Insurance Agencies to cash checks and deliver the cash to him. He would
usually instruct Ms. Romano to transfer funds from the MPC premium account to
one of the Burke Insurance Agencies' expense accounts. She would then write a
check that was drawn on one of these expense accounts made payable to an
employee of the Burke Insurance Agencies, John J. Burke, or "cash". Checks
payable to employees were cashed by the employee who would deliver the cash to
Mr. Burke or a person designated by him. When Mr. Burke needed funds in
excess of $10,000, he would usually instruct Ms. Romano to write multiple
checks in smaller amounts so that a currency transaction report would not be
generated by the bank. On some occasions, Mr. Burke ordered checks to be made
payable to a bookmaker with whom Mr. Burke gambled. On several occasions, Mr.
Burke instructed Ms. Romano to write a check payable to Don Balsamo who
supplied Mr. Burke with cocaine. On other occasions, Mr. Burke directed Ms.
Romano to transfer funds to Ard Rhei. Pursuant to Mr. Burke's instructions,
Ms. Romano falsely characterized these withdrawals from the Burke Insurance
Agencies' accounts as expenses, commissions, or premium refunds.
At some point, Kenneth S. Silver, the accountant for the Burke Insurance
Agencies caused Forms 1099 to be issued to employees to whom checks were
issued in order to obtain cash for Mr. Burke. Upon realizing this, Mr. Burke
had the Forms 1099 withdrawn.
On some occasions, checks were drawn directly on the MPC account and
either cashed, made payable to Ard Rhei, or paid to Mr. Burke's bookmaker.
The proceeds of cashed checks, which were drawn on the MPC premium account,
were delivered to Mr. Burke. Ms. Romano withdrew funds from the MPC premium
account and the Burke Insurance Agencies' expense accounts only when
instructed to do so by Mr. Burke.
During 1986 and 1987, the following amounts were withdrawn from the MPC
premium account by checks payable to the following payees:
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Last modified: May 25, 2011