Wall Street Angle in Gambino Bust

Newsday today has an interesting wrapup on the recent Gambino family megabust. Here's a Los Angeles Times pickup of the article.

Newsday says that securities fraud charges, mentioned peripherally in the indictment, "stem from a giant Wall Street boiler-room operation prosecuted in 2001."

The latest Gambino indictment accuses reputed Gambino captain Charles Carneglia and reputed captain Leonard DiMaria with securities fraud conspiracy stemming from the 2001 stock fraud prosecution, according to court records.

DiMaria and Carneglia are accused of plotting to commit securities fraud in the sale of three stocks from November 1995 to March 1996, according to the indictment.

Interesting. I wonder if that aspect of the case dates back to an informant who was the buyer in an unrelated art forgery case some years ago.

Note this New York Times story from back in 2000. Seems that there was an "unnamed man who had pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was already cooperating with federal agents." [emphasis added] The two people involved were "associates" of Carneglia, and quite obviously they were cooperating against him.

Could just be a coincidence. Or it could be that the unnamed man who had pleaded guilty -- probably under seal -- was instrumental in the 2001 prosecution and the ongoing investigation of Carneglia. There were quite a few mob stock prosecutions in 2000 and 2001, so it's hard to say offhand which one is involved.

That's how mob prosecutions are made. One case leads to another which leads to another, with defendants flipping like waffles. Took a while to get this one going, that I will say. Eight years?

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.