact that gangsters never constituted more than a tiny percentage of the massive southern Italian immigration to America."
No argument, so let's shift to pop-cult mode: Leave the potboiler junk, take the De Stefano - a detailed, textured meditation on what it all means. De Stefano isn't an ethnocentric screamer about stereotyping of Italian Americans. Third generation, leftist and gay, the New York-based journalist grew up in working-class Bridgeport, Conn. He supports multiculturalism, and doesn't think Italians invented every implement of civilization from forks to statues. He's less badda-bing than yadda-ying in his cultural bent. That means his yeoman's precis of growing Italian American scholarship by writers such as Robert Orsi, Fred Gardaphe, and Richard Gambino profits from a clear framework.
Whether De Stefano is summarizing causes of 19th-century Italian immigration, sketching the Mafia's origin in Sicily, or dissecting the appeal of Hollywood mobster characters, he catches links to evolving capitalism, discomfort with modern society, psychological urges for strong father figures, and other complex topics not usually addressed by opponents of Mafia pop culture.
Like many writers on the subject, he eventually finds himself overwhelmed by movie and TV depictions of the Mafia. At times, De Stefano, falling into a familiar trap, sounds desperate to include any example Google or Nexis turned up. Nonetheless, he correctly appreciates that for most Americans, "It's not an exaggeration to say that The Godfather is the Torah, and everything else is commentary."
Remember Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail? Fox declares: "The Godfather is the I Ching. The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom. The Godfather is the answer to any question." David Chase, creator of the characters in The Sopranos, who themselves constantly allude to Mafia films, similarly says that "for a lot of wiseguys, The Godfather is like the Koran."
It's at this point that De Stefano argues for a radical difference between Italian Americans and other ethnic groups in regard to stereotypes. Often, he notes, "it is Italian Americans themselves who write, direct and act in these films and TV shows." The distinction hardly persuades: As the already controversial "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" routine at the Oscars reminded us last week, Italian Americans have company in pandering to showbiz stereotypes to get ahead.
Yet here, as elsewhere in his "on the waterfont, therefore cover the waterfront" book, De Stefano provokes hard thought about why the Mafia, to the exclusion of almost every other dimension of Italian American life, stays lodged "in the Mind of America."
A short answer De Stefano implies, but does not flesh out: The problem is not what Italian American artists and stars give us, but what they don't. Think of those with enormous clout in the movie business: Pacino. De Niro. Scorsese. Coppola. They've rarely used that clout to spotlight less cliched sides of Italian American life. Where is the Italian American Oprah, promoting quality art on the order of Beloved, or the Broadway version of The Color Purple?
Couldn't Scorsese and De Niro have made a film about Sacco and Vanzetti instead of dubbing voices for Shark Tale? Might Pacino play Pietro Di Donato instead of the overexposed Shylock? Dream on. Rare are Hollywood exceptions like idealistic actor John Turturro, with his brave 1992 film, Mac, about working-class Italian Americans, and Stanley Tucci, director of Big Night (1996), about two brothers trying to launch an authentic Italian restaurant.
De Stefano rightly observes that "some Italian Americans are ready and willing to perpetuate unflattering and even belittling images of themselves. If the Mafia image is a kind of minstrelsy, as anthropologist Micaela di Leonardo claims... Italian Americans have done their part to keep the minstrel show running." The self-stereotyping doesn't end with the mob - De Stefano reminds us of the Fonz, Rocky Balboa, Tony Manero, and more.
In his overly optimistic conclusion, De Stefano cites all sorts of recent cultural bubbling: the establishment by New York's Guild of Italian American Actors of a repertory theater in 2004; the development of the John Calandra Italian American Institute at City University of New York; the rise of prominent writers such as poet Dana Gioia (now Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) - as a counterweight to the entertainment industry's same old habits.
One wonders, though, whether much will change until celebrated Italian American movie stars and directors concede, before an industry determined to drown them in stereotypes, what Michael Corleone admits to Sen. Pat Geary in The Godfather: "We're part of the same corruption."
De Stefano and his publisher could do worse than tweak the title on the paperback edition to An Offer We Can Refuse. Italian American stars who can't get unstereotypical projects greenlighted - for lack of the Mafia hood, or "the blue-collar bore, the dumb but lovable stud" - are both badfellas and dumbfellas.
Rememberaboutit!
Thanks to Carlin Romano
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Two Federal Inmates Charged With Assault with a Shank
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that two inmates at the United States Penitentiary
, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, have been indicted today by a federal grand jury in Scranton for assaulting another inmate with a homemade weapon.
According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the superseding indictment charges Kyle Stevens, age 25, and James Sweeney, age 39, with assault with a dangerous weapon and aiding and abetting. The charges stem from an incident in February 2016 in which Stevens and Sweeney allegedly assaulted another inmate with a sharpened piece of metal commonly known as a “shank.” The superseding indictment also charges Stevens with possessing contraband in prison.
Stevens was previously indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2016, for assaulting an inmate in February 2015. The superseding indictment issued today by the grand jury adds the new assault to the previous indictment.
The investigations were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons Special Investigative Service. Prosecution is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara.
, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, have been indicted today by a federal grand jury in Scranton for assaulting another inmate with a homemade weapon. According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the superseding indictment charges Kyle Stevens, age 25, and James Sweeney, age 39, with assault with a dangerous weapon and aiding and abetting. The charges stem from an incident in February 2016 in which Stevens and Sweeney allegedly assaulted another inmate with a sharpened piece of metal commonly known as a “shank.” The superseding indictment also charges Stevens with possessing contraband in prison.
Stevens was previously indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2016, for assaulting an inmate in February 2015. The superseding indictment issued today by the grand jury adds the new assault to the previous indictment.
The investigations were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons Special Investigative Service. Prosecution is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara.
Dennis Griffin's The Battle for Las Vegas (The Law vs. The Mob)
The inside story of the law's battle to remove the influence and corruption of organized crime from Sin City's streets and casinos.
In the 1970s and thru the mid-1980s
, the Chicago Outfit was the dominant organized crime family in Las Vegas, with business interests in several casinos. During those years the Outfit and its colleagues in Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Cleveland were using Sin City as a cash cow. Commonly referred to as the "skim," unreported revenue from Outfit-controlled casinos was making its way out of Vegas by the bag full and ending up in the coffers of the crime bosses in those four locations.
The skim involved large amounts of money. The operation had to be properly set up and well managed to ensure a smooth cash flow. To accomplish that goal, the gangsters brought in a front man with no criminal record to purchase several casinos. Allen R. Glick, doing business as the Argent Corporation (Allen R. Glick Enterprises) purchased the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda, and Marina. They next installed Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal as their inside man, and the real boss of the casino operations. Rosenthal was a Chicago native and considered to be a genius when it came to oddsmaking and sports betting. Under Lefty's supervision the casino count rooms were accessible to mob couriers.
But even with the competent Rosenthal in charge, there remained room for problems. What if an outsider tried to muscle in on the operation? Or just as bad, suppose one of their own decided to skim the skim? To guard against such possibilities the Chicago bosses decided to send someone to Vegas to give Rosenthal a hand should trouble arise. The successful applicant had to be a person with the kind of reputation that would deter interlopers from horning in, and make internal theft too risky to try. But the mob's outside man had to be capable of action as well as threats. In other words, he had to be a man who would do whatever it took to protect the Outfit's interests. So, in 1971, 33-year-old Tony Spilotro, considered by many to be the "ultimate enforcer," was sent to the burgeoning gambling and entertainment oasis in the desert. Spilotro, sometimes called "tough Tony," or "the Ant," was a made man of the Outfit and a childhood friend of Rosenthal. He was known as a man who could be counted on to get the job done.
Being an ambitious sort, Tony quickly recognized that there were other criminal opportunities in his new hometown besides skimming from the casinos. Street crimes ranging from loan sharking to burglary, robbery, and fencing stolen property were all in play. It wasn't very long before Tony had his hands into every one of these areas. As the scope of his criminal endeavors grew, Tony brought in other heavies from Chicago to fill out his gang. The five-foot-six-inch gangster was soon being called the "King of the Strip."
Federal and local law enforcement recognized the need to rid the casinos of the hidden ownership and control of the mob, and shut down Spilotro's street rackets. They declared war on organized crime and the battle was on. It was a hard fight, with plenty of tough guys on both sides. But it was a confrontation the law knew it had to win.
The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob relates the story of that conflict, told in large part by the agents and detectives who lived it.
In the 1970s and thru the mid-1980s
, the Chicago Outfit was the dominant organized crime family in Las Vegas, with business interests in several casinos. During those years the Outfit and its colleagues in Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Cleveland were using Sin City as a cash cow. Commonly referred to as the "skim," unreported revenue from Outfit-controlled casinos was making its way out of Vegas by the bag full and ending up in the coffers of the crime bosses in those four locations.The skim involved large amounts of money. The operation had to be properly set up and well managed to ensure a smooth cash flow. To accomplish that goal, the gangsters brought in a front man with no criminal record to purchase several casinos. Allen R. Glick, doing business as the Argent Corporation (Allen R. Glick Enterprises) purchased the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda, and Marina. They next installed Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal as their inside man, and the real boss of the casino operations. Rosenthal was a Chicago native and considered to be a genius when it came to oddsmaking and sports betting. Under Lefty's supervision the casino count rooms were accessible to mob couriers.
But even with the competent Rosenthal in charge, there remained room for problems. What if an outsider tried to muscle in on the operation? Or just as bad, suppose one of their own decided to skim the skim? To guard against such possibilities the Chicago bosses decided to send someone to Vegas to give Rosenthal a hand should trouble arise. The successful applicant had to be a person with the kind of reputation that would deter interlopers from horning in, and make internal theft too risky to try. But the mob's outside man had to be capable of action as well as threats. In other words, he had to be a man who would do whatever it took to protect the Outfit's interests. So, in 1971, 33-year-old Tony Spilotro, considered by many to be the "ultimate enforcer," was sent to the burgeoning gambling and entertainment oasis in the desert. Spilotro, sometimes called "tough Tony," or "the Ant," was a made man of the Outfit and a childhood friend of Rosenthal. He was known as a man who could be counted on to get the job done.
Being an ambitious sort, Tony quickly recognized that there were other criminal opportunities in his new hometown besides skimming from the casinos. Street crimes ranging from loan sharking to burglary, robbery, and fencing stolen property were all in play. It wasn't very long before Tony had his hands into every one of these areas. As the scope of his criminal endeavors grew, Tony brought in other heavies from Chicago to fill out his gang. The five-foot-six-inch gangster was soon being called the "King of the Strip."
Federal and local law enforcement recognized the need to rid the casinos of the hidden ownership and control of the mob, and shut down Spilotro's street rackets. They declared war on organized crime and the battle was on. It was a hard fight, with plenty of tough guys on both sides. But it was a confrontation the law knew it had to win.
The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob relates the story of that conflict, told in large part by the agents and detectives who lived it.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
The Battle between Steve and Elaine Wynn Over the Wynn Resorts Casino Empire Escalates
The former wife of Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn has filed a counterclaim in a lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court that is putting her ouster from the Wynn board a year ago back in the public spotlight.
Elaine Wynn, a co-founder of the company and its third-largest shareholder, sought to regain control of her company stock, which has been restricted by an agreement reached in 2010 that she now says her ex-husband breached.
The claim was filed Monday as part of Wynn Resorts’ lawsuit against former partner Kazuo Okada and his company, Aruze USA Inc., and Okada’s countersuit against Wynn.
Steve Wynn disputed Elaine Wynn’s claims Monday in statements issued through the company and a personal spokesperson
.
Elaine Wynn said her ex-husband orchestrated her ouster from the Wynn board of directors in retaliation for asking questions about the “tone at the top,” the absence of internal controls, the withholding of information from the board and the “reckless activity of the CEO and others in the company.”
Elaine Wynn said as a result of her removal from the board, she no longer has a meaningful avenue to protect her economic interest in the company and because Steve Wynn and the board have failed to address the matter, she said she had no choice but to proceed with legal action.
She is seeking a judicial determination that the January 2010 stockholders’ agreement which prohibits her from transferring stock that she owns without Steve Wynn’s permission and gives him all rights to vote her stock, is invalid and unenforceable.
Steve Wynn responded to the allegations in statements from the company and from a personal spokesperson.
The company said that Elaine Wynn’s counterclaim “simply not true and are rehashed from her previous, unfounded statements made during her proxy campaign” in which she lost election to the Wynn board in collecting 7 percent of the votes cast.
Elaine Wynn conducted a dissident campaign last year that ended in shareholders re-electing two board-recommended candidates, John Hagenbuch and J. Edward Virtue, to the board at the company’s annual meeting on April 24. At the time, Elaine Wynn said while disappointed in the vote outcome, she felt she stood for being “an agent for change and improvement for this company which I love so deeply.”
Steve Wynn responded to the allegations in statements from the company and from a personal spokesperson.
Through a personal spokesperson, Steve Wynn called Elaine Wynn “a disappointed ex-wife who is seeking to tarnish the reputation of Wynn Resorts and Steve Wynn and their daughters.”
“This lawsuit is filled with lies and distortions and is an embarrassment to Ms. Wynn and her counsel,” the statement said. “This is simply an attempt to inflict personal pain on Mr. Wynn.”
Steve Wynn said his ex-wife never raised the issues stated in the court claim in her 13 years on the board of directors and that she agreed to the terms of the 2010 stockholders’ agreement when it was drafted and at the time of the couple’s divorce.
“What particularly saddens Mr. Wynn among the many falsehoods is the assertion that Mr. Wynn’s estate planning does not provide for his daughters and grandchildren,” the statement said. “This is untrue in every sense of the word and is a shocking allegation for a mother to make concerning family.
“This is an action unbecoming of a long-time director, significant shareholder and mother.”
Steve Wynn, 74, developer of The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio in addition to the Wynn properties, is worth $2.7 billion, while Elaine Wynn, 73, is worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Court papers show the Wynns married in 1963, divorced in 1986, remarried in 1991, and divorced again in 2010.
Elaine Wynn controls 9.4 percent of Wynn Resorts’ stock, while Steve Wynn controls 11.8 percent, Reuters data show.
The company’s stock was largely unaffected Monday, closing down 0.68 percent or 64 cents to $92.83 on average trading.
Elaine Wynn, a co-founder of the company and its third-largest shareholder, sought to regain control of her company stock, which has been restricted by an agreement reached in 2010 that she now says her ex-husband breached.
The claim was filed Monday as part of Wynn Resorts’ lawsuit against former partner Kazuo Okada and his company, Aruze USA Inc., and Okada’s countersuit against Wynn.
Steve Wynn disputed Elaine Wynn’s claims Monday in statements issued through the company and a personal spokesperson
.Elaine Wynn said her ex-husband orchestrated her ouster from the Wynn board of directors in retaliation for asking questions about the “tone at the top,” the absence of internal controls, the withholding of information from the board and the “reckless activity of the CEO and others in the company.”
Elaine Wynn said as a result of her removal from the board, she no longer has a meaningful avenue to protect her economic interest in the company and because Steve Wynn and the board have failed to address the matter, she said she had no choice but to proceed with legal action.
She is seeking a judicial determination that the January 2010 stockholders’ agreement which prohibits her from transferring stock that she owns without Steve Wynn’s permission and gives him all rights to vote her stock, is invalid and unenforceable.
Steve Wynn responded to the allegations in statements from the company and from a personal spokesperson.
The company said that Elaine Wynn’s counterclaim “simply not true and are rehashed from her previous, unfounded statements made during her proxy campaign” in which she lost election to the Wynn board in collecting 7 percent of the votes cast.
Elaine Wynn conducted a dissident campaign last year that ended in shareholders re-electing two board-recommended candidates, John Hagenbuch and J. Edward Virtue, to the board at the company’s annual meeting on April 24. At the time, Elaine Wynn said while disappointed in the vote outcome, she felt she stood for being “an agent for change and improvement for this company which I love so deeply.”
Steve Wynn responded to the allegations in statements from the company and from a personal spokesperson.
Through a personal spokesperson, Steve Wynn called Elaine Wynn “a disappointed ex-wife who is seeking to tarnish the reputation of Wynn Resorts and Steve Wynn and their daughters.”
“This lawsuit is filled with lies and distortions and is an embarrassment to Ms. Wynn and her counsel,” the statement said. “This is simply an attempt to inflict personal pain on Mr. Wynn.”
Steve Wynn said his ex-wife never raised the issues stated in the court claim in her 13 years on the board of directors and that she agreed to the terms of the 2010 stockholders’ agreement when it was drafted and at the time of the couple’s divorce.
“What particularly saddens Mr. Wynn among the many falsehoods is the assertion that Mr. Wynn’s estate planning does not provide for his daughters and grandchildren,” the statement said. “This is untrue in every sense of the word and is a shocking allegation for a mother to make concerning family.
“This is an action unbecoming of a long-time director, significant shareholder and mother.”
Steve Wynn, 74, developer of The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio in addition to the Wynn properties, is worth $2.7 billion, while Elaine Wynn, 73, is worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Court papers show the Wynns married in 1963, divorced in 1986, remarried in 1991, and divorced again in 2010.
Elaine Wynn controls 9.4 percent of Wynn Resorts’ stock, while Steve Wynn controls 11.8 percent, Reuters data show.
The company’s stock was largely unaffected Monday, closing down 0.68 percent or 64 cents to $92.83 on average trading.
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