WARREN RAID FBI: Money believed to be from gambling

Many neighbors said they hadn't seen any suspicious activity at the home.
By DENISE DICK
and STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Nearly a half-million dollars confiscated from a Carlton Drive Northwest home is believed to be proceeds from the gambling operation of a man convicted in 1990 for gambling.
Neighbors say they never noticed a thing.
FBI agents and city police raided the home of siblings Lucy and Robert Perfette on Wednesday. No one was arrested. Lucy Perfette is a vice president at Second National Bank, and her brother works at the Tribune-Chronicle newspaper.
The FBI said the money is believed to be from a gambling operation the siblings' brother, Joseph J. Perfette, ran in the 1980s and 1990s. The FBI also said a civil forfeiture procedure concerning the money will be initiated.
What neighbor said
No one answered the door at the Perfette home Thursday afternoon. Many neighbors, most of whom declined to give their names, said they hadn't seen anything unusual at the home in the quiet, neatly kept neighborhood.
"I think they're very nice people, and I can't believe anything like that is happening on this street," said Mary Perilla, who's lived about four doors down from the Perfettes for 17 years.
The Perfettes kept to themselves, but when a neighbor needed help with something, they were willing to lend a hand, she said.
Officers and agents took $455,000 in cash from the home.
Officials won't say where the money was found or what led them to the house.
Brother pleaded guilty
According to Vindicator files, Joseph Perfette of Avalon Drive, Howland Township, pleaded guilty in 1990 to federal gambling charges.
"Perfette's gambling businesses allegedly had ties to organized crime figures in Cleveland and Youngstown," a news release from the FBI states.
He was sentenced to 14 months in prison along with three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. He also pleaded guilty in 1990 to making false statements on his 1988 income tax return.
Joseph Perfette was one of five men indicted in March 1990 by a federal grand jury in Cleveland following a long investigation into sports betting and an illegal numbers ring operating in Trumbull County from September 1987 to January 1989.
According to Perfette's indictment and trial testimony, Perfette and Thomas Matash operated a sports betting ring out of a room on Parkman Road. Matash was sentenced to seven months in prison, three years of supervised release and six months' home detention after his conviction on federal gambling charges, according to Vindicator files. He also was fined $3,000.
dick@vindy.com
siff@vindy.com