Reputed 'made’ member of Chicago Outfit given 6 months in prison for embezzling from union

[givememysocks]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cri ... story.html



Reputed Chicago mob figure John Matassa Jr. didn’t exactly sound wracked with guilt when he was asked Monday if he had anything to say before being sentenced for a union embezzlement scheme.

When his turn came to speak, Matassa, known as “Pudgy” for his considerable girth, rose from his seat, walked slowly to the lectern and said, “The only reason that I’m standing here is because my name is John Matassa.”

U.S. District Matthew Kennelly, however, told Matassa he didn’t seem to get it.

“The reason you’re here right now is because you pleaded guilty to a felony to avoid going to trial,” Kennelly said before sentencing Matassa to six months in federal prison to be followed by six months on house arrest.

Matassa, 68, is a reputed “made” member of the Chicago Outfit who has been associated with some of the mob’s most notorious figures, including former reputed boss James “Jimmy Light” Marcello.

But his alleged mob ties were never alluded to in any public filings in the embezzlement case. In fact, in a recent sentencing memo asking Kennelly to impose about a two-year prison term, prosecutors said that Matassa had no criminal history and a “seemingly normal upbringing.”

In court Monday, Kennelly seemed to feign confusion when Matassa alluded that prosecutors had targeted him because of his name.

“I honestly don’t understand what was meant by (that)," the judge said before calling for a recess. “Does anyone want to try and explain it?”

When court reconvened, Matassa said he was simply referring to what he believes were decades of harassment from federal regulators during his career as a supervisor in various unions.

Kennelly asked Matassa if he was saying that he believes the Department of Labor simply “has it in for you."

“That’s exactly what it is," he replied.

The former secretary-treasurer of the Independent Union of Amalgamated Workers Local 711, Matassa, of Arlington Heights, pleaded guilty in February to an embezzlement charge alleging he put his wife on the union’s payroll in a do-nothing job for four years while lowering his own salary to qualify for early retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration’s Old-Age Insurance program.

Matassa also spent thousands of dollars in union cash on expenses for himself, including restaurant meals, a cellphone, gas and car washes, according to records that were discussed in court Monday.

In addition to the prison time imposed by Kennelly, Matassa must also pay a total of $66,500 in restitution to the union and Social Security Administration.

In asking for a sentence of probation, Matassa’s attorney, Cynthia Giacchetti, said he was essentially a one-man show for the union, managing grievances, negotiating contracts and benefits and being on call morning and night, seven days a week.

Giacchetti also said Matassa has considerable health problems, including chronic heart disease, morbid obesity, diabetes and vertigo. His ailments prompted Matassa’s wife to step in to help him with his union duties and could make any prison term dangerous for him, Giacchetti said.

During the hearing, Kennelly had pointed questions about the union itself, noting that it had only about 150 members and was composed of a strange conglomeration of workers from various industries — including food service, roofers and construction — in the Chicago area and Wisconsin.

The lion’s share of the dues that were collected — $40 per paycheck for each worker — went to pay Matassa’s salary, Kennelly noted.

Some members of the union’s board testified to a federal grand jury that they were unaware they were even trustees, Kennelly said.

“This is the weirdest union that I’ve ever seen,” Kennelly said.

In his comments to the court, Matassa said many of the witnesses were just scared after federal agents had gone “into their houses like storm troopers.”

“They go to the grand jury and they got amnesia,” he said.

Matassa’s conviction wasn’t the first time his association with labor unions has gotten him into hot water. In the late 1990s, Matassa was kicked out as president of the Laborers Union Chicago local over his alleged extensive ties to organized crime — a move Matassa fought for years.

“The guy’s hanging on to the carpet like a cat,” one union member told the Tribune at the time. “He’s just not cooperating at all. I just can’t wait until he’s gone.”

Matassa’s name surfaced in the historic Operation Family Secrets mob trial in 2007 when Outfit turncoat Nicholas Calabrese testified Matassa was a longtime member of the Outfit’s notorious Rush Street crew who reported to capo Vince Solano.

In fact, Matassa was among those indoctrinated as a made member of the mob at an October 1983 ceremony at a shuttered restaurant on Mannheim Road, Calabrese testified, according to a transcript available in court records.

Calabrese also testified that he and Matassa helped conduct surveillance in the late 1980s on a movie house operator who owed the mob money, according to the transcript.

When asked why they had been told to watch the operator, Calabrese replied, “I believe he was going to get killed.”

When Calabrese and Marcello were later imprisoned together in Michigan, the two had a code to signify when they were talking about Matassa, Calabrese testified.

“(Marcello) would take (his arms) and go like this, like he’s making a sign of a big stomach,” Calabrese testified.