About the FBI
By Josh Resnek
It is difficult to know what exactly the FBI is doing at anytime.
The recent indictment of about 30 rich people and a few television Hollywood celebrities for paying bribes to get their kids higher test scores and acceptance into elite colleges shows what the Boston office of the FBI has been busy with.
The indictments of such rich and fancy people expresses the American ideal that the law applies to everyone – even to the rich and the famous. No one knows this better than Andrew Lelling, the US Attorney for Massachusetts who is prosecuting this case.
The FBI has told the public they conducted wiretaps and listened in on conversations and that participants in the education scam cooperated with the FBI to ensure the leaders of the ring as well as others using their resources to get their kids into better schools.
Lelling shows that he is unafraid of the rich and famous. Getting convictions is what Lelling’s game is all about.
The investigation doesn’t matter if no one goes to jail.
This is why the US Attorneys office tends to be careful about the investigations it conducts.
Investigations that use heavy resources and go nowhere seem to go on endlessly, without finality, ie, indictments.
Such is the case with the casino mess and our mayor, Kickback Carlo.
This we know – the FBI has had its eyes on Everett for more than 6 years for a variety of reasons.
The FBI’s eyes and ears remain on Everett.
What exactly the FBI is doing right now is a guess.
Lelling isn’t interested in the Leader Herald.
He is interested in the coming decision of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
If the MGC denies Wynn Resorts the gaming license, that is when
the FBI will swing into action with a number of indictments. Others claim if the license is granted, this is when the FBI comes down with indictments.
“The FBI is not on a time schedule. They aren’t concerned with budgets. There is only the chase…and whatever they are directed to prosecute by the US Attorney,” said a source with a deep understanding about how the FBI functions.
Back to Lelling.
What does he want to do with Kickback Carlo?
Does Lelling let the dance continue in this city?
Does Kickback Carlo continue to pay high priced criminal attorneys to protect him – and from what?
Does Lelling say: “Let’s go? Let’s take him in. We’ve got everything we need to cause the house of cards to collapse?”
Do agents head down Abbott Street at 4 a.m.? Do they surround Kickback’s house carrying automatic weapons in the dark shouting: “FBI. Come out of the house! Give yourself up! You are under arrest!” Some say this is never going to happen because it hasn’t already happened.
Others wonder why it hasn’t already happened. Still others are concerned that Kickback seems protected from whatever he does.
We know this.
Kickback has signed an agreement to provide the FBI with information. He signed it. We printed a copy of it in the Leader. Kickback denies this but it is difficult to fool all the people all of the time.
The agreement doesn’t go out of date. It never runs out.
Once the FBI has a hold on you, well, your life becomes more complicated.
Your friends look at you a different way.
You give the FBI information and you are an informant.
When your friends know this, well, it is a difficult thing for them to overcome.
Two of Kickback’s friends know he has talked about them to the FBI. He signed the FBI agreement because he felt he needed protection.
The FBI has been all over Kickback for many years.
They have scrutinized everything about him.
They know Kickback’s secrets and his weaknesses.
They have studied his friends and all their various deals and promises made to one another.
The FBI has all the data they need.
What is lacking? Lelling’s order to move ahead and wipe out municipal corruption in Everett and bring to justice the wide ranging group of professionals and personalities who engineered the theft of the gaming license that Encore is now seeking.
The FBI has continued its useless and ineffective, dead end prosecution of Gary DeCicco, one of the original owners of the casino property. The bad guys like former Chairman Stephen Crosby of the MGC and his former business partner Paul Lohnes are given a free ride by Lelling, for now.
There are those who believe Lelling is easily persuaded by former Governor Bill Weld who represents Wynn Resorts through his association with Mintz Levin Strategies. Weld has made millions representing Wynn and has aided Wynn in their successful effort to steal the gaming license from Suffolk Downs.
Lelling should be looking into this. What a natural for an aggressive US Attorney.
Lelling’s possible prosecution of Kickback Carlo and everyone who has been enriched by his initiatives is more glamorous than the education prosecution because all roads lead to Steve Wynn.
Steve Wynn is Lelling’s road to riches and fame. Steve Wynn is about celebrity. He is about notoriety. He is surrounded by a phalanx of highly paid lawyers.
If Lelling moves forward, Wynn’s lawyers can compete but they can’t win.
The theft of the casino license from the Suffolk Downs group by Wynn Resorts and the bringing to justice the perpetrators of that theft is what I would be considering if I were Andrew Lelling.
The Library Situation
It is only natural that the mayor’s long reach has thrust his arm into the city’s library system.
The mayor’s team has been busying itself with a look at the law, the Parlin Trust, and mainly has busied itself in carrying out Kickback’s orders.
“The library must be mine to do with as I please, to hire whomever I want,” the mayor must certainly have told his troops.
A look at the present make-up of the Library’s Board of Trustees reveals the following:
One Board member works at the Wellness Center and is on two city payrolls and doesn’t live in Everett and is also part of an apparent lawsuit regarding the sexual harassment of a former Wellness Center employee now the subject of a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
Two members of the same family who ought pay attention to conflict of interest considerations are serving. One is on two city payrolls. The other’s husband is on the city’s payroll.
Another of the mayor’s supporters collecting two paychecks from the city and not living in Everett is a Board member.
A community activist who lives here is a member.
Another lifelong Everett resident is a Board member.
Yet another Board member does not live here but owns a business here and remains active in community affairs.
Two members of the same family are also Board members. One lives here. The other does not.
A lawyer who lives here is a Board member with a long history with the library.
Two additional Board members do not live in Everett.
Here is a listing of the names of the Board members. This is truly an Everett political name game. The listing is alphabetical:
Michelle Capone, Stacey DeMaria, Christina DeMaria, Mary Fiorentino, Dorothy Gomez, Samantha Lambert, Karen Martinelli, Michela Schlossberg.