I am curious about the information that came from Gambino associate Dominick LoFaro’s information he gave when he cooperated specifically what came from the wire he wore for years I believe it was on the Ralph Mosca crew.
Any info he gave would be interesting on the history on the Mosca, including Mosca himself, I would like to hear more about. I do believe Mosca was Capo of the crew Pete Aston one was previously the Capo for. Specifically though also, do any of the researchers have access to any files or information that came out of the wire he wore for years on the crew during his cooperation?
Dominick LoFaro’s cooperation information
Moderator: Capos
Re: Dominick LoFaro’s cooperation information
Augie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 3:39 pm I am curious if there is any information that came from Gambino associate Dominick LoFaro’s cooperation and if there are any available information on the wire he wore with the Ralph Mosca crew.
Any info he gave would be interesting on the history on the Mosca. I do believe Mosca was Capo of the crew Pete Stincone was previously the Capo of. Specifically though also,are any of the posters aware of access to any files or information that came out of the wire he wore for years on the crew during his cooperation?
loFaro information led to indictments of carpenters union bosses
CARPENTER UNION OFFICIAL IS LINKED TO EXTORTION PLOT
By Selwyn Raab
July 20, 1987
Allegations that a high-level carpenters' union official extorted more than $200,000 from contractors have been presented to a New York State grand jury that is hearing evidence about widespread corruption in Manhattan's construction industry, according to law-enforcement investigators.
The investigators said they had uncovered evidence that the union official, John F. O'Connor, obtained between $200,000 and $250,000 in bribes over the last four years in exchange for promising labor peace to construction contractors and for allowing them to violate union contracts.
Mr. O'Connor is the vice president and business manager of Local 608 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. With 5,200 members, it is the largest carpenters' local in the country. #3 Others Implicated According to the investigators, the grand jury also has heard testimony that a second officer in Local 608 and two high-level officials in another carpenters' unit, Local 257 in Manhattan, accepted payoffs from contractors. Each of three other union officials, the investigators said, obtained less than $10,000 in bribes.
The investigators said that evidence against the four principal targets of the inquiry was gathered over the last three years from electronic listening devices and telephone taps and from some contractors who agreed to cooperate in the investigation. The inquiry, according to the investigators, was aided by information about Mafia ties to several union officers, provided by a turncoat organized crime figure.
Investigators, who are familiar with many details of the inquiry, said that prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, are expected to ask a grand jury to vote next month or in September whether to bring indictments against Mr. O'Connor and the three other men. The grand jury is on vacation this month. 'We Stand Ready'
A proposed indictment, with 100 criminal counts, is being drawn up against Mr. O'Connor, the investigators said.
''I can't imagine such an indictment,'' said Mr. O'Connor's lawyer, John W. Mitchell. ''If they bring it, we stand ready to defend against it.''
None of the top officials of Local 257 could be reached over the weekend to respond to charges. Asked about the inquiry, the president of the carpenters' District Council, Paschal McGuinness, said, ''The overwhelming majority of the officers and members of the district council are decent, honest, hard-working, law-abiding people.''
The previous head of the council, Theodore Maritas, disappeared in 1982 while awaiting trial on Federal charges of extorting $125,000 from building contractors in Manhattan and Queens. Federal officials said they believed Mr. Maritas had been murdered.
The law-enforcement officials, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition of anonymity, said indictments of Mr. O'Connor, who is 51 years old, and the three other men would be the first stage of a broader Federal and state investigation concerning systematic payoffs by representatives of drywall companies to carpenters' union officials in Manhattan and the Bronx. Destroying the 'Infrastructure'
A principal goal of the investigation, the officials emphasized, is to destroy a long-standing ''infrastructure'' in the drywall industry that has tolerated bribes as a routine way of dealing with labor problems. Dry wall is a material now often used instead of wood for floors, ceilings and partitions.
Other targets of the long-range inquiry into extortion and bribery, the investigators added, are at least four contractors and six union officials, including officers in the the New York District Council of Carpenters. The council represents about 35,000 carpenters in the city and supervises welfare programs for the locals.
Other carpenter locals, in which investigators said high-level officers were under investigation, are Local 135 in Manhattan and Local 17 in the Bronx.
''We have an investigation into possible illegal activities by certain officers of the union and contractors,'' Mr. Morgenthau, whose office is in charge of the joint Federal and state inquiry, confirmed in an interview. He declined to provide additional details. 'Change the System'
Investigators from the United States Labor Department and the state's Organized Crime Task Force are also participating in the inquiry.
Jeffrey Schaffler, a special agent in charge of the Labor Department's New York field office, refused to discuss the findings of the inquiry. But, he said: ''We are not out for isolated indictments or body counts. The object is to change the system.''
Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in an apparent murder attempt in May 1986. The shooting, Mr. Morgenthau said, is believed to have been in retaliation for property damage at a restaurant under construction in lower Manhattan. Mr. O'Connor was indicted last September in connection with causing the vandalism at the restaurant to coerce its owners to use union carpenters. That charge was later dropped.
Last September, in an unrelated case, Mr. O'Connor also was charged with taking $2,600 in bribes from state undercover agents in return for permitting nonunion carpenters to work on a renovation project. He has pleaded not guilty. Lofaro's Information
Law-enforcement officials said the grand jury would be asked to vote a superseding indictment against Mr. O'Connor that goes far beyond the original charges.
The investigation of the carpenters' locals in Manhattan arose partly from information given by an informer, Dominick Lofaro, to the Organized Crime Task Force. Mr. Lofaro, who has been identified by the authorities as a former member of the Gambino crime family, served as an undercover informer for the task force from late 1983 until last September when he testified against the reputed head of the family, John Gotti, in a Federal racketeering case.
Mr. Lofaro, officials said, supplied the task force with tips about organized-crime influence in several carpenters' locals in Manhattan and the Bronx. The leads were used by the task force to obtain court permission to plant microphones and telephone taps in the offices of Local 608 at 1650 Broadway and in Local 257 at 157 East 25th Street.
Information gleaned from the intercepted conversations allowed undercover agents to observe what were said to have been payoffs by contractors or their representatives to Mr. O'Connor and other union officials, law-enforcement officials said.
Investigators found that Mr. O'Connor had extensive holdings in Ireland, including grazing land in Westmeath County, a luxury condominium apartment in Dublin and a $144,000 bank account. According to the investigators, a bank account for $30,000 was listed in the maiden name of Mr. O'Connor's wife on Grand Cayman Island in the West Indies.
Mr. O'Connor has been an officer in Local 608 for 20 years. Last year, the union reported that his salary was $75,272 and that he received $28,063 for expenses and allowances.
Prosecutors Say Tapes Show Mob Infiltrating Carpenter Union
By Selwyn Raab
Nov. 2, 1987
Secretly recorded conversations show how members of the Gambino organized-crime family infiltrated one of New York City's largest carpenters' unions, prosecutors say.
The tapes also disclose, they say, how systematic payoffs from subcontractors to union officials were funneled to members of the Gambino group.
On the tapes, according to affidavits submitted in the case, the carpenters' union officials often talked with subcontractors about ''accumulating juice'' and meeting for ''a cup of coffee.''
Those remarks, prosecutors say, were code words for extortion payoffs to union leaders and were part of a widespread pattern of labor racketeering and corruption uncovered in a two-year investigation of New York City's dry-wall and sheet-rock construction industry.
Five high-ranking officials of the carpenters' union were indicted on Oct. 13 in Manhattan on state charges of extorting more than $100,000 over a two-year period. In court documents unsealed last week, prosecutors disclosed the evidence they had obtained through wiretaps, bugs, confidential informers and surveillance.
In the documents, including 1,100 tape recordings, that were turned over to defense lawyers in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, prosecutors in the case made these new assertions:
* An undercover informer taped a shop steward in the union, Local 257 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Carmine Fiore, who was identified by the authorities as a ''soldier'' in the Gambino family, describing to subcontractors how mob figures would be ''silent partners'' in a company. Mr. Fiore also was heard explaining how bids were to be rigged with other subcontractors, the prosecutors said.
* Officials of Local 257 laundered, or disguised, illegal payments by making numerous deposits of $6,000 each at the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company branch at 131 East 23d Street, near Lexington Avenue. A Federal law requires that a bank notify the Internal Revenue Service of all transactions of $10,000 or more. John H. Meyers, a spokesman for Manufacturers Hanover, said there would be no immediate comment by the bank.
* Subcontractors were observed at meetings in restaurants, building lobbies and vans, giving envelopes to officials of Carpenters Union Locals 257 and 608, whose union jurisdictions cover different sections of Manhattan. Investigators said the envelopes contained illegal payments. Subcontractors made the payoffs, according to the indictments, so that they would enjoy labor peace and permission to violate union contracts by hiring nonunion employees at wages far below union scales.
* In an effort to expand the inquiry, prosecutors negotiated in 1986 with John F. O'Connor, the vice president and business manager of Local 608, seeking to have him become an undercover informer. According to the documents and William J. Kelleher, Mr. O'Connor's lawyer at the time, he rejected the offer. Mr. O'Connor was one of the officials indicted last month. 'Snippets of Conversations'
Lawyers for the indicted union officials said the tapes and surveillance reports failed to provide incriminating evidence. ''They took snippets of conversations about cups of coffee and other innocuous conversations and meetings and implied that it was some kind of improper conduct,'' said Mr. O'Connor's present lawyer, John W. Mitchell.
Indicted on extortion and larceny charges with Mr. O'Connor were Martin Forde, a Local 608 business agent; Eugene Hanley, the president of Local 257, and Attilio Bitondo, the local's vice president. Also indicted on charges of soliciting bribes was Irving Zeidman, the second-highest official in the 30,000-member New York City District Council of Carpenters, the parent organization of all carpenters' union locals in New York City.
According to the court papers, agents from the the state's Organized Crime Task Force began the undercover inquiry and secret electronic eavesdropping and surveillance in 1985. Investigators said the inquiry stemmed from evidence of union corruption and mob infilitration provided by a confidential informer. Not Named in Affidavits
The informer is not named in the court affidavits by Ronald Goldstock, the director of the task force. But defense lawyers identified him as Dominick Lofaro. Law-enforcement officials said Mr. Lofaro, in exchange for leniency, began undercover work for the task force in 1983 after he was arrested on a narcotics charge.
Mr. Lofaro, in earlier court proceedings, was identified by prosecutors as an associate in the Gambino family. Law-enforcement officials said Mr. Lofaro also worked undercover in unrelated cases against the reputed head of the Gambino family, John Gotti.
The court papers said that on May 8, 1985, the informer secretly recorded a conversation with Mr. Bitondo and Fotis Dimopolos, a partner in the Jet Construction Company of Queens, about the use of nonunion workers. A court affidavit said the following conversation was overheard:
MR. DIMOPOLOS: I'd like to do some dry-wall, general construction.
Trouble when we were a painting company.
MR. LOFARO: First job - one more thing, he has all nonunion men, right?
MR. BITONDO: That can be worked out.
MR. DIMOPOLOS: Whatever you tell me, I have to do.
Mr. Dimopolos has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.
The affidavits said the informer taped a meeting at Tam's Social Club in Astoria, Queens, on July 22, 1985. At the meeting, prosecutors said, were Mr. Fiore; Ralph Mosca, who was identified in the court papers as a captain in the Gambino family; Mr. Mosca's son, Peter; Mr. Dimopolos, and a partner in his company, Spyros Fioravantes.
A task force investigator, Anthony Principo, said in an affidavit that the informer and the Moscas were to be ''secret partners'' in a new construction company with the subcontractors. ''In exchange for the payments to Attilio Bitondo, the union local vice president, the union will guarantee that the contractors will not be faced with labor problems, including interference by other union delegates or officials,'' Mr. Principo said.
On the tapes, Mr. Principo asserted, Mr. Fiore, the shop steward, said: ''Spiro's been around us long enough to know there is no room for a mistake because you make a mistake, you got to pay.''
''You got to pay one way or another,'' Mr. Fiore continued. ''Hopefully it ain't physically. Ninety-nine out of hundred, it ain't never gonna be physically.''
Mr. Fiore did not return telephone messages left for him at Local 257's office at 157 East 25th Street. Ralph Mosca has an unlisted telephone number in the Bronx and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Another task force investigator, Joseph J. Coffey, said in an affidavit that through a wiretap, the authorities obtained evidence that Mr. O'Connor had directed associates in February 1986 to break into the Bankers & Brokers Restaurant, which was being built at 301 South End Avenue in Battery Park City. The object, Mr. Coffey said, was to damage dry-wall installations because the restaurant owners had used nonunion employees without having made payoffs to officials of Local 608.
'Just Cleaned It Out'
On Feb. 28, 1986, the affidavit said William Holden, the chief steward for Local 608 at Battery Park City called Mr. O'Connor and this conversation was taped:
MR. O'CONNOR: Any news on that store down there?
MR. HOLDEN: Ah, they just cleaned it out Johnny; it's basically about 85 to 90 percent cleaned out.
MR. O'CONNOR: There was just damage to the dry wall, was it?
MR. HOLDEN: That was all basically. Yeah, there was no electrical ripped out, or stuff like that, but 'twas in the wall.
On May 7, 1986, Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in what police officials said was a murder attempt. According to the court papers, Mr. O'Connor had been unaware that members of the Gambino family had a financial interest in the restaurant and that he was shot in retaliation for ordering the vandalism.
Mr. O'Connor has also been indicted on charges related to the vandalism and Mr. Holden has been indicted on perjury and criminal contempt charges in connection with his testimony before a grand jury about the vandalism. Target of Investigation
The court affidavits also disclosed that Paschal McGuinness, the president of the carpenters' district council, was a target of the continuing investigation and that his conversations were intercepted in court-authorized eavesdropping. He has not been indicted or charged with any wrongdoing.
Mr. McGuinness did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the assertions that he was a subject of the inquiry by the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
The District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said Friday that ''we are aggressively pursuing more leads in this case and other construction cases, and there may be more indictments.''
The prosecution is being headed by Robert Mass, an assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, in conjunction with the task force and investigators from the New York Office of Labor Racketeering of the United States Department of Labor.
By Selwyn Raab
July 20, 1987
Allegations that a high-level carpenters' union official extorted more than $200,000 from contractors have been presented to a New York State grand jury that is hearing evidence about widespread corruption in Manhattan's construction industry, according to law-enforcement investigators.
The investigators said they had uncovered evidence that the union official, John F. O'Connor, obtained between $200,000 and $250,000 in bribes over the last four years in exchange for promising labor peace to construction contractors and for allowing them to violate union contracts.
Mr. O'Connor is the vice president and business manager of Local 608 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. With 5,200 members, it is the largest carpenters' local in the country. #3 Others Implicated According to the investigators, the grand jury also has heard testimony that a second officer in Local 608 and two high-level officials in another carpenters' unit, Local 257 in Manhattan, accepted payoffs from contractors. Each of three other union officials, the investigators said, obtained less than $10,000 in bribes.
The investigators said that evidence against the four principal targets of the inquiry was gathered over the last three years from electronic listening devices and telephone taps and from some contractors who agreed to cooperate in the investigation. The inquiry, according to the investigators, was aided by information about Mafia ties to several union officers, provided by a turncoat organized crime figure.
Investigators, who are familiar with many details of the inquiry, said that prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, are expected to ask a grand jury to vote next month or in September whether to bring indictments against Mr. O'Connor and the three other men. The grand jury is on vacation this month. 'We Stand Ready'
A proposed indictment, with 100 criminal counts, is being drawn up against Mr. O'Connor, the investigators said.
''I can't imagine such an indictment,'' said Mr. O'Connor's lawyer, John W. Mitchell. ''If they bring it, we stand ready to defend against it.''
None of the top officials of Local 257 could be reached over the weekend to respond to charges. Asked about the inquiry, the president of the carpenters' District Council, Paschal McGuinness, said, ''The overwhelming majority of the officers and members of the district council are decent, honest, hard-working, law-abiding people.''
The previous head of the council, Theodore Maritas, disappeared in 1982 while awaiting trial on Federal charges of extorting $125,000 from building contractors in Manhattan and Queens. Federal officials said they believed Mr. Maritas had been murdered.
The law-enforcement officials, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition of anonymity, said indictments of Mr. O'Connor, who is 51 years old, and the three other men would be the first stage of a broader Federal and state investigation concerning systematic payoffs by representatives of drywall companies to carpenters' union officials in Manhattan and the Bronx. Destroying the 'Infrastructure'
A principal goal of the investigation, the officials emphasized, is to destroy a long-standing ''infrastructure'' in the drywall industry that has tolerated bribes as a routine way of dealing with labor problems. Dry wall is a material now often used instead of wood for floors, ceilings and partitions.
Other targets of the long-range inquiry into extortion and bribery, the investigators added, are at least four contractors and six union officials, including officers in the the New York District Council of Carpenters. The council represents about 35,000 carpenters in the city and supervises welfare programs for the locals.
Other carpenter locals, in which investigators said high-level officers were under investigation, are Local 135 in Manhattan and Local 17 in the Bronx.
''We have an investigation into possible illegal activities by certain officers of the union and contractors,'' Mr. Morgenthau, whose office is in charge of the joint Federal and state inquiry, confirmed in an interview. He declined to provide additional details. 'Change the System'
Investigators from the United States Labor Department and the state's Organized Crime Task Force are also participating in the inquiry.
Jeffrey Schaffler, a special agent in charge of the Labor Department's New York field office, refused to discuss the findings of the inquiry. But, he said: ''We are not out for isolated indictments or body counts. The object is to change the system.''
Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in an apparent murder attempt in May 1986. The shooting, Mr. Morgenthau said, is believed to have been in retaliation for property damage at a restaurant under construction in lower Manhattan. Mr. O'Connor was indicted last September in connection with causing the vandalism at the restaurant to coerce its owners to use union carpenters. That charge was later dropped.
Last September, in an unrelated case, Mr. O'Connor also was charged with taking $2,600 in bribes from state undercover agents in return for permitting nonunion carpenters to work on a renovation project. He has pleaded not guilty. Lofaro's Information
Law-enforcement officials said the grand jury would be asked to vote a superseding indictment against Mr. O'Connor that goes far beyond the original charges.
The investigation of the carpenters' locals in Manhattan arose partly from information given by an informer, Dominick Lofaro, to the Organized Crime Task Force. Mr. Lofaro, who has been identified by the authorities as a former member of the Gambino crime family, served as an undercover informer for the task force from late 1983 until last September when he testified against the reputed head of the family, John Gotti, in a Federal racketeering case.
Mr. Lofaro, officials said, supplied the task force with tips about organized-crime influence in several carpenters' locals in Manhattan and the Bronx. The leads were used by the task force to obtain court permission to plant microphones and telephone taps in the offices of Local 608 at 1650 Broadway and in Local 257 at 157 East 25th Street.
Information gleaned from the intercepted conversations allowed undercover agents to observe what were said to have been payoffs by contractors or their representatives to Mr. O'Connor and other union officials, law-enforcement officials said.
Investigators found that Mr. O'Connor had extensive holdings in Ireland, including grazing land in Westmeath County, a luxury condominium apartment in Dublin and a $144,000 bank account. According to the investigators, a bank account for $30,000 was listed in the maiden name of Mr. O'Connor's wife on Grand Cayman Island in the West Indies.
Mr. O'Connor has been an officer in Local 608 for 20 years. Last year, the union reported that his salary was $75,272 and that he received $28,063 for expenses and allowances.
Prosecutors Say Tapes Show Mob Infiltrating Carpenter Union
By Selwyn Raab
Nov. 2, 1987
Secretly recorded conversations show how members of the Gambino organized-crime family infiltrated one of New York City's largest carpenters' unions, prosecutors say.
The tapes also disclose, they say, how systematic payoffs from subcontractors to union officials were funneled to members of the Gambino group.
On the tapes, according to affidavits submitted in the case, the carpenters' union officials often talked with subcontractors about ''accumulating juice'' and meeting for ''a cup of coffee.''
Those remarks, prosecutors say, were code words for extortion payoffs to union leaders and were part of a widespread pattern of labor racketeering and corruption uncovered in a two-year investigation of New York City's dry-wall and sheet-rock construction industry.
Five high-ranking officials of the carpenters' union were indicted on Oct. 13 in Manhattan on state charges of extorting more than $100,000 over a two-year period. In court documents unsealed last week, prosecutors disclosed the evidence they had obtained through wiretaps, bugs, confidential informers and surveillance.
In the documents, including 1,100 tape recordings, that were turned over to defense lawyers in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, prosecutors in the case made these new assertions:
* An undercover informer taped a shop steward in the union, Local 257 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Carmine Fiore, who was identified by the authorities as a ''soldier'' in the Gambino family, describing to subcontractors how mob figures would be ''silent partners'' in a company. Mr. Fiore also was heard explaining how bids were to be rigged with other subcontractors, the prosecutors said.
* Officials of Local 257 laundered, or disguised, illegal payments by making numerous deposits of $6,000 each at the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company branch at 131 East 23d Street, near Lexington Avenue. A Federal law requires that a bank notify the Internal Revenue Service of all transactions of $10,000 or more. John H. Meyers, a spokesman for Manufacturers Hanover, said there would be no immediate comment by the bank.
* Subcontractors were observed at meetings in restaurants, building lobbies and vans, giving envelopes to officials of Carpenters Union Locals 257 and 608, whose union jurisdictions cover different sections of Manhattan. Investigators said the envelopes contained illegal payments. Subcontractors made the payoffs, according to the indictments, so that they would enjoy labor peace and permission to violate union contracts by hiring nonunion employees at wages far below union scales.
* In an effort to expand the inquiry, prosecutors negotiated in 1986 with John F. O'Connor, the vice president and business manager of Local 608, seeking to have him become an undercover informer. According to the documents and William J. Kelleher, Mr. O'Connor's lawyer at the time, he rejected the offer. Mr. O'Connor was one of the officials indicted last month. 'Snippets of Conversations'
Lawyers for the indicted union officials said the tapes and surveillance reports failed to provide incriminating evidence. ''They took snippets of conversations about cups of coffee and other innocuous conversations and meetings and implied that it was some kind of improper conduct,'' said Mr. O'Connor's present lawyer, John W. Mitchell.
Indicted on extortion and larceny charges with Mr. O'Connor were Martin Forde, a Local 608 business agent; Eugene Hanley, the president of Local 257, and Attilio Bitondo, the local's vice president. Also indicted on charges of soliciting bribes was Irving Zeidman, the second-highest official in the 30,000-member New York City District Council of Carpenters, the parent organization of all carpenters' union locals in New York City.
According to the court papers, agents from the the state's Organized Crime Task Force began the undercover inquiry and secret electronic eavesdropping and surveillance in 1985. Investigators said the inquiry stemmed from evidence of union corruption and mob infilitration provided by a confidential informer. Not Named in Affidavits
The informer is not named in the court affidavits by Ronald Goldstock, the director of the task force. But defense lawyers identified him as Dominick Lofaro. Law-enforcement officials said Mr. Lofaro, in exchange for leniency, began undercover work for the task force in 1983 after he was arrested on a narcotics charge.
Mr. Lofaro, in earlier court proceedings, was identified by prosecutors as an associate in the Gambino family. Law-enforcement officials said Mr. Lofaro also worked undercover in unrelated cases against the reputed head of the Gambino family, John Gotti.
The court papers said that on May 8, 1985, the informer secretly recorded a conversation with Mr. Bitondo and Fotis Dimopolos, a partner in the Jet Construction Company of Queens, about the use of nonunion workers. A court affidavit said the following conversation was overheard:
MR. DIMOPOLOS: I'd like to do some dry-wall, general construction.
Trouble when we were a painting company.
MR. LOFARO: First job - one more thing, he has all nonunion men, right?
MR. BITONDO: That can be worked out.
MR. DIMOPOLOS: Whatever you tell me, I have to do.
Mr. Dimopolos has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.
The affidavits said the informer taped a meeting at Tam's Social Club in Astoria, Queens, on July 22, 1985. At the meeting, prosecutors said, were Mr. Fiore; Ralph Mosca, who was identified in the court papers as a captain in the Gambino family; Mr. Mosca's son, Peter; Mr. Dimopolos, and a partner in his company, Spyros Fioravantes.
A task force investigator, Anthony Principo, said in an affidavit that the informer and the Moscas were to be ''secret partners'' in a new construction company with the subcontractors. ''In exchange for the payments to Attilio Bitondo, the union local vice president, the union will guarantee that the contractors will not be faced with labor problems, including interference by other union delegates or officials,'' Mr. Principo said.
On the tapes, Mr. Principo asserted, Mr. Fiore, the shop steward, said: ''Spiro's been around us long enough to know there is no room for a mistake because you make a mistake, you got to pay.''
''You got to pay one way or another,'' Mr. Fiore continued. ''Hopefully it ain't physically. Ninety-nine out of hundred, it ain't never gonna be physically.''
Mr. Fiore did not return telephone messages left for him at Local 257's office at 157 East 25th Street. Ralph Mosca has an unlisted telephone number in the Bronx and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Another task force investigator, Joseph J. Coffey, said in an affidavit that through a wiretap, the authorities obtained evidence that Mr. O'Connor had directed associates in February 1986 to break into the Bankers & Brokers Restaurant, which was being built at 301 South End Avenue in Battery Park City. The object, Mr. Coffey said, was to damage dry-wall installations because the restaurant owners had used nonunion employees without having made payoffs to officials of Local 608.
'Just Cleaned It Out'
On Feb. 28, 1986, the affidavit said William Holden, the chief steward for Local 608 at Battery Park City called Mr. O'Connor and this conversation was taped:
MR. O'CONNOR: Any news on that store down there?
MR. HOLDEN: Ah, they just cleaned it out Johnny; it's basically about 85 to 90 percent cleaned out.
MR. O'CONNOR: There was just damage to the dry wall, was it?
MR. HOLDEN: That was all basically. Yeah, there was no electrical ripped out, or stuff like that, but 'twas in the wall.
On May 7, 1986, Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in what police officials said was a murder attempt. According to the court papers, Mr. O'Connor had been unaware that members of the Gambino family had a financial interest in the restaurant and that he was shot in retaliation for ordering the vandalism.
Mr. O'Connor has also been indicted on charges related to the vandalism and Mr. Holden has been indicted on perjury and criminal contempt charges in connection with his testimony before a grand jury about the vandalism. Target of Investigation
The court affidavits also disclosed that Paschal McGuinness, the president of the carpenters' district council, was a target of the continuing investigation and that his conversations were intercepted in court-authorized eavesdropping. He has not been indicted or charged with any wrongdoing.
Mr. McGuinness did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the assertions that he was a subject of the inquiry by the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
The District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said Friday that ''we are aggressively pursuing more leads in this case and other construction cases, and there may be more indictments.''
The prosecution is being headed by Robert Mass, an assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, in conjunction with the task force and investigators from the New York Office of Labor Racketeering of the United States Department of Labor.
Re: Dominick LoFaro’s cooperation information
5 Carpenters' Union Leaders Indicted in Extortion
By Selwyn Raab
Oct. 14, 1987
Five high-level officials of the carpenters' union were indicted yesterday on charges of extorting more than $100,000 from contractors.
In return for the money, the officials, who control the supply of carpenters in Manhattan, guaranteed labor peace, permitted sweetheart contracts and allowed nonunion workers on multimillion-dollar construction projects, according to the indictment.
Contractors testified before a grand jury that they made payoffs to the union officials to avert labor problems at projects that included the World Financial Center at Battery Park City, Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, the Equitable Life Assurance Building at Seventh Avenue and 55th Street and exhibits at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Madison Avenue and 75th Street.
''This is the beginning, not the end of a drive to root out corruption in the construction industry,'' District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan said after the state charges were unsealed. He said his office and state investigators were developing other possible racketeering cases concerning organized-crime figures, contractors and other officials in the carpenters' union and other building-trade unions.
Yesterday's indictments accused the five leaders of Locals 608 and 257 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of obtaining more than 200 separate payments over a seven-year period, ranging from $50 to $8,000.
Four of the five pleaded not guilty at arraignments yesterday, and the lawyer for one of them said the evidence had been illegally obtained through improper wiretaps.
Mr. Morgenthau said the indictments document only about 10 percent of the payoffs that 17 contractors said they gave because corroborative evidence could be not obtained to support all of the allegations.
The indictments, which stem partly from information provided by an organized-crime informant, included charges of extortion, larceny and bribery against the heads of the two locals.
The locals are the principal carpenters' unions in Manhattan, which in the last decade has seen a boom in the construction of office buildings and luxury apartments. Officials in both locals, industry experts said, could cause costly delays in construction schedules through strikes and slowdowns.
Additionally, it is the union officials - not the contractors - who have the authority to select work crews and therefore can determine in a tight labor market which construction company gets the most skilled and experienced carpenters. Shooting Tied to Mob
A key figure in the investigation, John F. O'Connor, the vice president and business manager of Local 608, was indicted on 127 counts. Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in an apparent murder attempt in May 1986 that investigators said was in retaliation for his ordering vandalism at the Bankers and Brokers restaurant in Battery Park City in February 1986.
State and city law-enforcement officials said Mr. O'Connor tried to coerce the restaurant owners to use union carpenters or to make illegal payoffs for employing nonunion labor. But, according to the officials, Mr. O'Connor was unaware that a member of the Gambino crime family had an interest in the restaurant and the shooting was reportedly approved by John Gotti, who law-enforcement authorities say is the head of the Gambino family.
The indictment supersedes a previous one for extortion against Mr. O'Connor and charges him with directing the vandalism of the restaurant, which caused $30,000 in damages.
The new indictment charges Mr. O'Connor with extortion and accepting separate bribes of up to $5,000. According to the charges, he threatened contractors that he would withhold skilled employees or create labor unrest. Stealing From Union Is Charged
Additionally, he was accused of stealing from his own union by accepting illegal payments for permitting nonunion carpenters to be employed at lower wages than union members.
In one count, Mr. O'Connor, who received $102,900 in salary and business expenses from the 5,200-member local, the largest carpenters' unit in the country, was accused of providing nonunion carpenters, including illegal aliens, for a $400 payment. Another count said he tried to coerce a contractor into perjuring himself before a grand jury about a $2,000 payoff.
Mr. O'Connor, who is 51 years old and lives on Blueberry Drive in Brewster, N.Y., was the chief executive of Local 608 until he was shot last year. At his arraignment yesterday, he pleaded not guilty before Justice George F. Roberts in State Supreme Court in Manhattan and was released, with his previous bail continued at $500,000.
After the arraignment, John W. Mitchell, a lawyer for Mr. O'Connor, said of the evidence, ''The wiretaps underly the entire case and we claim they were unlawfully obtained.'' Help From an Informant
An informant for the State Organized Crime Task Force, Dominick Lofaro, who was an associate in the Gambino group, provided information in 1983 that led to the wiretapping and bugging by authorities of the offices of Local 608 at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan and of Local 257 at 157 East 25th Street.
Martin Forde, a Local 608 business agent, was charged with extortion and soliciting a $2,000 bribe. Mr. Forde, of 39-50 50th Street, in Woodside, Queens, pleaded not guilty and was released on a $25,000 bond.
A separate 79-count indictment was handed up against Eugene Hanley, the president of Local 257, and Attilio Bitondo, the local's vice president. They were charged with extortion from 1977 to 1987, mainly by threatening to put contractors out of business unless payoffs were made. The indictment said that the largest individual demand by Mr. Hanley and Mr. Bitondo was for a bribe of $25,000 and that the highest payoff they got was $8,000. Bitondo Not Arrested Yet
Mr. Hanley of 196 Nelson Street, in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty and was released on bail and a personal recognizance bond of $500,000. Mr. Bitondo, of 5 University Place, in Great Neck, L.I., was not arrested yesterday and authorities said he was expected to surrender today.
Last year, Mr. Hanley received $114,500 in salary and expenses, and Mr. Bitondo, $116,500.
The second-ranking official of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, Irving Zeidman, was indicted for taking about $2,300 in payoffs since 1979. Mr. Zeidman was accused of soliciting the payments as business agent for Local 2155, which has jurisdiction over carpentry work in machine shops.
He also is the first vice president of the district council, the negotiating organization for about 30,000 carpenters and administers the health and pension funds of the locals.
Mr. Zeidman, of 3225 Shore Parkway in the Brighton beach section of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty and was release in his own recognizance. A Perjury Charge
A sixth official, William Holden, the chief shop steward for Local 608 at Battery Park city, was charged with perjury and criminal contempt in connection with his testimony before the grand jury that heard evidence about the Bankers and Brokers incident. Mr. Holden, of 660 Hillsdale Avenue, Hillsdale, N.J., pleaded not guilty and was released in bail and personal recognizance bond of $25,000.
The three-year inquiry was conducted mainly by Mr. Morgenthau's office, the Organized Crime Task Force and the the Inspector General's office of the Federal Labor Department.
Contractors cited in the indictment for making illegal payments included: Dieter Sonneberg of the B & S Woodworking Company, at the World Financial Center; Robert Donaldson of Donaldson Acoustics, at Pier 17; Roger Berk of the Haywood-Berk Flooring Company, at the Equitable Life Assurance Building and the Whitney Museum. Authorities said they had cooperated with the investigation.
By Selwyn Raab
Oct. 14, 1987
Five high-level officials of the carpenters' union were indicted yesterday on charges of extorting more than $100,000 from contractors.
In return for the money, the officials, who control the supply of carpenters in Manhattan, guaranteed labor peace, permitted sweetheart contracts and allowed nonunion workers on multimillion-dollar construction projects, according to the indictment.
Contractors testified before a grand jury that they made payoffs to the union officials to avert labor problems at projects that included the World Financial Center at Battery Park City, Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, the Equitable Life Assurance Building at Seventh Avenue and 55th Street and exhibits at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Madison Avenue and 75th Street.
''This is the beginning, not the end of a drive to root out corruption in the construction industry,'' District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan said after the state charges were unsealed. He said his office and state investigators were developing other possible racketeering cases concerning organized-crime figures, contractors and other officials in the carpenters' union and other building-trade unions.
Yesterday's indictments accused the five leaders of Locals 608 and 257 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of obtaining more than 200 separate payments over a seven-year period, ranging from $50 to $8,000.
Four of the five pleaded not guilty at arraignments yesterday, and the lawyer for one of them said the evidence had been illegally obtained through improper wiretaps.
Mr. Morgenthau said the indictments document only about 10 percent of the payoffs that 17 contractors said they gave because corroborative evidence could be not obtained to support all of the allegations.
The indictments, which stem partly from information provided by an organized-crime informant, included charges of extortion, larceny and bribery against the heads of the two locals.
The locals are the principal carpenters' unions in Manhattan, which in the last decade has seen a boom in the construction of office buildings and luxury apartments. Officials in both locals, industry experts said, could cause costly delays in construction schedules through strikes and slowdowns.
Additionally, it is the union officials - not the contractors - who have the authority to select work crews and therefore can determine in a tight labor market which construction company gets the most skilled and experienced carpenters. Shooting Tied to Mob
A key figure in the investigation, John F. O'Connor, the vice president and business manager of Local 608, was indicted on 127 counts. Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in an apparent murder attempt in May 1986 that investigators said was in retaliation for his ordering vandalism at the Bankers and Brokers restaurant in Battery Park City in February 1986.
State and city law-enforcement officials said Mr. O'Connor tried to coerce the restaurant owners to use union carpenters or to make illegal payoffs for employing nonunion labor. But, according to the officials, Mr. O'Connor was unaware that a member of the Gambino crime family had an interest in the restaurant and the shooting was reportedly approved by John Gotti, who law-enforcement authorities say is the head of the Gambino family.
The indictment supersedes a previous one for extortion against Mr. O'Connor and charges him with directing the vandalism of the restaurant, which caused $30,000 in damages.
The new indictment charges Mr. O'Connor with extortion and accepting separate bribes of up to $5,000. According to the charges, he threatened contractors that he would withhold skilled employees or create labor unrest. Stealing From Union Is Charged
Additionally, he was accused of stealing from his own union by accepting illegal payments for permitting nonunion carpenters to be employed at lower wages than union members.
In one count, Mr. O'Connor, who received $102,900 in salary and business expenses from the 5,200-member local, the largest carpenters' unit in the country, was accused of providing nonunion carpenters, including illegal aliens, for a $400 payment. Another count said he tried to coerce a contractor into perjuring himself before a grand jury about a $2,000 payoff.
Mr. O'Connor, who is 51 years old and lives on Blueberry Drive in Brewster, N.Y., was the chief executive of Local 608 until he was shot last year. At his arraignment yesterday, he pleaded not guilty before Justice George F. Roberts in State Supreme Court in Manhattan and was released, with his previous bail continued at $500,000.
After the arraignment, John W. Mitchell, a lawyer for Mr. O'Connor, said of the evidence, ''The wiretaps underly the entire case and we claim they were unlawfully obtained.'' Help From an Informant
An informant for the State Organized Crime Task Force, Dominick Lofaro, who was an associate in the Gambino group, provided information in 1983 that led to the wiretapping and bugging by authorities of the offices of Local 608 at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan and of Local 257 at 157 East 25th Street.
Martin Forde, a Local 608 business agent, was charged with extortion and soliciting a $2,000 bribe. Mr. Forde, of 39-50 50th Street, in Woodside, Queens, pleaded not guilty and was released on a $25,000 bond.
A separate 79-count indictment was handed up against Eugene Hanley, the president of Local 257, and Attilio Bitondo, the local's vice president. They were charged with extortion from 1977 to 1987, mainly by threatening to put contractors out of business unless payoffs were made. The indictment said that the largest individual demand by Mr. Hanley and Mr. Bitondo was for a bribe of $25,000 and that the highest payoff they got was $8,000. Bitondo Not Arrested Yet
Mr. Hanley of 196 Nelson Street, in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty and was released on bail and a personal recognizance bond of $500,000. Mr. Bitondo, of 5 University Place, in Great Neck, L.I., was not arrested yesterday and authorities said he was expected to surrender today.
Last year, Mr. Hanley received $114,500 in salary and expenses, and Mr. Bitondo, $116,500.
The second-ranking official of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, Irving Zeidman, was indicted for taking about $2,300 in payoffs since 1979. Mr. Zeidman was accused of soliciting the payments as business agent for Local 2155, which has jurisdiction over carpentry work in machine shops.
He also is the first vice president of the district council, the negotiating organization for about 30,000 carpenters and administers the health and pension funds of the locals.
Mr. Zeidman, of 3225 Shore Parkway in the Brighton beach section of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty and was release in his own recognizance. A Perjury Charge
A sixth official, William Holden, the chief shop steward for Local 608 at Battery Park city, was charged with perjury and criminal contempt in connection with his testimony before the grand jury that heard evidence about the Bankers and Brokers incident. Mr. Holden, of 660 Hillsdale Avenue, Hillsdale, N.J., pleaded not guilty and was released in bail and personal recognizance bond of $25,000.
The three-year inquiry was conducted mainly by Mr. Morgenthau's office, the Organized Crime Task Force and the the Inspector General's office of the Federal Labor Department.
Contractors cited in the indictment for making illegal payments included: Dieter Sonneberg of the B & S Woodworking Company, at the World Financial Center; Robert Donaldson of Donaldson Acoustics, at Pier 17; Roger Berk of the Haywood-Berk Flooring Company, at the Equitable Life Assurance Building and the Whitney Museum. Authorities said they had cooperated with the investigation.