Racketeering

A federal court jury Thursday convicted sports agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom of defrauding two universities by using cash to lure college athletes into signing improper contracts, and of threatening to harm clients at other schools if they tried to renege. The jury deliberated 40 hours over six days before convicting Walters, 58, and Bloom, 29, both based in New York, on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy and mail fraud. They each face up to 55 years in prison and fines of up to $1.25 million.

I'm not one to say I told you so. But just saying. The Better Business Bureau of the Southland, which oversaw the betterment of businesses throughout Southern California, was expelled Tuesday from the national organization. It can no longer use the BBB name and logo. "Over a period of more than two years, BBB of the Southland failed to resolve concerns about compliance with several standards required of BBBs, including standards relating to accreditation, reporting on businesses, and handling complaints," says Carrie A. Hurt, president and chief executive of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

From a British schoolteacher who lost his life savings to a Beverly Hills millionaire who fears he may lose his home, claims are rolling in for the millions forfeited by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Gerald Bolton, a Briton living in Qatar, says he had about $100,000 in a savings account at BCCI's home branch in Luxembourg. "This humble petitioner . . . pleads with the court to enable me to retrieve the money I have deposited," Bolton wrote.

Put a bunch of brand new, high-tech tennis rackets in front of a handful of pretty good middle-aged 4.0 players (7.0 being Roger Federer and 1.0 being an untrained monkey), and they won't care what kind of Nobel Prize-winning innovations went into building them. But they will tell you what works. Here's how they rated the hottest new tennis technology, all about $200 retail, on a cold winter night in suburbia under the lights. The spinner Wilson Steam 99S: New racket with the fewest horizontal strings on the market (15, compared with the normal 19 or 20)

An alleged Mexican Mafia gang member indicted on federal racketeering charges has been arrested after spending five months as a fugitive. Sammy (Negro) Villalba, 28, was arrested Monday at the Fireside Inn in Buena Park by members of the Gangster Apprehension Team, a task force of FBI agents and local police that targeted the Mexican Mafia during a two-year investigation, authorities said.

The stunning business-page success story of Glock, the Austrian handgun manufacturer, has also had its share of stunning tabloid intrigue and skullduggery. This week, another chapter full of sordid details is expected to unfurl in a suburban Georgia courtroom, where the former chief executive of the company is scheduled to go on trial on theft and racketeering charges. The executive, Paul Jannuzzo, 55, was indicted in 2009, and faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Carmine Persico, the 52-year-old boss of the Colombo organized crime family, was convicted along with eight co-defendants today of racketeering, conspiracy and other federal charges. Persico is the first of several top-level mobsters to face a jury since federal officials launched a drive against organized crime two years ago.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Costa Mesa on Wednesday escalated its legal battle against dissident shareholder Rafi Khan, alleging that the Beverly Hills stockbroker has violated federal racketeering statutes. Khan has waged a campaign to take control of the pharmaceuticals company. ICN won a restraining order earlier that prohibited him from soliciting proxies from ICN shareholders. The new allegations against Khan were included in an amended complaint filed in U.S.

A federal law often used to attack organized crime syndicates and interstate business scams has been leveled by a Chicago-area pizzeria owner against village officials he thinks are making a grab for his land. Tod Curtis has launched a civil racketeering lawsuit aimed at Mt. Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks, other municipal employees and local real estate developer Errol Oztekin, alleging that they have formed an "ongoing enterprise and scheme" for nearly a decade to force him out of Ye Olde Town Inn, which he has owned for 41 years.

Ten stockbrokers at a now-defunct securities firm were accused Wednesday in a racketeering indictment of defrauding hundreds of customers out of millions of dollars, authorities said. The brokers, who once worked for LCP Capital Corp. in Manhattan, were paid millions of dollars in cash bribes by stock promoters to pump up the prices of 14 stocks, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau said.

In 2007, the government of Argentina fired Graciela Bevacqua and other statisticians who were collecting its price statistics and inflation estimates. Since that time, large and disturbing - even shocking - discrepancies have developed between the official inflation estimates (roughly 10% a year) and privately generated estimates announced by Bevacqua and others (roughly 25% a year). Why would the Argentine government take such drastic action? In late 2001, Argentina defaulted on its bonds, and it has refused to negotiate with its creditors.

LAS VEGAS - Here's a sobering lesson: What happens in Vegas sometimes ends up in a grand jury indictment. Federal authorities announced the arrest of nine people, including the owner and employees of a prominent limousine service here after their indictment on a host of federal racketeering charges. Charles Horkey, 52, owner of CLS Transportation, and his employees were indicted on charges involving distribution of controlled substances, facilitating illegal prostitution and credit card and bank fraud, authorities said.

In the last week or so, an intense kerfuffle broke out over the poll-prognosticator Nate Silver and his blog at the New York Times, FiveThirtyEight . Silver, a statistician, has been predicting a decisive Obama victory for a very long time, based on his very complicated statistical model, which very, very few of his fans or detractors understand. On any given day, Silver might announce that - given the new polling data - "the model" now finds that the president has an 86.3% chance of winning.

The excavator's teeth bite into the footing of a recently demolished sound wall. A dozen empty dump trucks along Sepulveda Boulevard rumble forward one by one. Tons of concrete and rebar tumble into each bed, the booms and clatters echoing against the metal sides. Up the slight hill, the walls and windows of a house on South Thurston Avenue begin to shake and rattle. It is 2 a.m. Tuesday, and the racket of the 405 Freeway construction has roused the Sandifers. Again. As Angelenos brace for 53 hours of disruptions from Carmageddon II, this weekend's temporary closure of the freeway, Kim Sandifer can only dream that her construction-related misery could be confined to a few days.

NEW YORK - Ninth-seeded John Isner, who was called for a foot-fault during his serve and later angrily smashed a racket, was an upset loser to 19th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in a fourth-round match at the U.S. Open that began Sunday night and ended at 2:26 a.m. Monday in New York. As the second week of the biggest tennis tournament in the U.S. gets started, there is only 20th-seeded Andy Roddick and 23rd-seeded Mardy Fish left in the men's singles draw from the United States.

A federal judge on Monday shot down Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano's bid to be released on bail during an appeal of his 2008 convictions for racketeering and wiretapping. Judge Dale Fischer, who presided over the private investigator's six-week trial, said she was not convinced the 68-year-old was no longer a threat to society, despite his attorney's pleas that Pellicano suffered from a serious eye condition and had neither the resources nor the motivation to engage in the intimidation and sleuthing that landed him in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors have quietly dropped their case against a Los Angeles teacher who was accused of serving as a courier for Mexican Mafia leaders behind bars. Margaret Cheryl Farrell, 50, of Reseda was indicted on racketeering charges in July along with 40 suspected members of the Mexican Mafia. The charges against Farrell, who has been free on bond, were dismissed last week, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, confirmed Tuesday.

In 2005, leaders of a gang that sold crack and other drugs near MacArthur Park decided to add a new business venture: extorting the vendors who crowd the streets each evening, selling clothes, pirated DVDs and electronics to supplement a hardscrabble existence. The new effort led to a bloody consequence in September 2007, when an 18-year-old tasked with gunning down a defiant vendor accidentally shot to death a 3-week-old infant. The baby's death triggered a large-scale crackdown on the clique that culminated with a two-month trial that began in March.

When he came to, Giovanni Macedo was fast tumbling down the side of an embankment somewhere along a road between Tijuana and Mexicali. It was a few seconds before he remembered what had happened. Fleeing to Mexico after a botched shooting. Downing a bottle of vodka and teetering up and down Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana. Reaching a second too late to deflect a rope as it was slung over his neck. A week earlier, the 18-year-old had been "putting in work" in the name of the 18th Street gang in 2007 when he fired shots in the middle of a bustling Westlake street, accidentally killing a 3-week-old infant.