Court Updates: Colombo's Persico Denied Appeal & Gambino Connected Former NYPD Gets Off Easy

The escort business business paid off big time this week for Michael Rizzi, a former NYPD officer connected to the Gambino family.  The judge sentenced him to a mere fifteen months in prison.  Rizzi took control of Pure Platinum Models when the former owner, Marc J. Shulman, pleaded guilty to money laundering back in 2015.  The prosecution claimed they had links between Mr. Shulman's holding companies and Michael Rizzi’s BJM company.  BJM catered to big money clients staying at the nicer hotels in Manhattan.  BJM had a dozen drivers to shuttle the girls to clients.

They charged hourly rates between $400-$2000 an hour and offered package deals, for example, $7,200 for twelve hours or $8,400 for fourteen hours. BJM had over two million dollars in credit card charges while in business. This was Rizzi’s second brush with the law since he retired from the NYPD due to a back injury.  He was arrested in a gambling sting and was said to be a super agent by the NYPD Organized Crime Investigation Division.  He was able to plead that case out to misdemeanor gambling.

In other court news, the Colombo boss Carmine Persico, now 83 years old and supposedly, “old and feeble,” had his appeal of his 100 year sentence denied.  Persico had appealed under the old Rule 35, because he was convicted over two decades ago in the Mafia Commission case.  He claimed that his sentence was unfair because he was not given all the evidence, such as Greg Scarpa being an informant. Scarpa had supplied a lot of the information the government used in Persico’s sentencing.  Persico claimed that Scarpa gave them information on murders he was involved in. Scarpa also gave the FBI different accounts of who was boss of the family at the time as did a number of other informants.  Persico claimed he did not have the power to order a hit.   He also fought back against the use of information given to the court by Donnie Brasco aka Joe Pistone.

He cited new information that came to light after Joey Massino flipped to Team USA about the murder of Carmine Galante.  The Government had always claimed the Galante murder was ordered by the Commission, which Persico was a member of at the time. Massino claims it was never Commission business, just Bonanno family business that they conducted.

Carmine Galante made himself the boss of the Bonanno family while the real boss Philip Rusty Rastelli was locked up.  Galante also tried to control the Sicilian heroin traffickers whom he had around him.

The Appeals court did not see that any of the evidence was explosive enough to grant him a resentencing.  He is 32 years into a 100 year sentence and he now is the only remaining person incarcerated who was convicted in the Commission case.

Considering the half a century of mayhem that the whole Persico clan has created in Brooklyn, many would say that Carmine Persico is where he belongs.

The Carmine Galante murder took place shortly after he had finished eating lunch and was enjoying a cigar. A picture taken shortly after he was shot dead in the courtyard of a Brooklyn restaurant shows him with a cigar still clenched in his mouth.

One of the men who was with Galante, but not shot at the time was then 27 year old Baldassare Amato aka Baldo. Baldo was supposed to be one of Galante's bodyguards.  Baldo was convicted in 2006 of racketeering, which included the murders of Sebastiano Di Falco and Robert Perrino.  The murder of DiFalco was carried out because he didn't agree to give up his restaurant.  Baldo is said to have pulled the trigger himself in the Perrino murder after he was lured to a social club.  The Bonanno family was afraid Perrino was going to help with the investigation of the mafia infiltration of the the New York Post newspaper delivery operation.  Perino's body was buried and then reburied, but the FBI still found it.  

Baldo was sentenced to a life sentence and he had tried to appeal claiming that his lawyer did not represent him because he had formerly represented Bonanno boss Joey Massino who later became a witness against him.

The judge recently rejected his appeal and let his sentence stand.

If you read much about guys in the life all this is pretty normal.  Others will take their places and life on the streets will continue moving forward.

Gambino Cash & Escorts

Business on the street keeps moving no matter how many people go down.  There are always others waiting in the wings to step up and replace them.  I wrote before that crime does not pay.  A large number of people disagreed with me and argued that it does indeed pay.   One person posted an article claiming that a crime group made more than McDonald’s.  They missed my point.  It is the toll it takes on the person, I am talking about - the consequences for their family and friends.  It was not the balance sheet I was referring to, it was the fact that there are no real happy endings to the stories involving the Mafia.

Michael Rizzi an ex-NYPD officer who branched out into the lucrative business of escort services.   Rizzi went before a judge this week for sentencing.  He told the judge that he initially started off with a completely legal escort service, and it grew out of hand.  The judge laughed at him.  Rizzi has plead guilty to laundering money from the illicit sex workers and is awaiting his sentencing.  He had over two million dollars in credit card charges from October 2012 until May of 2016.

The escort girls went on dates for up to two thousand dollars an hour. The judge did not believe that anyone would pay that amount of money for dinner.  Rizzi is on a disability pension from the NYPD and he also owns an adult store.  Rizzi controlled over eighty adult websites and the parent company BJM-Manhattan Stakes and Entertainment.

There were some customers of the escort service that had spent over one hundred thousand dollars with the service. A few that paid in excess of twenty five thousand for one night.  In 2009, Rizzi was taken down in Queens because of his involvement with a mafia backed sportsbook.

Rizzi had married into the Gambino crime family.  His wife Jill is the daughter of Gambino soldier Richard Juliano Jr., and the niece of Gambino capo Joseph "Sonny" Juliano.

Sonny has a long history with gambling, loan sharking and adult businesses.  When I first began spending time in NYC, he was said to control some Manahatten stripbars.  He also had some large loans out, including some documented in a book that were photographed for the FBI.

Sonny was arrested in a 2003 gambling case was based in Albany, New York. The business had over ninety runners who picked up bets and paid out.  They also had a huge numbers business that was based on race track handles and state lotto numbers.  The business netted over three million dollars a year, yet Sonny claimed only one hundred and six dollars of income on his 2000 income taxes.

It is laughable that the Attorney General at the time was Eliot Spitzer, who served two terms in that office before being elected governor.  He had to step down as governor when he was caught paying for high end escorts.

It was alleged that he spent over eighty thousand dollars on the escort, including some campaign funds.

Sonny took a plea deal in his case and was given 1-1/2 to 4-½ years in state prison.  He forfeited $550,000 in gambling cash and paid $37,000 in taxes.

Richard plead guilty and face two to four years in prison.

Michael Rizzi will face up to four years next week.

So how does crime pay?

Online Escorts and the Gambinos

There is a lot going on lately on the street.  The locals and the Feds are hammering the families again, and I am sure it will not be long until they come down with a massive bust.  The families had been catching a breather all over because everyone was focused on terrorists.

It is my opinion that anyone who is or was in law enforcement and commits crimes should be locked up for much longer than any other criminal.

Michael “Bruce” Rizzi is one of those stellar people I will write about today.

Rizzi was a 9 year veteran NYPD officer who retired on a disability pension. You know what that means? Tax free money aka our money, that we have paid in taxes to the government.

In 2009 Rizzi was indicted with 29 other people in a massive bookmaking ring.  The ring took in 567 million dollars in bets in a 28 month period while they were being watched.  Gambling is the staple of organized crime because the amount of cash it brings into the organization is astronomical.  The penalties are not as bad as other crimes.  Rizzi had around 400 bettors and he was charged along with the others but he ended up pleading out to a misdemeanor.

Rizzi just happens to be married to Jill Giuliano who has a father who is a Gambino soldier and an uncle Sonny Giuliano who is a capo.  

Sonny had a large shylock operation back in the early 2000’s and he had some interst in stripbars.

Rizzi must have learned his lesson and got out of bookmaking; or he just found a more lucrative addiction to exploit.  This time Rizzi had taken over an escort business which he ran out of Travis, Staten Island. BJM consultants is the company that he used to control up to 58 websites where he advertised his escorts.  The escorts charged between 400-2000 an hour for their services. BJM took in more than 2 million in credit card charges in 5 months this year.

They may never know how much more in cash the escorts brought into the business.

Rizzi used the name Bruce in email correspondence with prospective escorts. The websites had forms for escorts to fill out if they wanted to work for BJM.

He claimed he had been in the business for over 10 years and never had a problem.  He told escorts that he had the wealthiest clients in New York and his escorts made the most money.

He was out on a 500k bail for a minute and then he was arrested for a gun found at his home when they searched it.  If Law Enforcement follows the cash, it will be interesting to see where it ends up.

I would like to know who he kicked up cash too.  

Rizzi’s lawyer is already claiming he was running a legitimate business that provided companionship and not sex.  No matter what he claims, it is a sad business.  They exploit the girls and the clients.