Valdis Krebs has ladled on tangible proof of two facts in the Cuyahoga corruption scandal that heretofore were only assumed based on anecdotal evidence:
1) Frank Russo was way more powerful than Jimmy “This Guy” Dimora, and …
2) In the canon of criminals, this was a pretty amateurish bunch.
Krebs is the owner and chief researcher for OrgNet.com, a consulting company that maps organizational networks. IBM, Google, and others have asked him to examine their work. He’s mapped the mortgage crisis, Twitter connections, and L.A. slumlords, teasing out hidden relationships and chains of power in every network. Given that OrgNet’s office is in Cleveland, Krebs is well-versed in our ongoing festival of corruption. Recently, he mapped the back-slapping, palm-greasing Cuyahoga Corruption All Stars to see what he could find.
“We can reveal good intentions, as in work getting done, and bad intentions, like corruption and money laundering,” he says. “The big difference is, in a good network, they don’t mind being exposed. In a corrupt network, they’re trying to hide.
“It’s interesting in this case: They didn’t do a very good job of hiding. They did use some intermediaries to pass money around, but it wasn’t as well done as it could have been. Either they were very amateur or they were really arrogant, because they wouldn’t have had to do much to hide it better.”
Students of history know it was probably a mix of both: Bumbling idiocy and overarching hubris.
Krebs’ data analysis and mapping also backs up what Cleveland learned when the FBI unleashed its indictments: That Dimora needed endless phone calls to make one small move, whereas Russo could say a word and his request would be granted by the Corruption Fairy.
“It’s always interesting to look for who’s the real leader in a group,” Krebs says. “What I took away from this was Russo was the real connector, if you will.
“While Dimora was probably the more active player, with more things in the air, Russo had a higher score in two network metrics. Those that have higher power in those metrics have a better ability to act and get things done.”
Based on his findings, Krebs thinks Russo should get a longer prison sentence than Dimora. Of course, that’s probably not going to be the case, since Russo has one connection in his network that Dimora does not: the Feds.
This article appears in Jan 11-17, 2012.
This is what I have believed. I think both were over-estimating thier perceived tough guy connections and did not see the power of organized crime in Cleveland shifting outside of the control of the Italians. This shift freed many of us with Italian blood into a less prominent role where violent tactics were historic and assumed. The wanna-bees always out numbered the connected by at least one hundred to one. After the Godfather movie glorified the Mafia, every Italian in the world identified with them…and used them for their own small time intimidations and unspoken threats. ‘Is he connected?’ was a common question after some Italian guy started screaming obsenities and threats in a bar. Many wanna-bees and fakes got all of the milage out of this erra, as so many soldiers claimed to be combat soldiers in our wars. A very small percentage of our military has endoured combat, but many have claimed the experience after serving in a support position…the support positions are fine, but if a pretender starts mouthing off about combat duty in the wrong bar, you better hope someone from the 82nd does not call you on it.
This guy is a total self promoter, mainly because no rational person would promote him.
Bring back public floggings!