Disir
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The Federal Witness Protection Program is designed to ensure government witnesses, who are mostly career criminals, remain safe before, during and after their testimony.
From that standpoint, its track record is perfect. No active participant ever has been harmed or killed, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which oversees and manages the program.
But is the public protected from protected witnesses?
Associates of Arizona businessman Frank Capri would tell you no.
Capri made deals with developers across the country who had no clue he once was Frank Gioia Jr., a “made man” in the New York Mafia, a Republic investigation shows.
Gioia’s past as a soldier in the notorious Lucchese crime family was erased when he agreed to turn state’s evidence in 1994 as part of a deal with federal prosecutors.
The government enrolled him in the Federal Witness Protection Program. It gave him a new name, Social Security number and background, which helped him begin a new life as a real-estate developer and restaurateur.
An investigation by The Arizona Republic found Capri used his government-provided identity to negotiate deals to build Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants throughout the United States, take tens of millions of dollars from mall owners and developers and then walk away.
Gioia helped put more than 70 mobsters behind bars and closed several unsolved murders, including the 1977 shooting of a New York City police officer. But the anonymity created through the Witness Protection Program allowed him to launch damaging new business ventures.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice denied turning a blind eye to potential criminal conduct.
Mafia in our midst: Who protects the public from protected witnesses?
This is actually part 3 of a series. It is lengthy.
From that standpoint, its track record is perfect. No active participant ever has been harmed or killed, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which oversees and manages the program.
But is the public protected from protected witnesses?
Associates of Arizona businessman Frank Capri would tell you no.
Capri made deals with developers across the country who had no clue he once was Frank Gioia Jr., a “made man” in the New York Mafia, a Republic investigation shows.
Gioia’s past as a soldier in the notorious Lucchese crime family was erased when he agreed to turn state’s evidence in 1994 as part of a deal with federal prosecutors.
The government enrolled him in the Federal Witness Protection Program. It gave him a new name, Social Security number and background, which helped him begin a new life as a real-estate developer and restaurateur.
An investigation by The Arizona Republic found Capri used his government-provided identity to negotiate deals to build Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants throughout the United States, take tens of millions of dollars from mall owners and developers and then walk away.
Gioia helped put more than 70 mobsters behind bars and closed several unsolved murders, including the 1977 shooting of a New York City police officer. But the anonymity created through the Witness Protection Program allowed him to launch damaging new business ventures.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice denied turning a blind eye to potential criminal conduct.
Mafia in our midst: Who protects the public from protected witnesses?
This is actually part 3 of a series. It is lengthy.
