Gangland:2/4/16

[Dellacroce]

February 4, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Barney (The Boss) Bellomo, Once The Brainy Kid From The Bronx, Now Reigns Supreme In Genovese Family

While facing indictment in the late 1980s, the late and legendary Mafia boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante selected Liborio (Barney) Bellomo as acting boss of the powerful Genovese crime family. Now, more than 25 years later and after his own convictions, the Bronx-based college-educated wiseguy has made it to the top on his own and now rules the crime family, Gang Land has learned.

That's according to authoritative law enforcement officials and other reliable sources who tell Gang Land that the 59-year-old mobster is calling the shots in the time-honored tradition of the sophisticated crime family that is often referred to as the Ivy League of organized crime — quietly and without calling any attention to himself for the last few years.

"Barney's smart, he's tough, he's low-key, and everybody respects him," said one reliable Gang Land source.

He also appears to have learned from the master: Sources say Bellomo is using longtime Lower East Side capo Peter (Petey Red) DiChiara to relay orders and information to Genovese family members. DiChiara, the sources, say is serving as, "street boss" or acting boss for Bellomo, relaying messages to and from capos and important family soldiers.

The arrangement is similar to one long employed by the cagey Gigante who long fooled the law about his mob role by having Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno serve as the "upfront" boss for his crime clan, while keeping below the radar himself. DiChiara, 73, the sources say, may wear an additional hat as well, that of the family's consigliere.

Gang Land's sources declined to explain exactly how Barney's directives get relayed to Petey Red — perhaps they're not so sure themselves. But they insist that Bellomo has been behind the increased activity in and around Petey Red's social club at Market and Cherry Streets

"Barney's the boss," said one law enforcement official. "He's the reason why people from Brooklyn and the Bronx have been showing up in lower Manhattan in the last few years."

DiChiara has maintained a social club at 73 Market Street since the 1990s. And except for a five year period when he was serving a federal prison stretch for racketeering a decade ago, it has been a busy place. But until recently, its regular patrons and visitors, for the most part, were members of Petey Red's crew.

In the past, that crew has included some of Gang Land's most active players, among them Salvatore and Frank DeMeo, Salvatore (Sammy Meatballs) Aparo, his son Vincent, and Rosario (Ross) Gangi. All of those wiseguys, however, were snared in 2002 along with Petey Red, after a three year FBI sting operation during which mob associate Michael (Cookie) D'Urso tape recorded hundreds of conversations.

Based on D'Urso's undercover work from 1998 to 2000, Petey Red was hit with a slew of racketeering charges as a Genovese capo who oversaw loansharking gambling, extortion, labor bribery, and a lucrative check cashing scheme from 1993 to 2001.

Released from prison in 2007, DiChiara earned payoffs from the sales of stolen newspapers and magazines in 2009, according to police reports about an investigation of the mob-tarred newspaper industry by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. He was not charged in that probe, or with any other wrongdoing since then.

But, as Gang Land reported in 2014, in an exclusive report about DiChiara's newspaper industry ties, Genovese wiseguys from Queens, Long Island, and beyond, like capo Daniel Pagano of Ramapo, were also spotted at Petey Red's place. Law enforcement sources report that Pagano, who began serving a 30 month prison stay last year, and others were stopping in to see DiChiara in order to pass on information to Bellomo, or receive directives from him.

In recent weeks, neighborhood sources say DiChiara, who has diabetes, hasn't been well. One feared he may have been hospitalized, but that could not be confirmed.

Bellomo's seven-year stint as acting boss for Gigante — from 1989 to 1996 — cost Barney 12 years behind bars. He was there from June of 1996 until he entered a halfway house in July of 2008 for three separate extortion convictions involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in shakedowns during the early 1990s.

In two of the racketeering indictments, he was accused of ordering a mob hit, but in both cases, he was able to beat back the murder charge by copping a plea deal to extortion. He helped beat one charge by volunteering to take a lie detector test. He passed. Since his release from federal custody in December of 2008, Bellomo has been squeaky clean. He had no issues regarding three years of post prison supervised release, and he has no problems with the law since then.

On paper, he's the changed man who worked hard to keep his four children "on the straight and narrow … through emails, telephone calls and monthly visits" during his years behind bars as his attorney Barry Levin declared he was in 2007, when Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced him to 41 months, but only a year of that was added to Bellomo's time behind bars.

Yet, numerous local and federal law enforcement officials confirm that Barney Bellomo is the reigning boss of the powerful Genovese crime family while overseeing a lucrative empire of his own.

These sources say Bellomo earns substantial rental income every month from numerous apartment buildings worth millions of dollars that he owns in the Bronx and northern suburbs — where he still resides when he is not in his Miami Beach condo on Collins Avenue.

Bellomo also has financial interests in construction companies that he uses to repair and refurbish rundown apartment buildings he buys, the law enforcement sources say.

"I'm not saying we can prove he's committed a crime, but there's no doubt that he's the boss of the crime family," said one official, who like all the law enforcement sources, spoke only under a promise of anonymity. He declined to offer any specific details regarding the key aides that help Bellomo manage the affairs of the largest borghata in the city, some 200 or so made men.

During the early 1990s, when Bellomo was the family's acting boss, he amazed then-gangster and wannabe mobster D'Urso with how much he knew about him, according to FBI reports and the recollection of a law enforcement source.

It happened in 1995, a year after D'Urso survived a bullet in the head in a plot allegedly instigated by mob associate Carmelo (Carmine Pizza) Polito. Despite explicit orders not to retaliate, Cookie tried to gun down his nemesis, not once, but twice. The second time, D'Urso wounded his victim.

After Polito was shot, sources say, mobster Ross Gangi pulled D'Urso aside and warned him: "Barney heard about the shooting. He said to tell you if we find out it's you, you got a major problem."

Several attorneys who have represented Bellomo codefendants in his three cases — there were more than 75 all together — say that they never heard Barney raise his voice, that he was always a gentleman during pre-trial and post conviction meetings, and that he is a proud father and rock-solid family man.

A widower — his wife Camille died of cancer in 2013 — Bellomo has three sons and a daughter, Sabrina, who was 16 when her father was imprisoned. She passed the state bar in 2006, quickly joined her father's defense team, and made him proud. She also earned her dad a rare compliment from a sentencing judge, with a moving, emotional plea for her dad, whom she called a "good father," and what his years in prison meant to her and her younger brothers.

"I think the only person that can really relate to the way we feel is a person who's lost a parent," Sabrina said, "because they're the only ones who really know what it feels like not to have that parent beside them for all those moments that are supposed to be special."

She and her brothers "were all at different stations in our lives" and had individual difficulties growing up without having their dad around when they needed him, she recalled.

"One day that was particularly hard for me was my law school graduation," she said. "I remember thinking to myself, 'Oh, my God, daddy missed my high school graduation, my college graduation, and now he's missing my law school graduation.' Days like that make you wish as though they weren't even going to happen because then you won't have to be sad by the fact he wasn't there."

But her youngest brother, Liborio, whose nickname is also Barney suffered the most from his father's arrest, Sabrina said. Young Barney was nine when their dad was arrested. His hurt, she explained, was a nagging and constant reminder of how the whole family continued to suffer.

"My little brother Barney had made him a Father's Day present right before my father was indicted on June 10, 1996," she recalled. "And my dad was gone that Father's Day and every Father's Day since. And that gift still sits wrapped, and Barney still has it, and it's waiting to be opened."

When Bellomo's all grown up 27-year-old daughter returned to her seat, Kaplan turned to the three-time-convicted wiseguy and said: "You certainly have something to be proud of in the young lady sitting next to you."

Attorney Levin told Gang Land he didn't have anything to add to what he stated at Bellomo's sentencing and attorney Bellomo did not respond to a voice mail message. If nothing else, Gang Land hopes the Bellomo family took a picture of Barney opening his 1996 Father's Day Gift in 2008.

Newspaper Union Boss On Driver's $21K Theft: What's The Big Deal?

A former New York Post truck driver with a lengthy arrest record didn't do anything wrong when he collected $21,000 in paychecks even though he didn't show up for work, says his union president.

Driver Thomas (Tommy Stacks) Leonessa, who has already pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in the case, was just doing what everyone does, wrote Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union president Thomas Bentvena in a remarkably candid letter to a federal judge. Bentvena isn't the only one who thinks so. Former Post Director of Operations Joseph Steo said the same thing in his own letter seeking leniency for Leonessa, who is also a former union official.

"As union president, I am fully aware of the illegality of the crime of which Mr. Leonessa is guilty," wrote Bentvena in his letter. "However, as an almost 35 year member of the union, I can also tell you that the 'crime' was always a common practice over the years," Bentvena stated in his letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman.

"He's certainly guilty of a lapse of judgement but in the 15 years that we have been close friends, I have witnessed him only as a law abiding citizen," wrote Bentvena, stating that if the opposite were true, "we would not be friends. As much as I enjoy his friendship, as the president of a highly scrutinized union, I and the members I serve cannot risk such a friendship."

In addition to stealing from his former employer, Leonessa also served as the personal "Luca Brasi" or enforcer for corrupt union business agent Glenn (Old School) LaChance, according to tape recorded conversations between LaChance and former NMDU president, James (Jimmy D) DeMarzo, who died of a heart attack in 2012.

For the record, the "highly scrutinized" NMDU has been linked to numerous gangsters since its inception in 1901. In recent years, the Genovese, Bonanno, Luchese and Colombo crime families have all held sway over the union. In 1993, more than two dozen members, including several Bonanno soldiers and Doug LaChance, the union's late president, were hit with state labor racketeering charges by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Son Glenn, 52, pleaded guilty to mail fraud last year. He is awaiting sentencing.

The union is still the most powerful in the weakened newspaper industry, but like newspapers, its members with jobs are dwindling. In 2014, the last year that figures are available, the NMDU had 2223 members, but only 761 active dues-paying members.

Bentvena wrote that what Tommy Stacks did "was technically wrong," but stated that he committed "no crime against the union and received no benefit at our expense that I can see. As I see it," he wrote, "Leonessa did what he did to get home to his kids on the days that he had custody."

Bentvena wrote that Leonessa's crime did not hurt the union because members only get pension credit for five days even if they work as many as nine shifts a week, as "is common" for NMDU members. That gibes with lawyer Frederick Cohn's assertion that while Tommy Stacks didn't do all the work he was paid for during the charged nine-month-long stretch, "he performed most of the shifts that he was paid for."

In fact, says Cohn, the Post didn't lose any money since Leonessa and another driver had an agreement "to trade days of non appearance without notifying The Post. On each occasion, each would deliver not only his own papers, but also those of the other who was taking the day off."

That was hotly disputed by the Post, which fired him. And the paper's payroll records "reveal that of the 57 shifts that the defendant was paid for between December 5, 2010 and September 10, 2011, he only worked eight of them," according to government court papers seeking 8-to-14 months, as recommended by Leonessa's plea deal — a far cry from the 20 years he initially faced.

Steo, who wrote that he oversaw newspaper delivery, "hiring and firing," and instituted and enforced company "policies in the work place" from 1994 until 2001 also requested leniency for Tommy Stacks, putting a much less onerous spin on Leonessa's actions than the feds.

"The practice of getting one driver helping another to complete certain work has long been utilized and is still prevalent to this day," wrote Steo. "Though management or the union does not condone what Mr. Leonessa is accused of, I have never seen a punishment to this magnitude for this act."

Cohn, stating that the Daily News, which subsequently hired Leonessa, but then let him go, but has since agreed to rehire him, asked Judge Korman to sentence him to a month behind bars. In that way, the lawyer wrote, his client could do his time quickly and return to work, and fulfill his child support obligations for his four children, one of whom has a newborn child herself.

Leonessa didn't quite get his wish, but he didn't fare too badly for a guy with state and federal convictions for assault, breaking and entering, credit card fraud, sale of stolen property, and the illegal sale of fireworks. He got four months, was ordered to pay back the $21,000 he stole, and was given a month to get his life in order, before he begins his prison term on March 1.

'Wildcat' Strike Or Well-Staged Show? Docks Shut Down Over Waterfront Commission Hiring Rules Hated By Bosses And The ILA

Hundreds of dock workers — with the apparent tacit approval of their union — walked off the job last Friday, shutting down the New York and New Jersey piers for about eight very tense hours in a protest over new waterfront hiring practices.

Spokesmen for the striking workers cited the newly aggressive oversight activities of the Waterfront Commission, the bi-state watchdog agency charged with keeping organized crime off the docks. Although billed as a "wildcat" strike, over which their union, the International Longshoremen's Association, had no control, the well-coordinated walkout included members of five ILA Locals in New York and New Jersey.

The protest caused delays in pickups and deliveries and huge traffic jams in and around the ports as long lines of trucks unable to pick up or drop off stretched onto main and secondary roads. The work stoppage went well into Friday night when workers heeded official ILA calls to return to work to avoid costly sanctions for the illegal strike.

The union, along with two major employer associations, has been engaged in a long-running battle against the commission which has cited hiring practices on the docks for both favoritism and racial discrimination. In 2014, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the ILA and the New York Shipping Association and the Metropolitan Marine Contractors Association which claimed the commission had overstepped its role by trying to increase diversity in hiring.

The union has also chafed against the commission findings that have exposed high-paying jobs awarded to members with ties to organized crime.

Walter Arsenault, the executive director of the Waterfront Commission, said the walkout would not deter the bi-state agency from its 63-year-old mandate to investigate criminal activity and bounce workers with mob ties off the docks — or to continue investigating monitoring the two areas that were said by ILA officials to have been at the core of the sudden work stoppage.

"The only complaints they've had in the past two years are that we're making them hire in a fair and non-discriminatory way, which the federal district court has approved, and that we're doing reasonable testing for suspected drug abuse, which is a safety issue that several courts in New Jersey have upheld," said Arsenault.

"We're going to continue doing that," said Arsenault, adding that the agency's detectives were also trying to determine the parties who were responsible for last week's walkout, and whether any sanctions or criminal charges would be filed.

The walkout began Friday morning with workers in ILA Locals 1, 1804-1, 1235, and 1478 in New Jersey and Local 920 in Staten Island, all walking off the docks at around 10 AM.

ILA President Harold Daggett stated he was "furious" about the wildcat strike and had no inkling about it before hand, stressing in an interview with JOC.com, which covers the billion dollar shipping industry, that members of Local 1804-1, his former local, which is now headed by his son Dennis, did not instigate the strike.

"Everybody walked out together. It wasn't just one local that did this," said Daggett.

ILA spokesman James McNamara dismissed Gang Land suggestions that the walkout, since it was so well coordinated, had to have been backed, or quietly supported and sanctioned by ILA brass. McNamara maintained that it was a spontaneous protest by dock workers throughout the area about the Waterfront Commission's "over the top" tactics that were forms of harassment.

The spokesman conceded that some walkout leaders more than made up for wages they lost on Friday by earning "double time" pay for shifts on Saturday and Sunday, but he insisted that was not a motive for the strike. "Many workers were scheduled to work the weekend all along," said McNamara. "There was a big backlog of work left from the Martin Luther King holiday and the big snow storm."

Unspoken by McNamara, or Daggett, is the thorn in the side that the Waterfront Commission has been regarding the ILA's mob affiliations in recent years, through public hearings, the firings of ILA members for mob ties, and the numerous convictions of ILA executives and mobsters in joint probes with state and federal prosecutors in New York and New Jersey.

Just last year, a checker was bounced for associating with a Genovese soldier, a crane operator lost his job for vacationing with a Luchese mobster, and a hiring agent lost his license for partying with a Genovese capo. And Thomas Leonardis, a former president of Local 1235, Nunzio LaGrasso, an ousted Secretary Treasurer of Local 1478, as well as a Genovese mobster all went to prison in a racketeering case that led to more than a dozen convictions and prison terms for other ILA members.

[willychichi]

Interesting development with Bellomo back at the Helm. Would be interesting to know who the "other" sources are.

[brianwellbrock]

Like Ive been saying all along Barneys the boss now. Good Gangland column this week.

[Lupara]

Not suprising that it's him, he was the logical choice. However it is suprising that the Genoveses have now also gone back to this concept. What we expected years ago has now come to fruition with both Bellomo and Cali calling the shots for the Genoveses and Gambinos. At the moment things are looking good for these families. I wonder how much the feds are going to tolerate this with their focus being on terrorism.

[Snakes]

They will still get what they can because mob cases still get the headlines and get your name "out there" so to speak, but as many have mentioned already, as long as they lay off of the murders and the drugs they can probably operate this way until the talent pool dries up, which for NY is still decades away.

[SonnyBlackstein]

I'm sorry Jerry. I'm sorry for every bad word I ever said about your column Mr Capeci.
GL back with a vengeance.

Barney at the helm. Second the point how it's interesting the disposal of the rotating panel. That seemed to work well for them.

Question: what's the difference between a 'street boss', in this case DiChiara, who apparently is the conduit between Bellamo and the Capos and an underboss?
Isn't that precisely the UB's position?
Or because it's the WESTSIDE do we have to give it another name now..

[Hailbritain]

Ha ha sonny , I feel the same . I love Jerry , it was like Christmas Day today when I saw the up to date picture of Bellomo

[Snakes]

"Street boss" is a term generally used for the top guy on the streets if there is a boss who has stepped back, either partially or wholly. The underboss still serves the same function as does the consigliere, except they work directly with the street boss more than the boss. Same with the capos. "Acting boss" is used if a boss is indisposed, either from illness or imprisonment.

This is just how I understand it.

[Hailbritain]

Yeah snakes , Bellomo is the boss and Peter (Petey Red) DiChiara the street boss . It doesn't nessicarily mean dichiria is the underboss , that could still be someone like muscarella

[SonnyBlackstein]

@Snakes: So the difference being a street boss can actually make 'day to day' decisions and an underboss is simply a conduit?
Would that be a fair differential?

Because if so, DiChiara appears more UB than SB. As it states he serves purely as Barney's conduit. Sending and receiving messages between Barney and the Capos.

So I'm still a little confused here...

[brianwellbrock]

The difference between what Dicharia sounds like and Ft Tony is according to the article Dicharia is relaying Barneys direct orders where as Fat Tony had his own discretionary power. People went to meet with Fat Tony sounds like people are traveling to Manhattan to hear from Barney.

Cali, Crea and Bellomo are all rich in their own right. People may ask why do they want the headache of being boss? Well theyre cosa nostra first so it is more of an obligation than getting rich. Plus as we have seen this year so far CN has stabalised, and this all happened after takedown day and the FBI downsizing. 2012 Crea is boss, 2011 and 2014 with Cefalu and Cali and looks like Barney has been boss for sometime, maybe they saw the writing on the wall and saw the opportunity to step out of the shadows.

The next GL stating how Persico was forced to step down and the Colombos being back at it doesnt seem so far off now.

[Pogo The Clown]

The terms Acting Boss and Street Boss are often used interchangably and mean the same thing.


Pogo

[SonnyBlackstein]

The terms Acting Boss and Street Boss are often used interchangably and mean the same thing.


Pogo

But nowhere in the article does it state DiChiara is actually making any decisions. It clearly states he's simply the conduit between Bellamo and the captains.

So, again, isn't UB or 'acting UB' his title?

Acting or street implies Barney is either incarcerated or not fully involved. Neither of which is stated.

Wondering if 'street' or 'acting' or whatever the fuck we want to call it is simply a bullshit LE or tabloid term and most likely DiChiara's never heard the phrase in his life...

[Chucky]

The terms Acting Boss and Street Boss are often used interchangably and mean the same thing.


Pogo

But nowhere in the article does it state DiChiara is actually making any decisions. It clearly states he's simply the conduit between Bellamo and the captains.

So, again, isn't UB or 'acting UB' his title?

Acting or street implies Barney is either incarcerated or not fully involved. Neither of which is stated.

Wondering if 'street' or 'acting' or whatever the fuck we want to call it is simply a bullshit LE or tabloid term and most likely DiChiara's never heard the phrase in his life...

Something tells me DiChiara has heard the term "acting boss", sounds like me he's basically the liaison between Bellomo and everybody else.

[Pogo The Clown]

Yeah there are plenty of wiretaps of guy's using the term Acting Boss. So it is not merely a LE invention.


Pogo