Opinion ID: 770518
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Street taxes

Text: 59 The district court denied any forfeiture award against Nove Tocco, Paul Corrado, and the other defendants despite much evidence of recorded conversations between Nove and Paul regarding their forceful collections of the street tax from bookmakers engaged in illegal gambling. The $234,700 in street tax proceeds was calculated from the amounts taken fromstatements that the two were generating about $100,000 a year off the street from the business. Conservatively estimating that the activity continued for one and one-half years in the early 1990s, the government concluded that Nove and Paul generally collected about $150,000 over 18 months. In addition, more specific evidence showed that about $84,700 was extorted from Ramzi Yaldoo and George Yatooma, both of whom testified at trial as to the amounts extorted from them. Thus, the evidence was undisputed that Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado were engaged in this extortionate activity, receiving at least $234,700. 60 The district court determined that Paul and Nove were acting on behalf of the conspiratorial enterprise and that their collection of the street taxes should be attributable to the members of the enterprise. From our review of the transcripts of the tape recordings, we find that it was clear error for the district court to fail to attribute those proceeds to Jack Tocco and Giacalone, who were members of the criminal enterprise. The government should not have been required to prove that Nove and Paul shared their collections with other partners. Nor was it required to show the proportion of sharing or to trace these extortionate collections back to each member. The entire illegal scheme could not have succeeded were it not for the support, or the use of the name and the reputation of, the conspiratorial enterprise. Witnesses testified that they believed that Nove and Paul were supported by the larger organization of which they were a part. Recorded conversations between Nove and Paul indicate that they were working with (or for), or were empowered by, the capos Jack Tocco and Anthony Corrado. Because the amount of proceeds from this activity was quantifiable from the evidence at trial, and because the evidence showed that the scheme was related to the entire criminal enterprise of which these defendants were active members, we find that the district court committed clear error in failing to hold Jack Tocco and Giacalone jointly and severally liable for forfeiture of the street tax proceeds. 61