Rizzuto dodges spotlight

By Paul Cherry / Montreal Gazzette

Vito Rizzuto, the publicity-shy man described by federal
authorities as "the godfather of the Italian Mafia in Montreal," has
managed at the last minute to sidestep a tax trial that would have
shed light on his criminal connections.

After a series of closed-door meetings with Revenue Canada,
Rizzuto's lawyer, Paul Ryan, reached an out-of-court settlement that
canceled a Tax Court of Canada hearing that was supposed to take
place in Montreal on Monday.

"We felt like we had a strong case, but we wanted to avoid the
media circus that was sure to happen," Ryan said, describing the
government's case as unusual because of its emphasis on Rizzuto's
alleged criminal associations. Federal documents indicated the
government intended to focus heavily on Rizzuto's alleged ties to
organized crime.

It bluntly referred to him as a Mafia boss.

It alleges that Rizzuto used middlemen to purchase penny stocks on
the Alberta Stock Exchange and did not report revenues - more than
$1.5 million between 1986 and 1988 - from the investment. The
government was seeking unpaid taxes plus interest, as well as more
than $127,000 in penalties.

Ryan argued that Rizzuto's alleged background was irrelevant to the
case.

"It was a simple tax case," he said. "I guess that to prove that
the money came from him, (the government) felt compelled to prove
his background. As far as we were concerned that had nothing to do
with the case. The only thing in litigation was whether the money
(to purchase the shares) came from him or not."

Ryan would not disclose terms of the settlement with Revenue
Canada.

Rizzuto was first served with a notice of the government's claims
in 1995. His eagerness to settle this week brings into question
whether Rizzuto was ever willing to let the government's case go
forward, holding his past associations up for public scrutiny.

- - -

Rizzuto hasn't faced the courts since November 1990, when he was
charged with conspiracy to import 16 tonnes of hashish into Canada.
The charges were dropped after it was revealed that the RCMP had
wiretapped discussions between Rizzuto's lawyer and other defence
lawyers involved in the case.

Rizzuto has rarely spoken to the media but after getting off on the
technicality, he told a reporter: "One word can mean so much,
especially when that word is acquittal."

In a rare instance when he has spoken on the record in a court of
law - during the 1995 cocaine trial of Valentino Morielli, a
childhood friend and schoolmate - the 55-year-old Rizzuto talked
about his early days growing up in Montreal's Villeray district and
in St. Leonard.

The alleged Mafia don also revealed that he is an avid golfer who
played more than 100 times a year and that he often teed off at
exclusive golf clubs in Laval and Terrebonne; he also participated
in golf tournaments for the benefit of Italian associations.

The trial resulted in the conviction of 55-year-old Morielli and
other men, some of who made up golf foursomes with the reputed
godfather. They were found guilty of conspiring to bring cocaine
into Canada via Miami and the Cayman Islands. Rizzuto was never
charged in that case.

Besides spending an inordinate amount of time on the links, Rizzuto
is often spotted, as is his father, Nick, at the Consenza Social
Club on Jarry St. It is not a private club and anyone can walk off
the street and order an espresso. "But don't expect to feel
welcome," a police source said. "It's the kind of place where
strangers get stared at."

Rizzuto is believed to spend so much time at the Consenza that on
July 14, the Surete du Quebec, investigating a plot to kill the
alleged don, arrested two unarmed suspects because they came within
two blocks of the place.

One interesting result of the Morielli trial was that Rizzuto began
to be referred to as the "presumed head of the Canadian Mafia" in
court and later in the Quebec Court of Appeal, which rejected
Morielli's attempt to overturn his conviction. Morielli had argued
that by focusing on Rizzuto's relationship with him, the prosecution
burdened him with "a bad reputation."

The references were never challenged by Rizzuto's lawyer, and since
then even the normally reserved RCMP has openly used the Rizzuto
name as an adjective describing organized crime. The Mounties
referred in a press release to the "Rizzuto criminal organization"
this year as being behind a $200-million illegal gambling ring it
broke up in Toronto, even though no one named Rizzuto was arrested.

- - -

Born in 1946 in a quiet, rural region of Sicily called Cattolica
Ereclea, Rizzuto's family moved to Canada in the 1950s. His father
Nicolo (Nick) Rizzuto, once served time in Venezuela for a 1988
conviction for cocaine trafficking but was released in 1993 and
returned to Montreal. Nick's wife Libertina was arrested in
Switzerland in 1994 as a suspect in a money-laundering scheme but
was released without being charged.

Vito Rizzuto's ability to stay clear of the authorities impresses
Toronto author Antonio Nicaso. He said it is rare to see a man spend
so little time behind bars and yet be referred to frequently as the
reputed head of the Canadian Mafia.

Nicaso compares Rizzuto to John Gotti when he was known as the
Teflon Don because none of the criminal cases brought against him
would stick. Gotti's luck eventually ran out after one of his close
lieutenants turned on him and sent him to jail where he now
languishes.

"To me, he is like the John Gotti of the '80s because he is like
the Teflon Don of Canada. He has few convictions," said Nicaso, the
author of several books on organized crime including Bloodlines -
The Rise and Fall of the Mafia's Royal Family, a book about the
Sicilian Mafia in Canada.

"It is one of the most unique instances in the history of organized
crime. It is difficult for me to remember a comparable scenario."

- - -

Besides the Newfoundland case that left the RCMP embarrassed,
Rizzuto also was acquitted, on Dec. 18, 1989, in a drug conspiracy
case in Sept-iles. In 1986, he saw charges related to the improper
use of a motor vehicle quickly tossed out of court.

His only significant conviction came in 1972 when he and his
brother-in-law, Paul Renda, were found guilty of conspiracy to
commit arson.

In civil court documents, Rizzuto has described himself as a
businessman and provided his spacious home on Antoine Berthelet
Ave., in the north end of the city, as a business address.

Despite his claims to being a legitimate businessman, Mark Gentile,
the government lawyer who would have prosecuted the tax case against
Rizzuto, appeared to be preparing arguments that would have focused
heavily on Rizzuto's alleged ties to organized crime.

Gentile was preparing to call on Raynald Desjardins, who's serving
a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a cocaine-importing case,
to be a witness at the hearing. Desjardins has ties to both the
Hells Angels and the Sicilian Mafia.

At the time of his arrest in 1993, Desjardins was described by
police as Rizzuto's right-hand man and neighbour. Police had
evidence that he attended Hells Angels parties as a guest of gang
leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher.

Also included as evidence for Monday was a document titled
Associations of Vito Rizzuto with criminal elements in Canada and
elsewhere.

In it, the government cited as evidence the criminal records of
several well-known organized crime figures including Boucher and the
late Joe Lopresti, a Montrealer who was alleged to have had close
ties to the Gotti crime family. In 1992, Lopresti was murdered in
Montreal; the killer was never caught.

- - -

The tax case against Rizzuto stemmed from a 1993 Ontario civil
lawsuit in which the investment firm McDermid St. Lawrence Ltd.
successfully defended itself against shareholders who claimed they
were swindled by a broker who invested in Penway, a mining company
listed on the Alberta stock exchange. McDermid defended itself by
proving the shareholders were middlemen investing for a third party
that wanted to remain anonymous. The brokerage firm claimed the
shares were purchased on Rizzuto's behalf.

Claiming $2.65 million in damages, the shareholders said that a
McDermid broker named Arthur Sherman sold their Penway shares for
his own use. Sherman disappeared in 1988 and was later declared
legally dead.

Testimony heard during the civil trial indicated that Rizzuto
loaned money for the purchase of shares and that at one point he
appeared at McDermid's offices. Also, a receptionist testified
seeing Rizzuto in March 1988 accompanied by two men "described as
very large and very frightening thugs."

For the aborted trial on Monday, Revenue Canada had intended to
introduce as evidence a segment of W5, the television newsmagazine,
in which a mob informant serving time in England describes Vito
Rizzuto as being the head of all the Mafia families in Canada.

It is quite an allegation considering that during Quebec's
extensive probe into organized crime in 1975 Rizzuto's father, Nick,
was but a blip on the radar screen.

Evidence was presented during the commission that in 1971 the
Cotroni family - a group of brothers originally from the southern
Italian region of Calabria who grew as an extension of New York's
Bonano crime family - began to see Nick Rizzuto as a challenge to
their turf.

One of the leaders of the Cotroni family was concerned that the
Sicilian Rizzuto was acting without consulting other families and
wanted to take the issue up with a commission of organized crime
leaders in New York.

The complaints came from Paul Violi, the hand-picked successor to
lead the Cotroni family. He was murdered in 1978 in what Montreal
police investigators have long considered a turning point in the
city's criminal history with the Sicilian Mafia taking over the
reins from their Calabrian colleagues.

Aug. 18, 2001