Nelson Castro | |
---|---|
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 86th district | |
In office 2009–2013 | |
Preceded by | Luis Diaz |
Succeeded by | Victor M. Pichardo |
Personal details | |
Born | January 25,1972 |
Political party | Democrat |
Occupation | politician |
Nelson Castro (born January 25,1972)[ citation needed ] is an American politician from the state of New York. A Democrat,he was first elected to the New York State Assembly in District 86 in 2008. Castro resigned from office in 2013 after pleading guilty to perjury charges. He is notable for having worn a wire as an FBI informant while serving in elected office;in so doing,he assisted the federal government in prosecuting other corrupt elected officials.
In 2008,Castro was first elected to the New York State Assembly in District 86; [1] the district includes the University Heights,Tremont,and Fordham sections of the Bronx. [2] He succeeded Luis Diaz and became the first Dominican to represent the Bronx in the State Assembly. [3] [4] In July 2009,the Bronx County District Attorney charged Castro with perjury. [5] The charges were kept secret,and Castro agreed to cooperate with the Bronx County District Attorney and later with the FBI. [5] Castro proceeded to win re-election in 2010 and 2012,but was living a "double life" as an FBI informant during that time. [6] Information obtained by Castro was used to prosecute six other corrupt elected officials. While Castro's original deal did not involve jail time,he was charged in 2013 with lying to investigators. In 2013,Castro's role as an FBI informant became public knowledge during the scandal affecting his Assembly colleague,Eric Stevenson. [6] Castro resigned his Assembly seat on April 8,2013. [7] He later pleaded guilty to the 2009 state charges and the 2013 federal charge against him. In September 2014,Castro received a sentence of two years' probation and 500 hours of community service for his federal crimes. [1] On November 17,2014,Castro was given a three-year conditional discharge for his state crimes. [8]
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties:New York (Manhattan),Bronx,Westchester,Putnam,Rockland,Orange,Dutchess and Sullivan. Established by the Judiciary Act of 1789,the office represents the United States government in criminal and civil cases across the country. The SDNY handles a broad array of cases,including but not limited to those involving white collar crime,domestic terrorism,cybercrime,public corruption,organized crime,as well as civil rights disputes.
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world,where informants are officially known as confidential human sources (CHS),or criminal informants (CI). It can also refer pejoratively to someone who supplies information without the consent of the involved parties. The term is commonly used in politics,industry,entertainment,and academia.
Sheldon Silver was an American Democratic Party politician,attorney,and convicted felon from New York City who served as speaker of the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 2015. A native of Manhattan's Lower East Side,Silver served in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 2015. In 1994,he was selected as the Speaker of the Assembly;he held that position for two decades. During this period,Silver was known as one of the most powerful politicians in the state.
Rubén Díaz Jr. is an American politician who served as the 13th borough president of The Bronx in New York City from 2009 to 2021. He was elected in April 2009 and reelected in 2013 and 2017. He previously served in the New York State Assembly.
Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso is an American mobster and the boss of the Lucchese crime family. He was described as "The Deadly Don" by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Rose. Amuso's reign is considered one of the bloodiest periods in American Mafia history during the late 1980s and early 1990s,alongside his former underboss and close protégéAnthony Casso,who turned informer against him in 1994. Since the death of Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico in March 2019,Amuso is currently the longest-serving crime family boss of the Five Families and American Mafia,dating back to 1987. Amuso has been serving a life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Institution,Cumberland,in Maryland,on murder and racketeering charges.
Steven L. "Stevie" Crea is an American mobster and former underboss of the Lucchese crime family. In August 2020,he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and racketeering.
Roy Lindley DeVecchio is a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent in charge of managing mob informants. DeVecchio worked for the FBI during the Mafia wars in New York during the 1980s and 1990s,eventually rising to head of the FBI squad responsible for surveillance of the Colombo crime family. He was also responsible for handling Gregory Scarpa,a Colombo capo who had secretly been an FBI informant since the 1960s.
The Jackie Presser indictment scandal was a legal and political scandal which began on June 1,1984. The scandal erupted after attorneys with the United States Department of Justice initiated a prosecution of Teamsters President Jackie Presser on various charges,including fraud and labor racketeering,only to cease prosecution once it was revealed that Presser had been a criminal informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since the early 1970s. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials came under intense political pressure to resume prosecution,while Presser's attorneys claimed that Presser had permission from DOJ to engage in the alleged crimes in order to mislead organized crime figures. It was later revealed that FBI and DOJ officials may not have kept investigators in other federal agencies and Congress fully informed of Presser's role,and that FBI agents may have overstepped their authority in giving Presser permission to commit crimes. The scandal largely ended after Presser's death on July 9,1988.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City,in the United States,within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata,the meaning of borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang,which itself was derived from Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
On May 20,2009,US law enforcement arrested four men in connection with a fake plot concocted by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant to shoot down military airplanes flying out of an Air National Guard base in Newburgh,New York,and blow up two synagogues in the Riverdale community of the Bronx using weapons supplied by the FBI. The group was led by Shahed Hussain,a Pakistani criminal who was working for the FBI to avoid deportation for having defrauded the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Hussain has never been charged in the United States with any terrorism related offenses and was paid nearly US$100,000 by the FBI for his work on this plot.
Preetinder Singh Bharara is an Indian-born American lawyer,author,podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is currently a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for five years prior to leading the Southern District. According to The New York Times,Bharara was one of the "nation's most aggressive and outspoken prosecutors of public corruption and Wall Street crime" during his tenure.
Vincent Andrew Marchiselli was a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly from the Bronx,New York. He was born in The Bronx,New York.
Eric A. Stevenson is a former Democratic member of the New York State Assembly who represented the 79th Assembly District serving the Morrisania and East Tremont sections of The Bronx.
The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City,and in the United States,as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.
Daniel Marino is an Italian American mobster and member of the Gambino crime family. He was identified as a member of the family's leadership panel,alongside John Gambino and Bartolomeo Vernace,in 2009.
Luis R. Sepúlveda is an American attorney and politician who currently serves as the New York State Senator from the 32nd Senate District,which includes parts of the Bronx. Prior to being in the state senate Sepúlveda was a member of the New York State Assembly from 2013 to 2018.
Victor M. Pichardo is a former Democratic member of the New York State Assembly representing 86th New York State Assembly District,which includes the university and Morris Heights,Mount Eden,Kingsbridge,Tremont,and Fordham sections of the Bronx.
Darcel Denise Clark is an American attorney and prosecutor serving as the Bronx County District Attorney,serving since 2016. Clark is the first woman to hold that office,and the first woman of color to serve as a district attorney in the history of the State of New York.
Jenifer Rajkumar is an American politician and lawyer. A Democrat,she is a member of the New York State Assembly from the 38th district,representing Queens neighborhoods of Glendale,Ozone Park,Richmond Hill,Ridgewood,and Woodhaven. She is the first Indian American woman ever elected to a New York State Office.