PECORARO PLEADS GUILTY:

Nofio Pecoraro Jr. ran a pub in England while on the lam from Louisiana’s 1990s insurance scandals. Now back in New Orleans, he has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to commit mail fraud and structuring of monetary instruments at Certified Lloyd’s Insurance Co. of Covington. Pecoraro, 54, faces up to five years in prison, the Associated Press reported. Under the name of John Stryker, Pecora owned and operated Stryker’s Railway, a popular pub in a London suburb. He was arrested in December for reportedly trying to buy a firearm, and was extradited to Louisiana after his true identity was discovered. Certified Lloyd’s wrote about $7.2 million in premiums—mostly for high-risk car insurance—out of three offices in the New Orleans area. Prosecutors said the company kept writing policies after it knew it could no longer process claims and misled insurance regulators about its solvency. Along with jail time, Pecoraro could be fined up to $10,000. Sentencing is set for July 21. Certified Lloyd’s founder and Pecoraro’s mother Frances Pecora, who used the traditional spelling of the family name, was indicted in 1991 along with her son. Pecoraro fled, but his mother pleaded guilty to many of the charges and served 21/2 years in prison. She died in 2003. The pair sold Certified Lloyd’s in late 1991 and the company was renamed Arist National Insurance Group. It went into liquidation in mid-1992. Nofio Pecora’s father, Nofio Pecora Sr., was allegedly considered by the FBI to be a top lieutenant to Carlos Marcello, the New Orleans-based Mafia boss who controlled illegal gambling and drug distribution for most of the South from the 1940s through the 1970s.