U.S. crime leader back in court

Edward C. Lato, a 67-year-old alleged former organised crime leader in Providence, New England, had a brief break from his currently running nine-year imprisonment when he was taken back to court this week on illegal sportsbetting-related charges dating from 2011.

After pleading no contest to a charge of conspiracy to commit a felony and racketeering, Lato was sentenced to a 10-year suspended sentence and 10 years’ probation before Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear.

The sentence will run concurrent with his prior federal conviction in 2013 relating to his involvement in a $1.5 million extortion case, meaning that he won’t be required to serve any additional time in state prison.

Lato is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence on the extortion charges at a federal medium security prison in Estill, South Carolina.

A prosecutor from the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. said that Lato’s criminal career spanned five decades and included 32 arrests and 18 convictions. In 1999, he was sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison on racketeering and extortion charges.

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