The circumstances surrounding a "community service" provision handed down in the sentencing of a Laborers Local 91 member who pleaded guilty to the embezzlement of $6,970 from the union's welfare fund has caught the eye of law enforcement officials and investigators from the Laborers International Union of North America's Inspector General's office.
Documents made available to the Niagara Falls Reporter last week show that Business Manager Rob Connolly and Assistant Business Agent Rico Liberale signed off on an agreement that would allow Tony Fazzolari -- who pleaded guilty to federal charges connected to a fraud involving the Laborers and Newfane dentist Scott Geise -- to plow snow in the union hall parking lot this past winter to help fulfill his community service obligation handed down as part of his sentence.
An Oct. 15, 2009 letter to Fazzolari from Connolly states that Connolly discussed the matter with Liberale and Local 91 Assistant Business Agent Michael Palladino prior to signing off on the agreement.
But, asked about the matter last week, Palladino said he had no knowledge of the agreement, and had no prior discussions with Connolly or anyone else about Fazzolari's community service obligations. Furthermore, numerous Local 91 sources told the Reporter that Fazzolari and Liberale had been involved in a snowplowing business together for some time, had plowed the parking lot in previous years, and that as far as they could see, plowing in the 2009-2010 season was no different than it ever had been.
Last week, it was revealed that both Connolly and Liberale had served on the welfare fund's board of directors during the time that Fazzolari and Geise were running their fraud, which involved phony claims for dental work alleged to have been performed on Local 91 members in the dentist's office.
With both Fazzolari and Geise having pleaded guilty to the federal charges against them and now cooperating with investigators still looking into the troubled union's hierarchy, many in the Laborers' Seneca Avenue headquarters are wondering when yet another shoe will drop, and even more indictments are handed down.
At stake is the continued existence of the local itself, as leaders of the International become increasingly inpatient with a Niagara Falls representation that has caused them little more than embarrassment over the past decade.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 16, 2010 |