Aging Genovese Mobster Salvatore DeMeo Indicted on Tax Fraud
Old dogs aren’t ones to learn new tricks, and it looks like old mobsters are much the same—a “life of crime” apparently extends well into retirement age.
Alleged Geneovese enforcer Salvatore “Sallie” DeMeo, 77, was charged with tax evasion yesterday by the Eastern District Court of New York for attempting to hide $2 million dollars in capital gains from lucrative Downtown Brooklyn real estate deals.
Tax evasion—and getting caught for it—isn’t exactly new territory for La Cosa Nostra. After all, it’s how they got Capone.
In a statement from the Department of Justice, DeMeo’s crimes were explained in detail: after selling property in 2013 and 2014, the aging Brooklyn gangster failed to report more than $2 million in income to the IRS.
He attempted to conceal the deal by taking eight separate bank checks as payment for his shares in the two deals, then routing them through various businesses and means of cashing to keep them off the books.
First, DeMeo signed two checks worth $1 million over to a plumbing company—on that he holds no interest in or has any apparent business connection to.
He also moved a check for $355,944 through an unlicensed check-cashing company, receiving five smaller cashiers checks, which were redeemed for a free through a legitimate check-cashing establishment.
All told, DeMeo cheated the federal government out of more than $365,000 in taxes.
“Today’s arrest reflects our continued commitment to prosecuting alleged members of the mafia with every tool available to us,” stated Executive Assistant United States Attorney William J. Muller.
“Organized crime members are on notice that this Office and its law enforcement partners will hold them accountable for such economic crimes no less than for their traditional schemes and offenses,” he continued.
Those traditional schemes and offenses stretch back quite a ways for DeMeo.
Last year, the septuagenarian was arrested along with a dozen other Genovese associates for running an offshore gambling and loansharking ring.
Sallie DeMeo even made an appearance on “America’s Most Wanted” back in 2000, going on the lam from feds behind racketeering and bank robbery charges.
That would be the 1996 armed bank robbery in Manalapan, NJ, which netted him $400,000, and an armored car heist in the same city later that year.
DeMeo surrendered to police in 2001 and served 5 years in prison, released in 2006.
While it’s been more than a decade, it looks like old Sallie is back to his old ways: committing crimes—and getting caught.
