http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/16/national/16CICE.html?ex=993692875&ei=1&en= 9f53c9966273b021 June 16, 2001 3 Officials Charged With Corruption in Al Capone's Old Fief By JOHN W. FOUNTAIN CICERO, Ill., June 15 — The top official of this Chicago suburb where Al Capone once reigned was arrested by federal agents today along with a former police chief and a former town treasurer, all accused of making Cicero "a personal piggy bank" by siphoning off more than $10 million from the town's insurance program. The authorities described an elaborate scheme, involving in part a man with ties to the Chicago Mafia, that prosecutors said was set up by Frank Maltese, a convicted mob bookmaker who died nine years ago and was the husband of Betty Loren- Maltese, who as town president was the leading official seized today. The United States attorney's office said Ms. Loren-Maltese and the two other members of the town's insurance committee had regularly sent payments from the health insurance fund to its unlicensed insurance administrator, a firm called Specialty Risk Consultants, or SRC. Much of that money, the authorities said, was then eventually kicked back to the officials, who used it to buy a hotel complete with golf course in northern Wisconsin, an Indiana horse farm, a vacation home and cars. Some of the proceeds remain unaccounted for, the officials said. The Associated Press Betty Loren-Maltese, the town president of Cicero, Ill., with her lawyer, Terry Gillespie, on Friday in Chicago. The authorities expressed amazement at the extent of the corruption that they said had infested Cicero in this latest episode of a town afflicted for decades by mob influence. "We've had cases where organized crime has paid money to public officials to allow organized crime activities to occur," said United States Attorney Scott R. Lassar, speaking at a morning news conference to announce the indictment of Ms. Loren-Maltese and nine others. "But this is the first time where there has essentially been a looting of a town and organized crime influence has been alleged to be involved in that looting of the town." Mr. Lassar said municipal officials had "used their mob connections to turn the town of Cicero into a personal piggy bank." With the arrests, said Kathleen McChesney, the head of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, "the Cicero candy store is closed." The indictment charges the 10 accused with racketeering conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and tax offenses. Ms. Loren-Maltese herself is charged with racketeering, wire fraud, mail fraud and filing a false tax return. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison on each of the most serious charges, involving racketeering and fraud. The indictment says that from April 1992 to March 1997, Cicero paid $33 million to SRC, the insurance administration firm, based in northwest suburban Schaumburg. Over the course of that time, the indictment says, Cicero's insurance committee — Ms. Loren-Maltese, Police Chief Emil Schullo and Treasurer Joseph DeChicio — authorized payment of $28 million to the firm without the approval of the town board as required by ordinance. Of that $28 million, more than $10 million is said to have been stolen. Besides the three officials who made up the insurance committee, those charged today are Michael Spano Sr., described by the authorities as having mob ties and a hidden controlling interest in SRC; his son, Michael Spano Jr., controller of the firm; John LaGiglio, also said to have had an interest in the firm; his wife, Bonnie LaGiglio, a general partner and manager of the Wisconsin hotel that the accused are said to have bought; Gregory Ross, an accountant for Mr. LaGiglio, the elder Mr. Spano and the firm; Charles Schneider, a lawyer for Mr. LaGiglio and the elder Mr. Spano, as well as tax preparer for Ms. Loren-Maltese; and Frank Taylor, who was hired to manage the firm but who the authorities said was now cooperating with them. Eight of the 10 defendants were arrested today. Mr. Schneider was out of town but is expected to surrender on Monday, and Mr. Taylor is in prison for an unrelated federal tax fraud conviction in Minnesota. All eight of those arrested were later released, either on personal recognizance or on secured bond. Ms. Loren-Maltese, arrested at her home in Indiana, secured a $100,000 bond with her house here in Cicero. Late this afternoon Ms. Loren-Maltese, a flashy 51-year-old Republican who has been town president for nearly a decade, appeared for a hearing in federal court, tugging at her black blouse and shifting her weight from foot to foot but saying nothing. In the lobby, her lawyer, Terry Gillespie, spoke briefly. "She's saddened," Mr. Gillespie said of his client, "and quite frankly disgusted, that she was arrested this morning. It wasn't necessary. A phone call would have got us down here. "She is also saddened by the indictment. She has done everything in her power, since the Specialty Risk situation arose, to investigate it, including bringing lawsuits, including hiring a special prosecutor to investigate it. To suggest she's involved in a conspiracy she's worked so diligently over the last several years to uncover leaves her sad and ashamed. The truth will come out in court." Law enforcement officials said they hoped that today marked the beginning of the end to years of corruption in a town stained by mob influence for as long as anyone here can remember. Only last month, a federal jury awarded $1.7 million to David Niebur, who had been fired as police chief after being on the job just four months, and Philip Bue, fired as deputy chief. The two men had been helping the F.B.I. investigate corruption here, and the jury found that they had been unfairly dismissed and that Ms. Loren-Maltese and Merrick Scott Rayle, former town counsel, had hurt their further job prospects by focusing attention on the firings. And in the last three years alone, two former Cicero detectives have been convicted of taking bribes to fix investigations, a former town clerk has been convicted of stealing parking meter payments and a former town collector has admitted asking for a bribe. The arrest of Ms. Loren-Maltese followed by two months her landslide election to a third four-year term after a heated campaign against a Democratic challenger, Joseph Mario Moreno, and a vote watched by federal monitors. Reached by telephone this afternoon, Mr. Moreno said he was "shocked at the magnitude of the looting that took place in the town of Cicero." Of Ms. Loren-Maltese's indictment, he said, "I don't think there's any stronger reason for any elected official to immediately resign from office." ========= http://www.conspiracy-net.com/archives/articles/conspiracy/conspnation/CN727 .txt ... With Richie Daley's circle along with Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Rostenkowski owns Garfield Ridge Trust & Savings Bank in Chicago, reportedly tied to money laundering of dope loot from the CIA-linked airport in Arkansas at Mena. The media has identified a fellow named John Christopher as the FBI "mole" who went around setting up city officials with bribes to be allowed to dump construction junk illegally. Has Christopher been also linked to Glenrock? Christopher reportedly arranged to launder millions of dollars of mobster money through First National Bank of Cicero, now the flagship of Pinnacle Banc Group. The Cicero bank has long been dominated by Bishop Paul Marcinkus, originally from the mob- enclave of Cicero, and until 1991, head of the mob-CIA-linked Vatican Bank. One of his reported pals is now Illinois State Treasurer. (She praised Marcinkus on one of our cable TV shows.) Pinnacle is the alter ego and successor to the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International [BCCI] which handled covert funds for CIA and bribed public officials worldwide including in the U.S. (So you really thought BCCI had gone under in 1991 as stated by the newsfakers.) Reportedly tied to the illegal and corrupt dumping in Chicago's inner city black communities has been Gail Ginsberg who has been general counsel of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Her husband is Chicago Federal Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Ginsberg, fingered by us as a crooked judge. Together, they are a highly corrupt team. The judge for many years was closely linked to CIA director Bill Casey. ========= http://www.conspiracy-net.com/archives/articles/conspiracy/conspnation/CN778 .txt ... Colby, who had been Director of Central Intelligence from 1973-1976, continued on after 1980 as the overseer of the new name, Household International. Subsidiaries, actually and technically savings and loans, were called Household Bank. In the 1980s, some thirty or more savings and loan associations were secretly taken over by CIA, for use to funnel covert funds for bloody and dirty tricks. After the operation was concluded, the money was sucked out, and the particular S&L "collapsed". A highly skilled Texas journalist detailed the doings of some 26 of these CIA-S&L operations which went "bust" and the clean-up arranged supposedly by the federal deposit insurance authorities at the great damage and detriment of the taxpayers. One of the S&Ls was run by one of George Bush's sons. See: Pete Brewton's heavily documented work, "The Mafia, the CIA, and George Bush". Three or more CIA-S&Ls, not mentioned in the book, were in Illinois, in the Chicago area. CLYDE SAVINGS & LOAN. A director of this reputed CIA operation was Congressman Henry Hyde who wore two hats. First, he was head of the CIA's "black budget" with more actual authority than the Director of Central Intelligence. Second, he has been a Congressman, on the House Intelligence Committee. More recently, Hyde became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, with authority to decide who, if anyone, is subject to impeachment for being a corrupt federal judge. Does it not violate the U.S. Constitution's mandate of Separation of Powers, for Hyde to be both a Congressman at the same time he is head of CIA's "black budget" for dirty tricks? The Federal Savings and Loan bail-out agency, Resolution Trust Corporation [RTC], brought an action in Chicago Federal District Court, accusing Hyde of various misconduct in the downfall of Clyde Savings. Case No. 93 C 2477. The case was being heard by Chicago Federal District Judge Brian Barnett Duff, closely aligned with the Federal Reserve and a crony of George Bush. Judge Duff is no stranger to covering up massive corruption. In 1990-91, he had the case involving the Federal Reserve Board, the House Banking Committee, and Italy's Banca Nazionale Delavoro, Italy's largest bank owned in part by the Vatican. At issue were records of BNL's Chicago branch, relating to the private joint business ventures of Iraq's strongman, originally installed by CIA, Saddam Hussein, and Hussein's secret business partner. Judge Duff ordered the records be kept secret. This writer and his associates were the only journalists attending the federal appeals hearing of the BNL case in May, 1991. I interviewed two of the participants who told me that the secret private business partner of Saddam Hussein has been George Bush, at the time U.S. President. Involved were BNL records relating to oil kick-backs from the whole Persian Gulf area for the decade 1980, to 1990, 25 billion dollars per year kick-backs, shared by Saddam Hussein with George Bush and Bush's circle of cronies; 25 percent of one trillion dollars of oil shipped to the West in that decade, 25 billion dollars per year, 250 Billion Dollars total. So Judge Duff knew how to torpedo controversies and cover them up. At a crucial point in the case against Henry Hyde, a CIA attorney appeared in chambers with Judge Duff, and persuaded Duff -- as if persuading were needed -- that all key records are to be kept secret. In a later trick, Judge Duff arranged to delay a trial on key issues for several years by certifying a piece-meal appeal, usually not permitted -- all to protect CIA and Hyde. LIBERTYVILLE SAVINGS & LOAN. A director of this CIA S&L was Charles Hunter who was the chief financial officer of the drugstore chain, Walgreen's. Hunter actually ran Walgreen's since the CEO, "Cork" Walgreen, spent two weeks of the month vacationing in Florida. RTC sued Charles Hunter in Chicago's Federal District Court, accusing Hunter and others of causing the downfall of Libertyville S&L, Case No. 91 C 1741. Accused of causing damages of more than 42 million dollars, the details could have great impact on Hunter's role with Walgreen's, showing violation of his fiduciary duties as chief financial officer of Walgreen's. Hearing the case was Chicago Federal District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber -- wife, Lynn Martin, was Secretary of Labor in the Bush Administration. (We confronted her on a radio talk show, asking her to explain why her husband the Judge never disqualified himself when several cases were on his docket which she as Labor Secretary was shown as a party to the case. She replied, she never asked her husband about his Court work.) To cover up the CIA S&L case, Judge Leinenweber reportedly received a gift, or bribe, of some 17 million dollars. The RTC officials bringing the case looked the other way, as they did in corrupt doings related to Bill and Hillary Clinton. OLYMPIA SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION, reportedly operated by CIA in a suburb of Chicago. Overseer in this operation reportedly has been Dr. Earl Brian, a financial industry and mass media heavyweight. In various books, he is accused of being a key player in the "October Surprise", guns and money funneled to Iran to have them delay release of the U.S. hostages so as to wreck Jimmy Carter's bid for re-election as president and help install the Reagan/Bush ticket. The hostages were released in January, 1981, just as Reagan was being sworn in as the new President. Dr. Earl Brian reportedly played a key role in the INSLAW Affair. He also owned Channel 66 TV, just south of Chicago, in an area that is the reputed U.S. entry point for the smuggling in to this country of "China White", high purity heroin. He ran a financial espionage operation called Financial News Network. Brian has been prosecuted in Los Angeles Federal Court, for a scam using FNN; the details about espionage and CIA have been omitted from the federal criminal charges, however, by the federal prosecutor. AMERICAN HERITAGE SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION. Reportedly used in part for washing CIA covert funds, the collapsed shell of what was left was merged and taken over by Household Bank. The Federal Home Loan Bank parked 58.4 million dollars with Household to satisfy claims pending since 1983 by Joseph Andreuccetti, a west suburban caulking contractor. Andreuccetti was the victim of a swindle that included the following: 1. Multi-million dollar condo complex in Addison, Illinois, a west suburb of Chicago, a very short distance from the home of Henry Hyde. Called Kingspoint Condominiums, in the deal the nephew/godson of Paul Marcinkus, namely Christian Henning, Jr., falsely claimed to be Andreuccetti's partner. Marcinkus, until 1991, was the head of the Vatican Bank. Authorities of the Republic of Italy contend Marcinkus was part of a scheme to launder dope and gun smuggling and political assassination funds, on behalf of the Sicilian mafia and the American CIA, through the Vatican Bank. Bishop Marcinkus has so far escaped extradition from Sun City, Arizona, where he resides now, back to Italy, on the contention that the Vatican is a separate sovereignty from Italy. 2. Marcinkus, originally from the long-known mafia-enclave of Cicero, a Chicago suburb, has been the dominant force controlling First National Bank of Cicero, a reputed Mafia-CIA money machine. To try to cover up a vast scam by Marcinkus, Henning, and others, the Cicero bank used false loan details to fraudulently push Andreuccetti into *involuntary* bankruptcy, still pending since 1984, Case numbers 84 B 10338, 10339, and some ten related cases showing the roles of Household, the First National Bank of Cicero, First Midwest Bank, and others in skimming off funds used for bribing judges and other political officials. 3. Officials of the defunct American Heritage S&L, to silence them, were prosecuted in the case of U.S. vs. John Best et al. The federal prosecutor, William R. Hogan, Jr., is a story all by himself. Reportedly trained and groomed by Special Forces and CIA, Hogan in a way is far too clever to have been just an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago. Hogan's extended family has included those close to the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago who also is Treasurer for the whole Catholic Church for the Western Hemisphere, from Canada to Argentina. Hogan was the federal prosecutor in a large group of cases of the narco-terrorist street gang called the El Rukns. The gang previously was called the Blackstone Rangers and was used as computer models in how they cowed and terrorized Chicago southside neighborhoods, to study how to cow and terrorize hamlets in Viet Nam. Until Hogan showed up, the El Rukns were untouchable. Their bail bond money was often supplied by the traditional mafia. The gang early on was financed by CIA-linked Foundations, including the Charles Merrill Trust of Cambridge, Mass. (Linked to Merrill-Lynch stock brokerage.) Hogan is accused by his Justice Department bosses of having been overzealous in the El Rukn prosecutions. Most of the defendants who were also witnesses against other gang members were already in jail awaiting trials. Hogan is accused of arranging sex and dope for some of the El Rukns, either inside the jail, or transporting them to a federal office building to have sex and dope there. Hogan's apparent defense is that if this occurred at all, it was arranged or supervised by his supervisors. The more serious matters, according to Hogan's circle, is that at least six federal judges in Chicago take bribes, as known to corrupt officials in the IRS and the Justice Department; and that nothing is being done by federal authorities. Among those reportedly taking bribes is Chief Bankruptcy Judge John D. Schwartz presiding in the Joseph Andreuccetti cases and related matters. Schwartz previously was a director and stockholder of First National Bank of Cicero, instrumentally interwoven in the complex of details in the Andreuccetti Affair. According to an undisputed admission and confession in a related court case, Schwartz has not filed a proper federal income tax return and has an estimated off-shore net worth of 141 million dollars -- has not filed a proper return in *30 years*. The Kingspoint valuable property was purchased by Wallace Lieberman, on other occasions a federal bankruptcy auctioneer; Lieberman's partner in the deal was Robert Belavia, a reputed mafia kingpin. Shortly after Marcinkus returned to the U.S. and a few days after a complaint about Lieberman was made to the U.S. Attorney in Chicago about Lieberman, he was murdered, apparently by an FBI agent (the same one, according to undisputed federal court records) who caused some 40 federal grand jury witnesses to be murdered or to disappear in the proceedings in 1991-92, in the INSLAW Affair (high Reagan and Bush administration officials accused of stealing high technology and selling it to, among others, sworn enemies of the U.S.) That same FBI agent, Mike "Chuckie" Peters, flies a helicopter and plays a key role in the 1996 events in Montana. 4. In a federal court case against top IRS and Justice Department officials, involving corruption, an undisputed confession and admission of an official in the Criminal Investigation Division of IRS shows: -- the higher ups at IRS stole the Kingspoint properties from Lieberman and arranged to hustle Belavia quickly into prison; that the IRS officials stole the properties for their own personal benefit and caused certain related land title records to disappear as part of a cover up. As shown in Case No. 92 C 7048, in Chicago Federal District Court. -- that the IRS was instrumental in covering up the disappearance of 50 million dollars, parked by federal authorities with Household Bank -- on which Joseph Andreuccetti has a long-pending claim -- and that the money was secretly transferred to Little Rock in an attempt to cover up some 47 million dollars reportedly embezzled by Bill and Hillary Clinton from Madison Guaranty S&L in Little Rock. -- that the Bankruptcy Trustee in the Andreuccetti cases, Jay A. Steinberg, has been allowed and permitted to file false and fraudulent state and federal revenue forms and tax returns, supposedly in the name of Joseph Andreuccetti, without the knowledge or consent of Andreuccetti. 5. Steinberg is a partner in the huge law firm of Hopkins & Sutter, major counsel for RTC. The firm arranged for two faraway lawyers -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vincent W. Foster, Jr. -- to work on the left-over problem of a Chicago-area savings and loan whose collapse was caused by fraudulent bonds by Clinton's dope and bond broker crony, Dan Lasater. Hillary and Vince reportedly whitewashed hundreds of millions that could have been recovered by RTC. Hopkins and Sutter also arranged to have George Bush's son escape prison in the Silverado S&L scandal in Denver. EVENTS ESCALATE AGAINST WILLIAM COLBY ===================================== By 1995-96, matters intensified in which William Colby was implicated, in one way or another. The First National Bank of Cicero, dominated by mafia-CIA darling Bishop Paul Marcinkus, recent head of the Vatican Bank, had been taken over by Pinnacle Banc Group, the successor and alter ego of the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International. It was becoming more and more known, through items posted on Internet, and stories elsewhere, that the espionage operation, BCCI, dominated by CIA, had not, in fact, collapsed in July 1991; that Pinnacle was the new name and face. Four major, international news operations had the BCCI bribery list, how they bribed 25 percent of both houses of the U.S. Congress -- 28 U.S. Senators and 108 members of the House. Although the establishment news groups had the list and corroborated its validity, they decided not to go with it -- it would destabilize the U.S. central government. Strange, but the list, for 30 days, was a public record at the Bank of England! This writer received from a brave journalist the list and corroboration, and wrote a story about it in a right-wing paper in 1991. The publication received the list of names but deleted them from the published story. By 1995, the names were becoming more and more known and the result: an unusually large number of representatives and senators suddenly decided to resign, retire, and not run for re-election in 1996. Some of them had already arranged their re-election campaign literature. It was becoming more and more evident that former CIA Director William Colby was directly implicated in the dirty business -- now implicating the Clintons -- of Household International and Household Bank. Colby was reportedly directly involved in the BCCI/Pinnacle Banc Group espionage operations. The Roger D'Onofrio Affair in Italy [see CN 6.65] was not going away; he was a top American CIA official, residing in Italy, put under house arrest for being involved in arranging for the Vatican Bank, in conjunction with the Sicilian mafia, to launder dope and gun loot, smuggle gold, and sell nuclear bomb triggers to sworn enemies of the U.S. A member of the London Gold Pool, living near the First National Bank of Cicero, John Tarullo, was murdered in August 1995. His connections extended reportedly to the CIA, the Archbishop of Milan, the FBI Counter-Intelligence section, as well as the traditional Sicilian mafia. Tarullo's connections reportedly extended to Judy Baar Topinka, a close crony of the Bank [of Cicero] and Marcinkus; she was elected Illinois State Treasurer in 1994. Did the Vatican Bank now have their agent in charge of all the state public money of Illinois? (She praised that Bank and Marcinkus on this writer's public access cable TV show just prior to her election.) Also becoming clear was William Colby's role in trying to get an armlock on political dissent in the U.S. Notice the role of Colby's close crony John DeCamp, an attorney from Lincoln, Nebraska, in trying to throttle various financial possible scandals, such as Pinnacle Banc Group/BCCI, Household International, Household Bank, the Clintons and the strange death of National Security Agency operative Vincent W. Foster, Jr. at the time Foster was also a top Clinton White House aide. -- cronies of the so-called Independent Whitewater Counsel Kenneth Starr were reportedly trying to push John DeCamp to be in charge of Joseph Andreuccetti and his explosive group of court cases. Luckily, Joe [Andreuccetti] refused. -- John DeCamp reportedly played a role in attempting to control or manipulate Oklahoma Federal Grand juror Hoppy Heidelberg. Hoppy was attempting to persuade fellow grand jurors that the FBI and other federal authorities have to be compelled to bring before the grand jurors certain data about John Doe #2, or even #3, in respect to the Oklahoma City bombing case. A reputed government counter-intelligence agent, Lawrence W. Myers, became the chief investigative reporter -- if not actually the controlling force -- of a new, supposedly dissident publication, called Media Bypass magazine, that went from about 5,000 monthly circulation to near 50,000 in a very short time. The militia movement, the Freemen, the tax protester movement, and others like them, somehow got the impression that Media Bypass magazine spoke for them. Who checked Myers' background? He was reportedly highly skilled in counter-terrorism, an expert on bomb making, and had worked for the adjunct to CIA, namely, Wackenhut, on terrorist problems. Myers wrote four published books on bomb making including remote explosives detonators. The books were published by a reputed CIA proprietary, Palladin Press, reportedly supervised by William Colby and his cronies. John Doe #3 reportedly was an Iraqi intelligence official brought into the U.S. and kept totally surveilled and supervised by the CIA. Did the Iraqi "spook" help the American CIA create a so-called terrorism event in Oklahoma City to promote possible martial law to strangle growing dissent in the U.S.? Or was it a bungled event, done with U.S. central government complicity? By April 1996 it was becoming clear to some that William Colby had to disappear or be thrown away. Household International's stock took a tumble; they were forced to give away 54 of their Household Bank units to the Harris Bank, a unit of the Canadian bank octopus, Bank of Montreal, owned by the infamous Bronfman family, big in dope, gun smuggling, *and* booze. Not everyone bought the mass media story that the Bronfmans actually paid over 200 million dollars for the Household Bank units. About 10 days after the Household Bank-Harris Bank arrangement, William Colby disappeared. Colby's close crony, John DeCamp, was supposedly advisor to Hoppy at the same time DeCamp was attorney for Media Bypass and closely linked to Myers, the reputed "spook". Some clever sorts were putting two and two together. Was the whole magazine a trick to catalogue and finger dissidents? Did Myers and DeCamp almost cause Hoppy to be arrested? -- a few days prior to his disappearance, Colby was in Texas at a university seminar on the Viet Nam War. Some thought maybe Colby was knowledgeable about POWs who the U.S. government cannot admit still exist in Southeast Asia: are the POWs made into "mules" in the dope trade for the reported benefit of Colin Powell and his pals George Bush and Richard Armitage? Did Colby whisper explosive items into some ears in or near the seminar? Former CIA Director William Colby was too involved. So, the mysterious "they" used the boat trick, to make him disappear or for murder. At the time of his disappearance, Colby was under Congressional subpoena to testify. Some believe his testimony could have put Bill and Hillary Clinton in prison.
