The witness testified that he had never discussed with anyone the possibility that anyone connected with organized crime might have an account at A.S. Goldmen, prosecutors say. Defense attorneys say prosecutors told them last year that the Goldmen case was a securities case without organized crime overtones, but that one or more defendants might have tenuous associations to individuals believed connected to organized crime. Besides attacking the grand jury proceedings, Goldmen defense attorneys claim prosecutors lack jurisdiction over a number of crimes including the Stadium Naples deal alleged to have occurred after 1996 when Goldmen closed its New York office and opened offices in Naples and New Jersey. Marchiano fled New York law enforcement in 1996 and opened a boiler room in Naples, prosecutors say. Cold calling customers all over the country, brokers hyped stock in Millennium Sports Management Inc., touting the company's partnership with ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen on his Stadium Naples brainchild.
Prosecutors say the deal was a sham.
A.S. Goldmen had acquired stock in Millennium a financially failing New Jersey company at 60 cents a share and sold the stock to customers at inflated prices, prosecutors say. Brokers are accused of lying to customers in the fraud to hype Millennium stock and raise money for Stadium Naples through a private financing deal. Prosecutors say brokers failed to tell investors the whole truth about Stadium Naples including that Rasmussen had attempted the venture in Naples before and was under investigation as part of a bribery probe involving Collier County Commissioner John Norris, who has been suspended and replaced on the board. Defense attorneys ask the judge to dismiss indictment counts involving Stadium Capital Inc. the Stadium Naples start-up company saying no Stadium Naples investment units were sold, least of all to customers in New York. Brokers lied to New York investors and undercover agents and sent out bogus Stadium Capital promotional material to New Yorkers.