10-12-2009, 08:29 PM
Did you guys/gals catch this “gala event” this weekend? How in God’s name can our agency associate with a known felon and documented FBI Columbo crime family member?
I can’t take a free cup of coffee because I “might” do something extra for the store owner…
but PBSO can accept tens of thousands (car show) PLUS political campaign contributions from these crime members?
Where did this “money” come from? How many drug deals, prostitutes and other victims had to bleed for that money?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/co ... =inform_sr (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/local_news/epaper/2008/08/15/a1b_bundle_0816.html?cxntlid=inform_sr)
PALM BEACH POST:
In the final weeks of his reelection campaign, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw accepted a $6,000 bundle of donations from auto-mall entrepreneur and developer John Staluppi, a man who was once denied a license to do business with New Jersey casinos because of alleged ties to organized crime.
Combined, Staluppi's wife and business associates have given thousands more to Bradshaw's campaign, putting Staluppi in an elite club of bundlers who helped boost Bradshaw's total reelection kitty to $471,303.
Staluppi, through his attorney, Gerald Richman, said his donations to Bradshaw were made because he thinks Bradshaw has been effective.
Facing two little-known challengers and having ample cash, Bradshaw said he'll probably spend a fraction of what he has raised and give the rest to charity. Early voting began Monday and the primary is Aug. 26.
Bradshaw said he could not afford to run background checks on all his donors, nor could he use his investigative tools as sheriff for that purpose.
All he knew about Staluppi, Bradshaw said, was that he owns auto dealerships and yacht-building businesses and is a generous benefactor to the sheriff's "Shop with a Cop" program, which gives holiday cash to underprivileged kids.
"I don't know a doggone thing about John Staluppi's past," Bradshaw said.
Last year, Staluppi opened his private "Cars of Dreams" museum to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, paying for catering and helping raise $45,000.
While FBI documents suggest Staluppi may have supplied cash and resources to Colombo crime family members at one time, Richman said no related charges had ever been filed against him. The lingering allegations, easily readable on Web sites such as thesmokinggun.com, unfairly tainted a successful businessman and philanthropist, he said.
"That stuff is way, way back, something like 28 years ago," Richman said. "The gaming thing was a long time ago, and was pretty minor, frankly."
Individual campaign contributions in Florida are limited to $500, but by giving in the names of multiple businesses, "bundling" donors can legally give much more. Staluppi's contributions were joined by those of a business partner, John Rosatti, as well as Staluppi's former lobbyist, Thomas DeRita Jr., and his wife, Barbara.
DeRita represented Staluppi in his aborted effort to assemble property and redevelop Riviera Beach's waterfront. In October, DeRita, his wife and his firm, Re:source Group NA, donated $1,000 to Bradshaw's reelection campaign. DeRita, who lobbies for many local governments, had been hired by Bradshaw six months earlier, in April 2007, to lobby for the sheriff's office on gang legislation and prison funding.
Bradshaw's other bundlers include Delray Beach-based developer Anthony Pugliese III and Palm Beach Gardens-based businesswoman Elizabeth Fago. Bradshaw also took in $24,000 from Jupiter investor Marc Roberts' 48 companies.
Fago gave $10,000 to Bradshaw through 20 of her nursing homes during an Oct. 25 fund-raiser. Fago said she donated to him because "I feel comfortable and safe."
Bradshaw's bundles have dwarfed the money raised by his opponent, Cleamond Lee Walker, a Waste Management truck driver who has raised $1,165. His other opponent, James T. Murphy, is pursuing a write-in campaign.
The sheriff said his donors expect nothing from him, and he has nothing to give - no land-use changes, no zoning variances. "They don't want anything," he said. "They want me to continue doing what I'm doing."
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/10 ... uppi1.html (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1008043staluppi1.html)
Mafia Soldiers Support Bush-Cheney
Two felonious New York wiseguys among GOP ticket's donors
OCTOBER 25--While the Mafia is not in the habit of endorsing presidential candidates, two Colombo family soldiers have spoken with their bulging wallets--and they want four more years for the Bush/Cheney ticket. The below Federal Election Commission records show that convicted felons John Staluppi and John Rosatti last year each gave the GOP candidates $2000 (the maximum individual donation). The FBI has identified Staluppi and Rosatti--multimillionaires who own auto dealerships in New York and Florida--as members of the Colombo gang. Rosatti is pictured at right in an FBI surveillance photo taken at the wake of an organized crime figure. The two Bush supporters are prized Colombo family "earners" who helped finance an insurgent Colombo faction that once sought to dethrone imprisoned boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico (that bloody early-90s mob war left more than a dozen wiseguys dead)….
I can’t take a free cup of coffee because I “might” do something extra for the store owner…
but PBSO can accept tens of thousands (car show) PLUS political campaign contributions from these crime members?
Where did this “money” come from? How many drug deals, prostitutes and other victims had to bleed for that money?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/co ... =inform_sr (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/local_news/epaper/2008/08/15/a1b_bundle_0816.html?cxntlid=inform_sr)
PALM BEACH POST:
In the final weeks of his reelection campaign, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw accepted a $6,000 bundle of donations from auto-mall entrepreneur and developer John Staluppi, a man who was once denied a license to do business with New Jersey casinos because of alleged ties to organized crime.
Combined, Staluppi's wife and business associates have given thousands more to Bradshaw's campaign, putting Staluppi in an elite club of bundlers who helped boost Bradshaw's total reelection kitty to $471,303.
Staluppi, through his attorney, Gerald Richman, said his donations to Bradshaw were made because he thinks Bradshaw has been effective.
Facing two little-known challengers and having ample cash, Bradshaw said he'll probably spend a fraction of what he has raised and give the rest to charity. Early voting began Monday and the primary is Aug. 26.
Bradshaw said he could not afford to run background checks on all his donors, nor could he use his investigative tools as sheriff for that purpose.
All he knew about Staluppi, Bradshaw said, was that he owns auto dealerships and yacht-building businesses and is a generous benefactor to the sheriff's "Shop with a Cop" program, which gives holiday cash to underprivileged kids.
"I don't know a doggone thing about John Staluppi's past," Bradshaw said.
Last year, Staluppi opened his private "Cars of Dreams" museum to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, paying for catering and helping raise $45,000.
While FBI documents suggest Staluppi may have supplied cash and resources to Colombo crime family members at one time, Richman said no related charges had ever been filed against him. The lingering allegations, easily readable on Web sites such as thesmokinggun.com, unfairly tainted a successful businessman and philanthropist, he said.
"That stuff is way, way back, something like 28 years ago," Richman said. "The gaming thing was a long time ago, and was pretty minor, frankly."
Individual campaign contributions in Florida are limited to $500, but by giving in the names of multiple businesses, "bundling" donors can legally give much more. Staluppi's contributions were joined by those of a business partner, John Rosatti, as well as Staluppi's former lobbyist, Thomas DeRita Jr., and his wife, Barbara.
DeRita represented Staluppi in his aborted effort to assemble property and redevelop Riviera Beach's waterfront. In October, DeRita, his wife and his firm, Re:source Group NA, donated $1,000 to Bradshaw's reelection campaign. DeRita, who lobbies for many local governments, had been hired by Bradshaw six months earlier, in April 2007, to lobby for the sheriff's office on gang legislation and prison funding.
Bradshaw's other bundlers include Delray Beach-based developer Anthony Pugliese III and Palm Beach Gardens-based businesswoman Elizabeth Fago. Bradshaw also took in $24,000 from Jupiter investor Marc Roberts' 48 companies.
Fago gave $10,000 to Bradshaw through 20 of her nursing homes during an Oct. 25 fund-raiser. Fago said she donated to him because "I feel comfortable and safe."
Bradshaw's bundles have dwarfed the money raised by his opponent, Cleamond Lee Walker, a Waste Management truck driver who has raised $1,165. His other opponent, James T. Murphy, is pursuing a write-in campaign.
The sheriff said his donors expect nothing from him, and he has nothing to give - no land-use changes, no zoning variances. "They don't want anything," he said. "They want me to continue doing what I'm doing."
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/10 ... uppi1.html (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1008043staluppi1.html)
Mafia Soldiers Support Bush-Cheney
Two felonious New York wiseguys among GOP ticket's donors
OCTOBER 25--While the Mafia is not in the habit of endorsing presidential candidates, two Colombo family soldiers have spoken with their bulging wallets--and they want four more years for the Bush/Cheney ticket. The below Federal Election Commission records show that convicted felons John Staluppi and John Rosatti last year each gave the GOP candidates $2000 (the maximum individual donation). The FBI has identified Staluppi and Rosatti--multimillionaires who own auto dealerships in New York and Florida--as members of the Colombo gang. Rosatti is pictured at right in an FBI surveillance photo taken at the wake of an organized crime figure. The two Bush supporters are prized Colombo family "earners" who helped finance an insurgent Colombo faction that once sought to dethrone imprisoned boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico (that bloody early-90s mob war left more than a dozen wiseguys dead)….