User talk:Alexbonaro/Present Day DeCavalcante crime family
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Three Men Accused Of Running Gambling Ring Jul 22, 2003
Three men who allegedly ran an illegal gambling ring also stole more than $170,000 from an accounting firm with the help of an employee who had run up a significant gambling debt.
Mimmo Marzullo, 39, of Montclair, and Michael Ferrante, 27, of Verona, were arrested Monday by agents from the FBI's organized crime unit. The third defendant, Keith Cimera, 44, of North Caldwell, surrendered to agents in Newark after learning of the charges.
They were named in a 15-count indictment that charges them with conspiracy, extortion, illegal gambling and transporting stolen checks. It also names four people, identified only by initials, who were made to pay exorbitant interest on loans made by Marzullo and Ferrante.
Among the four was a man identified as "F.P.," a Verona resident and financial analyst and billing coordinator for Ernst & Young. He had incurred a large debt by December 2001, and prosecutors said Ferrante suggested that he steal checks from his employer to help pay his debt.
According to the indictment, the man stole six checks totaling $6,670 during the next three months. He then allegedly drafted fake invoices for checks that he sent to the firm's Dallas office and requested the checks be sent to him at its New York office.
After he received the checks, the man allegedly passed them to Ferrante, who then cashed them at a check-cashing business owned by Cimera. In all, the men cashed six checks totaling $166,212, with Ferrante and Cimera allegedly kept 90 percent of the money and applied the remaining 10 percent to the man's gambling debt.
Kenneth Kerrigan, a spokesman for Ernst & Young, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that company officials discovered the misappropriated money and notified federal investigators. He said the worker, who was later fired, was an administrative employee who never had access to client accounts.
