The Region : Lied in Spillone Case, Informant Says

A former FBI informant said in federal court that he lied to FBI agents and made misstatements to a federal grand jury about the business activities of convicted loan shark Vito Dominic Spillone. He also denied that he had been paid to say so. Richard Sherman, Spillone’s attorney said that he will use Johnny Angelo’s testimony as the basis for an appeal of Spillone’s conviction in October, 1985. U.S. District Judge Matt Byrne Jr. has denied Sherman’s motion for a new trial and set a Feb. 3 sentencing date for Spillone and the three men convicted with him. The defendants were accused of making high-interest loans to gamblers at card clubs. “The court’s finding was that the FBI followed the law and did not lie to obtain the court order for electronic surveillance,” said Blair Watson, a special attorney for the U.S. Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force, of the wiretaps the FBI used on Spillone’s phones in 1981.