Mar. 17, 1997

JOHNNY CASH

By Jerry Capeci

MEYER Lansky is dead, but there must be someone out there whom a wannabe mob boss can approach to learn the basics of money laundering, 1940's style.

Gang Land's not talking sophisticated financial wizardry, like electronic money transfers and secret off shore bank accounts. We're talking about the last place in the whole wide world that John A. (Junior) Gotti should have stored $350,000 - a mob social club in Ozone Park, Queens.

But that's where state organized crime investigators found the loot a few months ago when they searched the club, which is just a few blocks from his father's old Bergin Hunt & Fish Club on 101st Avenue in the heart of Gotti country.

The investigators seized the cash as part of a probe into possible tax violations and other crimes by two Gotti-connected construction companies that have done more than $17 million in work since 1992, according to law enforcement sources.

Young Gotti insisted the piles of cash were merely wedding gifts he and his wife - who now have four children - received seven years ago at the lavish reception his dad threw for him at the Helmsley Palace Hotel.

In a statement to WNBC-TV in New York, which broke the story, Gotti said: "My wife, children and I have endured these types of false accusations since 1990, none of which are true or have merit. The source of any monies recovered has already been explained to the authorities."

Right, and there's no such thing as organized crime, either.

 CHIN TRIAL PUT OFF
VINCENT (Chin) Gigante, who was originally scheduled to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Brooklyn Federal Court today, has won yet another delay in his racketeering and murder trial.

The reputed Genovese crime boss will continue his lengthy recovery from open heart surgery today at the upper east side home of his long time paramour, Olympia Esposito, which puts him close enough to hear the marching bands parade up Fifth Avenue.

On Friday, his lawyers asked Judge Eugene Nickerson to postpone the trial until August.

"He is very weak and is incapable of engaging in any kind of efforts toward trial preparation through June," said lawyer Michael Marinaccio, citing the latest medical reports from Gigante's doctors.

Predictably, assistant U.S. attorney Andrew Weissmann, objected, demanding a hearing to determine the validity of the medical claims.

"I'm not going to hold a hearing. I'm going to start the trial on June 23d," said Nickerson, warning Gigante's lawyers to not even think about asking for another delay.

If it goes, Gigante, who is charged with ordering eight murders and plotting to kill rival Mafia boss John Gotti, would start trial on the fifth anniversary of the day that Gotti began his life sentence at Marion Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Ill.

H&R BLOCK TAX QUIZ  
You can expect your local U.S. Attorney to announce a tax fraud or tax evasion case any day now. It happens every year at this time to remind taxpayers of the dangers of cheating Uncle Sam.

Now, H & R Block has come up with a novel way of reminding people of the same thing, according to several people who've e-mailed Gang Land in the last couple of days, looking for the answer to a question they say the venerable tax preparation company is asking as part of a promotion: "Who was the Mob Boss that was convicted of tax evasion?"

Well, the cigar chomping guy from Chicago, by way of Brooklyn, at the right is probably the answer the H & R Block people are seeking. But the once Dapper Don at the left certainly qualifies as a mob boss who was convicted of tax evasion.

Unlike Al Capone, though, John Gotti got nailed for a few murders, too.