MOB LEADERS STAND TO LOSE MANSIONS

Crown After Homes, Bank Accounts Of Five Top Criminals

The Crown is expected to reveal today what riches will be confiscated
from six mob leaders, including Nicolo Rizzuto, as the case against
them enters the sentencing stage.

Last month, when Rizzuto and the five other reputed leaders of the
Montreal Mafia pleaded guilty to charges laid after Project Colisee,
prosecutor Yvan Poulin told Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Bonin that
confiscations had played a role in the plea-bargaining process.

Project Colisee was a Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit
investigation into the Rizzuto organization and its involvement in
drug smuggling, trafficking and illegal gambling.

Among the assets seized when arrests were carried out in November 2006
were 10 homes in Montreal and Laval, $3.5 million in cash and the
assets from several bank accounts.

When Francesco (Chit) Del Balso, 38, was arrested in the Colisee
sweep, the Crown placed a seizure order on his home in Laval's Vimont
district. The court order blocked Del Balso and his wife from selling
their house or using it to obtain a loan. The house was estimated in
the most recent municipal evaluation to be worth more than $350,000.
The RCMP also was seeking to confiscate a luxury villa Del Balso owns
in Acapulco, Mexico, as well as assets in several bank accounts linked
to him through business associates and relatives.

But according to the revised indictment filed when Del Balso pleaded
guilty last month, he only admits to possessing "sums of money" that
were derived from other crimes like drug trafficking.

The other five leaders also pleaded guilty to possessing money
obtained through crime.

The Canada Revenue Agency has placed a seizure order on Rizzuto's home
in northern Montreal, estimated to be worth more than $650,000, while
it pursues him for more than $1.5 million in unpaid taxes on revenue
he is alleged to have made while leading the mob.

The federal taxman has taken similar action on a Laval residence owned
by Lorenzo Giordano that also is estimated to be worth more than $650,000.

Bonin also is expected to hear what sentences have been agreed upon.
The judge is not required to accept a joint recommendation on a
sentence, but there is little chance Bonin will be surprised by any
recommendations because he sat in on the negotiations that produced
the guilty pleas.