Opinion ID: 770518
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Unlawful gambling proceeds

Text: 74 Evidence as to these alleged payments or distribution of revenues from the Detroit enterprise to defendants springs primarily from Angelo Polizzi's testimony. Jack Tocco and Vito Giacalone, as partners, were identified as periodic recipients of unlawful gambling proceeds. As indicated above, Angelo Polizzi testified about information given him by his father Michael, also a partner in the Detroit Cosa Nostra. According to Angelo Polizzi, his father received periodic illegal gambling draws of between $700 and $1,000 per week in 1994. Further, Polizzi accompanied his father in delivering draws to other partners. The district court noted that there was a paucity of any corroborating evidence to support Polizzi's statements. The district court, therefore, declined to use 30 years of weekly draws as a basis for calculating an amount to be forfeited. (Emphasis added.) 75 Polizzi also testified that Christmas bonuses totaling $30,000 were paid to his mother for the benefit of his father while Michael was incarcerated (on the Nevada gambling casino matter). Sal Vitello also testified that he paid Giacalone substantial amounts annually as Christmas bonuses over many years. Because the district court found that there was insufficient proof that Jack Tocco or Anthony Corrado benefitted from these payments made to avoid labor problems, it declined to award forfeiture with regard to these payments to Giacalone. 76 Although this is a close issue, we affirm the decision of the district court in this regard, because the evidence regarding the amounts of these proceeds is speculative at best 4 . Our decision, it should benoted, is not based upon the district court's decision that any such draws or bonuses were not shown to have benefitted Jack Tocco. Rather, we find that the evidence was insufficient to calculate accurately a forfeiture award with respect to these proceeds.