Gus Boulis Trial

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Evidence for the connection between 911 hijackers and gambling boats:

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Makram Chams had been a partner in 1997 and 1998 in a gambling boat called “Vegas in Venice,” which cleaned up in Venice for two years.

The controlling partner in the gambling ship in which Makram Chams was a partner is Ian Goldfarb, from Gladwyne, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia.

The only other local partner in the casino ship, we were shocked to discover, was Max Burge, who we’d interviewed during our research because Burge owned the planes used at Huffman Aviation.

Employees on a SunCruz gambling ship that sails from John's Pass think some of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were gambling on the ship the week before the attacks.

The FBI is investigating. SunCruz Casinos has turned over security videotapes and documents to FBI investigators.

Two or three men linked to the hijackings may have been customers on the SunCruz ship that is based at John's Pass, said Michael Hlavsa, chairman of the gambling cruise company.

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Summary:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Two men with connections to a New York-based organized crime family carefully and coldly planned the 2001 slaying of a prominent South Florida businessman to guarantee continued lucrative income from a fleet of gambling cruise ships, a prosecutor told jurors Monday as their murder trial opened.

Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, 75, and 56-year-old Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari decided they had to get rid of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis in the midst of a power struggle over the SunCruz Casinos fleet and arranged for a mob hit man to fatally shoot Boulis as he sat in his car on a Fort Lauderdale street, said Assistant State Attorney Gregg Rossman.

Defendant Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari mouthed threats in court Wednesday as a key witness began testifying in the murder trial stemming from the 2001 slaying of a prominent South Florida businessman, leading the judge to admonish Ferrari.

"Can I ask you a question?" Nicholson asked Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes outside the jury's presence. "Is Tony Ferrari allowed to threaten me? First thing he called me was a rat." Holmes responded that he was not and urged Ferrari's attorney, Christopher Grillo, to rein in his client.

When he was first asked to kill Miami Subs founder Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, Dwayne Nicholson told a jury Thursday, he said no. He could hurt the man. He could break his legs. But he wouldn't kill him. But Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari, who had hired Nicholson for security and to help collect money from debtors, wouldn't take no for an answer, Nicholson said.

Testifying on the fourth day of a murder and conspiracy trial in Fort Lauderdale, Nicholson told jurors that Ferrari and Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello were determined in late 2000 to see Boulis dead, and they expected Nicholson to be the one to make it happen.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Christopher Grillo, Nicholson answered many questions with "I don't remember," even after Grillo had him read over his statements to police.

Shortly after the murder, Nicholson contacted authorities to implicate Ferrari and Moscatiello. Police later wired his van to listen in on a conversation he had with James "Pudgy" Fiorillo a few months after the killing.

Fiorillo pleaded guilty as an accessory in the murder after making a deal with prosecutors in 2011. He was sentenced to time served and agreed to testify against his former codefendants.

The second week of trial is starting in Fort Lauderdale for two men accused of arranging the 2001 mob-style slaying of a prominent South Florida businessman.

Testimony resumes Monday in the prosecution's case against Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello and Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari. They are accused of orchestrating the shooting death by a mob hit man of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis during a struggle for control of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.

Moscatiello and Ferrari face the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors say Moscatiello is part of New York's Gambino crime family.

Boulis, founder of the Miami Subs restaurant chain, was attempting to regain control over SunCruz after selling the fleet a few months earlier. SunCruz was purchased by New York businessman Adam Kidan and former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

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A man originally accused of conspiring to kill Miami Subs founder Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis 12 years ago took the stand Tuesday, saying it was he who disposed of the murder weapon.

James "Pudgy" Fiorillo testified for more than six hours Tuesday, keeping up his end of a plea agreement that required him to provide evidence against former co-defendants Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello and Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari.

Moscatiello and Ferrari face the death penalty if convicted.

The crime had all the ingredients of a messy mob hit, and the trial, which continues this week, has all the trappings of New York’s mafia underworld: money, power and betrayal.

Only one thing was missing: sex. That changed this past week, when the identity of a mysterious woman surfaced in the murder trial of Miami Subs magnate Gus Boulis. Her name is Pina Diminno, and she was the mistress of Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, one of two mobsters accused of arranging Boulis’ Feb. 6, 2001, slaying.

Diminno, a hairdresser who now lives in Canada, may have witnessed — and possibly even participated in — the plot to kill Boulis, according to witness testimony.

She has not been charged in the case and has refused to talk to prosecutors. But it was clear that she played a role, based on statements made in open court this past week.

James “Pudgy” Fiorillo, the prosecution’s star witness, testified last week that he saw Diminno’s Mazda right before Boulis was shot.

A motorist who witnessed the shooting, however, said he saw the Mazda stop in front of Boulis’ BMW right before a black Mustang pulled up beside him and a gunman opened fire.

After nearly a week’s delay, testimony resumed Wednesday in the trial of two men accused of organizing the murder of South Florida businessman Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis.

A mystery witness, whose real name was not revealed to the jury, testified that Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello offered him $100,000 to kill Boulis but that he refused to do it. Testifying under the pseudonym “Nick DiMaggio,” the secret witness said that under Gambino crime family rules, it was out of bounds to kill for money. Nick DiMaggio said hits were acceptable only for “principle” and that he was insulted when Moscatiello made the request to kill Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis in late 2000 or early 2001.

Prosecutors say the shooter was John “J.J.” Gurino, another Gambino associate whom Nick DiMaggio described as his best friend. Gurino was later shot to death by a Boca Raton deli owner.

Nick DiMaggio, who has been government informant since May 2005 and has seven felony convictions, testified under extraordinary security with several federal agents in the courtroom and a ban on any photography or videotaping of him. Under cross-examination from Moscatiello’s attorney, DiMaggio said as part of his deal with federal prosecutors for a reduced sentence he pleaded guilty to two murders, money laundering and marijuana-dealing conspiracy, and admitted to a host of other crimes ranging from cocaine and heroin dealing to assaults and truck hijackings dating to the early 1970s. He wound up doing about eight years behind bars.

“He explained to me that it come from the top. The guy (Boulis) was making a lot of problems with the gambling in South Florida,” DiMaggio testified. “There was a lot of money at stake. They needed this guy taken care of right away.”

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John JJ Gurino’s ties to Gotti go back years:

His uncles were the owners of record of the Arc Plumbing Company during Gotti’s heyday as the “Dapper Don.” According to the terms of Gotti' parole, he had to have a legitimate job, so in the summer of 1977, he had become a salesman for Arc Plumbing & Heating Corporation.

A mansion on Tortoise Lane in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey was being built for Salvatore Ruggiero through a company run by Anthony and Caesar Gurino, owners of Arc Plumbing Corporation

Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer who represented Viktor Kozeny, also once represented Caesar Gurino.

On the corner of 158th Avenue, stands the Ragtime Newsstand Dairy, an unassuming brick delicatessen.
Those seen coming and going in the Ragtime over the last 15 years are a who's who of Gotti associates, the Queens County investigator said. The chairman of the board of Ragtime is John Gurino.

Mr. Gurino was indicted in 1984 in a mob killing, fatally shooting John Vulcano in front of the house of Vulcano’s girlfriend. Mr. Gurino's cousin, Anthony J. Gurino, is in prison for obstruction of justice in a Federal case involving a multimillion-dollar heroin ring linked to John J. Gotti's brother Gene.

Three executives of a Queens company that the New York City Housing Authority paid $9.6 million for construction work were indicted on charges they secretly funneled more than $1 million in profits to an associate of the reputed Mafia leader John Gotti. Federal authorities said the $1 million from city funds was used to help build and run a $5 million, thoroughbred-breeding farm in Florida for Anthony J. Gurino. Housing Authority officials acknowledged that they were unaware for almost two years that the company, Hi-Tech Mechanical Inc. of Astoria, was a front for Mr. Gurino, although it had been banned in 1987 from city work because of suspected mob ties.

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Deli owner Ralph Liotta endured weeks of threats from John Gurino, a business associate who bragged about his ties to late New York mob boss John Gotti before shooting the associate during a confrontation, Liotta's defense attorney told jurors.

"He knew Mr. Gurino was a dangerous man," defense attorney David Bogenschutz said.

Gurino told Liotta, "I'm going to get you. You're dead. I'm going to bring some [guys] around and they are going to break you in front of your wife and children," Bogenschutz said. The threats kept coming, and Liotta put his wife and child on a plane to Atlanta, Bogenschutz said.

On the morning of the shooting, Gurino was hanging around the Corner Deli in the Del Mar Shopping Village waiting for Liotta to show up, Bogenschutz said. Liotta apparently got into the deli unnoticed, but then Gurino began banging on the door to be let in, Bogenschutz said.

At that point, Liotta noticed a gun sticking out of Gurino's waistband, he said, and then Gurino went out to his car. Eventually, Liotta, Gurino and three other men, including another partner in the deli, sat down to talk things out.

Gurino's anger was rekindled and he confronted Liotta and told him he was going to kill him, then slapped him, Bogenschutz said. Gurino backed up and reached for his pants, Bogenschutz said, and Liotta thought he was going for a gun. Liotta, who had a concealed weapons permit, reached for his gun and kept firing at Gurino until he fell.

Gurino's family told investigators that Gurino invested about $10,000 in the deli and had given Liotta $50,000 toward the purchase of a house that turned out not to be in Liotta's name, according to court records. The defense argued Gurino was using strong-arm tactics to try to get control of Liotta's deli and home.

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A mistrial was declared Thursday for Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, one of the men accused of orchestrating the 2001 murder of Miami Subs founder Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.

Moscatiello's lawyer, David Bogenschutz, has been battling an illness since Oct. 9, causing a five-day delay in the proceedings. He returned to court on Wednesday to vigorously cross-examine a major prosecution witness, but was too ill Thursday afternoon to continue.

Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes told the jurors, who have been sequestered since Sept. 30, that the trial will continue with co-defendant Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari as the sole defendant. Moscatiello will be tried at a later date.

The latest development forces another delay in a complex case that has been slow to move through the justice system.

Boulis was gunned down in an ambush as he left his Fort Lauderdale office on Feb. 6, 2001. At the time, he was involved in a power struggle over control of the SunCruz Casino boat business, which he sold to business partners Jack Abramoff and Adam Kidan in 2000.

Kidan, a key witness for the prosecution, said Boulis was upset over what he thought was an unfair deal in the SunCruz purchase and claimed Boulis threatened him.

“At that meeting it became a little heated and I made a statement if we can’t solve this by discussion, I said sue me. He said ‘I’m not gonna sue you I’m gonna kill you,” testified Kidan.

After that, Kidan said he bought a bulletproof car and hired Anthony Moscatiello and later, Moscatiello’s associate, Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari for protection.

But he said he was shocked when Moscatiello told him during a meeting at the Miami Fontainebleau Hotel a few days after Boulis was ambushed that the two were involved in Boulis’ murder.

“It just wasn’t supposed to happen the way it happened,” testified Kidan. “It was unfortunate that it did. The plan of choice if they couldn’t speak with him rationally was to kidnap him and bury his body somewhere.”

"He said it was a decision that he made, that just had to be done," Kidan said, referring to Moscatiello.