Arrests made for murder with ties to Abramoff

updated 5:57 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Three men were charged with the 2001 gangland-style killing of the founder of the Miami Subs sandwich chain, who was involved in a business dispute with a prominent Washington lobbyist at the time, officials said Tuesday.

Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis was ambushed after he left his office in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 6, 2001. He was involved in a dispute with lobbyist Jack Abramoff over the sale of a casino business.

Anthony Ferrari was arrested at his North Miami Beach home Monday evening, Fort Lauderdale police said in a statement Tuesday. Fort Lauderdale homicide detectives arrested Anthony Moscatiello, 67, at his Howard Beach home in New York late Monday, police said.

Ferrari, 48, was being held at the Broward County Jail, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Leljedal said. A third man, 28-year-old James Fiorillo, was arrested Tuesday in Palm Coast.

Moscatiello and Ferrari were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder, police said. Fiorillo was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. All three were scheduled to appear in court either Tuesday or Wednesday.

The announcement of the arrests gave no information on a possible motive or each suspect’s alleged role.

Victim sold to Abramoff in 2000
Boulis, 51, also founded SunCruz Casinos, a gambling fleet whose sale in 2000 led to charges last month against Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The indictment, returned Aug. 11 by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, charges that Abramoff and an associate, 36-year-old New York businessman Adam Kidan, used a fake wire transfer to defraud two lenders out of some $60 million to finance the deal to buy SunCruz from Boulis.

The slaying of Boulis came amid bitter legal fighting over the sale, including a physical altercation between Kidan and Boulis. Abramoff has accused Kidan of hoodwinking him in the sale by keeping secret his past business failures and disbarment as an attorney.

Both Abramoff and Kidan have pleaded not guilty in the fraud case, with a status hearing set for Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Paul Huck.

DeLay, R-Texas, has asked the House Ethics Committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay’s overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff, whom he once described as “one of my closest and dearest friends.” He was not mentioned in any lawsuits involved in the SunCruz deal.

Court papers filed in connection with the legal dispute over SunCruz allege that Kidan paid Ferrari $95,000 for unspecified reasons and paid Moscatiello, through his daughter, $145,000 for his work as a food and beverage consultant at SunCruz.

Kidan’s defense attorney in the case, Martin Jaffe, said his client had not had any new interviews with Fort Lauderdale police since the indictment in August. Jaffe said that Kidan had nothing to do with Boulis’ murder.

A call to Abramoff’s Miami attorney, Neal Sonnett, was not returned.

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