The feds got their conviction on Tuesday in New York against attorney Louis Cherico for mortgage fraud. But the case was not without embarrassment in what Gang Land News described as “Keystone Kops-like antics by the feds.”
Jerry Capeci, editor of Gang Land News, reports that the feds and Cherico “were victims of an elaborate scam by an FBI snitch.”
Here’s how.
Back in September, before trial started for Cherico, an FBI snitch provided bogus info to the feds that Cherico was going to skip town and head to South America to be with a former lover who wanted to ditch her husband, Gang Land News reported.
The snitch went as far as to say that Cherico was trying to get a secret charter flight to Venezuala and apparently used “text-spoofing” to make it look as if Cherico was texting certain messages. Gang Land wrote: “As it happens, Cherico, 70, does not even know how to send text messages.”
Cherico ended up having to wear an ankle monitor.
On the last day of trial, Gang Land News reports, fed prosecutor Nicholas McQuaid announcd that the feds had “developed information that undermines the credibility of our source significantly.”
Gang Land reported that the prosecutor asked the judge to remove the ankle monitor from Cherico.
The feds may have gotten duped, but they did get the conviction against Cherico,70, for bank fraud, mortgage fraud and money laundering in what turned out to be a three-week trial. Sentencing is set for March 6.
