The Laborers International Union of North America has a message for the 18 union thugs convicted by the federal government of racketeering, extortion and other crimes committed while running Laborers Local 91 as what prosecutors characterized as "a criminal enterprise": Resign from the union voluntarily or we'll throw you out.
The 18 men, including members of the late union kingpin Butch Quarcini's notorious "Goon Squad," each received a letter signed by Patrick J. Slevin of the International's office of special counsel, along with a five-page "settlement agreement" that would effectively end the signatories' participation in anything connected to the union forever.
Many of the letters were addressed to Local 91 members now in prison.
"These men are a disgrace to the Laborers and they're a disgrace to organized labor in general," a top Washington source told the Reporter. "It is the union's intention to see to it that they obtain no benefit from their union membership and are no longer permitted to work as union members."
Under the terms of the agreement, convicted laborers agree to resign permanently from any union employment, are barred from ever working as a union member or holding a union office, and are prohibited from attending a union meeting or receiving any gifts or back pay.
For more than three decades, Laborers Local 91 ran a terroristic campaign of violence and intimidation that saw critics and non-union workers beaten, millions of dollars' worth of construction equipment destroyed, contractors threatened with murder, and development in Niagara County grind to a virtual halt. Today many complain that prosecutions by the federal government since 2002 amounted to "too little too late" and say that the dearth of new private construction here remains as a sad legacy that will haunt the area for years to come.
Everyone knew what was going on. A generation of local politicians regularly drank at the campaign finance well drilled by the late union business agent Michael "Butch" Quarcini over the years, as union members were forced to tithe into various political action committees set up to ensure government cooperation with the corrupt organization.
Today factions within the union long for a return to "the good old days," when Local 91 officials drove around in Cadillacs or Lincolns paid for by the membership and no one dared look too closely at the latest bombing, assault or other outrage.
The reinstatement of the thugs and gangsters responsible for much of the recent violence would go a long way toward destroying what credibility Local 91 now enjoys as the result of reformers within the union and the continuing close attention being paid by both the U.S. Attorney's office and LIUNA's office of special counsel to the goings on at the Laborers' Seneca Avenue headquarters here.
Among those who received the LIUNA ultimatum:
Steve Markel: 57 months in prison, two years supervised release and $27,000 restitution; Salvatore Bertino: 51 months in prison, two years supervised release and $30,000 restitution; Andrew Shomers: 51 months in prison, two years supervised release and $30,000 restitution; Andrew Tomascik: 48 months in prison, two years supervised release and $20,000 restitution; Dominick Dellaccio: 38 months in prison, two years supervised release and $20,000 restitution; Salvatore Spatorico: 27 months in prison, two years supervised release and $1,365 restitution; Anthony Cerrone: 27 months in prison, two years supervised release and $20,000 restitution; Pat McKeown: 21 months in prison, three years supervised release and $5,000 restitution; Joel Cicero: Two years probation and a $1,000 fine; Brian Perry: One year probation, six months home confinement; Robert Alecks: One year probation, six months home detention and a $1,000 fine; James McKeown: One year probation; Albert Celeste: 56 months; Paul Bellreng: 51 months; Randall Butler: 34 months; Robert Malvestuto Jr. and Anthony Fazzolari.
One who didn't get the letter was Mark Congi, who refused to testify against anyone and was given the stiffest sentence of all by federal Judge Richard Arcara, 15 years. Congi resigned his union membership prior to sentencing, which made any possible disciplinary action against him a moot point.
Union sources told the Reporter last week that at least eight of the men -- Bertino, Shomers, Malvestuto, Bellreng, Markel, Tomascik, McKeown and Butler -- have chosen to fight the ultimatum. Dellaccio and Celeste have already signed the agreement, the sources added.
Union members can only collect their pensions when they turn 55 under a point system based on age plus hours worked. One point is awarded for every 1,000 hours on the job, and the retiree needs a total of 105 points to collect. Former Local 91 president Robert Malvestuto Jr., for example, is 42 years old, and has 45 points based on the 45,000 hours he's worked since illegally joining the union at the age of 16 in 1983. Unless he can somehow work again, he will not be able to collect anything from the pension plan until he turns 60 in 2026.
While current union officials contend that the indictments and convictions obtained by the feds have effectively cleansed Local 91 of any bad element, others aren't so sure. Malvestuto's close ties to current business agent Rob Connolly, who is godfather to Malvestuto's son, along with the fact that Connolly's uncle, former political powerhouse Johnny Cheff, has been unofficially guiding the union's political action committees and funding, has raised eyebrows from Buffalo to Washington.
While local politicians briefly spurned contributions from the Laborers just before and immediately after the federal indictments were handed down, the spigot was turned back on during the last election cycle, when District Attorney Michael Violante, Niagara Falls City Court judicial candidate Maria Massaro, former mayor Vincenzo V. Anello, Niagara Falls City Council candidate Nicholas Ligammari and Family Court Judge John Batt each accepted contributions from Local 91.
And in June of last year, Niagara County Board of Elections records show that the union contributed $15,000 to the county Republican committee just weeks before union leaders appeared before the county's Republican-controlled Industrial Development Agency to ask for an in-lieu-of-taxes deal on a multimillion-dollar training center Local 91 is seeking to build at the IDA's Vantage International Pointe industrial park.
The tax break was granted with little discussion. A few months later Connolly was named to the IDA's board of directors, the first Local 91 official to serve on the board since Paul Bellreng, who was forced out following his 2002 indictment on racketeering charges.
More recently, Connolly was questioned by FBI agents during a raid on the union's headquarters in late January, and numerous documents were seized by court order. Neither the U.S. Attorney nor union officials will say whether the documents have to do with the political action committee spending or with the federal insurance fraud case against a Newfane dentist, Dr. Scott Geise.
Prosecutors allege that Geise, owner of Newfane Family Dentistry, assisted another person in submitting fraudulent benefit claims to the Local 91 Welfare Fund and to insurers. The feds allege that Geise, charged with 65 counts, filed a total of 57 false claims to insurance providers on behalf of Local 91 members. The fraudulent activity occurred between September 2002 and November 2006, according to the indictment.
Represented by longtime Local 91 attorneys Joel Daniels and George Muscataro, Geise is looking at a long stretch in federal prison and upwards of $1 million in fines if convicted, and sources say he is eager to avoid jail at all costs. He was ratted out by one or more of the union members originally indicted in 2002, law enforcement sources say, and may be eager for some payback.
Geise's political connections in the eastern end of the county are well known, and he was able to purchase Lockport's old City Hall on Pine Street in 2004. Two years later, he and a partner received a sizable state grant to buy an old wooden schooner, the Ellida, which he said would be docked in Olcott as an attraction. Instead, the Ellida was moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., where it is used for municipal festivals and corporate functions.
Whatever the reason for January's FBI raid, Laborers Local 91 -- and the city of Niagara Falls -- seem once again to be inexorably drawn to that dark nexus where politics and crime meet like old friends.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 11 2008 |