PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced today that JOSEPH WATTS,
a longtime associate of the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La
Cosa Nostra (the "Gambino Family"), pled guilty this morning
before U.S. District Judge COLLEEN MCMAHON to a two-count
Superseding Information that charges WATTS with participating in
murder and assault conspiracies in order to maintain and increase
his influence in the Gambino Family.
According to the Information, the plea proceeding, and
the record of the case:
WATTS was a close associate of one-time Gambino Family
Boss JOHN A. GOTTI and others. Although WATTS was never formally
inducted into the Gambino Family as a "made" member because of
his non-Italian lineage, he was afforded the status of a Gambino
Family capo.
In 1989, FREDERICK WEISS was a defendant in a case that
was pending in the Southern District of New York. JOHN J. GOTTI,
then-boss of the Gambino Family, suspected that WEISS was
cooperating with the government because he terminated a lawyer
who regularly represented Gambino Family members and associates.
GOTTI ordered WEISS to be murdered—an order that GOTTI
communicated to WATTS and others. WATTS then put together a
murder team to carry out the hit.
In September 1989, WATTS and others went to a house on
Staten Island where they expected WEISS would be. WATTS assigned
different Gambino members and associates to different tasks,
including digging the grave where WEISS would be buried. WATTS
himself stood in the garage, holding a gun and waiting to shoot
WEISS upon his arrival. Because WEISS did not show up to the
house as WATTS had expected, he was not killed that day.
However, a different team of shooters to whom GOTTI had also
assigned the task of killing WEISS successfully located him the
next day. He was shot to death in front of his apartment
building.
While WATTS was serving a prison sentence in connection
with his 2001 conviction for money laundering, he met Victim-1,
whom he came to admire because of Victim-1's purported stockpicking
abilities. When Victim-1 was released from prison, WATTS
sent an emissary to deliver approximately $350,000 to $400,000—all cash—to Victim-1 to invest on WATTS’s behalf. The
investment failed. In 2002, WATTS demanded his money back from
Victim-1, who returned some, but not all, of WATTS’s money.
To force Victim-1 to give him back all the money, WATTS
began threatening Victim-1. On one occasion, WATTS and another
individual confronted Victim-1 in Manhattan and physically
assaulted him. On a subsequent occasion, WATTS threatened
Victim-1 and physically shoved Victim-1 against a wall.
WATTS, 69, of Staten Island, New York, faces a maximum
sentence of 13 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced
by Judge MCMAHON on April 20, 2011, at 10:00 a.m.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case is being handled by the Office's Organized
Crime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN and CHI
T. STEVE KWOK are in charge of the prosecution.
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