LA COSA NOSTRA CAPO SENTENCED FOR LOAN SHARKING AND ILLEGAL GAMBLING

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Monday, September 17, 2012
Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra Capo Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison

Martin Angelina, 50, of Philadelphia, was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for his participation in a racketeering conspiracy involving loan sharking and illegal gambling, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Zane David Memeger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and George C. Venizelos, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division.

Angelina was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In addition to his prison term, Judge Robreno ordered Angelina to serve three years of supervised release. On Aug. 8, 2012, Angelina pleaded guilty to conspiring to conduct and participate in the affairs of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra (LCN) Family through a pattern of racketeering activity. At the time of the plea, Angelina admitted he attempted to collect payments related to usurious loans by using extortionate means and operated an illegal video poker machine business in furtherance of the racketeering conspiracy.

Angelina is among 14 members and associates of the Philadelphia LCN Family charged with crimes involving racketeering conspiracy, extortion, loan sharking, illegal gambling, witness tampering and theft from an employee benefit plan in a third superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Philadelphia on July 25, 2012. The other defendants charged in the 52-count third superseding indictment included Philadelphia LCN Family boss Joseph Ligambi, Philadelphia LCN Family underboss Joseph Massimino, George Borgesi, Gaeton Lucibello, Anthony Staino Jr., Damion Canalichio, Louis Barretta, Gary Battaglini, Robert Verrecchia, Eric Esposito, Robert Ranieri, Joseph Licata and Louis Fazzini.

Lucibello pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges on Aug. 2, 2012, and was sentenced to 51 months in prison. Barretta also pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges on Sept. 5, 2012, and is awaiting sentencing on Nov. 26, 2012.

The trial for Ligambi, Massimino, Borgesi, Staino Jr., Canalichio, Battaglini, Licata and Fazzini is scheduled for Oct. 9, 2012. The trial for Verrecchia, Esposito and Ranieri has not yet been scheduled. Ligambi, Massimino, Borgesi, Canalichio, Licata and Fazzini are detained while awaiting trial. Staino Jr., Battaglini, Verrecchia, Esposito and Ranieri are free on bond while awaiting trial.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney John S. Han of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank A. Labor III and Suzanne B. Ercole of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Valuable prosecutorial assistance was provided by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.

The case is being investigated by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, the New Jersey State Police, the Philadelphia Police Department, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. Additional assistance was provided by the New Jersey Department of Corrections.