Ray Velazquez represented Ray Velazquez represented Jaime Vazquez in the assault trial against Hudson County hate monger Hal Turner. November 8, 2010, both Ray Velazquez and Jaime Vazquez are running for the two Jersey City Council At-Large seats on the ballot.
Ray Velazquez represented Jaime Vazquez in the assault trial against Hudson County hate monger Hal Turner.
November 8th, 2011Flip Wilson’s family’s supermarket tabloid coverage
September 26th, 2011In the early ’70s, Jersey City residents watched the Flip Wilson show with a special sense of pride, as the comedian was born and raised there. That feeling became significantly diluted after a supermarket tabloid revealed that Wilson had Jersey City relatives living on welfare. A neighbor related that the coverage was unfair. Flip Wilson had bought his kin homes and businesses, but through bad habits they had lost everything.
Mayor McCann: No homeless in Jersey City
September 5th, 2011When Mayor McCann claimed that there weren’t any homeless people in Jersey City, the Jersey Journal frontpaged a picture of Vinny Buchelle standing in front of his wrecked Volvo bunk. The headline read, “Vinny Calls Abandoned Car Home.”
Jersey City Garden Post Card -$7., shipping included.
February 14th, 2011
Original, not mailed
To order, send $7. by PayPal to aolsz@bellatlantic.net
In A Cycle of Power, The Career of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, Richard J. Connors, described how John V. Kenny’s anti-Hague organization only was able to rent a single hall for events:
“Kenny also tried, with little success, to line up meeting halls for the spring. He usually found that they were “all booked up” — John Malone had seen to that! A supporter did manage to sign a contract for one hall, the Jersey City Gardens, Saturday nights from January through May.”
Martin Luther King Jersey City links
January 15th, 2011
Just Behind Dr. King’s right shoulder is Jersey City Police Officer Charles Jackson, who served as security coordinator for the event.
Dr. Martin Luther King spoke at least twice in Jersey City. On September 21, 1965, he received an honorary Doctor of Law from St. Peter’s College. Dr. King gave an address titled “The American Dream.” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University does not have a copy of the text (or a recording) of the address.
On Wednesday, March 27, 1968, barely a week before his death, nearly 2,000 heard Martin Luther King at Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church. Dr. King encouraged support for his upcoming “Poor People’s Campaign.”
I know of one recording was made of Martin Luther King speaking in Jersey City. At a grammar school assembly many years ago, I heard an audio tape – brought in by a parent of one of the students – of Dr. King addressing a Jersey City audience. I’m not sure if this was the St. Peter’s College event,the talk at A.M.E. church, or if it was of an appearance of Martin Luther King in Jersey City that is not currently documented.
Frank Hague’s Christmas Quarter
December 23rd, 2010By Anthony Olszewski
copyright 2006
During the long, hard, haul of 1931, a quarter was a lot of money. Twenty-five cents was a real big deal back then. With a dime you bought a ticket to the Saturday matinee at the movies. The show ran from 10 o’clock in the morning until 3 in the afternoon: cartoons, newsreels, serials, the feature film, and door prizes! On the way to the theatre, one store had two hot dogs for a nickel. A few doors down, another store sold two big candy bars for five cents. For the same price, just down the block, yet another store gave you two sodas. It all added up to a Depression-era kid’s vision of heaven.
Sadly, usually there wasn’t any way to scrape together a quarter. A family that just barely managed to stay housed, clothed, and fed considered themselves well off.
But this morning was different! On Christmas day during the Depression, Mayor Frank Hague handed out a quarter to every child that lined up across the street from City Hall in Jersey City. All a kid had to do to get the money was to wake up early . . . and stand in line.
- – -
Big Boy really wasn’t. He was a skinny nine-year old – and small for his age. His dad, a Polish immigrant, had been out of work for a couple of years now. Most every morning, Big Boy started the day by stealing a bottle of milk off of somebody’s stoop and a bag of rolls from in front of a store. But he didn’t have to do that today. For Christmas, his family managed to collect enough food for a couple of normal meals. Plus, he had to get down to City Hall early for his quarter.
Big Boy ran out of the apartment with his hat and gloves still under his arm, putting a coat on at the same time as he rushed down the stairs. He stopped at the vestibule door to put on the hat and gloves and then hurried outside. He walked slowly for two blocks, taking care because the streets were covered with ice. But as soon as he came to Newark Avenue, where the shopkeepers had sprinkled coal cinders on the well-shoveled sidewalks, Big Boy again started to run.
Four o’clock in the morning, Christmas day, all the stores were closed.
Continuing up Grove Street, Big Boy saw that there already was something of a crowd, even though dawn was still over an hour away. The kids, though varying somewhat in height, were nearly indistinguishable. All were thin with patched, hand-me-down coats and hats pulled over their ears. One here had a new pair of gloves, one there had a new hat, for, after all, it was Christmas day. But, besides the scattering of rule-proving exceptions, it was if the crowd was made up of members of some children’s army that had clad them in uniforms meted out by a supply sergeant.
Several hours went by in the bitter cold. As the sun rose and the sky turned gray, to some slight degree the freezing wind began to be almost bearable.
Reporters and cameramen started to arrive. Church bells again were ringing. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Big Boy looked behind him. A line of boys stretched around the block.
Just then, two police cars pulled up – followed by a black limousine and two more police cars. One of the higher-ranking police officers rushed to open the car’s door. Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague got out, immediately putting on his fedora. Mayor Hague briskly walked over to the first child. The entire line straightened into nearly military precision.
“Merry Christmas, here you are.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
And the young boy ran off. With a similar salutation, Frank Hague quickly handed a coin to the next in line.
As soon as Big Boy thanked the Mayor for the quarter, the child thought up a scheme. He ran down the block, from which a line of kids stretched, turned at the corner, and ran along that entire street, the line still there. He turned at the next corner. The end of the line was towards the middle of that block. Big Boy got back in line.
Several hours later, he again stood in front of Frank Hague. Instead of the immediate “Merry Christmas,” followed by the quarter, Mayor Hague first paused for a moment.
“Lad, d’y’know that ye’r quite distinguished?”
“Wha’d’ya mean by that, Mayor?”
Frank Hague’s eyes took on a steely glint. Handing Big Boy the quarter Mayor Hague said, “That means that I don’t want to see you again today.”
What to others would only have been a sea of faces, to Frank Hague each and every one was an individual – a son of two voters, perhaps the grandson of four voters, a voter himself in a couple of years. One skinny kid was clever enough that cold Christmas morning to get an extra quarter. But, Mayor Hague let the child know that he wasn’t smart enough to fool Frank Hague.
Christmas poinsettia first grown in Jersey City
December 21st, 2010The popular Christmas poinsettia flower was first cultivated by Mrs. Enteman, a Jersey City horticulturist, in 1923. Until the 1960s, nearly all commercially grown poinsettias were descendants of this single “Oak Leaf” poinsettia plant.
One Peoples Project on Hal Turner and the Hudson County Republican Party
October 3rd, 2010From One Peoples Project
http://onepeoplesproject.com
HUDSON COUNTY GOP: TURNER WHO? Contributed by One People’s Project Wednesday, 14 June 2006 Last Updated Thursday, 15 June 2006
We might have to revise Hal Turner’s Rogue’s Gallery entry soon. We wish it could be so we can add “DECEASED” or “INCARCERATED” next to his name, but this will be just as fun. You know how all this time we were under the impression that Turner ran the Hudson County Republican Party for some time? Well, someone from that Republican Party is squashing that one. He is also not too keen on Turner tying himself to former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler. It doesn’t help matters much that the pissed off person is friends with former Councilman Jamie Vazquez, the guy Turner got into a little scuffle with April 11. Turner is definitely not going to like this story all that much. Eh, so what. We don’t like him all that much, but we digress. What we should say here is this is the first time hearing this, and after ten-plus years of dealing with Turner, this is something we think needs exploring. For now, however, we thought we needed to put this out for the benefit of those who follow Turner on this site and want to know every detail about one of the reasons why the white power scene is not a threat to anyone.
By One People’s Project
JERSEY CITY, NJ–A worker within the Hudson County (NJ) Republican Party, that was the website editor for former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler’s campaign for governor, says that white supremacist radio show host Hal Turner has, contrary to Turner’s assertions, never been the head of the local Republican, nor was he as close to Mayor Schundler as he has claimed.
On the website GETNJ.com, edited by Anthony Olszewski, who first worked with Schundler in the 1997 campaign for governor, Turner has never had anything to do with the recognized Republican Party of Hudson County. “Hal Turner claims to be the ‘Chairman of the Republican Party of Hudson County, NJ Corp,’” the website reads. “This group is in no way involved with the Hudson County Republican Party that is recognized by the state and national GOP. Local Republicans have never heard of Turner’s ‘NJ, Corp.’ Hudson GOP figures believe that Turner’s ‘Party’ is no more than a paper corporation with little or no membership.”
According to his biography found on his website, Turner was elected to the Hudson County Republican Committee in 1991 and served for two years and in 1992 became North Jersey Campaign Coordinator for the Presidential campaign of Patrick J. Buchanan. In a phone conversation with Olszewski, he confirmed that Turner was indeed a committeeman at one time and is a registered Republican, but any association with the GOP ends there.
His associations with Schundler were few and less than cordial. “Some years back, Hal Turner sought the support of then Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler for a proposal to end rent control immediately and abruptly,” Olszewski writes on his website. “Knowing that this would mean economic dislocation for the city’s most vulnerable residents, Schundler refused to support the measure.” In the phone conversation, Olszewski termed what Turner was trying to do reeked of ethnic cleansing. Although Turner is reputed to have had at least one tie to a hate group, and was considered a racist, he was still denying any associations with racist groups and beliefs around this time. Still, he managed to make himself a pariah among the local GOP, so much so that in 1997, his organization attempted to raise money on behalf of Bret Schundler’s reelection bid that year. “Hal Turner was circulating some fund raising literature that gave the appearance of being for Schundler,” Olszewski wrote in an email, noting later in the phone conversation that the Schundler campaign sent letters out at that time telling supporters not to send Turner money on Schundler’s behalf. “Schundler threatened to sue. Turner stopped.
The curious thing about this is the fact that also in 1997 Turner was the campaign manager for Murray Sabrin’s bid for Governor – on the Libertarian Party ticket, not the Republican Party. This campaign had a sigificance at the time because it marked the first time a third party candidate received federal matching funds for their campaign. It is unknown if any money meant for Schundler ended up in Sabrin’s campaign war chest.
“Hal Turner at first kept — for the most part — his racist views hidden,” Olszewski continued. “Hewas acquainted and involved with local Republicans — many years ago. When the local Party decided to run a Latina as a Congressional candidate, Hal Turner ceased all involvement with the Hudson County GOP.” Turner ran in that particular congressional primary, which was in 2000. The GOP nominated Teresa deLeon to run against incumbent Bob Melendez (sic), who is now a US Senator. A few months later, Turner began to openly court neo-Nazis, and by 2001, he was a member of the National Alliance.
In his second full term, Mayor Schundler appointed City Councilman Jamie Vazquez to be his deputy mayor.
On Thursday, Vazquez and Turner are due in court on charges that they assaulted each other as Vazquez staged a one-man demonstration outside Turner’s North Bergen home responding to vitriolic comments and stunts on Turner’s part about Hispanics and immigration. Olszewski became friends with Vazquez from his days as the Jersey City web editor, and expects to support him while he is in court.
Also, stirring up controversy is the 2005 endorsement of Bret Schundler as he made a bid for the GOP nomination for New Jersey Governor. “I know Bret personally,” Turner wrote on his website. “While he was Mayor of Jersey City, I was received warmly in the Office of Mayor and worked with his Administration on commercial real estate activities. In the past, Bret invited me to his home for political activity. Given his family is rich in German (Aryan) heritage, and based upon conversations we’ve had on issues important to our way of thinking, I think Bret is truly “our kind of guy.’”
Olszewski, who briefly worked on the 2005 primary campaign, was not aware of Turner’s endorsement of Schundler until this week, and dismissed it as a “dirty trick” on the part of Turner. “Why would Turner support Schundler?” he asked in an email. “(Bogota, NJ Mayor Steve) Lonegan yipped and yapped up and down the state about immigrants and affirmative action. Why wouldn’t Turner jump on that wagon?”
Lonegan is currently working with Ron Bass’ anti-immigrant United Patriots of America, which has had ties to white supremacist organizations, and has even invited members of hate groups to speak at their meetings.
Turner’s altercation with Vazquez gave him a higher profile than usual in Hudson County, but no other organization or individual has stepped forward to distance themselves from him. Turner has claimed friendships with Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, and radio talk-show host Sean Hannity, a relationship that was reported on by the Nation Magazine.
One Peoples Project
http://onepeoplesproject.com
Generated: 19 October, 2007, 03:17
Anthony Gallagher of Bayonne, Genovese Family associate, testifies about his career as an unlicensed check casher.
October 2nd, 2010http://www.mafianj.com/sci88/firstday8.shtml
Subversion By Organized Crime And Other Unscrupulous Elements of the Check Cashing Industry
State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation 1988 Report
PUBLIC HEARING-FIRST DAY (April 26, 1988) – Unlicensed Check Casher Gallagher Confirms Mob Ties
Anthony Gallagher of Bayonne, a known associate of the Genovese organized crime family, testified at length about his maverick career as a free-wheeling, unlicensed check casher since the late 1960s. During the course of his rambling testimony, he cited dealings with other Genovese mob figures, including underboss Venero (Benny Eggs) Mangano and loanshark Frank Vonell
A. He has long been identified as an ally of John DiGilio, the long time Hudson County enforcer for the Genovese gang, who was found murdered in May, 1988. Gallagher’s appearance at the SCI hearing occurred within two weeks of his conviction in Newark of federal racketeering and conspiracy charges. Ironically, DiGilio, a co-defendant in that trial, was acquitted.
Gallagher’s name had surfaced in the testimony of previous witnesses as having served as a check casher or as a referral agent for other check cashers or in connection with questionable transactions that these witnesses described in detail. In addition, Gallagher’s long association with organized crime was outlined at the hearing by the Commission’s expert, Dintino.
Cashed Checks For “Gratuities”
Apparently, because the Department of Banking has no criminal statutes to back up its regulatory control over check cashers, Gallagher was able to operate for many years without being effectively sanctioned. Because the department’s inherently weak civil authority was restricted to the check cashers it licensed, who had to obey a rigid regulatory system, Gallagher indicated in his testimony that he was able to operate openly by, as he claimed, accepting “gratuities” rather than charging fees. He explained how he operated as a check casher to Counsel Gaal:
Q. Do you charge a fee for cashing checks?
A. No.
Q. Do you receive any type of remuneration, compensation, gratuity?
A. We normally receive an amount for every check we cash.
Q. Have you called that in the past a gratuity?
A. I call it today a gratuity.
Q. Is there any particular rule of thumb that you have in terms of the amount of the gratuity you might receive or you do receive on a check?
A. About 1 percent.
Q. Have you yourself applied for licenses?
A. Sure.
Q. And what happened?
A. Nothing happens. When you apply to the Department of Banking it gets lost. It drops through the cracks for about a year, two years. I think you got to get seven Senators and 16 Assemblymen and the Governor’s deputy to push it and they push it up and you save a year or two.
Q. Have you operated more than one check cashing business at a time?
A. Yes. I have two now.
Q. Now, Mr. Gallagher, you operate and you have operated check cashing businesses in this State without a license. How do you do it?
A. I open a check casher.
Q. And you open the door, and what do you do with the checks and how do you get cash?
A. Well, if you have a bank you deposit them into a bank but as you know banks don’t like welfare recipients, banks don’t like that type of check, so you have to be very, very circumspect in disposing of your check. I’m talking about the regular governmental checks and the welfare checks. So you go and you open up bank accounts or we have enough people write up, whoever, that open up possibly 12 [accounts]-we could open up a big check casher tomorrow morning right here in Trenton.
Q. Do you have check cashing businesses in Florida?
A. Yes.
Q. And do you send those checks up to New Jersey?
A. Yes. 42
Q. And what do you do? Process them through
A. Well, now I don’t send them up because I have ways of disposing of the checks in Florid
A.
Q. At the time you testified in executive session you indicated that you would send them up to New Jersey
A. Yes, some of them I still have to send up.
Q. And they handle them through your New Jersey businesses?
A. Yes; just float them around.
Q. Now, Mr. Gallagher, the State of New Jersey, in particular the Department of Banking, requires that check cashers obtain corporate resolutions before they cash checks payable to corporations. Do you require corporate resolutions?
A. Of course not.
Q. What do you think of that requirement?
A. It’s a joke.
Q. Why?
A. Because it has no force and effect. I mean, it’s something that a lawyer would like to have when he goes six months from now or a year from now and sues to collect on a check, but it gives you absolutely nothing. It’s a regulation that’s worthless.
Q. Another banking rule is that, in essence, where a check casher is allowing the customer to repeatedly bounce checks or maybe I should say a check casher cashes checks for a customer that repeatedly bounces checks, they should, in essence, get rid of that customer and stop?
A. Well, that’s what the Bank Commissioner says.
Q. Why do you take issue with that?
A. Because the people who come to cash checks, 50 percent of the time they’re going to bounce the checks … Gallagher said he makes it a practice to cash checks at licensed check cashers. He insisted, however, on paying a fee that would be half as much as the one point “gratuity” that he received:
Q. Now, in addition to moving checks to individuals or business accounts, have you on occasion taken checks to licensed check cashers?
A. Sure.
Q. Okay. And are you doing that currently?
A. Yes.
Q. When you take checks to a licensed check casher is there any rule of thumb as to the fee that you have to pay?
A. I won’t pay them more than a half a point.
Q. Why?
A. Because that’s 50 percent of the profit. I only charge a point.
Q. You charge a point and get half a point?
A. When I say I charge a half a point-I don’t want to read four years later that I said we charge a point. When I charge a point, I’m saying that our average amount that we receive as a gratuity for a check is a point. It always has been for 12 years.
Gallagher Is Check “Floater”
Gallagher described himself as a check “floater,” as distinguished from a check kiter. However, his process was similar in that he also utilized the time or float period for a bank check to clear to make free use of the proceeds of the check. In organized crime circles, a series of kites, or floats, enables a perpetrator to pyramid an ever increasing amount of cash as loanshark loans, bets or for other illicit purposes, so long as the float can be maintained. Counsel Gaal reviewed the practice with Gallagher:
Q. Can you tell us what your definition is of a check kite? 43
A. I don’t use the term “kite”. I use the term “float.” a What’s a check float?
A. . . . Let’s say Friday is welfare day so welfare day maybe $100,000 [is needed] to cover welfare and you only have $20 so … you’re able to go to a check casher-and you give him a check for $30,000, the check is flat out no good at the moment when you give it to him.
Q. You give him a no-good check for $30,000
A. Right. We’re using the term again-we’re using the worst term. We’re saying the check is no good at present.
Q. Which means there are insufficient funds in the bank
A. There’s zero in the bank. There’s one dollar in the bank. We have a $30,000 check. You bring the $30,000 check to a check casher. He then gives you $30,000 in cash. You now can use that $30,000 all during the day. In other words, you can start with zero and do it all during the day.
Q. Is it also fair to say that the next day you would continue by cashing a new check?
A. The cycle may-and, you know, because-banks don’t like to cash checks because the worst thing that can happen in banks is to take money out of the banks.
Q. Now, did you recently devise a way to assist a check casher who needed cash for the weekend?
A. Yes.
Q. And was that Grand Street?
A. Yes.
Q. And was the methodology that you devised
A. It’s exactly the same as this, but it failed.
Q. And why did it fail?
A. Because an idiot in the bank for Grand Street who had been there for like-since they opened-thought they were trying to rob the bank of the money.
Gallagher Had a $400,000 “Float”
Counsel Gaal reminded Gallagher that he had previously told the Commission he once maintained a $400,000 check float. Indeed, he had told the SCI the only reason he operated as a check casher was to enable himself to contrive floats and utilize the cash for loans and other activities. He explained this type of operation:
A. Yeah, I had done that. I’m not sure about the number again. You know it might have been eight or ten accounts.
Q. Can you do it
A. At the time we were doing 400, 500 [thousand dollars] a day.
Q. How long can you run one of these floats if you don’t make a mistake?
A. It isn’t that. It’s if the people on the other side don’t realize-if the people on the other side see malevolence in you, they can-then they can destroy you. If they don’t see malevolence, you can do it forever. It doesn’t cost anybody anything.
Q. Are there also other factors such as a snowstorm which prevent you from getting to the bank to make your deposit
A. A snowstorm is the worst thing that can happen to a float.
Q. Mr. Gallagher, is it fair to say that the floater gets the benefit of cash for whatever purpose he might have?
A. That’s correct. It’s also a method to steal, too, and that’s why I’m being-I don’t know why I haven’t taken the Fifth yet, but I’m getting very, very careful in what I’m answering. I’m trying to hold together a statement I have together with what you’re asking me but if you stay on target, I’ll stay that way. That’s what happens. When somebody thinks you’re attempting to steal from them you have a problem when you’re really not.
Q. Could it also be said that the floater is getting … interest-free loans:
A. Yes, and I love them. 44 Gallagher testified that check cashers not only can “launder” money but they also make loans:
Q. Would you also agree that check cashers can lend money and do lend money?
A. Sure they do.
Q. On a regular basis?
A. I would think … I don’t know about-I’m not saying that licensed guys would do that because that could jeopardize your license.
Q. But the unlicensed ones do?
A. We do.
Q. When you testified in executive session you gave an example of the businessman who needs money on a Friday, who comes to you and as a check casher, to use the term “kite” or “float” a check, lends him 15,000, he pays a point and he brings the check in on Monday. In essence, that’s an advance of money. Am I right?
A. Of course. It’s done all the time …
Borrowed From Mobster’s Wife
One of the most revealing disclosures by Gallagher was an admission that he had borrowed money from the wife of the Genovese underboss, Venero (Benny Eggs) Mangano, in 1981. SCI Intelligence Chief Dintino said such a transaction indicated that Gallagher was deeply aligned with the Genovese organized crime family. Here are Gallagher’s recollections of the loan, which he utilized to end or reduce one of his check float operations:<
Q. Mr. Gallagher, have you had occasion when you borrowed money to bring down a float?
A. Do I borrow money to bring down a float? Sure.
Q. And is one of the individuals that you borrowed money from Mrs. Mangano, the wife of Mr. Mangano?
A. The last loan was in 1981.
Q. Have you borrowed money from Mrs. Mangano?
A. Yes, in 1981, yes.
Q. But you have borrowed money
A. Because I’ve described him in testimony in Federal Court. He’s a very, very close friend of mine. I worked on cases that he was involved in, civil contempt cases, and I think one or two are loans that I don’t have to pay him back that he forgot about them but he’s just a red herring thrown in here for no reason at all…
Gallagher’s Mob Background
When Gallagher was able to borrow money from Mrs. Mangano, it had to be with her husband’s approval. And, according to Chief Dintino, Benny Eggs Mangano as the Genovese family’s underboss was a leader of “one of the most powerful organized crime organizations in the country.” Counsel Gaal asked Dintino to characterize Gallagher’s connection with the Genovese gangsters:
Q. In your opinion is it significant that an individual such as Gallagher would visit [such] a man on a daily basis and be capable of borrowing a significant sum of money interest-free from him?
A. It is very significant in that Gallagher is trusted by the Genovese hierarchy and plays an important role in their illegal operations. There is also no doubt in my mind that DiGilio, Mangano and Vincent Gigante, the present boss of the Genovese organization, all receive a piece of Gallagher’s legitimate enterprises and illegal criminal activities, including the check cashing facilities he mentioned he owns. Also when called upon for a favor such as utilizing his check cashing facilities for illegal activities, he would have to comply.
“Significant” Criminal Associate
Chief Dintino was asked to outline Gallagher’s mob background and connections:
Q. Do you know of him prior to these hearings and, if so, what can you tell us about him and his activities? 45
A. Yes, I have known Gallagher prior to these hearings and Anthony Gallagher is a significant criminal associate of the Genovese crime family. Gallagher primarily serves as a front for Genovese family members [such as] Venero Mangano. His illicit activities include collusive theft, extortion, labor racketeering, tax violations and corruption relative to the waterfront ports of Hudson County. His criminal record reflects an arrest for forgery and a recent conviction for extortion whereby money was being extorted from a stevedoring company in exchange for labor peace at the Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey. You might say that Gallagher is a mini-Meyer Lansky for the DiGilio segment [of] the crime family.
SCI Agents Check Out Gallagher
SCI Agents Raymond Schellhammer and William P. Rooney testified about their surveillance of Gallagher’s unlicensed check cashing establishments at 790 and 809 Broadway, Bayonne. In fact, Schellhammer said he paid a fee rather than a gratuity-despite Gallagher’s testimony to the contrary-when he cashed a check at the 790 Broadway establishment:
Q. What was the amount of the check?
A. The check was in the amount of $275.
Q. And was a fee paid for cashing this check?
A. I received back $272, and although [the fee] was more than 1 percent of the face value, I didn’t make any comment about it.
SCI Accountant Explains Float*
The Commission’s chief accountant, Julius M. Cayson Jr., concluded the public hearing’s opening day with an explanation of Gallagher’s check float manipulation. He was questioned by SCI Counsel William DiBuono:
Q. Does Mr. Gallagher characterize what he does as a float? *See chart, p. 47.
A. Yes, he does.
Q. Is this a form of check kiting?
A. Yes, it is because the result is the same; that is, the kiter or the floater is using the bank’s funds without its knowledge and, of course, without paying interest on the money.
Q. Does Mr. Gallagher’s floating activity rely upon the use of a check casher?
A. In the instance that we’re going to examine today, yes, it does.
Q. At this point I’ll pass out the chart.
A. The staff has prepared this particular exhibit, and in the scenario that we present here Check Number 1 is cashed at a check casher and that particular cash is used for any purpose. It’s used for any purpose that the floater wants to use [it for]. Check Number 2 then is cashed also at a check casher and that cash is deposited to cover Check 1. Check 3 covers Check 2, et cetera, until the cash deposits of the check and succeeding checks [extend] for as long as the unauthorized loans are extended. Each succeeding check is used to cover the previous check until such time as the float either collapses or the thing is paid off. The wrinkle here is that instead of using checks which is kiting, currency is used and that, of course, Mr. Gallagher says is the float. I-we can’t get any more simple than that.
Q. Does the floater benefit by this activity?
A. Yes. The floater benefits because, in effect, he’s getting an interest-free loan.
Q. Is there any way to stop this scheme?
A. The only way to stop a float is to refuse to accept a cash deposit. That is quite extreme, but we have an instance in this investigation that was alluded to earlier in which to destroy the float, a cash deposit was refused.
Q. How difficult is it to identify this type of activity?
A. It is very, very difficult if the perpetrator uses fictitious payees, multiple banks, many bank accounts and cashes his checks under $10,000 which, of course, thwarts the CTR regulations.
FBI informant Hal Turner: It will all be over when the fat man sings.
August 14th, 2010While working as an FBI informant, Hal Turner advocated the killing of Blacks and Hispanics. Is this the whole story?
I strongly suspect that Hal’s junior G-Man job paid for the potatoes, but not the meat or the gravy. That came from his side-line of posing as a Republican. This was done to sow dissension in the NJ GOP and just to make the Party look bad.
By propagating racist and anti-immigrant ideas, a great evil was perpetrated. Who induced Hal Turner to do this? It’s hard to imagine that the general population of any federal lockup will provide congenial companions for Hal Turner. “Hal from North Bergen” will need lots of favors.
It will all be over when the fat man sings.
Frank Hague – Mayor of Jersey City
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The REAL New Jersey Mafia!
