|
|
|
|
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. |
|
5-30-01 Rackets Indictment Names 7 in Gas Scam. 5/30/01
By MIKE CLAFFEY A gang of alleged Italian and Russian mafiosi was charged with bootlegging gasoline in a racketeering indictment in Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday. Federal prosecutors charged seven people, including reputed Luchese soldier Marco Minuto, 35, with a scheme to evade high gas taxes in New York by bootlegging cheap gas from New Jersey between 1996 and 2000. The ring was headed by reputed Russian mobster Alex (Alex the Russian) Lukov, 35, and operated "under the protection of the Luchese organized crime family," according to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tom Firestone and Patricia Notopoulos. The indictment charges that Lukov, acting with Luchese associate John Romeo, 52, operated a series of front companies that bought New Jersey gasoline from defendant John Cassese, 50, the owner of Whirled-Wide Petroleum. The mobsters allegedly dummied paperwork indicating the gas would be sold in New Jersey to avoid New York taxes. The cheap gas was then sold at below market rates to gas stations on Long Island, prosecutors charged. The indictment charges that gas station owners who did not pay on time were subjected to threats of violence by members of Lukov's ring. Minuto, Lukov and Romeo also are charged with defrauding Citgo Petroleum of more than $2 million in 1996 and 1997 by tricking the company into advancing credit to a company they controlled, Panther Oil. Lukov, of Long Beach, L.I., allegedly laundered the proceeds of the scam through a phony Queens company, AOB Medical Supply. Also charged were Boris Kerzhner, 31, Irina Kerzhner, 23, and Giovanni Lubrano, 30. All the suspects were arrested yesterday. The case was investigated by the FBI, the Brooklyn district attorney's office and the state Taxation and Finance Department. Original Publication Date: 5/30/01
|
|
AmericanMafia.com
Copyright © 1998 - 2001 PLR International
|