Голливудтық «жөндеушінің» құпия қылмыстары

American private investigator and criminal

Anthony J. Pellicano (born March 22, 1944) is a high profile Los Angeles private investigator and convicted criminal known as a Hollywood fixer. He served a term of thirty months in a federal prison for illegal possession of explosives, firearms, and a grenade. In 2008, he began serving an additional sentence for subsequent convictions for other crimes, including racketeering and wiretapping. Several other people were also convicted of crimes associated with their involvement with his illegal activities, including his actress girlfriend Sandra Will Carradine (ex wife of Keith Carradine), film director John McTiernan, Beverly Hills police officer Craig Stevens, Los Angeles police sergeant Mark Arneson, and attorney Terry Christensen.

Pellicano was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. After serving in the military, he moved to Los Angeles. Pellicano gained recognition for his work on a John DeLorean case defense. Pellicano became a private investigator that was often utilized over the years by Hollywood celebrities, for a large retainer, because of his reputation as a fixer who was adept at solving their problems.

An investigation into Pellicano began after journalist and former The Hollywood Reporter editor Anita Busch found that her car had been vandalized in 2002. The windshield was broken and a dead fish and rose were left on the car along with a sign that said "Stop". On November 21, 2002, FBI agents raided the offices of Pellicano. A threat had been made against film producer Julius R. Nasso, who was suing Steven Seagal. The FBI was looking for evidence that Pellicano was involved in making the threat against Nasso. The FBI agents found two practice grenades which were modified to function as homemade bombs and military grade C 4 plastic explosive. Pellicano pleaded guilty to the illegal possession of dangerous materials. His sentence was thirty months in federal prison. His date of release was to be February 4, 2006. On February 3, Pellicano was transferred to the metropolitan detention center in Downtown Los Angeles to face new charges. On February 4, 2006, Pellicano was formally arrested on additional charges. On February 6, 2006, in United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, Pellicano was indicted on 110 counts. His alleged crimes included racketeering, conspiracy, wiretapping, witness tampering, identity theft and destruction of evidence. Specifically, Pellicano was charged with receiving unlawfully accessed confidential records on celebrities and public figures from members of the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments. For example, prosecutors alleged that Pellicano tapped the phones of Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine and accessed the confidential police records of Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon. On February 15, 2006, the indictment was amended to include further charges of wiretapping and extortion. Pellicano was denied bail. In June 2006 the Los Angeles Times reported that Pellicano performed an illegal background check on a law enforcement official who was investigating a fake passport scheme involving Pellicano's client, Christophe Rocancourt. The jury trial of Pellicano was to commence on February 27, 2008. The trial was delayed three times, due to a lengthy discovery process and retaining of defense counsel. On May 15, 2008, he and four others (Mark Arneson, Ray Turner, Kevin Kachikian, and Abner Nicherie) were found guilty of various charges involving wiretapping, racketeering, wire fraud, and computer fraud. Pellicano had represented himself in the trial, and had not testified in his own defense. Abner Nicherie's conviction was later overturned on appeal. In August 2008, Pellicano was convicted of wiretapping and conspiracy to commit wiretapping in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles. In December 2008, the court denied Pellicano's request for concurrent sentencing. Federal judge Dale S. Fischer sentenced him, and added 15 years to Pellicano's prison sentence, and fined him $2,000,000. On August 29, 2008, Pellicano was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wiretapping. Specifically, Pellicano had recorded phone conversations of Kirk Kerkorian's ex wife, Lisa Kerkorian, in an effort to disprove her claims that Kerkorian was the father of her daughter. Sentencing was scheduled for November 2008 then deferred to December 15, 2008. Pellicano was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. The U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the majority of his convictions, overturning only two for aiding and abetting computer fraud and unauthorized computer access. The most serious convictions, for running a criminal enterprise, remain intact. Pellicano was incarcerated at FCI Big Spring in Texas and later at Terminal Island in California. On August 7, 2011, Pellicano gave his first interview to Newsweek magazine. On July 5, 2012, Pellicano's bail hearing was postponed due to poor health. The following day Tom Cruise was accused of conspiring with Pellicano to create a wiretap during Cruise's divorce from Nicole Kidman. He was released on March 22, 2019. In 2022, his probation ended, and he works as a self described "negotiator" for people such as Daryl Katz and Joel Silver, mostly involving corporate disputes with the "occasional" #MeToo case.