Racketeers on the New York/ New Jersey Waterfront

 I don't think I need to add any comments to this.....it kind of says it all.

From The Journal of Commerce

 

Administrative law judge upholds Waterfront Commission ruling

An administrative law judge has upheld the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor’s decision to revoke a Ports America hiring agent’s license to work in the Port of New York and New Jersey because of association with racketeers.

The Waterfront Commission revoked the license of Pasquale Pontoriero, who was accused of associating with the late Tino Fiumara, a Genovese mob capo, and Stephen DePiro, a Genovese soldier.

Fiumara died in September of 2010; DePiro is serving a federal prison sentence and awaiting trial on federal racketeering charges involving the extortion of ILA members in the port.

ILA and the Mafia

The ILA has a long history of association with organized crime.   It seems everyone has just
accepted this is the way it is, because they certainly have not cleaned it up, although every once
in a while The Waterfront Commission does something to justify their existence.

This was posted on their web-site.   Click here for the link.

Longshoreman Indicted for Multiple Counts of Perjury Suspended by Commission
August 1, 2012
           The Commission voted to temporarily suspend Dominick Dinapoli's registration as a longshoreman pending an administrative hearing on charges based upon his five count indictment for perjury. Dinapoli has been charged with testifying falsely in a Commission investigation regarding Port personnel associating with an organized crime figure and another career offender. The notice of hearing, approved today by the Commission, charges that Dinapoli violated the Waterfront Commission Act by associating with career offenders, convicted racketeers, and members or associates of organized crime groups, including Mario Gallo (an associate of the Bonanno and Lucchese crime Families), Samuel Santiago (a member or associate of the Latin Kings), and five other career offenders.
           The criminal case is being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

A big part of the problem with the contract negotiations which will resume shortly, is too many people
are concerned if they cause the union problems, they will be wearing cement shoes in the river.

This is not to be taken lightly.   I know of  people who were threatened by the ILA.  They gave in.

The negotiations really should be moved out of the NY/NJ area.

           
           

More reports on NY/NJ Waterfront arrests

Below is from New Jersey Star Ledger. They are doing a great job
covering the arrests related to corruption on the NY/NJ piers.

Ex-longshoremen's union official is indicted on waterfront corruption charges
Published: Thursday, December 16, 2010, 7:40 AM

A new indictment of a once-powerful longshoremen’s union leader was quietly unsealed this week, pointing to a growing offensive by federal prosecutors into corruption on the waterfront.

The charges come less than a week after another member of the same union was charged with collecting "Christmas tribute" money exacted from other dockworkers to kick back to the mob.

Albert Cernadas Sr., who served as both executive vice president of the International Longshoremen’s Association and president of ILA Local 1235 in Newark, was accused of shaking down his members under threats of violence, in what was described as a long-running racketeering operation tied to the Genovese organized crime family.

The charges come nearly five years after Cernadas, 75, of Union Township, was removed from the ILA after pleading guilty to corruption charges involving thousands of dollars in union funds being funneled into a pharmaceutical company controlled by organized crime.

But in the new indictment, the government charges a far larger conspiracy dating back more than two decades — alleging that Cernadas put the screws to force cash payments from his members every year around Christmastime by use of "actual and threatened force, violence and fear."

The 52-page indictment, unsealed in federal court in Newark, does not say where the money went, but prosecutors say Cernadas was a known associate of the Genovese family which controlled the New Jersey waterfront. At the same time, other documents recently filed in several related cases spelled out what appeared to be a lucrative extortion racket known as "Christmas tributes" that preyed on ILA members, forcing them to cede part of their pay each year to crime bosses with hooks into the union.

Cernadas’ attorney, Jack Arseneault, declined comment. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark also declined to comment, and would not say what sparked its interest in Cernadas or why it kept the charges low key, opting not to make an announcement as it frequently does in such cases.

However, the indictment and other recent criminal complaints suggest a far larger investigation.

Last week, Robert Ruiz, 51, an international representative and delegate of the ILA, was arrested and charged in New York with extortion conspiracy in connection with similar payments.

According to an affidavit filed in the case by Jonathan Mellone, a special agent for the U.S. Department of Labor, members of the ILA were required to provide payments every December, and the payments were then kicked back to the Genovese family.

In connection with that case, the FBI said it dug up nearly $52,000 in cash buried in the backyard of one unidentified union member from New Jersey who went to authorities and said he and others were threatened with the loss of their jobs or their lives if they did not pay up. The union member told authorities the money was to go to Ruiz and it was their understanding the envelopes ultimately went to members of the Genovese family.

Separately, another reputed mobster, Stephen Depiro, was indicted in New York in April on racketeering charges in connection with the waterfront, with court records similarly documenting the holiday payments to organized crime.

In the criminal complaint filed against Depiro, transcripts of phone calls referred to the annual Christmas payments. Investigators said Edward Aulisi, the son of Vincent Aulisi, who became president of Local 1235 after Cernadas left, was caught on tape assuring reputed mob boss Michael Coppola that the tribute money would continue even after Cernadas left, and in fact had doubled.

The payments were the focus of some attention during a special hearing in October by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Aulisi, whom officials say held a no-show job at Port Elizabeth, was called as a witness but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The indictment against Cernadas says only that he conspired to extort money from ILA members each December, beginning in 1982. The timing of the charges suggest prosecutors were facing a problem with the statute of limitations had they not filed the when they did.

ILA officials in New York said Wednesday Cernadas was no longer with the union and they were unaware of the indictment.

Cernadas, whose son is Al Cernadas Jr., the first assistant prosecutor of Union County, was arraigned Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark and released on a $1 million bond.

click here for link

More arrests on the NY/NJ waterfront

From The NY/NJ Waterfront Commission web-site

Three New Defendants and Multiple Counts Added to Genovese – ILA Racketeering Indictment.

December 15, 2011

NEWARK, N.J. – Three additional defendants were arrested today and charged in a superseding indictment that adds dozens of counts to a previous indictment charging multiple defendants – including an alleged member and associates of the Genovese organized crime family – with racketeering and related offenses, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch announced.

A 103-count superseding indictment was unsealed this morning in Newark federal court in which previously-charged defendants Stephen Depiro, a soldier in the Genovese organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Genovese family”), and three Genovese family associates – Albert Cernadas, former President of International Longshoremen’s Association (“ILA”) Local 1235 and former ILA Executive Vice President; Nunzio LaGrasso, the Vice President of ILA Local 1478 and ILA Representative; and Richard Dehmer – are charged with racketeering conspiracy, including predicate acts of conspiring to extort Christmastime tributes from ILA members on the New Jersey piers. The superseding indictment includes, as part of the racketeering conspiracy charge, 61 additional predicate acts of extortion of various ILA members by Cernadas and 12 additional predicate acts of extortion of ILA members by Nunzio LaGrasso. In addition to the Christmastime extortion scheme, LaGrasso is charged with the extortion of an ILA dock worker so that the worker could retain a supervisory job at the port.

The superseding indictment also charges newly added defendants Michael Nicolosi, Julio Porrao and Rocco Ferrandino – all current or former ILA supervisors – with extortion conspiracy and extortion. Nunzio LaGrasso and five other defendants, including Thomas Leonardis, the President of ILA Local 1235 and ILA Representative; Robert Ruiz, the Delegate of ILA Local 1235 and ILA Representative; and Vincent Aulisi, former President of ILA Local 1235, are charged with additional counts of extortion of ILA members. Ruiz is also charged with obstructing justice by impeding a grand jury investigation. In total, the superseding indictment contains allegations regarding the extortion of 28 victims.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacquelyn M. Kasulis and Jack Dennehy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Mahajan, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey.

And...this one

PNCT General Foreman Suspended by Commission after Arrest and Indictment on Multiple Extortion Charges.

December 15, 2011

PNCT General Foreman Michael Nicolosi was arrested this morning after being indicted federally on extortion conspiracy and multiple counts of extortion involving the forced collection of Christmas tributes from ILA members to the Genovese Family.

His license as a longshoreman was suspended by Commission vote pending an administrative hearing on the charges.

ANOTHER dockworker killed

I find it difficult to believe everyone is just accepting
that these are "accidents".

From The Journal of Commerce

Saturday accident marks the second death on the Philadelphia waterfront in eight days

A longshoreman fell to his death in a breakbulk ship Saturday in the second fatal accident in eight days on the Philadelphia waterfront.

Vernon Knight, 54, a member of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1291, fell from a tween deck into a ship’s hold, said Robert Palaima, president of Delaware River Stevedores.

The ship, the Rickmers New Orleans, was handling project cargo at Tioga Marine Terminal. Palaima said the accident is under investigation.

The fatal accident followed the unrelated deaths of two dockworkers Aug. 12 at Philadelphia and Newark, N.J. In those accidents, Carmen “Chuckie” Dirago, a member of Local 1291, was killed at Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and Don Denia, a member of Local 1804-1, was killed at Maher Terminals at Elizabeth, N.J.

Knight was the 15th ILA dockworker killed in a work accident in the last four years.

Two Longshore Workers Killed last Friday

Call me cynical, but I find it strange there were 2 longshore workers
killed in "accidents" on the same day, one in NJ, and one in Phili.

Looks to me like there is something behind this besides just bad
workplace practices.

I hope I am wrong, but I trust the FBI or someone is looking into
these deaths.

From The Journal of Commerce, Aug. 15, 2011

Two longshore workers were killed in work accidents at Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in Philadelphia and Maher Terminals in Port Newark, N.J.

Carmen “Chuckie” Dirago, a member of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1291, was killed in Philadelphia when a tractor-trailer backed into him, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Don Delia, a member of ILA Local 1804-1, died in the Newark accident. Details of the accident were not available.

ILA President Harold Daggett extended condolences to the victims’ families and directed George Lynch, an ILA safety director, to investigate. Friday’s deaths raise the number of ILA members killed in work accidents in the last four years to 14.

“These deaths of our two ILA beloved brothers demonstrates why we must be vigilant with safety and put it at the top of priority list,” Daggett said. “It’s why the ILA wants top-level training, why we want accurate container weight measurements. Brother Dirago and Brother Delia’s deaths will not be in vain and, in their memory and inspired by them, we will work to make certain these accidents don’t happen again.”

ILA admits Mob still a problem on NY/NJ docks

From the Journal of Commerce, who has covered the Waterfront Commission hearings.

Mob ‘Schemes’ Persist on Docks, Monitor Says
Joseph Bonney | Dec 2, 2010 10:24PM GMT

............

“The schemes are still there. … If you eliminate that, you’re going to bring the costs down,” said Robert C. Stewart, deputy administrator of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1588, which has been under a court-appointed monitor since 2003.

Stewart testified in the last of six hearings the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor held to highlight no-show jobs and other practices it says drive up costs and invite Mafia influence at the port.

I guess the Waterfront commission hearings are over. This is how it wrapped up.

The hearings ended with the display of several complex charts detailing family and other connections between Genovese crime family members and ILA officials and members that Commissioner Ron Goldstock said included a “privileged few” who received high pay for relatively little work.

Stewart testified that the court-appointed administrators at Local 1588 struggled to break a “culture of corruption” reinforced by decades of Genovese crime family control. He said the mob used its influence over company hiring agents to demand payoffs for jobs and training and relief assignments that led to higher-paying jobs.

He said Local 1588 members used to have to buy tickets to an annual Christmas party of Nicholas Furina, a hiring agent who was banned from the docks after pleading guilty to extorting union members for jobs. He said that practice was banned after the monitors took over.

“People think that if there’s not gunplay down on the piers and people getting beat up and thrown in the river, things must be OK. That’s not the case,” Stewart said.

So, it's improved a little from the days of "On The Waterfront", but not by much.


click here for link to article

Ripped from the headlines...the mob and the waterfront

The from the Newark (New Jersey) Star Ledger

The Waterfront Commission held a hearing into mob influence along the docks today. But some of the scenes could have ripped from newsreel footage of the commission’s 1950’s heyday, right up to that old standard: "On advice from my counsel, I hereby assert my privilege against self-incrimination under the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution."

It was among the highlights of the first day of public hearings following a scathing Inspector General’s report last year finding that the commission’s former leadership was "a sanctuary of political favoritism, corruption and abuse."
.................
Aulisi is the son of a former International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1235 president, Vincent Aulisi, who commission officials say installed his son in a no-show job as a checker, or dockside clerk, at the APM terminal in Elizabeth. On a projection screen in the crowded hearing room, commission officials showed photographs of the son barbecuing and riding a lawnmower while he was scheduled to work. The commission eventually barred Aulisi from working on the waterfront for associating with Coppola.

"Isn’t it true that you had a no-show job at APM?" Demeri asked Aulisi.

""On advice from my counsel, I hereby assert my privilege against self-incrimination," he replied, repeating that same response, word-for-word a half dozen times in response to a half-dozen questions.

Testimony from Joseph Curto, president of the New York Shipping Association, a trade group, detailed labor practices codified in bargaining agreements between stevedoring companies and the longshoremen’s union. The commission officials say the practices allow for and even encourage excessive pay for little or no work, depending on the position.
lesniak-waterfront-commission.jpgNoah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerN.J. State Sen. Ray Lesniak seen on the floor of the Senate session before a vote is cast for his affordable housing bill in June.

For example, a relief checker, Eddie Aulisi’s typical job title, is paid whether or not he is providing relief, and is not required to be on-site even during the loading or unloading job he is assigned to.

Another industry official, Richard Carthas, senior director of terminal operations for APM, Aulisi’s former employer, acknowledged that he had fired other longshoremen for infractions like excessive sick days or attitude problems yet kept Aulisi on his payroll despite knowing he rarely, if ever, worked.

And people wonder why it's so expensive to work a ship in New York/NJ ports?

click here for link to article

Waterfront Commission gets to work..finally

A couple of weeks ago, as reported in The Journal of Commerce

(New Jersey)State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a Democrat, said he will introduce a bill Thursday to dissolve the watchdog agency and transfer its powers to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Apparently the Waterfront Commission has decided they better get to work to save their jobs.

ILA shop steward's work week: 168 hours

A nephew of the late boss of the Genovese crime family testified that he receives hourly pay for 168 hours a week, even when he's home sleeping, while collecting $400,000 a year as an International Longshoremen's Association shop steward at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Ralph Gigante Jr., a shop steward at the maintenance unit at Port Newark Container Terminal, said he's paid whenever ILA workers are on the job. He said he gets the regular $33 an hour for 40 hours, double pay for three hours a day of meal breaks, and time-and-a-half for each week's remaining hours, plus two yearly bonuses, including one for 16 paid holidays. He said he doesn't claim pay for the 10 to 12 times a year when he plays golf.

Gigante testified Thursday in the second of a series of hearings by Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor to highlight what commission officials say are no-show jobs, favoritism in hiring and organized-crime influence at the East Coast's busiest port.

Oh, so the Waterfront Commission just now came across this bit of information?

This is just too depressing and ludicrous to even discuss.


click here for link to complete article

ILA and the Mob...continues

The Journal of Commerce has a small article in their "Roundtable" remarks today.

What I find interesting is this case is being prosecuted in New York, although the racketeering was in New Jersey.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The mob, the feds and the ILA
Joseph Bonney | 1:46PM GMT

Federal prosecutors are ready to have another go at proving links between organized crime and the International Longshoremen's Association.

The venue will be federal court in Brooklyn, where reputed Genovese mobster Michael Coppola goes on trial next week for racketeering and conspiracy. Coppola’s alleged offenses include a 1977 mob murder, conspiracy to possess false identification during 11 years as a fugitive from that crime, and the use of extortion to control ILA Local 1235 in Newark from 1974 to 2007.

Most of the indictment against Coppola is devoted to the ILA racketeering charges. Prosecutors allege Coppola and his mob cohorts controlled three past presidents of Local 1235 and extorted money and favors, including jobs and contracts with mobbed-up firms.

This is like something from the Soprano's, or perhaps today "The Housewives of New Jersey".

Cernadas’s co-defendants in the 2005 case -- ILA officials Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey and Genovese mobster Larry Ricci – were acquitted. Ricci, however, wasn’t around to celebrate the verdict. He vanished in mid-trial and his body was found weeks later in the trunk of a car parked outside a New Jersey diner. In court documents, prosecutors state that their informants say Ricci was murdered on mob orders to ensure his silence and that Coppola was involved.

.... prosecutors have said one likely witness is octogenarian labor racketeer George Barone, who testified for the government in the 2005 case. Barone, a onetime ILA vice president, was convicted in 1979 for shaking down Miami port businesses and testified that he committed several mob murders during his younger days but couldn’t recall how many.

click here for complete article from the Journal of Commerce