14 years from murder to guilty
One step remains for ‘Big Tony’ Moscatiello as Miami Subs saga ends
It was the beginning of the end of one of South Florida’s most enduring criminal cases — featuring shady business deals and mob connections and culminating in the execution-style murder of Miami Subs founder Gus Boulis on a Fort Lauderdale street.
As the guilty verdicts were read in a Broward courtroom Wednesday, Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello, 77, sat in the defense chair, his face refusing to betray any emotion. His wife and daughters sat in the front row, sobbing.
After 14 years, two trials, one guilty plea, and the death of the alleged gunman, the next steps in the case are almost routine. The jury will return on Sept.16 to consider whether Moscatiello should be executed for arranging Boulis’ murder. The judge will consider their recommendation and impose a sentence.
“It’s the moral principle involved,” said Assistant State Attorney Brian Cavanagh, who shepherded the prosecution from its presentation to the grand jury in September 2005 until today. “This is a contract killing. This is height-
ened premeditation. This is the kind of case that the death penalty is reserved for.”
Defense lawyer Ken Malnik said it would be “ridiculous” to seek execution for a man who’s not likely to outlive the appeals process, especially when his co-defendant, Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the same crime.
“It’s supposed to be proportional. Ferrari was way more involved with this,” Malnik said. “What’s the deterrent value, really? If he is alive, he’ll be so infirm, it really makes no sense.”
In the beginning
The foundation for the murder of Boulis was laid in the late 1990s, with a littleknown law barring foreigners from owning American commercial vessels.
Boulis, a Greek national, was forced to sell SunCruz Casinos, a fleet of 11 ships that offered “cruises to nowhere,” bringing passengers far enough out to sea that Florida’s laws against gambling did not apply. The fleet brought in millions of dollars a year, and the offer for it was $147.5 million.
That offer came from a business partnership led by two men who were engaged in a fraudulent gamble of their own. Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff and New York businessman Adam Kidan, who was once associated with the popular Dial-a-Mattress company, made false representations to banks, investors and the government to buy SunCruz from Boulis in late 2000.
Boulis kept waiting for payments from Kidan and Abramoff that never came. Hostilities grew between Kidan, who was in South Florida to run the business, and Boulis, who began to realize he was being swindled.
Kidan filed a restraining order against Boulis in December 2000, accusing the Miami Subs founder of attacking him and threatening to kill him during a business meeting.
Mob protection
Kidan would later tell investigators that he feared Boulis would try to hire the mob to have him killed, so he reached out to the mob to protect him.
The man he found was Moscatiello. According to Kidan’s testimony, Moscatiello came on board with Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, reputed to be a lowerlevel mobster who presented himself as the nephew of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.
Their agreement was simple, Kidan said. Kidan would purchase wine from Moscatiello’s distributorship for the SunCruz boats, and additional payments would be made to Ferrari’s company, Moon Over Miami Beach, to provide security. In reality, Kidan said, the money was for protection: No one could hire the mob to kill someone the mob was protecting.
Boulis had enough and went to court to try to regain control of SunCruz.
And that, according to prosecutors, was a direct threat to Moscatiello’s bottom line.
Several witnesses testified that Moscatiello tried to hire them to kill Boulis. One, who testified under the name “Nick DiMaggio,” said he was offended by the offer, not because it involved murder, but because the motive was money. “In my prior life, you didn’t kill people for money,” he said during Ferrari’s murder trial in 2013. “If it was principle, you killed them. If you killed people for money, it was cursed. I didn’t kill people for money. Principle, yes; money, no.”
DiMaggio was actually a mobster named Peter “Bud” Zaccaro, a confessed hit man who had cut a deal with prosecutors in 2005 to testify against numerous figures, including Moscatiello and Ferrari.
Execution-style hit
Prosecutors believe the gunman who eventually took the job was Zaccaro’s childhood friend, John Gurino.
On Feb. 6, 2001, as Boulis left his Fort Lauderdale office, his car was boxed in. The vehicle in front of him wouldn’t budge. The car behind him was driven by a witness out shopping for milk. Gurino, according to prosecutors, drove up to Boulis’ car from the opposite direction, reached out and fired his gun, striking Boulis four times.
Barely clinging to life, Boulis managed to drive a little more than a block before crashing his car on Federal Highway, just south of the 17th Street Causeway.
James “Pudgy” Fiorillo, a gofer who worked for Fer- rari, later admitted that he contacted Ferrari to let him know Boulis had left his office that night, minutes before the shooting.
Boulis’ murder intensified the scrutiny around the SunCruz sale. Kidan and Abramoff, neither of whom were implicated in the murder, admitted their fraud and served prison sentences. Both are now free.
Gurino was killed in an unrelated shooting in Boca Raton in 2003.
Long road to trials
Moscatiello, Ferrari and Fiorillo were charged in 2005 after a lengthy investigation, followed by lengthier pre-trial maneuvers. More than 100 witnesses were interviewed by lawyers on both sides.
From May 2009 until late 2010, no pre-trial hearings were held at all. Attorneys sat and waited for the judge to decide on a motion to suppress cell-site information, fraught with complications in state and federal law
Hollywood produced a movie featuring the murder, “Casino Jack,” before the justice system could produce a trial.
Then, in April 2012, “Pudgy” flipped. Fiorillo pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and agreed to testify against his co-defendants in exchange for a six-year sentence, which he had already served waiting for trial.
That meant more delays as the remaining defendants prepared to treat a former ally as an adversary on the stand.
Finally, in October 2013, a jury was seated and sequestered, and Moscatiello and Ferrari were on trial for murder.
Things did not go as planned. Moscatiello’s lawyer, David Bogenschutz, fell ill two weeks into the trial, prompting first a delay and then a mistrial for Moscatiello. Ferrari was convicted and is serving a life sentence.
Bogenschutz would later drop out of the case altogether. After nine years, Moscatiello could no longer afford his services. He was replaced by Malnik, who had been sitting in on the case to handle the penalty phase should Moscatiello be convicted.
During the trial that ended last Wednesday, Malnik tried to blame the murder on Ferrari, who bragged about his mob ties, and Kidan, the victim’s chief business rival. The jury rejected the argument.
Moscatiello, who had been free on bond, will spend the rest of his life in the custody of the state justice system.
After the verdict was read, Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes thanked the jurors for their service and dismissed them from the courtroom. They rose to their feet and filed out of the courtroom.
Moscatiello’s wife, Marion, muttered loud enough for those near her to hear.
“They get to go home.”