Another Mob Surname Comes to the Fore

Meet the Baudanzas.There’s John, his father Carmine, his uncle Joseph, his brother-in-law Sal, and his father-in-law Danny.The family has a long way to go before it achieves the status and/or notoriety needed for a “Growing Up Baudanza” television series, but not for any lack of effort. And while they may lack the fame of the Gottis, Gigantes, Persicos, and other more familiar mob surnames, the Baudanzas have done pretty well in the fortune department.The feds say the Baudanzas – specifically John, Carmine, Joseph, and an extended family of seven others – have used good old-fashioned mob tactics of threats and violence to power a classic pump-and-dump stock scam that ripped off more than $20 million from unsuspecting investors.To pull off their schemes and swindles, Baudanza & Company used the clout of three of the city’s major crime families. The Baudanzas are members and associates of the Luchese and Colombo families; another stock scammer in the clan is a Bonanno soldier.The overall loss to consumers eventually could double, according to assistant U.S. attorneys Patricia Notopoulos and Tanya Hill, who state in court papers that authorities have thus far analyzed just “half of the fraudulent stock offerings in which the defendants are known to have been involved.”The Baudanzas used “tactics including threats of physical harm, beatings, stabbing and even a kidnapping” to control and discipline scores of workers at 14 stock brokerage firms in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island in order to line their own portfolios between 1994 and last year, the prosecutors wrote.But “Growing Up Baudanza” would bring much more to the small screen than humdrum, multi-million dollar stock swindles.The main enforcer for the group, John, 35, is a voracious reader, a history buff, and a devotee of the History Channel. He’s a student of World War II, and in 2003 a few close associates gave him a German Luger as a Christmas gift, sources said.Like many wiseguys, including the reel deal, Tony Soprano, he’s a John Wayne fan. “John Wayne” was the named subscriber of one cell phone he used, which was tapped by the feds.He plays video games, likes to gamble, and is a diehard Yankee fan who owns lots of team memorabilia. “Every time I see him he’s wearing a shirt, a jacket, or something with a Yankee logo on it,” a law enforcement source said.John Baudanza often meets and greets his associates at Plush, a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, lounge where an ample supply of Johnnie Walker Blue, his favored Scotch whisky, is always avail able. On occasion, Mr. Baudanza drinks to excess. This was evidenced by his arrest for driving while intoxicated last year, for which he awaits trial in Brooklyn supreme court.It’s not a nickname he’s said to favor, but some wiseguy buddies refer to him as Johnny Goggles, referring to the glasses he often wears.Despite his financial wheeling-dealing, Mr. Baudanza has no credit rating and has never filed a tax return, according to the feds. Third parties pay his phone bills, and he has virtually no assets in his own name, despite evidence that over the years he has earned millions of dollars in stock and other swindles, the prosecutors wrote.Until it was sold recently, a Florida condo he occasionally used was listed in his wife’s name. When the Staten Island home where they reside was sold to another nominee, that house was held in his mother’s name, the prosecutors wrote.His mother, Angelina Baudanza, who now lives in the basement apartment of co-defendant Jerry Degerolamo’s Staten Island home, is the registered owner of a 2 1/2-ton truck that FBI agents recently saw Baudanza driving, the prosecutors wrote. He also drives cars registered to Nina Cutaia, his mother-in-law, and a female relative of Degeralomo.As for his mob pedigree, by birthright John is a Colombo. His uncle Joe, 61, is a capo, a onetime member of a family ruling committee and a powerful force with Russian organized crime cohorts. His father Carmine, 63, is a longtime family associate who was recently proposed for induction, sources said.As a teenager, John lived up to his heritage. He and another diehard Yankee fan – co-defendant Craig Marino, who has a Yankee logo tattooed on his chest – terrorized business owners in the Canarsie and Mill Basin sections of Brooklyn, the prosecutors wrote. In 1990, when a patron at a local diner bumped into Mr. Baudanza, he and Mr. Marino pummeled the man and “then Baudanza pulled out a gun and shot [him] in the back.”He’s also good with a knife, and stabbed a patron in Brooklyn barroom brawl, according to a turncoat Bonanno capo, Frank Lino.During the 1991-93 Colombo war, John enlisted to serve as a member of a hit team that targeted rival mobsters during the bloody shooting war that ended with 12 fatalities, including two innocent bystanders. He also functioned, the prosecutors wrote, as an “armed escort for high-ranking members of the Colombo family.”A funny thing happened after the war, however, that pushed him towards the Luchese family. He fell in love with Danielle Cutaia, daughter of Luchese capo Domenico “Danny” Cutaia. In 1995, the feds say, Mr. Baudanza joined his brother-in-law Salvatore, 46, as a Luchese soldier and a member of the crew headed by the elder Cutaia, now 69.Neither Cutaia is implicated in the stock scheme, which is essentially a Colombo family venture in which other Colombos were nabbed and convicted a few years ago.Following their arrests in March,prosecutors consented to bail for Carmine Baudanza and five other defendants. The prosecutors sought to detain John and Joseph Baudanza, Mr. Marino, and co-defendant Robert Podlog as they await trial on various racketeering, stock fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and bribery charges. Each, the prosecutors alleged, was a violence-prone danger to the community.After protracted proceedings before several magistrate judges and Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie, all four were released under strict house arrest, on bail ranging between $1 million and $5 million, which was secured by numerous properties that the Baudanzas and their extended family members call home. A status conference is set for June 8.Television producers should take note.This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.

Another Mob Surname Comes to the Fore

Another Mob Surname Comes to the Fore

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