10-24-05 -- Squitieri, Arnold L. "Bo" -- Sentencing -- News Release

Son of former Acting Gambino Crime Boss Sentenced to 27 Months for Illegal Gambling Operation

NEWARK - The son of the alleged former acting boss of the Gambino crime family was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for running an illegal gambling business and tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh fined Arnold L. "Bo" Squitieri $8,000. Squitieri, 34, of Norwood, must also pay significant penalties and interest to the IRS on $145,000 in unreported income for tax years 2001 through 2003, which resulted in a tax loss of approximately $55,795 to the United States.

Squitieri, the son of reputed former acting crime boss Arnold Squitieri, pleaded guilty on June 15 to conducting an illegal gambling operation and attempting to evade taxes, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler.

In May 2003, Squitieri was released from serving a 15-month prison sentence on a federal conviction in the Southern District of New York for securities fraud, in which he and others fleeced investors of approximately $900,000. In the District of New Jersey, Squitieri admitted that he ran the illegal gambling business in New Jersey beginning in August 2003, just a few months after his release on the New York conviction. As such, Squitieri also faces new charges and prison time in New York for violating his conditions of supervised release on the securities fraud conviction. He is scheduled to be in federal court in Manhattan on Nov. 9.

At the plea hearing in Newark on June 15, Squitieri admitted to supervising the illegal gambling operation that existed between August 2003 and April 2004. He acknowledged that the gambling operation utilized an offshore wire room or data processing service that would take the bets from the bettors who called in on the numbers the bettors were provided.

Squitieri also told Judge Cavanaugh that he supervised a number of gambling agents who were responsible for their own group or package of bettors. These gambling agents provided their gamblers with a toll free telephone number as well as a code name to use when the bettors wanted to place their wagers. The agents were then responsible for either collecting money from their bettors when they lost or paying them their winnings when they won.

Squitieri also told Judge Cavanaugh that from 2001 through the Spring of 2004, while a resident of Palisades Park, he was the sole proprietor of Bo's Trees, a Christmas tree business located in Edgewater. Bo's trees was a seasonal business that operated for approximately one month a year from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Squitieri admitted that from 2001 through 2003 he received income from Bo's Trees that he failed to include on his personal income tax returns.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Leslie Wiser, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark Office, as well as Special Agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS's Newark Field Office, with developing the case against Squitieri.

The United States is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wigler of the U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime Strike Force Unit in Newark.

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Defense attorney:

Thomas R. Ashley, Esq.