In a sweeping indictment that reads like an unfinished Hollywood screenplay, onetime private investigator Anthony Pellicano and six others were accused Monday of conspiring to wiretap, blackmail and intimidate dozens of celebrities and business executives, including actor Sylvester Stallone, comic Garry Shandling and real estate developer Robert Maguire.
The 110-count federal indictment outlines a complicated web of payoffs to police, high-tech eavesdropping and other skulduggery. Prosecutors allege that Pellicano scoured confidential communications and law enforcement databases for scandalous details that would scare off lawsuits or provide his clients with the upper hand in courtroom battles.
The charges are conspicuously silent on what embarrassing information Pellicano might have obtained, how he used it or who paid for it.
Yet the case, which so far has swept up a total of 10 defendants, and riveted Los Angeles' legal and entertainment communities, is far from over. Although no lawyers or marquee Hollywood celebrities were named, the indictment alleges that Pellicano and his clients used the information to secure "a tactical advantage in litigation by learning their opponents' plans, strategies, perceived strengths and weaknesses, settlement positions and other confidential information."
"We are not going to stop until we have discovered all of the illegal activities that [Pellicano] participated in," said J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office.
Pellicano, ex-LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson and Rayford Earl Turner, a former employee of SBC and Pacific Bell, were charged with repeatedly violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by establishing a criminal "enterprise" that benefited Pellicano's once-thriving private-eye business.
The indictment describes Pellicano as the conspiracy's organizer and leader and charges that the trio used wiretaps, protected computers, bribery, identity theft and obstruction to further the Hollywood private eye's reputation and ongoing relationship with "lucrative clients, including entertainment celebrities and executives, attorneys and law firms."
In a court appearance Monday, Pellicano pleaded not guilty and was held without bail after a federal prosecutor alleged he was issuing threats from prison against potential witnesses. His lawyer denied the allegation.
Right now the biggest legal name caught up in this is Terry Christensen, who pleaded not guilty to employing Pellicano when Christensen was representing Kirk Kerkorian in a divorce case.
Various types are already starting to plead guilty about their involvement with him -- the latest one here -- and speculation is that Bert Fields is on the verge of going down, though presumably not without a fight, while Dennis Wasser is a 'person of interest.'
Bring a lot of popcorn, this'll take a while.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:29 (twenty years ago)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:33 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:33 (twenty years ago)
vanity fair did an article about this last year--specifically i think about an LA journalist who was threatened by pellicano's cronies (they put a dead fish on her car or something)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)
No details now = hopefully more later. Then again the only person who was actually humiliated as such in the Heidi Fleiss thing was Charlie Sheen.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:47 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:52 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:55 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:59 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:00 (twenty years ago)
Another studio publicist, who asked not to be named because people in Hollywood often reflexively ask for anonymity for no particular reason...
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)
Director John McTiernan was charged Monday with lying to the FBI, becoming the first entertainment industry figure accused in the unfolding federal investigation of wiretapping and other alleged wrongdoing by Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano.
In a two-page charging document, federal prosecutors alleged that McTiernan, 55, whose directing credits include "Predator" and "Die Hard," lied about having hired Pellicano to wiretap veteran film producer Charles Roven.
More here.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:40 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:52 (twenty years ago)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:26 (twenty years ago)
― Ricky Nadir (noodle vague), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 22:15 (twenty years ago)
Louis Miller leaves the law firm he cofounded
Evidence not fully turned over to the defense because of fears of leaking
Pellicano at work
Similarly
...and a commentary about Bert Fields. This show has a while left to run.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)
Federal prosecutors alleged Monday that Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano recently conspired with known mobsters in Chicago to put a prison "hit" on the man he allegedly hired to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter.
The hit, according to court papers, was allegedly aimed at Alexander Proctor, an ex-convict who was arrested for placing a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign that said "Stop" on the windshield of reporter Anita Busch's car in the summer of 2002.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 22:51 (twenty years ago)
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 06:39 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 14:47 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 10 June 2006 22:36 (twenty years ago)
Aging seductress, Linda Fiorentino, has gotten herself involved in the seedy world of Anthony Pellicano. Shady "pit bull" attorney, Marty Singer, reportedly double crossed her when she hired him to sue former porn director, Sidney Kiwitt, for a deal that went south. Singer also allegedly represented the director of the failed film project and – while managing to get him a compensatory award – reportedly left the Fiorentino high and dry without remuneration. Fiorentino became obsessed with the idea that Singer might get indicted in the Pellicano scandal. In her effort to dig up dirt on Singer, Fiorentino reportedly befriended the Pelican’s ex-wife, Kat Pellicano. Kat claimed that Fiorentino and she fell out when the actress showed up at her home with a video camera and began suspiciously taping her children and then attempted to hack into their personal computer in an effort to find damning info on Singer. Kat and Fiorentino only reunited a few months ago in a deal around Kat's new tell-all memoir "Listening In." Fiorentino has unofficially attached herself to play Kat in a potential movie to be based on the same project. Source reports that Kat Pellicano now has reservations about the idea of Fiorentino depicting her in a movie because she reportedly exclaimed, “Her [Fiorentino’s] ass got f---ing fat!”
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 10 June 2006 22:38 (twenty years ago)
! John McTiernan goes to jail!
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)
And your star witness today:
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-04/37509229.jpg
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 4 April 2008 19:17 (eighteen years ago)
he discussed this very openly on the howard stern show a while back. its a pretty amazing story.
― chaki, Friday, 4 April 2008 19:27 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90M9DVO0&show_article=1
LA jury convicts Hollywood private eye in racketeering case May 15 04:00 PM US/Eastern By GREG RISLING Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Hollywood private investigator was convicted Thursday on charges that he schemed to dig up dirt for his well-heeled clients to use in lawsuits, divorces and contract disputes against the rich and famous.
Anthony Pellicano, 64, was accused of wiretapping stars such as Sylvester Stallone, and running the names of others, such as Gary Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through law enforcement databases to help clients in legal and other disputes.
Pellicano was convicted of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy counts.
Verdicts on dozens of other counts were still being announced in court.
― jeff, Thursday, 15 May 2008 20:42 (eighteen years ago)
McTiernan: 'Karl Rove framed me!'
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 17:20 (seventeen years ago)
And off to prison McTiernan goes.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 21:36 (fifteen years ago)
Or will if the appeal is denied.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 21:37 (fifteen years ago)
Yup, gone.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 23:52 (thirteen years ago)
In case it was missed -- I missed it myself when it first ran -- Michael Hastings' piece about McTiernan's imprisonment, one of his last major articles before his death:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/exclusive-the-tragic-imprisonment-of-john-mctiernan-hollywoo
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 04:51 (twelve years ago)