Gangland January 9th 2025

[Dr031718]

Genovese Wiseguy Linked To Electrical Company In $2 Billion Waldorf Rehab

Christopher ChierchioThe 45-year-old worker who fell to his death at the Waldorf Astoria last week worked for an electrical company tied to a twice-convicted Genovese wiseguy currently being investigated for bank fraud and labor racketeering by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Gang Land has learned.

Sources say the investigation is separate and apart from Bragg's grand larceny case against mobster Christopher Chierchio, who recently copped a sweet no jail plea deal to charges he stole $300,000 in a $5 million bid-rigging and kickback scheme by mobsters and associates of two crime families who preyed on major builders of hotels and Manhattan high-rise apartments.

Sources say the DA's office has information that Chierchio, who officially worked for the company, Pinnacle Electric, two years ago, has been a secret partner allegedly involved in dealings by the company which has a $39 million subcontract for the electrical work in the landmark hotel's $2 billion rehab that began in 2017.

"Chierchio was in charge of everything in the company," said one source. "He represented himself as Chris Lumia when dealing with banks, bonding companies and people they worked for doing electrical work. Those people didn't know they were working with a wiseguy."

The sources say that the investigation began last year, and is unconnected to the death of Elie William, the 45-year-old Pinnacle worker who suffered a fatal fall last week at the Waldorf. The victim was working on a suspended catwalk above a third floor ballroom in what police say was an accident.

The Waldorf did not respond to repeated calls for comment about William's death, and the mob ties of Pinnacle. But sources say the Suffolk Construction Co., of Boston, the general contractor for the hotel refurbishing, which is close to completion, according to the hotel's website, gave the electrical work to Pinnacle Electric of Richmond Hill, Queens, for $39,063,079.

Chierchio, 56, a longtime friend of Pinnacle owner Antony Gironta, 55, was hired by the company after the wiseguy and his Staten Island plumbing company, RCI PLBG Inc., were indicted along with Gambino capo Frank Camuso and 22 others in the eight-year-long Manhattan bid-rigging scheme in January of 2023.

Gironta went to bat for Chierchio in May of 2023. In a letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, he urged leniency for Chierchio for his role in the theft of $100 million from three Lottery winners in 2020. His 29-year-old, 500-worker firm was "thriving" because of aid he had gotten from his good friend Chris. He was a "teddy bear," a friend for 20 years who had helped Gironta when he "was struggling with his business during COVID-19."

In October of 2023, Chierchio began serving the five year sentence Garaufis meted out at the federal prison in Danbury. As Gang Land reported last week, in November, the wiseguy pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the state case in Manhattan for an agreed upon term of one and a half to three years that will be concurrent to the federal prison term that he is serving.

Gang Land has learned that Chierchio's jailers confiscated a cell phone from the inmate that one source said "Chris was using to conduct business." He had to spend some time in a Segregated Housing Unit as punishment, but Gang Land was unable to obtain details about any calls that he made.

Sources say Gironta and Pinnacle employee Michael Palleschi are both subjects of a probe by Christopher Beard, the head of Bragg's labor racketeering section. Palleschi, 50, is also a twice convicted conman. He is slated to face the music for securities fraud in federal court on March 3. Following that, he also faces up to four years of probably concurrent time in state court for his grand larceny plea for stealing millions of dollars in construction company funds.

The sources tell Gang Land that the bank fraud allegations stem from "financial difficulties" that Pinnacle has apparently experienced since Gironta's May 2023 claim that his company was "thriving."

"Pinnacle has been in trouble financially for some time," said one investigative source. "They lost a huge job. They have two major lenders who are after them," the source said.

sA second investigative source told Gang Land that Pinnacle's financial problems stemmed from the "expensive toys" that include a yacht and plane that Gironta owns and the frequent trips back and forth to Florida and vacations that he and Palleschi enjoy.

To solve the company's "cash flow problem," the second investigative source continued, they figured out that all they had to do was borrow more money from other banks "using the same receivables as collateral" – that is, money that was not yet paid for completed work – "each time. And they did, from banks in Florida, California, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere."

The sources say prosecutor Beard has obtained documentary evidence that in 2022 and 2023, both before and after Chierchio's attorneys told Judge Garaufis that their client was "employed by Pinnacle Electric," Chierchio, who used the name Chris Lumia in emails, was often asked for his approval by both Gironta and Palleschi before they made financial decisions.

In an email in May of 2022, more than six months before Chierchio's lawyers told Judge Garaufis that the defendant was an "employee" of Pinnacle, Palleschi allegedly told the Pinnacle bookkeeper that Chris Lumia (Chierchio) had okayed a $20,000 payment to him. It stated: "pay as per Chris, 20,000.00," according to the sources.

In another internal email exchange, the sources say, Palleschi wrote, "Chris needs to approve this payment. I've CC'd him. He will chime in when it's clear to pay." Chris Lumia replied, "Pay it."

In another email regarding a tax-related issue, Chierchio asked Gironta and Palleschi, "Guys. Reading this. Do u think switch gear and generators. That we buy we shouldn't be paying tax on? Maybe we should ask and even file for the exemption? Just a thought."

Gironta did not respond to a request for comment that Gang Land left with a woman who answered the phone at his Queens office. Attorney Thomas Harvey, who represents Chierchio, as well as Palleschi, said Gang Land's information was "news" to him. A spokeswoman for the DA's office declined to comment.

Chierchio's sentencing for grand larceny had been scheduled for today but was adjourned without date due to the national day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. A status conference for Camuso and other defendants is scheduled next week before Judge Miriam Best.

Former Acting Colombo Boss: I Was No Snitch!

Ralph DeLeo had a lot on his mind the other day. The aging Boston-based gangster said Gang Land got it wrong 15 years ago in reporting that he had been an informer 30 years earlier. DeLeo had no gripe about being identified as an acting Colombo family boss for a year. And he didn't argue that his job ended when the FBI busted him for a drug rap in Little Rock, Arkansas, in November of 2009.

He had no qualms about any of that. But he insists that devilish lies told by a scurrilous FBI agent led Gang Land to wrongly report that he had once been an informer.

DeLeo, 81, was released from federal prison last May after serving 15 years for the Little Rock drug rap, along with some racketeering back in Boston. He contacted Gang Land, he stated, to let our readers, and podcasters everywhere, know that a scurrilous Boston based FBI agent — not the infamous John Connelly who used to let Whitey Bulger run rampant in exchange for providing info on Italian mobsters — had falsely tagged him as a snitch after DeLeo refused to cooperate with him

DeLeo points out that for a cooperator he did an awful lot of time behind bars. For starters, there was the 1979 trial of a doctor, David Ucker, for the murder of another doctor, Walter Bond, in Columbus, Ohio. At the trial, DeLeo testified that he killed Bond, on his own, and Ucker was acquitted. He admitted his guilt, and got 15 years, which he served in federal prison.

Then there was his most recent 15-year stretch for the Little Rock drug scheme. As DeLeo maintains, a total of 30 years behind bars is a funny way for the government to reward a snitch.

DeLeo told Gang Land that the informer tag was put on him when he was busted for the Little Rock drug case and told the arresting Boston FBI agent that he would not cooperate. DeLeo said the agent told him he had a choice: "He told me that he would either get me killed as an informer, or indicted in Boston on racketeering charges and sentenced to life in prison."

The agent's alleged threats didn't get DeLeo whacked or sentenced to life, but they did get him mentions as an alleged cooperator in government filings made in two Brooklyn Federal Court murder cases involving members of his Colombo crime family. One was in 2009, shortly after the agent's alleged threat, when acting boss Alphonse (Allie) Persico was charged with a killing.

The same allegations surfaced again in 2012 when Michael Persico, the businessman son of the late boss, Carmine (Junior) Persico, was hit with murder charges, that were later dropped.

Based on court filings in those cases, Gang Land reported that Allie Persico had met DeLeo in prison in 1986, and had appointed him acting boss in 2008, even though he had been an informer in the 1979 murder trial of a doctor. Gang Land also reported what was in the filings in the Michael Persico case: that Michael had met DeLeo in Boston in 2009.

In the 2012 column, Gang Land also reported that DeLeo was having a tough time being a boss. This sentiment surfaced in some very intriguing, tape-recorded conversations that DeLeo had with his sister about a 2009 trip he took to New York to preside over a Colombo crime family induction.

"I'm laying down. I'm tired. I didn't sleep for two days," DeLeo told his sister Michelle. "I was doing a lot of running around in New York and it was kind of stressful. That was one of my first days on the job," he said, adding, "we had a couple of things going on that I had to preside over and I was tired. It was like overwhelming a little bit."

Michelle: Did you have a chance to go out?
Ralph: Oh yeah, that was the problem. One time I was out you know til 1 o'clock in the morning. I was eating constantly. I had to meet these people, everybody wanted to go out to eat. When I got back to my hotel room my stomach looked like it was a big basketball in there. I was eating all day.

"I started with meeting people for breakfast. And right after breakfast I had to go meet someplace somebody else at a restaurant at another end of town…. Then we had to meet some people and then we went out to dinner at 8 o'clock to meet some more guys, alright, and that 8 o'clock dinner lasted til 1 o'clock in the morning and ahh my stomach I just had too much food I couldn't sleep.

Sleepless as he may have been, DeLeo related the upside of being boss, and how royally he was treated: "Everybody is holding the door for you, helping you on with your coat, giving you hugs, hugging you, kissing you and all this kind of stuff.”

Michelle thought that was "so cute," and wondered whether restaurant patrons stared at him, because he has "the look."
"Well," said Ralph, "they're coming up and giving me hugs and kisses. That's why people are looking. People wonder why they kissing this guy."

These days there are no wiseguys kissing DeLeo. "I'm still on supervised release and sticking close to my condo" in Watertown, he said, "trying to avoid problems and getting aggravated." That includes trying to straighten out an old smear that the mobster oldster insists was wrongfully pinned on him years back.

Luchese Family Bookmakers Looking To Cop Plea Deals

Luchese wiseguy Anthony Villani enjoyed what most likely will be his last New Year's Eve dinner as a free man for the next couple of years when he celebrated with friends and relatives in Manhattan. Push is finally coming to shove in the long-running racketeering case in which he was charged in September of 2022 with running a lucrative gambling business named "Rhino Sports," Gang Land has learned.

Sources say that negotiations for plea agreements between assistant U.S. attorney Antoinette Rangel and lawyers for Villani and his four underlings are finally resolved, or close to it. And that one or more of the five defendants may officially accept a plea deal at the next scheduled status conference in the case on January 21.

Their cases had been scheduled for today, but were put off for the day of mourning observance for former president Jimmy Carter.

The sources declined to give specific numbers. Villani allegedly headed a "large-scale" operation that employed "dozens of bookmakers" in the New York area and made "millions of dollars in profits" for the Luchese crime family. As the only defendant charged with racketeering, Gang Land expects that Villani's plea agreement will be in the range of three years.

The government's evidence suggests that the operation was lucrative. When the quintet were arrested, FBI agents seized $460,000 from Villani and U.S. Attorney Breon Peace stated that through the 15-year-long bookmaking operation the 59-year-old mobster allegedly earned more than $1 million a year for himself.

The feds also seized $293,000 from Villani's personal bank account and $340,000 from two business accounts.

As Gang Land reported in August of 2023, Villani is a new wave wiseguy. In his day job, he sells fruit juices, smoothies, and bowls of coconut, pineapple, and wildly popular acai berries and pitaya, a cactus-rooted, so-called "superfruit" from Central and South America in Playa Bowl franchises he owns in Bronxville and Pleasantville.

Plea agreements for Villani bookmaker Michael (Platinum) Praino, who enjoyed a three-day ski vacation last week in Cortlandt NY courtesy of Brooklyn Federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, and three others charged only with illegal gambling, Louis (Tooch) Tucci Jr., James (Quick) Coumoutsos and Dennis Filizzola, will likely call for, at most, up to a year behind bars.

[dack2001]

You have ESPN, pimping their gambling website in almost every article. You have BetMGM advertising during almost every game. Fanduel and Draftkings spending millions to make billions. Yet the Feds go after a local guy booking with local guys. The government is the racket. I also wouldn't be surprised for a second that some FBI agent put paperwork together describing DeLeo as an informant.

[Brovelli]

There’s an old mug shot of Anthony villani in this column. Looks like maybe 15-20 if not more years ago. Anyone know what that arrest was for? Interested if there’s any background on him prior to this recent arrest.

[Juice Terry]

There’s an old mug shot of Anthony villani in this column. Looks like maybe 15-20 if not more years ago. Anyone know what that arrest was for? Interested if there’s any background on him prior to this recent arrest.

Some more pictures of the accused. Doesn't say which one is Villani. Anyone know if Quick is a made guy?...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ation.html

[SonnyBlackstein]

Good info on Nicky's push and Gene's nomination.

[OcSleeper]

Some more pictures of the accused. Doesn't say which one is Villani. Anyone know if Quick is a made guy?...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ation.html

Don't think he's Italian.

[Tonyd621]

Appreciate the post.

[Pmac2]

I kinda believe deleo. poor old crooked just trying to save his rep. it makes sense what he said. I always thought it was funny weird it come from the source he was a snitch....

[SonnyBlackstein]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ation.html

Lucchesse's need to hijack a Minoxidil truck.

[johnny_scootch]

Lucchesse's need to hijack a Minoxidil truck.

Bald is beautiful.

[Tonyd621]

Is there any photos of Tuccio junior?

[Tonyd621]

Chierchos release date is 2027. He will be at a halfway house soon enough

[OcSleeper]

Is there any photos of Tuccio junior?

Tucci Jr is photo 5/15
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ation.html

[Hired_Goonz]

I have questions about DeLeo's redemption arc here. All I really know about him is from Gohnjotti's piece on him on his Colombo family site. He explicitly says that DeLeo cooperated against Dr Ucker and the reason he did his time on the federal system was at his request because he feared retaliation from Boston organized crime figures, as he had given the authorities some information on them as well. Capeci reports that DeLeo testified that he killed Dr Bond on his own. But according to Gohn's article, DeLeo told the authorities he had been hired to castrate Bond rather than kill him (Bond supposedly raped Ucker's girlfriend) but things went sideways and he ended up shooting him. If this is accurate, DeLeo is definitely still a rat by any standard. You don't somehow get to be considered a stand up guy just because the guy you testified against beat his case lol.

If he didn't cooperate why the hell was he doing time in the federal system for a state murder charge? The whole thing is weird and I'm not sure I buy what DeLeo is selling here. In any event here is the article from Gohnjotti's site:

https://thecolombomafia.com/ralph-deleo

[Pmac2]

deleo escape from a jail they made it a federal case I think I read.