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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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3-10-00 Crime family underboss pleads guilty to racketeering.
Friday, March 10, 2000
By Carri Geer Las Vegas resident Carmen Milano, the underboss of La Cosa Nostra crime family in Los Angeles, avoided what was to be a lengthy trial by pleading guilty Thursday to a federal racketeering charge. Milano, 70, was one of several people named in a series of indictments
On Thursday, Milano admitted developing a fraudulent diamond scheme in the winter of 1996 with mob associate Herbert Blitzstein, who was killed a short time later, and at least three other men. "The scheme never was carried out, but there was the concept," the defendant told U.S. District Judge Philip Pro. Milano, a disbarred attorney, also admitted laundering what an undercover FBI agent from Los Angeles had described to him as the proceeds of food stamp fraud. Milano admitted laundering $50,000 in December 1996 through a Las Vegas business owned by a longtime friend. The judge told Milano he faces a prison term of about 21 to 27 months. The defendant's sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 9. Milano surrendered Feb. 3, 1998, the day his indictment was unsealed, and later was released on bond. His attorney, Kevin Stolworthy, said his client has been a "model citizen" while awaiting his trial, which was scheduled to begin Monday with three other defendants. One of those defendants, 63-year-old Dominic Spinale of Las Vegas, also pleaded guilty Thursday. Spinale, whom authorities have described as a mob associate, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and also is set for sentencing June 9. Pro said the defendant faces a prison term of about 18 to 24 months. Spinale, who has served a prison sentence for running an illegal gambling business, was added in 1994 to Nevada's Black Book, a list of people barred from state casinos. At Thursday's hearing, Spinale admitted participating in the diamond fraud scheme and another scheme involving car insurance fraud. According to court records, those involved in the diamond scheme planned to offer a genuine diamond for sale and then switch it with a fake diamond. The conspirators attempted to defraud potential victims out of at least $36,000, records show. Cynthia Shepherd, a Justice Department attorney from Washington, D.C., said FBI agents interviewed Milano in May 1997, and he admitted to them that he was the underboss of the Los Angeles crime family. "He wasn't very active in terms of being the underboss," the prosecutor said. During the interview with FBI agents, Shepherd said, Milano also described his brother, Peter, as the boss of the crime family. Milano's attorney later sought to have that statement suppressed, but Pro denied the request. In 1998, an FBI representative said the investigation had led to the arrests of many of the Los Angeles crime family's active members. The inquiry resulted in charges against several suspects in Blitzstein's 1997 shooting death, which occurred at his Las Vegas home. Blitzstein, 63, was killed by mob associates interested in infiltrating his Las Vegas Valley business activities. Four men have admitted participating in the slaying.
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