01191991 - News Article - Alleged mobsters slapped with more charges

Alleged mobsters slapped with more charges
NWI Times
Jan 19, 1991
http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/alleged-mobsters-slapped-with-more-charges/article_9efc8303-7cd5-5c3e-b584-f9171db8617d.html
HAMMOND - Additional charges have been filed against three men charged in what has been hailed as the largest organized crime case ever handled in northern Indiana.

The new 30-count indictment that supersedes a 29-count indictment filed last month adds a couple of acts under the main charge, the Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization Act.

Charged under the RICO act is the reported head of the crime family - Dominick Palermo, 72, of Orland Park, and his aide, Nicholas Albert Guzzino, 49, of Chicago Heights.

Guzzino, Bernard J. Morgano, 54, of Valparaiso, and Steve Sfouris, 55, of Munster, were charged in the additional count. They are accused of traveling between Indiana and Illinois to deliver proceeds from an illegal gambling operation and an extortion business allegedly conducted by the Chicago-based "Outfit" crime family.

All 15 defendants charged in the new indictment are the same; only the additional count against Guzzino, Morgano and Sfouris and the additional acts contained in the RICO act - which detail more of their alleged activities - were new. An arraignment on the new charges is scheduled for Jan. 30 in the U.S. District Court in Hammond. A trial is tentatively set for March 4 before Judge James T. Moody.

Palermo, Guzzino and Peter Petros, 56, of Chicago, who was also charged, are being held at the Metropolitan Correction Center until their trial. Sfouris, who was also charged in the indictment for running an illegal Greek dice game know as "barbut," is still a fugitive and is believed to have escaped to his native Greece.

The indictments, which stem from an eight-year investigation, charge Palermo and his organization with extorting protection money, or a "street tax," from other illegal gambling businesses. According to the indictment, businesses and their owners were threatened if they refused to pay.

Thousands of dollars collected from the business owners were transported each week from Lake and LaPorte county businesses to the south suburbs, where the crime family is based, according to federal prosecutors.

Palermo, a field representative for the Laborers International Union Local 5 in Chicago Heights, is a member of the "Outfit," a crime syndicate that has operated in Northwest Indiana since the 1900s, federal officials said.

Palermo's position in the crime family was reportedly elevated with the arrest and conviction last year of the Chicago Heights mob boss Albert Tocco, who is serving a 200-year prison term.

Other defendants charged in the case and who have been released on bond are Anthony Leone, 51, of Valparaiso; Sam M. Glorioso, 48, of Gary; Sam Nuzzo Sr., 69, and his four children, Sam Nuzzo Jr., 45, Arthur A. Nuzzo, 33, Sandra T. Mynes, 43, and Jennifer Kaufman, 37, all of Merrillville; Anthony J. Ottomanelli, 60, of Portage; and husband and wife, Ned M. Pujo, 51, and Yolande Martha Pujo, 55, both of Portage.