Reputed Colombo family mobster Thomas Farese was acquitted on money laundering charges in Brooklyn.
Farese is said to be the consigliere of the Colombo crime family in New York. The case against Farese hit a snag when prosecutors decided to dump former Colombo family capo Reynold Maragni from Team America. Maragni was going to be the key witness against Farese before he was fired from being a government witness. Maragni secretly recorded conversations with Farese but could not take the stand to testify against him.
“Thomas Farese”
Maragni was the second turncoat this week to be dumped by the feds because they were found to have committed some kind of misconduct while working as an informant. An alleged captain in the Genovese crime family was also acquitted when a key informant against him was not allowed to testify. It has been a disappointing day for the feds who have now lost too cooperating witnesses along with two cases against high ranking mobsters. So often turncoats are the backbone of mafia cases and when they go bad the case often does too.
