Mail Fraud

Acquitted yesterday of mail fraud, prominent criminal lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr. offered advice for the federal authorities that prosecuted him. "Go after criminals," Peruto, 36, deadpanned to a crowd of reporters in the lobby of the U.S. courthouse before walking outside into the cold, a free man. Peruto, whose name has popped up in a number of headline-grabbing cases in the dozen years he's been a lawyer, was charged with cheating the...

Roofers Union-tarred Common Pleas Judge Joseph P. Braig has agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he cheated an insurance company out of more than $7,000 to help pay for renovations to his girlfriend's Queen Village house, a source said. In return for the plea to mail fraud, the government agreed to drop charges that the judge extorted $500 from then-Roofers chief Stephen Traitz Jr. in 1985. The state Supreme Court last month cleared Braig of ethical wrongdoing in taking the cash, saying it was a Christmas gift from now-convicted briber Traitz.

A 59-year-old Cherry Hill accountant was indicted yesterday on charges of mail fraud for allegedly cheating his clients out of $655,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark. Howard A. Dudnick, of the 100 block of En Provence Court, was charged with 12 counts of mail fraud involving a scheme to raise money for a bogus school bond. If convicted, Dudnick could face five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Peter Suarez said.

A Montgomery County securities dealer was charged yesterday with defrauding 21 of his clients out of about $750,000 by depositing their investment money into his personal bank accounts. Harry N. Daylor, 70, of Laurelwood Road, Pottstown, was charged by the U.S. attorney's office with five counts of mail fraud in the alleged scheme. If convicted, he will face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $503,000 fine. According to the charges, Daylor, a sales representative for the national securities firm IDS Financial Services, solicited thousands of dollars from individuals from June 1978 through April 1985 for investment in a tax-exempt bond fund, and then kept the money without informing IDS of the transactions.

In a decision that will make it tougher to convict corrupt public officials, the Supreme Court yesterday invalidated a legal doctrine that has been used for years to imprison scores of governors, judges, city councilmen, congressmen and others for fraud. The justices, departing from the lower courts' uniformly broad interpretations of the federal mail fraud statute, ruled 7-2 that the law cannot be used to prosecute defendants for defrauding citizens of their "intangible rights" to honest and impartial government.

  A former city court employee allegedly made $433,000 in purchases using court funds to enrich himself, his family, and his friends, federal prosecutors said Monday. William Rullo, 47, of Levittown, was charged with mail fraud and faces a maximum 20 years in prison. Rullo worked in the procurement department of the First Judicial District and used a court credit card, a check, and forged invoices for his personal benefit, federal prosecutors said. Among the items and services allegedly purchased by Rullo: 36 plasma and LCD televisions, monthly service for eight mobile phones used by family members and friends, $35,000 in monthly parking passes that he resold to friends and coworkers, and $1,300 in SEPTA tokens that he resold at a discount.

The 19-count federal indictment against Camden Mayor Milton Milan charges the city's first Hispanic mayor with bribery, attempted extortion, wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. The indictment, which was unsealed yesterday in Camden, accuses Milan of two primary illegal acts: using his office repeatedly to receive payments or favors from individuals and firms, and taking bribes from Philadelphia-based La Cosa Nostra. Here are some highlights of the indictment: Accepting more than $30,000 in bribes from the Philadelphia mob under the orders of former mob boss - turned "King Rat" - Ralph Natale.

A lawyer who formerly worked at the Philadelphia Housing Authority was charged yesterday with income-tax evasion and stealing a $15,000 lawsuit settlement from a private client. Marlene Joseph, 52, of the 1200 block of Norwalk Road in Philadelphia, was charged with one count of mail fraud and two counts of tax evasion for 1987 and 1988. The charges identified Joseph as the minority-business-enterprise and equal-employment-opportunity officer at the housing authority, but Assistant U.S. Attorneys Barry Gross and William B. Carr Jr. said the charges were not based on her activities as a PHA employee.

Former Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph P. Braig pleaded guilty to mail fraud yesterday in U.S. District Court, admitting that he filed an inflated insurance claim for wind and water damage to his Queen Village home in 1983. Under the terms of a plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to drop a federal extortion charge alleging that Braig received $500 in cash from Roofers Union leader Stephen J. Traitz Jr. in December 1985. Standing solemnly before U.S. District Judge Norma L. Shapiro, Braig, 52, answered, "Guilty, Your Honor," to each of three counts of mail fraud.

LUBBOCK, Texas - Billie Sol Estes, 88, a flamboyant Texas huckster who became one of the most notorious men in America in 1962 when he was accused of looting a federal crop subsidy program, was found dead by a caretaker early Tuesday at his home in DeCordova Bend, southwest of Dallas. Mr. Estes was best known for the scandal that broke during President John F. Kennedy's administration involving phony financial statements and nonexistent fertilizer tanks. Several lower-level agriculture officials resigned, and he wound up spending several years in prison.

Two close associates of State Rep. William Keller - his former administrative aide, Lorraine DiSpaldo, and his longtime business partner, Mark Olkowski - pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges Wednesday in separate cases in U.S. District Court. DiSpaldo, 58, an active figure in Democratic politics, told Judge C. Darnell Jones II that she misused $180,000 in state grants awarded to two South Philadelphia community groups. Instead of spending the money for the purposes specified in the grants - to purchase police communications equipment, secure vacant lots and buildings, and maintain the neighborhood around Dickinson Square at Fourth and Tasker Streets - DiSpaldo paid thousands of dollars in state funds to relatives and associates of her codefendant, suspended Traffic Court Judge Robert Mulgrew, and to lifelong friends of Keller, federal prosecutors said.

IOWA STATE said Tuesday that coaches and staff made dozens of improper recruiting calls from 2008 to 2011 and it has asked the NCAA to levy a punishment of 2 years of probation. The university said it reported the "inadvertent" violations to the NCAA in November 2011. It said an "exhaustive" review of 3 years of telephone and text messages discovered that noncoaching staff members made 55 impermissible phone calls while coaches made 24 improper calls. In other college news: * Tulsa officials say they have accepted an invitation to join the soon-to-be-renamed Big East Conference beginning in 2014.

TWO FORMER Philadelphia Traffic Court judges pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking part in a ticket-fixing scheme that federal investigators have said was common practice. H. Warren Hogeland and Kenneth Miller were among the dozen people - including seven other Traffic Court judges - who were charged Jan. 31 in a sweeping indictment. Hogeland, 75, of Richboro, Bucks County, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud. According to court documents, he admitted to regularly receiving "consideration requests" from the staffs of fellow Traffic Court judges Michael Sullivan, Willie Singletary and Thomasine Tynes - all of whom have been indicted.

Two retired Philadelphia Traffic Court judges pleaded guilty today to fixing tickets, becoming the first members of the bench to admit what prosecutors say was a rampant and corrupt practice in the city. H. Warren Hogeland, 75, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert Kelly. Three hours later, former judge 76-year-old Kenneth N. Miller sat in the same chair in the same room and pleaded guilty to mail fraud. The pleas marked the first since federal authorities unsealed an indictment last month accusing nine current or former judges, and members of their staffs, of routinely fixing tickets for friends, associates and political power brokers.

Robert Moy was a king of Chinatown ticket-fixers, according to federal authorities, even advertising his surefire services in the newspaper. "Tackles the traffic ticket," said an ad in the local China News Weekend, "and guarantees no points or fewer points. " The day after being indicted on charges that could send him to prison for years, Moy was open for business on Friday, running Number One Translations on the second floor of a building at 926 Winter St. Two giant stone Foo Dogs stood out front.

A PHILADELPHIA WATER Department employee was indicted alongside a married couple from Arkansas by a federal grand jury Wednesday for allegedly scheming city taxpayers out of more than $1.3 million over six years. Calvin Duncan, 61, of Philadelphia, used his position as a Water Department mail-room clerk to purchase printer-ink and -toner cartridges and then sell them at a discount to Derek and Danita Willis, who own Laser Cartridge Plus, Inc., in Russellville, Ark., authorities said.

A Montgomery County man was sentenced to 16 years in prison Friday for burning down his Northeast Philadelphia business to collect insurance proceeds. Michael Giamo, 31, of Huntingdon Valley, arranged the fire at his auto-repair shop May 24, 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said in a news release. Giamo's shop, One Source Motors in Somerton, burned while Giamo was in Brazil, according to the indictment. Before leaving, the indictment reads, Giamo left containers of gasoline at One Source and agreed to pay a longtime friend $10,000 for the arson.

A Montgomery County man was sentenced to 16 years in prison Friday for burning down his Northeast Philadelphia business to collect insurance proceeds. Michael Giamo, 31, of Huntingdon Valley, arranged the fire at his auto-repair shop May 24, 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said in a release. Giamo's shop, One Source Motors in Somerton, burned while Giamo was in Brazil, according to the indictment. Before leaving, the indictment reads, Giamo left containers of gasoline at One Source and agreed to pay a longtime friend $10,000 for the arson.