US details mob ties in Gianelli arson case
Reputed Mafia associate Arthur Gianelli ran a sprawling illegal gambling enterprise that raked in millions of dollars, then used his money and underworld muscle to try to seize control of several bars in Boston and on the North Shore, a federal prosecutor told jurors yesterday.
"Mr. Gianelli is under the umbrella of the Mafia," Assistant US Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. said during opening statements in the federal racketeering, money laundering, arson, and extortion trial of Gianelli, 51, of Lynnfield and three others.
Weekly tribute payments that Gianelli made to New England Mafia underboss Carmen "The Cheeseman" DiNunzio kept his business running smoothly from 1999 to 2005, the prosecutor said. Gianelli's operation bet on football games, operated video poker machines, and later shifted to the Internet with the help of a gambling company with offices in Costa Rica, Wyshak said.
Customers who failed to repay loans from Gianelli's group faced intimidation and threats, he said.
That's what happened when Philip Castinetti, owner of a Saugus sports memorabilia store, took a loan from Gianelli's group on behalf of Gerry Cheevers, former Boston Bruins goaltender, and the superstar of the 1960s and 1970s stopped paying, according to Wyshak.
Gianelli dispatched a Revere loan shark, Philip Puopolo, "to see Castinetti to make sure he paid," Wyshak said.
Castinetti is slated to testify in the case, but Cheevers, who has declined to comment, is not, according to the government.
"It's the association between this organization and organized crime that allows Mr. Gianelli to flex his muscle, that allows Mr. Gianelli to make people pay money who don't want to pay," Wyshak said.
The sweeping federal racketeering indictment charges Gianelli, Dennis "Fish" Albertelli, 56, and his wife, Gisele, 54, of Stow, and Frank Iacaboni, 65, of Leominster, with hundreds of crimes.
Defense lawyers said their clients are innocent of the charges and urged jurors not to believe government witnesses who cut deals.
They said conversations captured by State Police phone taps are "cryptic" and were often misunderstood by investigators.
"Please pay attention to the arson and the arson extortion charges," said Gianelli's lawyer, Robert Sheketoff, calling them the most serious allegations.
Gianelli is accused of extortion in trying to take over Clarke's Turn of the Century Saloon at Faneuil Hall and McCarthy's Bar and Grille on Boylston Street in Boston between 1998 and 2002.
Gianelli, Dennis Albertelli, and Iacaboni are all charged with plotting to burn down the Big Dog Sports Grille in North Reading to force its owners into selling Gianelli and Albertelli another bar in Lynnfield.
"He's investing his money in these businesses, and once he gets his foot in the door he's trying to muscle out the owners," Wyshak said of Gianelli.
But Sheketoff told jurors that one of the Big Dog's owners, Mark Colangelo, is "a swindler and a thief," who had been sued by Gianelli in a legal dispute over the business.
"This is not some extortion that took place in some back room," Sheketoff said. "He took my client for $1 million, and my client took him to court to get it back. The suggestion that he is a victim in this case is almost laughable."
Iacaboni's lawyer, Thomas Butters, described his client as a retired bookmaker who is charged in only a handful of the hundreds of counts in the indictment and insisted he is not guilty.
"There will not be one eyewitness or witness in this case, other than a police officer, who testifies that Frank Iacaboni did anything illegal," Butters said.
Testimony in the trial, which is expected to last six weeks at US District Court in Boston, is scheduled to resume today.
