Gangland 1/21/21

[Dr031718]

Gambinos Go Guilty In Massive Construction Industry Fraud

Gang Land Exclusive!John SimonlacajFive Gambino family wiseguys and seven mob associates pleaded guilty last week to being part of a huge labor racketeering scheme that generated millions of dollars in cash for crime family members and their minions as they ripped off at least $1.5 million from a major New York construction company and the IRS.

The key players in the scheme were mob capo Andrew (Sonny) Campos, and John (John Si) Simonlacaj, the fired executive of real estate developer, HFZ Capital Group. The duo was at the heart of a construction bribery scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from HFZ during the building of a still-to-be completed $2 billion dollar luxury condo and hotel complex called the XI in Chelsea near the High Line.

Campos and Simonlacaj, who are both 51-year-old Scarsdale residents, were part of a "global plea deal" in which all 12 defendants obtained plea agreements with the feds that call for prison terms that appear to be reasonable, by Gang Land standards. But as you might expect, the disgraced developer's plea deal is a bit more reasonable than the one the mobster was able to wangle.

Andrew CamposFederal prosecutors dropped racketeering charges against Richard Martino, a wiseguy whom John Gotti correctly predicted was going to be a huge moneymaker for the mob. Martino, 61, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a plea deal involving the $750 million consumer fraud scheme that he pleaded guilty to heading back in 2005. We detail that in a separate account below.

Campos, who technically faces up to 20 years for racketeering, has a recommended prison term of 37-to-46 months. Simonlacaj, who earned $533,000 as Managing Director of Development for HFZ, was able to cop a plea deal to tax fraud charges. He faces a maximum sentence of three years. And his recommended prison term is four-to-10 months.

The key evidence against Campos and Simonlacaj came from tape-recorded conversations between Campos's right-hand-man, mobster Vincent Fiore, and Simonlacaj's cousin, a reputed Albanian gangster named Mark (Chippy) Kocaj, according to court documents on file in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Fiore, 58, and Kocaj, 51, the documents state, were each overheard discussing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes that John Si Simonlacaj received in materials and free labor during "extensive renovations" at his home that was performed by workers for CWC Contracting, the Mount Vernon company that Campos formed in 2013.

Vincent FioreSimonlacaj was guilty of "falsely" reporting his income in 2018 as $533,000, he told Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann, despite knowing that his take was "substantially greater than that." He stated that he had failed to report "as income the value of certain projects on my residence" that were performed by a contractor who provided "the service for free."

John Si had a few lucky breaks. For one, he was fortunate that he received his bribes and kickbacks in materials and free labor for the "extensive renovations" at his home in 2018 and 2019, according to several discussions about the work on Simonlacaj's home that the FBI recorded during a six week period in early 2019.

He was also lucky that the 26-count indictment against him was filed in December of 2019, four months before his tax returns for 2019 had to be filed.

Keith EdelmanAs a result, Simonlacaj was able to claim the value of the work and construction materials used to renovate his home as income when he filed his tax return for 2019 last year. In return for his guilty plea to tax fraud in 2018, prosecutors agreed to drop more serious wire fraud conspiracy charges which could have meant up to two years behind bars in a plea deal for that crime.

It is the second time John Si has admitted shortchanging Uncle Sam. He pleaded guilty to an unrelated $400,000 tax fraud charge in 2016, for which he served a three month sentence in 2017.

In admitting his guilt last week, Simonlacaj stated he "consciously avoided learning that" there was a "high probability that some of the value of the work performed in 2018 by a contractor not expecting to be paid should be considered income in 2018 rather than in 2019 for federal tax purposes."

Between January 31 and March 15, 2019, Fiore and Kocaj were tape-recorded linking Campos and Simonlacaj to the scam, according to court filings by assistant U.S. attorneys Keith Edelman and Kayla Bensing.

Kayla BensingIn one conversation, Fiore was overheard telling a cohort that "Chippy," was "the cousin of HFZ, this director, John (Simonlacaj)" who helps them "get things done," the prosecutors wrote. A few weeks later, Kocaj was overheard saying that work on Simonlacaj's home "was paid for by a 'change order'" for work that CWC had done for an HFZ building project.

In one March 15 conversation, they wrote, Fiore was heard telling Campos that CWC owed a worker money for labor he had performed at Simonlacaj's home. Later that day, Fiore told a cohort to bill "eight days" of work at "John Si's house . . . against seventy six eleven" which is the address, 76 11th Avenue, of The XI project. "Chippy knows about that as well," said Fiore.

Like Campos, Fiore faces a recommended prison term of up to 46 months for specific crimes including wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice for his role in a Gambino family racketeering conspiracy between 2013 and December of 2019.

George CamposThe duo also agreed to pay a total of $1 million as restitution to the IRS for the payroll tax money CWC didn't pay by paying its workers in cash. Gang Land estimates that the IRS was likely stiffed on about $1.5 million in income taxes stemming from the cash payments — money that is not likely to be recouped.

Kocaj pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges. He faces a recommended prison term of up to 21 months and a "mandatory" restitution that prosecutor Edelman told Judge Mann was "at least $150,000." The final decision on Chippy's restitution will be determined at sentencing by Judge Frederic Block.

In return for his guilty plea, the feds dropped racketeering charges as well as a separate extortion case in which Kocaj was heard boasting about his ties to Albanian gangsters and threats he made to collect a $30,000 debt that a gambler owed to an Albanian organized crime figure.

George Campos, the Gambino capo's 72-year-old mobster father, and wiseguy James Ciaccia, 52, each pleaded guilty to making false statements and fraudulently obtaining Occupational Safety and Health Administration cards from the Department of Labor. They face prison terms up to six months.

Baby-Faced Wannabe Wiseguy Pleads Guilty To Arson

Peter TuccioPeter Tuccio, the baby-faced wannabe wiseguy who shadowed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino everywhere while he was on trial in New York three years ago, pleaded guilty last week to torching the car of a Queens businessman in order to extort a $5000 payoff from him for a Gambino crime family capo.

Tuccio pleaded guilty to arson charges carrying a mandatory 10 year prison term, but he got a huge unexplained break from the feds when he was allowed to remain free on bail. Federal statues require defendants who admit their guilt to crimes of violence to be immediately remanded to begin serving the sentence they will receive.

According to court records, Tuccio, a nephew of a Luchese capo, was fingered in the arson at 4:10 AM on December 3, 2015, when he took cohort Gino Gabrielle to Jamaica Hospital, about 20 minutes after he set himself on fired when he torched a car belonging to the owner of a pizzeria in front of his home.

Joseph Merlino & Peter TuccioUpon a showing of mitigating circumstances, a judge can rescind the mandatory incarceration requirement, but the subject never came up when Tuccio pleaded guilty during an electronic court proceeding before Brooklyn U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Tiscione.

Perhaps the decision was related to the current growing number of fatalities due to the COVID virus in the federal prison system — 200 inmates and three Bureau of Prison staffers have died from the disease as of Tuesday — but that's unlikely since both the U.S. Attorney's office and defense attorney James Kousouros declined to discuss the issue.

In the news release announcing the guilty plea, acting U.S. attorney Seth DuCharme noted that Tuccio, 27, faces a mandatory 10 year sentence, and restitution for the 2014 Mercedes Benz that the defendant and his cohorts torched, as well as a $250,000 fine. But DuCharme made no mention of the decision to permit Tuccio to remain free on bail.

The irony of the fact that Tuccio, and codefendants Gabrielle and Jonathan Gurino, who have all pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, have yet to spend any time in jail, was not lost on attorney Paul D'Emilia. His client — Howard Beach businessman Justin Delluomo — spent eight months behind bars for civil contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigation after the defendants had already been indicted in the case.

Justin DelluomoThe only reason the feds allowed Delluomo, who was cited for civil contempt in August of 2019, to be released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in April, said D'Emilia, was because the COVID pandemic had cancelled all grand jury proceedings in Brooklyn.

"We are very happy that this case has been resolved," said D'Emilia. "Justin had nothing to do with this case as a perpetrator or a victim. He is trying to rebuild his business, and put his life with his family back together again. It was certainly turned upside down by the criminal justice system."

"This should officially end it. I can't imagine they're going to bother him again," said the lawyer, who added: "A phone call to tell us that would be the courteous thing to do, but they're never going to do that."

In August of 2019, when Gang Land learned that Delluomo had been jailed for contempt, D'Emelia said that prosecutors Kristin Mace and Nadia Moore were "vague" about the questions they wanted to ask his client, but they believed "there was some extortion attempt against Mr. Delluomo which he says he doesn't recall" that they wanted to ask him about.

As Gang Land reported last April, Delluomo was released from the MDC on April 22.

Wiseguy Richard Martino: Guilty With An Explanation — A Long One

Richard MartinoRichard Martino had a lot to say as he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice last week and agreed to make a $100,000 restitution payment as part of his plea deal. As Martino rambled on for six long minutes, you could almost hear John Gotti's tape-recorded words to his Administration in 1990 that the crime family was "gonna be really proud" we inducted guys like Martino who've "done more than killing."

In copping a plea deal for a recommended prison term of 15-to-21 months, Martino spent most of his time talking about his earlier conviction — a 2003 case in which he pleaded guilty to an internet-based porn scam that took $750 million from web surfers in the U.S., Asia and Europe from 1996 to 2002. At the time, it was the largest consumer fraud prosecution in U.S. history — and it might still be if you exclude Bernie Madoff.

Martino went on at length in a bid to explain why he was guilty of obstructing justice and why he was agreeing to pay Uncle Sam $323,000 even though the feds had stated back in 2006 that his $9.1 million forfeiture judgment in his Brooklyn case was paid in full. It was the longest so-called "plea allocution" Gang Land recalls in too many decades covering federal courts. And it didn't include any mention of the $5.9 million Martino forfeited in a second case in Missouri.

John GottiIn 2006, the same year Martino began serving a nine year prison term, he recalled during his virtual proceeding, he sold his home, and two other properties to raise the cash to pay the debt. His then-lawyer, Gus Newman, sent the government a $23,000 check to satisfy the judgment, Martino said. The U.S. Attorney's office then sent Newman a letter "stating the $9.1 million forfeiture judgment was paid in full." And in 2007, the judge in the case signed an order attesting that it was paid.

Fast forwarding to July of 2014, Martino was released from prison and began serving a three year stint of post-prison supervised release.

"At no point in my incarceration," Martino continued, "was I notified by the U.S. Attorney's office that I owed an outstanding portion of the forfeiture money judgment."

Gustave NewmanBut four months later, when he sought permission to go on vacation with his family, he said he was told for the first time since he got that "paid in full letter" from the feds that he "had not paid the forfeiture judgment in its entirety." As a result, Martino said, he was "denied permission" to "travel abroad" because he still owed the government $339,000.

What occurred, according to Martino and confirmed by court records, is that the feds gave that amount to Chase Bank to satisfy a $339,000 lien the bank had against him. That, claimed Martino, was something he was never told about until he was about to go on vacation in late 2014.

To make a long story a little longer, Martino "refused to sign an agreement or acknowledge" that he owed the money. But on the advice of his lawyer, and in order to obtain permission to take his planned vacation, he said he "agreed to make payments at the rate of $350 a month based on 20% of my reported net monthly income." He said he told the feds he was doing so "under protest."

Maurice SercarzBut, in true gangster fashion, Martino admitted that in 2017, in an effort to keep his payments at $350 a month, he had "failed to list my relationship with certain businesses." Had he done so, it would have shown he was earning enough money to increase his monthly payments to satisfy the still remaining amount ($323,000) of the judgment that the government claimed he owed.

His crime, Martino noted, was that he had "agreed with others to engage in conduct that would conceal from the government my involvement with certain businesses . . . with the intent" to prevent the government from "requir(ing) me to make larger monthly payments" to satisfy the judgment.

The names of Martino's businesses, and their values, are not part of the record, and his current attorney Maurice Sercarz and prosecutors were mum about that. But six months after Martino concludes whatever prison term he receives, he has agreed to begin paying $1000 a month until the remaining $223,000 is paid.

At that rate, it'll take almost 19 years. But based on Martino's well-established business acumen, he should be able to reduce that timetable by at least a few years.

[Wiseguy]

According to court records, Tuccio, a nephew of a Luchese capo, was fingered in the arson at 4:10 AM on December 3, 2015, when he took cohort Gino Gabrielle to Jamaica Hospital, about 20 minutes after he set himself on fired when he torched a car belonging to the owner of a pizzeria in front of his home.

The hand I've been dealt is my nephew. - Tony Soprano

[SonnyBlackstein]

According to court records, Tuccio, a nephew of a Luchese capo, was fingered in the arson at 4:10 AM on December 3, 2015, when he took cohort Gino Gabrielle to Jamaica Hospital, about 20 minutes after he set himself on fired when he torched a car belonging to the owner of a pizzeria in front of his home.

The hand I've been dealt is my nephew. - Tony Soprano

"Between grief and nothing, Ill take nothing."
Ed Rooney, Ferris Bueller's day off.

(works better this way)

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post Dr.

Simonlacaj is half stood on. Giving up a 550k a yr job a year for a couple of hundred grand work on his house. Do the numbers on that for the next 15yrs. Moron. Deserves everything he gets.

[bronx]

greed in ever sense..they all got a great deal

[TommyGambino]

Is that the whole campos crew in terms of made guys off the street then?

[CabriniGreen]

Thanks for the post Dr.

Simonlacaj is half stood on. Giving up a 550k a yr job a year for a couple of hundred grand work on his house. Do the numbers on that for the next 15yrs. Moron. Deserves everything he gets.

I thought I was the only one that thought this.... cant wrap my head around it. Why he got paid in home renovations. Why he NEEDED home renovations. Why couldnt he afford it himself? Why did he need the mob to rip off a company he was VP of? Was it the mobs company, or no? Why did they think, on a job of that size no one audits the books?

Maybe I just dont know NY construction. Maybe the corruption is even more endemic than I thought. Maybe Simonlacaj gets another job in a year or so, and it's just business as usual. You would THINK hed be blacklisted/tainted, but maybe not.

Same with the wiseguys. They must have secured the 2 billion contract, does this bust compromise their ability to secure more in the future? If so, COLOSSALLY stupid.
It's funny, I mentioned Gravano, and his take on construction in his book. He said, pretty much after rigging and securing the bid, the hustle stopped there. After he got the job, which he most likely would never have got without mob clout, he just did the work. This fuckin construction VP ain't no politician with juice, he cant stop an investigation, why they even pay him off? For what? He can't secure jobs either I'm guessing? Permits all that red tape....




So timely, he has a story on YouTube about being sent by Paul, to represent him at a Concrete Club meeting. He said a lot of the same things, it was too much to control reliably. Someone runs to the feds.





https://youtu.be/rZJK3HeqnUo

[johnny_scootch]

Is that the whole campos crew in terms of made guys off the street then?

I highly doubt Campos only had 4 made guys in his crew.

[Pmac2]

kinda sounded like sammy was rewriting history with him sitting with the other bosses of the concrete club when he had no stake in anything concrete when paul was his boss but thats for another thread.

[CabriniGreen]

kinda sounded like sammy was rewriting history with him sitting with the other bosses of the concrete club when he had no stake in anything concrete when paul was his boss but thats for another thread.

You probably got a point. Castellano was notorious for loving construction, Chin berated him for "all these meetings"...... when was that? When did that come up?

Was Sammy there for that one?

[Wiseguy]

Thanks for the post Dr.

Simonlacaj is half stood on. Giving up a 550k a yr job a year for a couple of hundred grand work on his house. Do the numbers on that for the next 15yrs. Moron. Deserves everything he gets.

I thought I was the only one that thought this.... cant wrap my head around it. Why he got paid in home renovations. Why he NEEDED home renovations. Why couldnt he afford it himself? Why did he need the mob to rip off a company he was VP of? Was it the mobs company, or no? Why did they think, on a job of that size no one audits the books?

Maybe I just dont know NY construction. Maybe the corruption is even more endemic than I thought. Maybe Simonlacaj gets another job in a year or so, and it's just business as usual. You would THINK hed be blacklisted/tainted, but maybe not.

Same with the wiseguys. They must have secured the 2 billion contract, does this bust compromise their ability to secure more in the future? If so, COLOSSALLY stupid.
It's funny, I mentioned Gravano, and his take on construction in his book. He said, pretty much after rigging and securing the bid, the hustle stopped there. After he got the job, which he most likely would never have got without mob clout, he just did the work. This fuckin construction VP ain't no politician with juice, he cant stop an investigation, why they even pay him off? For what? He can't secure jobs either I'm guessing? Permits all that red tape....




So timely, he has a story on YouTube about being sent by Paul, to represent him at a Concrete Club meeting. He said a lot of the same things, it was too much to control reliably. Someone runs to the feds.





https://youtu.be/rZJK3HeqnUo

These guys are always looking for angles. It's just their nature. And obviously we only hear about the times when they're actually caught.

Also, there's been many examples of blacklisted mob companies who have managed to still get contracts. The NY press have done stories on it the last 10-15 years.

kinda sounded like sammy was rewriting history with him sitting with the other bosses of the concrete club when he had no stake in anything concrete when paul was his boss but thats for another thread.

You probably got a point. Castellano was notorious for loving construction, Chin berated him for "all these meetings"...... when was that? When did that come up?

Was Sammy there for that one?

Sammy was apparently there and the topic was construction, which Sammy was obviously very involved in. And that's apparently what was annoying Chin. The bosses and key guys getting together regularly to discuss construction/union-related matters that could be handled by captains. Chin said that the Commission was there to set "overall policy," and to decide the most serious matters, like whether to "take a life or save a life."

[Pogo The Clown]

This is not a new claim by Gravano. He has been saying this since he flipped. Concrete Club meetings where not strictly a Boss thing. The underlings who ran their respective families construction rackets also attended.


Pogo

[Wiseguy]

This is not a new claim by Gravano. He has been saying this since he flipped. Concrete Club meetings where not strictly a Boss thing. The underlings who ran their respective families construction rackets also attended.


Pogo

Ralph Scopo being an obvious example. Only a soldier but his position as president of the Cement & Concrete Workers made him a key figure in the club.

[Bruno187]

Any "normal" guy with a job and accomplishments like Simonlacaj would have done the mental calculus risk/benefit analysis. He didn't. Obviously a relatively bright guy, able to travel in polished circles, but at the heart of it, he's an Albanian thug. I'm pretty sure he's related to Chippy so they call on that familial tie bullshit to trump good judgement. Rather than say "hey, I'm a legit guy, I don't do that shit anymore"....he dove in.
I think it was Cabrini above who said once you do what you have to do to get in, then that's it. Just make money and run the business like you're supposed to. There was no need to play games with extra billing, banging out accounts, doing renovations on your own legit home (and now in the process tying it further to an illegal enterprise and subject to forfeiture) and for Christ's sake, "OSHA cards".....really? Now, because it's a federal program and you defrauded them to get a bullshit OSHA card, you're looking at 5 years. Congratulations.
Andrew has GOTTA be really happy with both Fiore and Chippy for talking all kinds of shit on the phone, invoking his name, talking about Frank Cali, identifying the West Side administration (wonder if there was a sit over that).
I remember another guy being picked up and named in the indictment, the half-assed boxer Adriel something or other. No mention of him in the plea deal, which was supposed to be global I think. I wonder what happened with him.

[Cheech]

Any "normal" guy with a job and accomplishments like Simonlacaj would have done the mental calculus risk/benefit analysis. He didn't. Obviously a relatively bright guy, able to travel in polished circles, but at the heart of it, he's an Albanian thug. I'm pretty sure he's related to Chippy so they call on that familial tie bullshit to trump good judgement. Rather than say "hey, I'm a legit guy, I don't do that shit anymore"....he dove in.
I think it was Cabrini above who said once you do what you have to do to get in, then that's it. Just make money and run the business like you're supposed to. There was no need to play games with extra billing, banging out accounts, doing renovations on your own legit home (and now in the process tying it further to an illegal enterprise and subject to forfeiture) and for Christ's sake, "OSHA cards".....really? Now, because it's a federal program and you defrauded them to get a bullshit OSHA card, you're looking at 5 years. Congratulations.
Andrew has GOTTA be really happy with both Fiore and Chippy for talking all kinds of shit on the phone, invoking his name, talking about Frank Cali, identifying the West Side administration (wonder if there was a sit over that).
I remember another guy being picked up and named in the indictment, the half-assed boxer Adriel something or other. No mention of him in the plea deal, which was supposed to be global I think. I wonder what happened with him.

bruno i didnt see this. where did that come out? what did he say? thanks bro and hope all is well