My latest:
A Florida man alleged to have Mafia ties pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to shred records and launder money in connection with the Ponzi scheme of disgraced Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein.
Roberto Settineri, a 42-year-old wine merchant, admitted during a plea hearing to conspiring with two others to launder $10 million in funds and concealed assets represented as proceeds of a large-scale mail fraud scheme, the Justice Department said in a statement. Settineri and his co-conspirators received nearly $70,000 for agreeing to destroy documents pertaining to Rothstein’s Ponzi scheme that were requested by a grand jury, according to court records.
The case was jointly investigated by the FBI and Italian authorities, who charged Settineri and 20 others in March for extortion, drug trafficking, attempted homicide and other crimes arising from their alleged affiliation with Santa Maria di Gesu, a Sicilian Mafia family based in Palermo.
