NY POST ARTICLE:
BOOKIE CRUMBLES
By SELIM ALGAR and RITA DELFINER
October 15, 2004 -- Lady Luck ran out on one of the largest sports gambling rings in Long Island history, with the arrests of eight members of a $35 million-a-year bookie operation, authorities said yesterday.
Leonard Catalano, 47, the heavyset leader of the sophisticated ring who is also known as "Smalls" and "The Bearded One," ran the venture from his Roslyn Heights home, Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon said.
Surveillance tapes caught Catalano toting a duffel bag full of money to a funeral where he handed several wads of cash to a winner, the prosecutor said.
Catalano allegedly used several TV sets and VCRs in the house he shared with his girlfriend to keep tabs on football, baseball and collegiate sports.
At the heart of the high-tech ring were the toll-free numbers and Web sites it registered in Costa Rica and Curacao, officials said. About 2,500 registered bettors could log on and use account numbers to place bets and check their accounts.
A pile of $400,000 in cash and a .44-caliber Magnum allegedly recovered from the ring were displayed at a press conference yesterday. There were also log books listing the bettors, who went by nicknames including "Steve the Dry Cleaner," "Jumbo" and "Jimmy the Waiter."
Gamblers had different weekly limits — with one of them allowed to place $200,000 in bets a week. Some of the payoffs exceeded $25,000, officials said.
Good fortune — which had smiled on the ring for 20 years — turned sour after investigators conducting an unrelated gambling probe busted someone who owed a large sum of money to the ring, officials said.
"As a result of the other investigation, we were able to take this one apart," said Assistant District Attorney Jane Zwirn-Turkin.
Investigators began taking surveillance video and allegedly caught payoffs made in the parking lot of a Williston Park restaurant as well as a bar across from a Yonkers racetrack.
Asked if prosecutors believed there were ties to organized crime, Zwirn-Turkin declined comment.
The eight were arrested two weeks ago.
Catalano, Scott Burger, 34, of Bohemia; Christopher Murray, 62, of Setauket; Michael Silano, 51, of Port Jefferson Station; Paul Silano, 35, of Glen Oaks; John Trombino, 69, of Bellerose; and Henry Acierno, 50, of Staten Island were each charged with promoting gambling.
Lori Barecca, 39, of Glen Oaks, who allegedly handled the phones, was charged with criminal facilitation