Neil Fink's job was to portray DeSeranno as a liar and a cheat. "I feel bad for any prosecutor who went up against my dad when the issue was gambling," son Wade Fink told The News. The case against Giacalone ran into trouble during cross-examination.įink, who died in 2016, was one of Detroit's top criminal defense lawyers, a skilled questioner described in a 1970 profile as a "stalking tiger, a miniature barracuda" and "five feet seven inches of abrasiveness." “Did he tell you how much money he thought you owed him?” Corbett asked DeSeranno, according to the transcript. He told jurors Giacalone demanded repayment of a debt during a meeting at the lakeside Beach Grill in St.
#Rob snell detroit free press trial#
Mickelson had won three major championships by the time DeSeranno sat down to testify in the Giacalone trial on April 25, 2007.ĭeSeranno was a key witness for federal prosecutors trying to convince jurors that Giacalone was a menacing figure involved in a gambling ring that netted $5.9 million.
Mickelson was not charged with wrongdoing. The Securities and Exchange Commission cited Mickelson for the trades in a lawsuit, and Mickelson agreed to repay the money. President Donald Trump commuted Walters' five-year federal prison sentence in January. Walters was convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud after prosecutors told a jury he helped Mickelson earn $1 million in 2012 with stock trades in a Dallas-based company so the golfer could cover gambling debts, according to the Associated Press. Las Vegas gambler William “Billy” Walters was convicted in an insider trading case in 2017 that had ties to the golfer.
#Rob snell detroit free press professional#
He dealt with these people on a regular basis."ĭeSeranno's time in Las Vegas overlapped with Mickelson's rise in professional golf, a career that has occasionally been touched by scandal.
Attorney Keith Corbett, who was chief of the federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit. "He came from a family with a lot of money, and he lost a lot of money to mob guys and other people in gambling. “He was what was characterized as an LCN associate,” said former Assistant U.S. The government considered DeSeranno an associate of the national mafia organization La Cosa Nostra, or LCN for short, who worked as a host for Hilton Hotels and Casino in Las Vegas.ĭeSeranno gambled and lost big, from $300,000-$500,000 a year. "It’s old news," Cohen said, "and my client didn’t do anything wrong.”Īlthough the trial happened in 2007, the transcript did not appear in Giacalone’s court file until 2018, 11 years after his acquittal, and was discovered as Giacalone faced prison time earlier this month in connection with an overdue tax bill of more than $537,222.ĭeSeranno and Mickelson made an unlikely pair. Mickelson did not know about DeSeranno’s background while placing sports bets with the bookie, the golfer’s lawyer, Glenn Cohen, told The News on Tuesday.
0 kommentar(er)
