Two Additional Kingsmen Motorcycle Club Members Sentenced For RICO Conspiracy

CONTACT: Barbara Burns
PHONE: (716) 843-5817
FAX #: (716) 551-3051

BUFFALO, N.Y. - James P. Kennedy, Jr. today that announced today that two more members of the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club (KMC), who were convicted of RICO conspiracy, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Thomas Koszuta was sentenced to serve 57 months in prison, and Robert Osborne was sentenced to time served and three years supervised release.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph M. Tripi and Brendan T. Cullinane, who are handling the case, stated that the defendants admitted to being a member of the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club (KMC), a criminal organization which engaged in such crimes as distribution of controlled substances, maintaining premises for use and distribution of controlled substances, possession, use and sale of firearms, sales of untaxed cigarettes, and promoting prostitution. The KMC sought to preserve and protect their power, territory, and reputation through intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assaults, attempted murder and murders, and was involved in placing victims, potential victims, potential witnesses, and others in fear of the enterprise, its members, and associates, through violence and threats of violence. 

Defendant Koszuta further admitted that the Kingsmen operated by a strict chain of command serving under the direction of Kingsmen National President, David Pirk. On June 7, 2013, KMC forcibly shut down the Springville Chapter and strip members of their colors because they were non-compliant members. While others possessed firearms, the defendant struck a victim in the head with a blunt object and stole items from the Springville clubhouse. They then used bleach to clean areas where the victim bled and cut and removed portions of the rug which contained blood. Also, on August 3, 2013, the defendant and other Kingsmen members conducted a drive-by shooting targeting former Springville Kingsmen members. Two shots were fired from a shotgun, one of which struck a vehicle parked near one of the targeted victims.

Defendant Osborne was at various times a KMC Olean Chapter President, Vice President, and regular full-patch KMC member. In September 2014, he erased video footage that showed member Andre Jenkins inside the Olean Chapter clubhouse both days before and after Jenkins murdered KMC members Paul Maue and Daniel "DJ" Szymanski behind the North Tonawanda Chapter clubhouse on September 6, 2014.

In December 2014, Osborne and Emmett Green assaulted a fellow KMC member by punching the victim repeatedly for violating KMC rules by stealing money from the Olean Chapter clubhouse.

A total of 16 defendants were charged and convicted in this case, including KMC National President David Pirk and Andrew Jenkins who were each sentenced to serve multiple terms of life in prison.

Today’s sentencings are the culmination of an investigation led by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force. Assisting in the investigation were the FBI Knoxville, Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida Field Offices; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the North Tonawanda Police Department; the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office; the Erie County Sheriff’s Office; the Buffalo Police Department; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the New York State Police; the Olean Police Department; the Lancaster Police Department; the Amherst Police Department; the Town of Tonawanda Police Department; the Niagara Frontier

Transportation Authority Police; the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Department; and the Hamburg Police Department. 

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