Entries from Gothamist tagged with 'fbi'
May 16, 2008
There are more answers and questions regarding the disappearance of a NJ woman from a cruise ship. The Norwegian Cruise Line company said surveillance videos show 46-year-old Mindy Jordan alone in her room and falling from her cabin's balcony, and the FBI said, "The information that we have acquired does not suggest a crime, but that is not definitive," and said it would continue with the investigation (the FBI did seize the cruise's railings). Jordan's......
Continue Reading "FBI: Cruise Disppearance "Does Not Suggest Crime" (So Far)"May 1, 2008
The drownings that two retired NYPD detectives linked to a serial killing spree they claim has been underway for over a decade, is being questioned by both the FBI and police commish Ray Kelly. Newsday reports that yesterday Kelly stated there is "nothing to suggest" that the two men who drowned in New York were victims of a nationwide network of serial killers who are allegedly responsible for approximately 40 deaths since 1997. The network,......
Continue Reading "NYPD and FBI Question the Smiley Face Gang"April 21, 2008
Roger Stone, infamous GOP operative who formerly consulted for the NY State GOP, tells NY1 that he "told the FBI in November of Spitzer's possible involvement in a prostitution ring." An interview with Stone will be broadcast on tonight's "Inside City Hall." Stone explains that he met "high-priced call girl" at an "adult club in Florida," "The service got a call to send somebody for an assignation with Eliot Spitzer, but he specified that he......
Continue Reading "GOP Operative Claims Credit for Spitzer's Hookergate"March 28, 2008
A missing 7-year-old Queens boy arrived back in NYC this week after a successful enterprise that involved the NYPD, FBI, American Embassy, a charity to track kidnapped children, and a tip to his mother's MySpace account. Kobe Lee was kidnapped by his father, Jeffrey Salko, during a joint custody-authorized visit. Salko and Tiffany Rubin separated when their child was just four months old, and Salko was facing a six-month jail sentence for failing to pay......
Continue Reading "Kidnapped Boy Found in S.Korea, Returned to Queens"March 23, 2008
According to the tabloids (and the Miami Herald), apparently, former Governor Spitzer would not only solicit high-priced call girls in Florida but that he'd keep his black mid-calf socks on during the deed. Take that, NY Times story about finding the good in Spitzer's term as Governor! Of course, these socking claims come from GOP operative Roger Stone, who may or may not have left a rude voicemail on Spitzer's dad's phone, calling Eliot a......
Continue Reading "Spitzer Reportedly a Socks-on John"March 23, 2008
The NYPD is going to be constructing a secure facility at police headquarters to house and gain access to classified anti-terrorism intelligence previously limited to national organizations like the FBI. The center is known as a Sensitive Compartmented Intelligence Facility (SCIF) and access to the facility will only be granted to NYPD personnel with proper security clearances. The SCIF was requested by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has NYPD personnel working abroad to combat terrorism......
Continue Reading "NYPD to Build "Vault" for Anti-Terrorism Info"March 18, 2008
Though the mystery has never been solved, many have attached Sean "Diddy" Combs and Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls/The Notorious B.I.G.) to the 1994 attack and 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur -- sparking an East Coast/West Coast rap war, leading to Biggie's 1997 murder and escalating the "no snitching" policy into law. The accusation even came from Tupac himself after the attack in 1994. Enter LA Times writer Chuck Phillips, who has been on the beat......
Continue Reading "Diddy Didn't Shoot Tupac...or Diddy?"March 8, 2008
The police think the 10-speed bicycle, left near the trash on Thursday morning, belongs to the person who bombed the army recruiting center in Times Square. The bike, left on East 38th Street, was found by some workers who heard about the bombing and contacted the police, who learned of the bike at 7 a.m. (the bombing occurred around 3:45 a.m.). Surveillance footage shows the suspected bomber on a bicycle near the recruiting center......
Continue Reading "NYPD: Trashed Bike May Be Times Square Bomber's"March 7, 2008
Photographs of the damaged recruiting center (above) and Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly (below) by Mary Altaffer/AP The FBI said letters sent to many Congressional members with a photograph of a man standing in front of the Times Square recruiting center and an anti-war manifesto were not linked to yesterday's bombing outside the center. A law enforcement source did call the letters an "incredibly unbelievable coincidence," as they arrived in many offices yesterday,......
Continue Reading "DC Letters Not Linked to Times Square Bombing; Similarities With Earlier Consulate Bombings"March 6, 2008
Images from surveillance footage via WNBC The NYPD released surveillance footage of this morning's explosion near the Army recruiting center in Times Square. The footage shows a bicyclist approaching the building and an explosion taking place after he leaves. The bicyclist is of interest because a witness told the police he/she saw a bicyclist acting suspiciously. Earlier today, Police Commissioner Kelly said, "The individual (on the bicycle) was wearing a hood and dark colored......
Continue Reading "Footage Shows Bicyclist Before Times Square Explosion"March 6, 2008
If you're one of those people that think the FBI has better things to do than investigate Roger Clemens, you have an ally in Washington DC. Congressman Anthony Weiner voiced his opinion on the investigation into Clemens. Weiner sent a letter to the Attorney General questioning the benefit of continuing the investigation into Clemens’ testimony to Congress, saying "Whether or not Roger Clemens may have committed perjury should not compete with real national security threats......
Continue Reading "Weiner Calls For Stop to Clemens Inquiry"February 29, 2008
The news just gets worse and worse for Roger Clemens. A day after Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clemens lied about performance enhancing drugs in testimony, the FBI announced that it is leading the inquiry. Clemens is about to learn that you can’t intimidate the FBI with a 95-mph fastball. They won’t back down if you throw a piece of a broken bat at them. Glare at them all you want, it......
Continue Reading "Now the FBI is After Clemens' Buttocks"February 11, 2008
If your actions helped lead to what many called the biggest mob bust in two decades, would you be showing your face in the five boroughs for the Five Families to see? Well, Joseph Vollaro, who is supposed to be in witness protection, seems to live life to its very edge, as the Post reports he "brashly strolled into a Staten Island sushi restaurant Saturday night," picking up take-out. Vollaro went to Mizu in Tottenville......
Continue Reading "Gambino Informant, Supposedly in Witness Protection, Has Saturday Night Staten Island Sushi Dinner"February 10, 2008
Photograph of arrested mobsters being led by the FBI on Thursday by ~Raymond on Flickr It turns out that Thursday's take down of 62 mob figures, many of them high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family and called the biggest mob bust in decades, was spurred by a Staten Island trucking company owner. Joseph Vollaro, who made a lot of money for the Gambinos, ended up becoming a government informant after being caught in......
Continue Reading "Gambino Bust: The Trucker Who Brought Down the Family; All About Mob Nicknames"February 8, 2008
Sixty-two men associated with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families were arrested yesterday in a federal, state and local coordinated sweep in the New York region. A number of Gambino-related arrests were also made in Italy, and authorities have described this as the biggest mob bust in decades. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, "Our goal is and always has been simple: to dismantle the Gambino organized-crime family in a coordinated and consistent......
Continue Reading "Gambino Family Goes Down in Feds' Mafia Sweep"February 7, 2008
This morning, federal agents have arrested over 50 members of the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families in New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island. Authorities are calling this the "biggest mafia bust in more than 20 years." The Post reports the 80-count indictment includes charges of murder, labor racketeering, "racketeering conspiracy, extortion, , theft of union benefits, mail fraud, false statements, loan sharking, embezzlement of union funds, money laundering and illegal gambling." One......
Continue Reading "Feds Round Up Mobsters All Over NYC"February 4, 2008
New York State Senate leader Joseph Bruno is still under FBI investigation for possibly improper ties to unions that deal with state pension agencies! In 2006, Bruno said of the FBI's look, "I have nothing to hide. They are going into background over the past five or six years," but the NY Times describes the feds' current investigation as widening. At issue are tens of millions of dollars paid by Albany labor unions in fees......
Continue Reading "State Senate Leader Bruno Still Investigated by FBI"January 21, 2008
One Bed-Stuy family is making some money by renting out rooms in their house. Not an uncommon practice, but the lady of the house recently recounted the faces that have passed through the revolving door of their cheapest room for rent: the windowless bedroom! This gem (pictured) is generally rented out to the early-20s set. Since Craigslist tends to bring out the crazies, let's take a look at a life of living with some C-list......
Continue Reading "The Windowless Room for Rent in Bed-Stuy"January 14, 2008
Luxury cruise line Cunard has many ships, but last night was the first time that its Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth 2, and new Queen Victoria ships were in the "same port at the same time." And the port was the NewYork Harbor, under fireworks and gaze of the Statue of Liberty. Cunard scheduled the three ships' departures to coincide for this one time, an event two years in the planning, requiring logistics planning......
Continue Reading "Three Queens Meet in New York"January 3, 2008
Police officials announced that the man killed by plainclothes narcotics officers in Brooklyn Sunday night had been on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Darin Richardson had shot and wounded a Cobb County, Georgia police officer in 2005 and had been on the run the past two-plus years. Richardson was being followed by police after they suspected he had a concealed weapon (he had been "fiddling with his waistband") as he left a bodega in East......
Continue Reading "Man Killed by Police Wanted by FBI"December 13, 2007
At 6:30AM yesterday morning, federal agents delivered "wake-up" subpoenas to the Reverend Al Shaprton and four of his employees at the National Action Network. The FBI and IRS are looking for financial and corporate records, some dating back to 2001, as part of an investigation into Sharpton's financing of his 2004 presidential campaign as well as allegations of tax fraud. Ten people in total were subpoenaed, including a former chief of staff who left in......
Continue Reading "Feds Supboena Sharpton, His Aides Over Financials"November 29, 2007
Ha! Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa wants to take John Gotti Jr. on his offer. Gotti Jr., who was unsucccessfully tried three times for allegedly shooting and kidnapping Sliwa, told reporters on Tuesday that he'd take a polygraph test "on national TV" if the FBI agent who spread rumors that Gotti was becoming a government informant was charged. Last night, Sliwa said on NY1's Inside City Hall - holding a bunch of cash, "John Gotti,......
Continue Reading "Sliwa Offers Gotti $100K to Take Polygraph Test"November 28, 2007
John Gotti Jr. interrupted his lawyer and spoke with reporters after appearing at Federal Court in White Plains yesterday. Gotti, reacting to a 2006 story in the NY Post which claimed he was becoming a government informant, became angry and said that his family was scared of a possible mob hit:My family lives in fear as a result of this. What happens next? Tell me, what happens next? Does it make it all better if......
Continue Reading "Junior Gotti's Fear of the Whack"November 21, 2007
Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a woman fell from a building at 35th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan, a body part was found on 20th Rd. and 18th St. in Queens, and a pedestrian was fatally struck at 50th St. and 6th Ave. in Brooklyn. Architects may lose the 408 foot spire that tops off the Freedom Tower because giant antennas may be technologically obsolete. An alliance of broadcasters are considering moving to......
Continue Reading "Extra, Extra"November 11, 2007
Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......
Continue Reading "Week Around the -Ists"November 11, 2007
Over a week ago, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against ex-FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio after their star witness's credibility came into question. DeVecchio's trial was as high-profile as they come, as the Brooklyn DA's office charged him with tipping off mobster-turned-FBI information Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa Jr. with information that led to four murders, and their case hinged on the testimony of Scarpa's mistress, Linda Schiro. In late October, Schiro had testified......
Continue Reading "Mob Mistress Claims She Told the Truth"November 9, 2007
A grand jury voted to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on federal corruption charges yesterday and, this morning, he surrender to the FBI in White Plains. The indictment was sealed, but the 16 counts include charges of "conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and making false statements." The U.S. Attorney's office, which sought the indictment, and the FBI are giving a press conference now; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York......
Continue Reading "Kerik Surrenders After Federal Grand Jury Indictment"November 3, 2007
After Brooklyn prosecutors decided to drop murder charges against ex-FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, after the star witness's testimony was deemed questionable, the judge presiding over the case decided to scold the defendant. DeVecchio had been on trial for allegedly giving mob informant Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa information to kill other rival informants. Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach's four page ruling included turns of phrase like, What is undeniable was that in the......
Continue Reading "Ex-FBI Agent Trial Ends in Dramatic Fashion"November 1, 2007
Blockbuster trial no more: Former FBI Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio escaped four murder charges when the Brooklyn DA's office decided to dismiss its case accusing him of helping a mobster kill his rivals. The move became clear after Village Voice reporter Tom Robbins realized that the prosecution's star witness had told him very different things in a 1997 interview. The Brooklyn DA's office pinned its hope on Linda Schiro, mistress to mobster Gregory "The......
Continue Reading "Prosecutors Drop Murder Case Against Ex-FBI Agent "October 26, 2007
Two explosive devices detonated outside the Mexican Consulate at 39th St. near Madison Ave. in Manhattan early this morning, breaking several windows but not injuring anyone. The devices were believed to be replica hand grenades of the sort that are normally sold as novelties, but in this instance were packed with gunpowder. The explosions occurred around 3:30 a.m. and a resident on the block called the police reporting them. It wasn't until employees at the......
Continue Reading "Grenades Lobbed Towards Mexican Consulate"
