71. The Prosecution of Tony Viola: Unreliable witnesses, suppressed evidence, and a dead whistleblower

Beezy Listening

The story of Tony Viola told in the press up until now leaves one with the impression of a devious criminal who was defrauding banks out of nearly fifty million dollars through a complicated mortgage fraud scheme with a cast of shady operators. If the news coverage was to be believed, the affable, honorable, and generous person Viola’s friends and family all knew was merely a facade hiding a duplicitous, unscrupulous, greedy monster.

Visitors of FreeTonyViola.com will find a much different story. It’s a scrappy but fairly polished little website managed by Viola himself, setup with the express purpose of providing journalists and lawmakers with evidence of Viola’s innocence by exposing the flagrant prosecutorial misconduct he has endured.

Several local and national journalists have quietly taken an interest in his case, but have either been intimidated by the possibility of litigation, too busy to thoroughly vet Viola’s claims, or stymied by editors and publishers.

Visit https://bzdouglas.substack.com to read the full story.