Anthony Pellicano (born March 22, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is a former high-profile Los Angeles private investigator. He served a term of thirty months in a federal prison for illegal possession of explosives, firearms and homemade grenades, and in 2008 began serving an additional sentence for subsequent convictions for other crimes including racketeering and wiretapping. Several other people were also convicted of crimes associated with their involvement with his illegal activities, including his actress girlfriend Sandra Will Carradine (ex-wife of Keith Carradine), film director John McTiernan, Beverly Hills police officer Craig Stevens, Los Angeles police sergeant Mark Arneson, and attorney Terry Christensen. As of August 2015, Pellicano is incarcerated in Texas and scheduled for release from prison in 2019.
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Summary
Prior to his first conviction, Pellicano was employed as a private investigator by Hollywood celebrities for a large retainer because of his reputation for solving their problems, particularly those problems with the tabloid press. An investigation into Pellicano began after journalist Anita Busch found her car had been vandalized in 2002. The windshield was broken and a dead fish and rose were left on the car along with a sign that said "Stop".
On November 21, 2002, FBI agents raided the offices of Pellicano. A threat had been made against film producer Julius R. Nasso, who was suing Steven Seagal. The FBI was looking for evidence that Pellicano was involved in making the threat against Nasso. The FBI agents found two practice grenades which were modified to function as homemade bombs and military-grade C-4 plastic explosive. Pellicano pleaded guilty to the illegal possession of dangerous materials. His sentence was thirty months in federal prison. His date of release was to be February 4, 2006. On February 3, Pellicano was transferred to the federal detention center, in Downtown Los Angeles to face new charges.
On February 4, 2006, Pellicano was formally arrested on additional charges. On February 6, 2006, in United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, Pellicano was indicted on 110 counts. His alleged crimes included racketeering, conspiracy, wiretapping, witness tampering, identity theft and destruction of evidence. Specifically, Pellicano was charged with receiving unlawfully accessed confidential records on celebrities and public figures from members of the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments. For example, prosecutors alleged that Pellicano tapped the phones of Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine and accessed the confidential police records of Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon. On February 15, 2006, the indictment was amended to include further charges of wiretapping and extortion. Pellicano was denied bail. On June 7, 2006, the Associated Press reported that Pellicano performed an illegal background check on a law enforcement official who was investigating a fake passport scheme involving Pellicano's client, Christopher Rocancourt.
The jury trial of Pellicano was to commence on February 27, 2008. The trial was delayed three times, due to a lengthy discovery process and retaining of defense counsel.
On May 15, 2008, he and four others (Mark Arneson, Ray Turner, Kevin Kachikian, and Abner Nicherie) were found guilty of various charges involving wiretapping, racketeering, wire fraud, and computer fraud. Pellicano had represented himself in the trial, and had not testified in his own defense. (Abner Nicherie's conviction was later overturned on appeal.)
In August 2008, Pellicano was convicted of wiretapping and conspiracy to commit wiretapping in the District Federal Court in Los Angeles. In December, 2008, the court denied Pellicano's request for concurrent sentencing. Fifteen years were added to Pellicano's prison sentence and he was fined $2,000,000. On August 7, 2011, Pellicano gave his first interview to Newsweek magazine. On July 5, 2012, Pellicano's bail hearing was postponed due to poor health. The following day Tom Cruise was accused of conspiring with Pellicano to create a wiretap during Cruise's divorce from Nicole Kidman.
On August 29, 2008, Pellicano was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wiretapping. Specifically, Pellicano had recorded phone conversations of Kirk Kerkorian's ex-wife, Lisa Kerkorian, in an effort to disprove her claims that Kerkorian was the father of her daughter. Sentencing was scheduled for November, 2008 then deferred to December 15, 2008. Pellicano was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the majority of his convictions, overturning only two for aiding and abetting computer fraud and unauthorized computer access. The most serious convictions, for running a criminal enterprise, remain intact.
Pellicano is currently serving his time in a federal prison in Texas and is scheduled for release in 2019 at the age of 75.
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Related investigations
Carradine and Stevens
On January 11, 2006, Pellicano's girlfriend Sandra Will Carradine (the ex-wife of Keith Carradine, who had hired Pellicano in preparation for her divorce, leading to his wiretapping of Keith Carradine's phone line) and veteran Beverly Hills police officer Craig Stevens pleaded guilty to lying about Pellicano's crimes.
Arneson, Turner, and Kachikian
Los Angeles police sergeant Mark Arneson and phone company technician Rayford Turner were convicted of racketeering for their roles in helping Pellicano. Pellicano bribed Arneson to obtain access to law enforcement databases, and paid Turner for technical information about how to set up wiretaps. Pellicano, Arneson, and Turner were ordered to repay more than $2 million obtained from the racketeering.
Software developer Kevin Kachikian was convicted of creating software used to record phone conversations.
Nicherie
In 2007, Israeli businessman and previously convicted swindler Daniel Nicherie was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to hiring Pellicano to wiretap another Hollywood businessman. As of late 2006, Nicherie was the seventh person to plead guilty in relation to the Pellican investigation and the fifth to confirm Pellicano's involvement in wiretapping.
Daniel Nicherie's brother Abner Nicherie was initially convicted for aiding and abetting a wiretapping of the phone of the husband of a woman whose business he wanted to take over, but his conviction was vacated in 2015.
Pfeifer
Robert Joseph Pfeifer, at the time an executive at Hollywood Records, was a friend of Pellicano. Pfeifer was arrested on February 3, 2006, and charged with unlawful wiretapping and conspiracy. Pfeifer's then girlfriend, Erin Finn, assisted the FBI lead agent Stanley Ornellas in the investigation of Pfeifer and Pellicano.
McTiernan
On April 3, 2006, film director John McTiernan was charged with lying to the FBI about his relationship with Pellicano. On April 17, 2006, McTiernan pleaded guilty to the charge. On September 24, 2007, he was sentenced to four months in prison. The sentence was later increased to twelve months, and ultimately he was incarcerated in federal prison from April 2013 to February 2014.
Wasser
Dennis Wasser represented Tom Cruise in his divorce proceedings against Nicole Kidman. Wasser retained Pellicano. Tapes of telephone conversations from 2001, made shortly after the announcement of the divorce, were found in Pellicano's offices in 2002. Wasser was not charged but was made a person of interest.
Bertram Fields
Bert Fields was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into illegal wiretapping, but was not charged with committing a crime.
The LA Times reported: "Prosecutors are using the grand jury to investigate allegations involving Anthony Pellicano, a private investigator who worked for Fields and other entertainment industry figures. Investigators have told several of those they have questioned that they believe Pellicano wiretapped them. They are seeking to determine whether people who hired Pellicano may have authorized the surveillance or been aware of it."
Bert Fields, who regularly hired Pellicano, denied any knowledge of Pellicano's crimes:
"I've been told that I am a subject, not a target, of the investigation," Fields said. "But I have never in any case had anything to do with illegal wiretapping. I don't do that."
Busch
On May 28, 2004, Anita Busch, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, commenced a civil action against Pellicano, alleging harassment, including a death threat made in 2002:
- "In 2002 Anita Busch discovered a dead fish with a red rose in its mouth and a sign reading "Stop" on the cracked windshield of her car. At the time she was writing about Steven Seagal and Mike Ovitz, both clients of Pellicano. The trail eventually led to his office where FBI agents discovered plastic explosives, grenades, pistols and about $200,000 in cash in Pellicano's safe. He pleaded guilty to weapons charges and went to prison."
Bonder, Kerkorian, Bing, and Christensen
The businessman Kirk Kerkorian was married to Lisa Bonder. In August 2006, attorneys acting for Bonder sued the attorneys acting for Kerkorian. They accused Kerkorian's attorneys of retaining Pellicano to wiretap Bonder's phone during the divorce proceedings of Bonder and Kerkorian that involved a paternity dispute.
Pellicano also investigated movie producer Steve Bing, who was a friend of Kerkorian. He took a strand of Bing's used dental floss and used it to prove that Bing was the father of Bonder's daughter. Between June 2000 and August 2002, Bing paid Pellicano $335,000. Between April and May, 2002, Pellicano may have bragged to the attorney of Kerkorian that Bing had retained his services in relation to Bing being the father of another child with Elizabeth Hurley. However, Bing, through his attorney Martin Singer, later denied this, as did Pellicano.
Attorney Terry Christensen was convicted of racketeering for hiring Pellicano to tap Bonder's phone, and received a three-year prison sentence.
Burkle
Pellicano threatened financier Ron Burkle with extortion of $100,000 to $250,000 to avoid investigation by Michael Ovitz, another of his clients.
Weiner
In July, 2006, New York Times reporter and lawyer Allison Weiner unsuccessfully attempted to interview Pellicano in jail by misrepresenting herself as his attorney.
Aisenberg
During the night of November 27, 1997, a five-month-old girl disappeared from the home of her parents, Steven and Marlene Aisenberg. In 1999, Pellicano was an FBI wiretap consultant in the investigation of the Aisenbergs, who were charged with making false statements to police. In 2001, the charges were dismissed after county detectives lied about obtaining warrants to wiretap and lied about the content of the wiretap recordings.
Spilotro
Pellicano represented the Chicago mobster Anthony "the Ant" Spilotro, charged with monitoring the Las Vegas casino and skimming for the Chicago mob. Pellicano served a subpoena and gave a warning from Spilotro to Gustave Reininger, co-creator of the NBC television drama Crime Story.
References
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External links
- List of articles about Pellicano articles. The Los Angeles Times 2006.
- Anthony Pellicano on IMDb.
- Auletta "Deadline Hollywood," The New Yorker July 16, 2006.
- Announcement of Pellicano biography by John Connolly.
- Sixty-page indictment against Pellicano and six others. February 6, 2006.
- Superseding indictment charging Pellicano attorney associate. The Smoking Gun website. February 15, 2006.
- Copy of Busch's lawsuit against Pellicano The Smoking Gun website.
- Details of Pellicano's campaign contribution to Bill Clinton News Meat website.
- https://www.visualize.co.id/biografi-singkat-anthony-pellicano-dari-debt-collector-ke-tokoh-film-hollywood/ Website with links to media articles about Pellicano.
- [2] Anthony Pellicano weblinks blog.
- "Private investigators of the stars." Drakonx website.
- [3] Anthony Pellicano victims blog.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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