Free Republic

A "goon-squad" group named The Helpful Union Guys (THUG), members of Ironworkers Local 401 set fires, started riots, and took crowbars to the competition in an effort to protect union jobs. THUGs stalked women, took baseball bats to a Toys R Us site, and even torched a Quaker meetinghouse that dared to use non-union labor. Philly.Com reports 10 leaders of Ironworkers Local 401 charged in racketeering indictment. They called themselves "the Helpful Union Guys" - "THUGS" for short - and woe awaited any contractor who dared cross them by hiring non-organized workers. For, federal authorities alleged Tuesday, this "goon squad"...

Feds Charge Philadelphia Ironworkers with Extortion, Arson and Racketeering Federal prosecutors today announced an indictment charging 10 members of the Philadelphia Ironworkers Union Local 401 with extorting and forcing businesses to hire their colleagues and defending their turf from non-union workers with violence. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Zane Memeger announced the charges at a press conference this morning after the 10 union members named in the indictment were arrested. According to the indictment, members of the Ironworkers would approach foremen at construction sites where iron work was being done and “implicitly or explicitly threaten the foreman...

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should be sent to prison for at least 28 years for “astonishing” corruption that enriched him and his family while a desperate city slid toward financial collapse, prosecutors said Thursday. The 51-page filing came a week before Kilpatrick is to be sentenced in federal court for two dozen crimes, including racketeering conspiracy, fraud and tax offenses. The government presented a scathing summary of evidence from his months-long trial and said the corruption tops all recent cases prosecuted elsewhere in federal court. Detroit “desperately needed resolute leadership. Instead it got a mayor looking to cash in...

This week financial news organization CNBC gave some mainstream attention to the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History, in which “Banksters” and their U.S. racketeering partners are being accused of laundering of 43 trillion dollars worth of ill gotten gains. The lawsuit is said to involve officials located in the highest offices of government and the financial sector. Since this information was surprisingly revealed by the mainstream news organization there has been a very suspicious and deadly fallout at the CNBC headquarters. Within hours the original page for the article was taken down, and CNBC senior...

The Associated Press has been one of the few national media outlets providing at least some coverage of the Kermit Gosnell trial, presumably from their local partners, so they certainly deserve some credit for going where their competitors wouldn’t — at least not until recently.  As with most news outlets following an ongoing story, the AP started looking for fresh angles to frame their stories.  Last night, though, the AP sent out a wire story headlined “Philly abortion workers saw few options,” in which Maryclaire Dale focuses on the employment woes of Gosnell’s co-defendants to explain why they followed Gosnell’s orders...

A suspicious package addressed to controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio contained a bomb that was powerful enough to maim or even kill him, his office said today. "Had someone opened that package, it would have caused a major explosion and caused serious physical injuries, burns and maybe death," Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jerry Sheridan said at a press conference. "That was a very serious threat, it was labeled to come here to this building and be opened by Sheriff Arpaio."

An embattled former Obama administration appointee -- who was part of a group of attorneys accused of being terrorist sympathizers for defending "enemy combatants" -- has been hired for a post at the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, officials confirmed today. Tali Farhadian was one of several private attorneys who created a rift between Republicans last spring when the Obama Administration assigned them to posts within the Justice Department. Although Farhadian was handling unrelated matters in Attorney General Eric Holder's office, a political watchdog group accused Obama of overloading the agency with officials sympathetic to enemy combatants. Their appointments even...

Speeding tickets generate revenue for the city or county in which they’re issued. If the police department is low on revenue, they’ll set up a speed trap on a busy road and lie in wait for the non-violent speed violators. If the city is really desperate, they’ll invest in a speed camera system that will be distributed around the city and send citations to the registered owners of the alleged speeding vehicles. And if they’re still not happy with the money they’re making, they’ll start issuing speeding tickets to people who aren’t even speeding. In Baltimore, Maryland, they’ve generated over...

http://spire-law.com/in-the-news/ 43 trillion dollars lawsuit against gov officials and major banks

AKRON, Ohio – Jimmy Dimora is guilty of racketeering -- and all but one of the 34 federal charges he was facing. That's the verdict from a federal jury on the three dozen charges on which the panel is deciding today at the John F. Seiberling Federal Building and U.S. District Court. Dimora was found not guilty, however, on Count 30 in the indictment, for allegedly defrauding his campaign fund out of money by having Executive Caterers bill the fund for a birthday party for Dimora's wife. The verdicts were read this afternoon on 26 charges relating to Dimora alone,...

New York businessman James Lieto was an innocent bystander in a fraud investigation last year. Federal agents seized $392,000 of his cash anyway. An armored-car firm hired by Mr. Lieto to carry money for his check-cashing company got ensnared in the FBI probe. Agents seized about $19 million—including Mr. Lieto's money—from vaults belonging to the armored-car firm's parent company. He is one among thousands of Americans in recent decades who have had a jarring introduction to the federal system of asset seizure. Some 400 federal statutes—a near-doubling, by one count, since the 1990s—empower the government to take assets from convicted...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

  Standing before a judge in Manhattan federal court on Friday, November 19, Michael Forde learned the price of high living and the crime that made it possible: 11 years in prison. For some members of the organization he once headed, the New York District Council of Carpenters and Joiners, that isn't long enough. Forde had pleaded guilty to racketeering, bribery and perjury in late July in connection with taking as much as $1 million in illegal contractor bribes and skimming many millions more from union benefit funds. The Justice Department uncovered the scheme as part of a probe...

EL PASO - It's been almost a year but the drought in the F.B.I. public corruption probe is over. Eleven people have been indicted for dirty politics. The indictment, just unsealed, lists all of the charges that center around a pay-to-play investigation involving a Health Insurance Company. The indictment alleges Access Health Source kept contracts by committing fraud and bribing high ranking leaders in El Paso. Here's a look at who was indicted: Access Health Source business executive Frank Apodaca Jr. and Public Relations Consultant Marc Schwartz. They are both charged with racketeering, mail fraud and deprivation of honest services....

It's official. TPMmuckraker's favorite ex-convict ex-Congressman Jim Traficant will appear on the ballot for his old House seat in Ohio. A county board of elections ruled today, in a meeting that lasted less than a minute, that Traficant has enough signatures to make it on the ballot. Traficant, who was a Democrat while serving in the House, is running in the 17th District as an independent against Rep. Tim Ryan (D). Ryan replaced Traficant in 2002 when he was kicked out of Congress over 10 felony convictions for bribery, racketeering, tax evasion and other charges. Traficant was released from prison...

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo082410.htm Two Additional Arrests Made of Members of Violent International Organized Crime Group Albanian Government Aide Arrested; Newly Unsealed Indictment Charges 17 Defendants with Murder, Kidnapping, and Other Racketeering Offenses PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the arrests of FLORIAN VESHI and ALMIR RRAPO for their roles in a racketeering enterprise that engaged...

June 3, 2010 NOTE The following text is a quote: Leaders of the Detroit Highwaymen Found Guilty of Racketeering, Drug, and Weapons Charges Six leaders of the Detroit Highwaymen Motorcycle Club were found guilty today on a variety of charges, including conspiracy to violate federal racketeering laws and conspiracy to commit murder, along with controlled substance, stolen property, and firearm violations, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced. These six defendants are the first of 91 Detroit Highwaymen members and associates to go to trial. United States Attorney McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Andrew...

Note: The following text is a quote: North Carolina MS-13 Gang Member Convicted of Racketeering Charges Related to Murder; First MS-13 Member Sentenced to Death Defendant Shot and Killed Two Brothers in December 2007 in Guilford County, N.C. WASHINGTON—A 12-person federal jury in Charlotte, N.C., today voted unanimously to impose the death penalty against Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana, aka “Wizard,” 25. Umana was convicted by the same jury on April 19, 2010, for the murders of Ruben Garcia Salinas and his brother, Manuel Garcia Salinas, on Dec. 8, 2007, in Guilford County, N.C. The jury also found that Umana was...

Note: The following text is a quote: Eight Area Men Sentenced on Federal Racketeering Charges Involving Conspiracy to Transfer Cash and Checks to the Palestinian Territories ST. LOUIS, MO—The United States Attorney’s office announced today that eight members of a criminal enterprise operating out of five St. Louis area convenience stores have been sentenced on charges of federal racketeering or related charges. As far back as 2000, the RICO conspiracy has involved bank fraud, receipt of stolen property, conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business, purchasing contraband cigarettes for resale, evading reporting requirement on exporting monetary instruments, and transporting monetary instruments...

Note: The following text is a quote: Authorities in El Paso Arrest Seven in Connection with Kidnapping/Murder Investigation Federal Charges Include Conspiracy to Commit Murder, Murder for Hire, Kidnapping, Drug Distribution and Interstate Transportation in Aid of Racketeering SAN ANTONIO—U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy, DEA Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, FBI Special Agent in Charge David Cuthbertson, U.S. Border Patrol Marfa Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Smietana and El Paso Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Randy Hill, El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza and El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles announced the arrest of seven individuals charged...