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FORT LAUDERDALE — (Associated Press) - Reputed mobster Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello ordered a prominent Florida businessman to be killed by a hit man in 2001 during a bitter power struggle over a fleet of lucrative gambling ships, a prosecutor told jurors Monday in Moscatiello's murder retrial.
Moscatiello, who authorities say is a member of New York's Gambino crime family once headed by John Gotti, wanted to ensure that Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis didn't regain control of SunCruz Casinos and potentially oust him from the flow of money, Assistant State Attorney Brian Cavanagh said in his opening statement.
Moscatiello and a Miami Beach-based cohort, Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari, were being paid by the new SunCruz owners for security and consulting after Boulis had sold all but a small share of the business. Just before the Feb. 6, 2001, shooting, Boulis was suing in court to regain complete control, Cavanagh said.
"Greed, greed, greed is why they killed a human being. Out of greed," Cavanagh said, his voice rising.
Ferrari was convicted after a 2013 trial and sentenced to life in prison. Moscatiello, 77, was granted a mistrial when his attorney became ill and is now on trial for a second time. He has pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. He also is charged with murder conspiracy.
Moscatiello attorney Kenneth Malnik sought in his opening statement to blame Ferrari, whom he described as a gangster wanna-be.
"I'm confident that when you hear all the evidence in this case, you're not going to allow Mr. Moscatiello to be a fall guy for a murder he did not commit and a murder he had nothing to do with," Malnik said.
The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
Boulis, 51, was shot by a mob hit man as he sat in his car on a downtown Fort Lauderdale street. The BMW that Boulis was driving was blocked in front and in back at a stop sign, and the killer pulled up next to the car in a black Mustang and started firing. Boulis was able to drive away but crashed and then died at a hospital. Evidence shows that Ferrari later called Moscatiello, who was in New York, and told him, "It looks like our boy had an accident."
The hit man, John "J.J." Gurino, was shot and killed in 2003 in a dispute with a Boca Raton delicatessen owner, who was convicted of manslaughter.
The killing occurred during an increasingly acrimonious dispute over SunCruz, which Boulis had sold a few months earlier to businessman Adam Kidan and his partner, once-powerhouse Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Boulis had kept a 10 percent stake in the lucrative 11-ship fleet and wanted to regain control.
Kidan and Abramoff both did federal prison time after pleading guilty to fraud in the $147.5 million purchase of SunCruz from Boulis. A third Boulis defendant, James "Pudgy" Fiorillo, pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy charges, testified against Ferrari and will take the stand again against Moscatiello. He will likely be sentenced to the six years he has already spent in jail.
