United States v. Stromberg

• Decision Date: 15 June 1959
• Docket Number: No. 214,Docket 25188.,214
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Harry STROMBERG, Henry Teitelbaum, Jean Aron, Nathan Behrman, Martin De Saverio, George Brisbois, Herman Samnick, Benjamin Danis, Saul Snyder, Salvatore Maimone, Anthony Mirra, Steve Puco, Daniel Lessa, Nicholas Lessa and Leo Seto, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

268 F.2d 256 (1959)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Harry STROMBERG, Henry Teitelbaum, Jean Aron, Nathan Behrman, Martin De Saverio, George Brisbois, Herman Samnick, Benjamin Danis, Saul Snyder, Salvatore Maimone, Anthony Mirra, Steve Puco, Daniel Lessa, Nicholas Lessa and Leo Seto, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 214, Docket 25188.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued Febuary 4, 1959.

Decided June 15, 1959.

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Samuel Mezansky, New York City (Moses Polakoff and Sheldon Lowe, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Harry Stromberg.

Daniel H. Greenberg, New York City (Max Fruchtman, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Henry Teitelbaum.

Joseph Leary Delaney, New York City, for defendants-appellants Jean Aron and Anthony Mirra.

Maurice Edelbaum, New York City (Chester E. Kleinberg, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Nathan Behrman.

Frederick B. Boyden, New York City, for defendant-appellant Martin De Saverio.

George Feit, New York City, for defendant-appellant George Brisbois.

Irwin Klein, New York City (Albert H. Ruppar, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Herman Samnick.

Henry K. Chapman, New York City (Murray E. Gottesman, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Benjamin Danis.

Edward H. Levine, New York City (Vernon C. Rossner, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Saul Snyder.

Moses L. Kove, New York City, for defendant-appellant Salvatore Maimone.

James J. Hanrahan, New York City, for defendant-appellant Steve Puco.

Samuel W. Altman, New York City, for defendant-appellant, Frank Pasqua.

Henry K. Chapman, New York City, for defendants-appellants Daniel and Nicholas Lessa.

Moses Polakoff, New York City (Samuel Mezansky, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant Leo Seto.

George I. Gordon and Mark F. Hughes, Jr., Asst. U. S. Attys., Southern District of New York, New York City (Arthur H. Christy, U. S. Atty., New York City, Herbert F. Roth, Astoria, N. Y., Kevin Thomas Duffy, Otis Pratt Pearsall, Alan W. Richenaker, and Gideon Cashman, Asst. U. S. Attys., S. D. N. Y., New York City, on the brief), for the United States.

Before SWAN, Circuit Judge, MADDEN, Judge, United States Court of Claims,^* and HINCKS, Circuit Judge.

HINCKS, Circuit Judge.

Fifteen defendants in this case appeal from judgments of convictions entered against them upon a jury verdict. The indictment, in a single count, charged forty-six defendants and sixteen others under 18 U.S.C.A. § 371 with conspiring to violate 18 U.S.C.A. § 212 (bribery of customs officials), 21 U.S.C.A. §§ 173, 174 (narcotics laws) and to defraud the United States of its right to have the Customs Service administered free from corruption.

Before the trial, two defendants entered guilty pleas. The Government consented to the motions of three defendants for severance and itself moved for severance as to eleven more. Another eleven are fugitives from justice or unidentified. The remaining nineteen were tried together, although a number of them made timely motions for separate trial. The opinion of Judge Palmieri, D.C., 22 F.R.D. 513, deals in part with the severance motions, as well as with other pretrial motions. At the end of the Government's case, a judgment of acquittal was directed by the court in favor of one defendant. The jury returned verdicts of guilty against the other eighteen, and fifteen are now before us on appeal.¹

At the trial, the Government's case depended principally upon the testimony of three witnesses. The first of these, one Lafitte, a Government employee and informer, testified to conversations with a number of the alleged conspirators during the first part of the conspiracy; the whole conspiracy, the indictment charged, continued from 1950 to 1956. In July, 1952, Lafitte met one Aron,² who ran several corporations and maintained offices in New York City. Through Aron, Lafitte met a number of the defendants named in the indictment: Gelb,³ LaBonte,³ Baruche,³ and Brisbois² whom Aron described as his Canadian representative. This group met frequently at lunch, dinners and at Aron's office; their conversations, according to Lafitte, frequently involved the narcotics trade. In one of these conversations, Gelb told Baruche he was paying too much for heroin in France. There was also discussion of a transaction "with the Boston people" in which $80,000 had been lost; it was generally agreed that a trip to Boston was necessary because the Boston people "would have to be straightened out." Also, the purchase of a coalyard in Boston was under consideration, through which narcotics might be smuggled. Finally, in November, 1952, Aron and Lafitte went to Boston with two others, not accused in the indictment: Gelb did not go because too closely identified with traffic in narcotics. In Boston, they met Brisbois, Moffie,³ and Bucelli⁴ and there was general discussion relating to the smuggling of narcotics. It appeared from the conversations that narcotics had already been smuggled through a Boston coalyard. The success of these further negotiations with the Boston group does not appear in the testimony. Shortly thereafter, however, Aron and Lafitte returned to New York. There the social contacts between Lafitte and Baruche, Gelb and Aron continued. Upon one occasion, Lafitte met Behrman,² whose name figures largely in the alleged conspiracy in its later stages. He also testified that he met Samnick² and Danis,² Customs Inspectors, upon various occasions, in the company of Aron, Gelb and Baruche; and each made a remark about the ease of smuggling goods through Customs. Aron described Samnick to Lafitte as "one of his Customs men." And the active assistance of Customs Inspectors was used as a talking point by Baruche in attempting to persuade Lafitte to join them in the narcotics business. Lafitte chose to remain unpersuaded, however; and, after he had reported his findings to the Government, some time early in 1953, it was apparently thought advisable to let his contact with the Aron group lapse.

Several aspects of Lafitte's testimony were corroborated by minor witnesses not named as defendants. Montfiore testified of dealings with Aron frequently after 1949, at the time when Aron was engaged in importing resistors for television tubes; that in Aron's office, he frequently saw Gelb, Baruche, Danis and Samnick; and that Aron told him that the Customs Inspectors were useful to him in avoiding red tape in getting in resistors by air. He testified further that although Aron said, once, that he owed Samnick and Danis money, he never saw any money passed; but did once see a postdated check, which Aron said was for Samnick. Also that Aron had in 1952 or 1953 described a transaction between Gelb and Baruche in which "Gelb had taken $30,000 from Baruche," Aron remarking that he was "very glad he was out of it."

One Adatto, a nephew of Baruche's who worked for Aron, corroborated the fact that Samnick and Danis were often in Aron's office; he testified that he once sought Samnick's help to expedite the entry of some electronic material for Aron and that he once took part in transferring funds from Gelb and Aron to Baruche in Europe through several Swiss bank accounts.

Finally, one Brenner, Aron's secretary, testified to frequent visits at Aron's office by Gelb, Baruche, Samnick and Danis.

After the period covered by Lafitte's testimony, which described events up to the end of 1952, evidence of the conspiracy breaks off until the end of 1953, when James Ewing, the second major prosecution witness, appeared on the scene. Ewing, himself a dealer in narcotics in Detroit, began to buy narcotics in New York from Vellucci,⁵ delivered to him by Tedesco.⁵ In answer to a complaint that the narcotics supplied were overly diluted, Vellucci said, according to Ewing, that he was going to deal with the "mob around 50th and Broadway." Aron's office, at this time was at 49th St. Somewhat later, Ewing testified, Vellucci began to purchase from Behrman and Gelb, to whom Ewing was introduced. He testified to one purchase in which the money he paid Vellucci was passed directly on to Gelb.

In March, 1954, Gelb was arrested by Federal Narcotics Agents. Government agents testified to the discovery of huge amounts of narcotics in two apartments used by Gelb where there was also discovered a letter from Baruche to Gelb. And the landlord at one of the apartments testified that Behrman was a frequent caller. According to one witness, Behrman was also seen at Federal Detention Headquarters talking to Gelb, after Gelb's arrest; and there was evidence that a letter was passed, by another witness, from Behrman to Baruche.

The arrest of Gelb and the seizure of the huge cache of narcotics, Ewing testified, made it necessary for Vellucci and Behrman to raise from another source at least $50,000 to pay for a shipment of narcotics shortly to arrive from France. Ewing testified that to meet this need they obtained the aid of Stromberg,² who advanced them money; that later repayments were made on several occasions, varying in amount from $10,000 to $25,000; that present at these meetings was Teitelbaum,² who was a constant companion of Stromberg; that the money obtained from Stromberg was delivered to "Gene's Baruche's partner's house"; that he, Ewing, accompanied the deliverer to 39 E. 78th Street, a building in which Aron's apartment was also located, and that after the shipment of narcotics arrived Stromberg was paid off, in installments. According to Ewing, Stromberg continued to finance the imports and once agreed to take steps to settle a jurisdictional dispute with another distribution ring; on one occasion in Ewing's presence money was paid by Vellucci to Teitelbaum for delivery to Stromberg; and after consultation with Stromberg and Vellucci, Behrman made the arrangements with Baruche, the...