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4 Convicted In PA Sex Trafficking Ring 'The Sevens'
Four members of a sex trafficking ring that ran out of a boarding house in southeastern Pennsylvania have been convicted, federal authorities said.
Shaquile Newson, 29, Alexander Malave, 31, Karvarise Person, 33, and James Goode, 47, were convicted on multiple charges, including conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, the US Attorney’s Office said.
Federal investigators linked the quartet to "The Sevens," a "violent gang" that operated out of a 50-room boarding house on South 4th Street in Reading, t…
Owners Of Popular Philly Cheesesteak Joint Plead Guilty In Tax Fraud Scheme
The owners of a popular Philadelphia cheesesteak joint pleaded guilty Monday, May 9 to federal charges in a tax fraud scheme, authorities said.
Anthony Lucidonio, Sr., 84, of Philadelphia, and Nicholas Lucidonio, 56, of New Jersey, the owners of Tony Luke’s on Oregon Avenue were accused of hiding more than $8 million from the IRS for around a decade, according to the US Attorney's Office.
Federal prosecutors say the father-son duo did this by paying their employees in cash to avoid withholding payroll taxes between 2006 and 2016. The pair were indicted in 2020.
The pros…
Nationwide Hotel Chain's Corporate Credit Chief From NJ Admits Embezzling $300,000
A New Jersey employee who ran the company’s corporate credit card program for a nationwide hotel chain admitted embezzling $300,000, federal authorities said.
Marco Alvarez, 46, of Bloomfield, admitted that he “knowingly opened and used corporate credit cards to make $317,582 in unauthorized personal purchases” from April 2014 through January 2020, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Alvarez, who worked as a senior analyst for strategic sourcing, tried to hide the thefts by “transferring credits owed to the hotel to these credit cards to offset the unauthorized charges made,” Sellinger …
$150M Bank Fraud: Teaneck Landlord Gets 8 Years, No Parole
A Teaneck landlord must spend the next eight years in federal prison -- without parole -- for orchestrating a $150 million bank and securities fraud scheme.
Seth Levine, 53, was the founding partner, owner, and managing member of Norse Holdings, the parent company to more than 70 subsidiaries, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Each of the subsidiary companies owned one or more multifamily buildings, mostly in New Jersey, he said.
Beginning in 2009, Levine directed a scheme for nearly a decade to fraudulently refinance the multifamily properties by lying on refinancing appli…
Career Criminal From Connecticut, 73, Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire Of Jersey City Politico
A hardened ex-con from Connecticut admitted that he and a longtime criminal pal from Philadelphia stabbed a political consultant to death and then torched his Jersey City apartment in a murder-for-hire attack.
George Bratsenis, 73, of Monroe, CT said he and his partner were paid to whack Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics.
Bratsenis and the other killer, Bomani Africa, 61, were hired by onetime political operative Sean Caddle, who’d been an aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) a…
Convicted NJ Child Porn Trafficker Gets 20+ Years In Fed Pen, No Parole, For Enticing Minors
A convicted child porn trafficker from Union County must spend no fewer than 20 years in federal prison for doing it again while soliciting two children to "engage in sexually explicit conduct online," authorities said.
Christopher Gardiner, 39, of Cranford, must serve out just about all of the plea-bargained 20 years and eight months that he was sentenced to on Tuesday, Feb. 8, because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Gardiner, who'd been convicted of similar charges in Union County in 2007, conducted an "ongoing sexually graphic conversation on a web-based social media appl…
Postage Scam: Brothers Who Co-Owned Bergen E-Commerce Company Admit Cheating Gov't Out Of $3M
Two brothers who co-owned a Bergen County e-commerce company admitted short-changing the government by more than $3 million in postage by altering hundreds of thousands of labels intended for envelopes and slapping them on outbound packages.
Jack Koch, 44, of Elmwood Park, and Steven Koch, 43, of Pompton Lakes, owned Fresh N Clear, a high-volume business that sold various household items online that were shipped o customers via the Postal Service, federal authorities said.
Over the course of several months in 2020, the company bought 240,471 USPS Priority Mail postage labels, “almost all fo…
