Christmas Tributes in the ILA - IT'S TRUE!

Not sure what's going on behind the scenes, but finally the Waterfront Commission is keeping up the pressure, and people are folding.   No wonder the ILA has been so intent on keeping the Container Royalty Fund intact.

From The NY/NJ Waterfront Commission

Longshoremen Plead Guilty To Extortion Conspiracy Involving Christmastime Tribute Payments
May 21, 2014
           NEWARK, N.J. - Three former longshoremen admitted today that they conspired to extort others in Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) for Christmastime tribute payments, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch announced.
           Salvatore LaGrasso, 58, of Edison, N.J.; Michael Nicolosi, 45, of Staten Island, N.Y.; and Julio Porrao, 71, of Palm Coast, Fla. – all former supervisors on the New Jersey piers – pleaded guilty today to conspiring to extort Christmastime tributes from the union members – count three of the second superseding indictment against them. LaGrasso, Nicolosi and Porrao entered their guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi in Newark federal court.
           According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
            During their guilty plea proceedings, LaGrasso, Nicolosi and Porrao admitted that they conspired with each other and others to compel tribute payments from ILA union members, who made the payments based on actual and threatened force, violence and fear. The timing of the extortions typically coincided with the receipt by certain ILA members of “Container Royalty Fund” checks, a form of year-end compensation. LaGrasso and Nicolosi were suspended from their positions following their arrests in this case. Porrao had already retired from his employment on the New Jersey piers at the time of his arrest.

click here for link to read complete article

The Official Report by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

 

The Waterfront Commission of New York/New Jersey posted on their web-site the official report submitted to the Governors of New Jersey and New York.  This report was issued in March 2012, but references public hearings conducted in 2010.   Not sure what took them so long to issue the report.  The wheels of government turn slowly.

Click here for link to complete report.

Below is how it starts...

 

 

To the Honorable Chris Christie, Governor, and the Legislature of the State of New Jersey

and To the Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor,and Legislature of the State of New York: 

 

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

Between October 14, 2010 and December 2, 2010, the Waterfront Commission of New

York Harbor (“Commission”) conducted public hearings concerning unfair employment 

practices within the Port of New York District )"the Port", or "the Port of New York-New Jersey")

1

The hearings demonstrated and publicized that certain hiring practices, achieved

primarily through calculated provisions of collective bargaining agreements, illogical

interpretations of other provisions, and claims of “custom and practice,” have created within the

Port no/low-work, no/low-show positions generally characterized by outsized salaries. The

privileged few that are given those jobs are overwhelmingly connected to organized crime

figures or union leadership.

Not much has changed since the early days.  The Waterfront Commission is trying.  We shall see.

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.

           
           

On The Waterfront

Things haven't changed much on the NY/NJ Piers.

The only difference is now the Waterfront Commission is reporting some of
the problems.

Here are the last few press releases.

WCNYH

Pier Superintendant Arrested and Charged with Managing an Illegal Bookmaking Operation.

December 9, 2011

Maher Terminal Pier Superintendant Joseph Joel DiCosta was arrested this morning by Waterfront Commission detectives and agents from the US Department of Labor on a federal complaint charging him with managing an illegal gambling business in violation of Title 18 USC Section 1955. The complaint charges that DiCosta ran the illegal bookmaking operation from January 2003 to January 2011 utilizing both internet sites and 1-800 telephone numbers.

The criminal case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.

DiCosta's license as a Pier Superintendant was suspended by the Commission this afternoon pending an Administrative Hearing on the charges.

WCNYH

Genovese Soldier and Checker Plead Guilty in Port Loan Sharking Case.

October 28, 2011

Genovese Soldier Joseph Queli and Checker Nicholas Bergamotto pleaded guilty today before Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci, Jr. in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Queli pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Usury (loan sharking) and Money Laundering as well as Filing False Tax Returns. Under the plea agreement, Queli will be sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Bergamotto pleaded guilty to Money Laundering and will be sentenced to a term of probation. Bergamotto has been suspended from the Waterfront since his arrest on April 22, 2010. Both Bergamotto and Queli were highlighted in the Commission’s Public Hearings held last year.

The indictment was the result of an on-going investigation by the Waterfront Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice into organized crime in the Port.

WCNYH

ILA Local 1 Trustee and Shop Steward Removed from Waterfront for Theft, Frauds, and Association with Organized Crime

October 25, 2011

By Commission Order, dated October 25, 2011, William A. Vitale, a suspended shop steward at Maher Terminals and a trustee of ILA Local 1, was removed from working on the Waterfront for the theft of $96,582.75 from Maher Terminals, committing frauds in connection with a sworn interview conducted by the Commission, and associating with an associate of the Genovese Crime Family.

On April 28, 2011, in Union County Superior Court, Vitale pleaded guilty to theft by deception (a crime of the 3rd degree). On September 23, 2011, the Court sentenced Vitale to three (3) years probation and ordered him to pay restitution of $96,582.75 to Maher Terminals, forfeit his Waterfront registration, and resign his position with the ILA. Vitale admitted that he lied and caused false time records to be created which resulted in Maher Terminals paying him for hours that he did not work. He also testified falsely during a sworn Commission interview in response to questions concerning his presence in Florida, California, and Aruba, when he was paid for working at the terminal. Vitale also visited in prison Joseph Lore, an associate of the Genovese Crime Family on the ILA Ethical Practices Counsel’s Barred List, who was convicted of charges pertaining to embezzlement from ILA Local 1588 and using intimidation or force against a witness. Both Vitale and Lore were subjects of testimony during the Commission's 2010 Public Hearings pertaining to "no show" jobs and organized crime associations on the waterfront.

The case was investigated by the Waterfront Commission and prosecuted by the New Jersey Attorney General's Division of Criminal Justice.

WCNYH

Longshoreman suspended by Commission after being arrested for bookmaking on behalf of the Gambino Family

October 20, 2011

Longshoreman Michael Bolger and ten others have been arrested and indicted on charges of Enterprise Corruption, Promoting Gambling in the First Degree, and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree. The charges allege that Bolger and his co-defendants operated an illegal gambling ring on behalf http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifof the Gambino Crime Family in parts of New York and New Jersey from 2010 to 2011. Bolger has been suspended by the Commission pending an administrative hearing to determine whether his registration as a longshoreman should be revoked. The Organized Crime Task Force of the Office of the New York State Attorney General is prosecuting the case.

click here for link to Waterfront Commission web-site

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.”

Government Documents regarding Mafia arrests

I haven't yet started reading this, but on the USDOJ (U.S. Department of Justice) web-site is available details of charges against those arrested today.

Here's the link

USDOJ:OPA: Documents and Resources from the January 20, 2011 "La Cosa Nostra" press conference

More on the Mob arrests on the waterfront

This from The Wall Street Journal

The indictment filed against more than 100 alleged mobsters arrested in a three-state sweep Thursday morning describes a scam used on the New York and New Jersey waterfront.

Three accused Cosa Nostra members would turn up before Christmas, when workers from the International Longshoreman’s Association receive a check from the “container royalty fund”–a sort of year-end bonus for union members. According to the indictment, workers’ payments to the alleged mobster were “induced by wrongful use of actual and threatened force, violence and fear.”

In other words: extortion. The indictment cites incidents going back to 1982, making this scheme a holiday fixture over nearly three decades.

“It’s tradition on the waterfront,” said Ronald Goldstock, a member of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which is tasked with countering the influence of organized crime on the docks. “If you want to work there — if you want the good assignments or overtime — you kick back the Christmas check to the people who allow you to work there.”

click here for link to article

Arrests made in extortion of dockworkers in New Jersey

Today, more than 100 persons were arrested in a round-up of Mob types in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

From the NY Times

An indictment handed up in Newark charges 14 people with racketeering and extortion of Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen’s Association and other dockworkers locals, including several current and former union officials who are said to be affiliated with the Genovese family. The indictment alleges a conspiracy over the course of many years to extort union members around Christmas, when they receive an annual bonus based on the number of cargo containers that move through the port.

And, from Bloomberg News

“It means that actual longshoremen in this case, with real mortgages and real families, were forced to kick back to corrupt officials of ILA Local 1235 between $500 and $5,000 each from their annual Christmas bonus if they hoped to rise above entry level jobs on the docks. Eventually those kickbacks helped line the pockets of the Genovese crime family.

“Organized crime means what it has always meant on the waterfront: mobsters getting rich on the backs of dock workers. This case helps put an end to it.”

It will be interesting to see the list of those arrested.

Stay tuned.

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

Mobster convicted of controlling ILA for 30 years

The trial in NY regarding mob control of the ILA in Newark is over. They convicted the "reputed" mobster, who controlled the union until 2007.

From the Journal of Commerce (click here for link)

Reputed mobster Michael Coppola was convicted of racketeering charges that included extortion of one of the International Longshoremen’s Association’s largest locals for more than 30 years.

Federal prosecutors said Coppola controlled ILA Local 1235 in Newark from 1974 to 2007 through the extortion of three consecutive local union presidents -- Vincent Colucci, who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 1980; Al Cernadas, who resigned in 2005 after pleading guilty to extortion conspiracy; and Vincent Aulisi, ousted in 2007 after the FBI wiretapped his son and Coppola discussing what prosecutors said apparently were payoffs to the mob.

My question is, who is in control now? Is it really "cleaned up"? Or, has it just been taken over by the next one in line.

click here for link to New York Daily News article, which focuses more on the fact that he wasn't convicted for murder

Why the mob took over the ILA

There is a trial going on in New York. It's about the New Jersey docks being controlled by the mob. I guess the reason they are not holding the trial in New Jersey is pretty much the whole state is mobbed up.

This from The Daily News.

Barone, a prolific killer and founder of the Hell's Kitchen gang The Jets - the model for the "West Side Story" gang - played a key role when the Genovese and Gambino crime families carved up the waterfront.

...

why the Genovese crime family took over the longshoremen's union.

"So we could make money! Is that a good enough answer for you?" snapped 85-year-old George Barone. "Crissakes!"

click here for link to Daily News article

Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor was created in 1953.

From Wikipedia

..... (a year before the movie On the Waterfront) to combat labor racketeering. It is held that the Gambino crime family controlled the New York waterfront and the Genovese crime family controlled the New Jersey side.

By most accounts, they haven't really taken care of the problem. But then again, if they had cleaned up the waterfront, they would put themselves out of a job.

This from the Daily News
BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, June 22nd 2009, 4:00 AM

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor has the stink of a patronage swamp.

The bistate agency created to keep the harbor free of mob corruption is fending off allegations that its two top commissioners doled out plum jobs in a practice known as "horse trading," according to a knowledgeable source who has talked to investigators.

The claims are part of a wide-ranging corruption probe by the state inspector general, whose report is due out soon.

click here for 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

The Waterfront and The Mob - 2008

Some things just never seem to change.

From today's NY Daily News

Federal prosecutors eye N.J. capo from Genovese family in 2005 trial rubout

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, December 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
Federal prosecutors named a powerful Genovese family gangster as the prime suspect in the gangland rubout of a fellow capo who was killed while on trial in Brooklyn.

Reputed capo Tino Fiumara is a target in the investigation of the murder of Lawrence Ricci, who disappeared Oct. 7, 2005, in the middle of his waterfront racketeering trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacquelyn Rasulo and Jack Dennehy disclosed in court papers this week.

Authorities say Fiumara, 67, runs the Genovese faction in New Jersey, including its illicit stake in the waterfront. Ricci reported to him at the time he was killed.

Ricci was killed for going on trial with two officials of the International Longshoremen's Association, sources said.

"They wanted him to plead guilty," a source said. "They didn't want him sitting at the table with the union guys. It didn't look good."

The prosecutors say another capo, Michael (Mikey Cigars) Coppola, could finger Fiumara in the murder.

click here for complete story

update - here are my previous posts on ILA and Mob

Is the Mob involved in the Florida ILA?
The Mob and the ILA
Tony Soprano would be mad

Is the mob involved in the Florida ILA?

It's been well documented the mob has been involved in the business of the longshoremen in New York and New Jersey. I posted about that a couple of days ago.


Now there is a stevedore in Florida who has some disputes with the ILA.

Their creditors are trying to force them into bankruptcy. This is part of their response.

The ILA pension funds for Southeast Florida and Tampa recently sued Eller, seeking what they claim is the company's failure to pay its required contributions to the funds.

In responses to the lawsuits, Eller denied the allegations and said it was the victim of a scam to inflate claims for ILA members' pay.

Eller said in court documents that it believes that current or former Eller employees and union members had schemed "to defraud (Eller Maritime) and certain shipping companies by an apparent ongoing 'kickback' protocol whereby the...employee or employees would intentionally overpay longshoremen and/or other union members for work not undertaken, or generate phantom union employees or categories of employees."

I have no idea if the Feds have been investigating this. But, it's the typical mob scenario. No-show jobs.

It's starting to get cold. I would think some Feds are looking for an excuse to head to Florida. This should do the trick.

The Mob and the ILA

Oh, here we go again.

From the Journal of Commerce

Mob figure accused of ILA extortion

Updated November 4, 2008 12:19:09 PM

Seriously, when I made my posting yesterday "Tony Soprano would be mad", I did not know about this indictment.

Honest.

And, the article from yesterday was concerning the local in Bayonne, NJ. This new one is regarding the local in Newark, NJ.

NEWARK, N.J. -- A Mafia figure in prison for avoiding prosecution in a 1977 mob murder has been charged in a federal indictment that accuses him of extortion and conspiracy to extort members of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1235 in Newark, N.J.

Prosecutors said that three days before his arrest, Coppola was intercepted in a telephone conversation admitting organized-crime control over the leadership of Local 1235, one of the ILA's largest units, since the Seventies. The U.S. attorney's office said that during the call, Eddie Aulisi, son of the local's then-president, Vincent Aulisi, told Coppola that tribute payments to the Genovese family had recently "almost doubled."

I had always wondered what happened after this murder (mentioned below). From what I recall, the trial basically just stopped. I am pretty sure everyone who was scheduled to testify, suddenly decided not to, or, their memory went fuzzy.

In a detention memo filed with the court after Coppola's arrest last year, prosecutors alleged that Coppola and his stepson were involved in the murder of Larry Ricci, a mobster who disappeared in the middle of a 2005 ILA racketeering trial where he was a defendant along with three of the union's top leaders.

Ricci was found shot to death in a car trunk outside a Union, N.J., diner shortly after he and two of his co-defendants, ILA officials Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey, were acquitted of racketeering charges. No charges have been filed in that murder.

I'm pretty sure I know where that diner is located. Don't think I'll be going there again.

Tony Soprano would be mad

From the Journal of Commerce

Federal judge extends ILA local oversight

Updated November 4, 2008 8:37:44 AM

Former New York City Police Commissioner Robert McGuire has overseen the affairs of ILA Local 1588 since 2003, when he was appointed to end what prosecutors said was decades of organized-crime control of the local.

A federal judge has extended by 18 months the government supervision of a formerly mobbed-up International Longshoremen's Association local in Bayonne, N.J.

I am not so sure they should be saying "formerly mobbed-up", based on the following excerpt.

...the administrator said more time was needed to complete disciplinary action against local members who have continued to associate with organized crime figures, and that he had become aware of "intensified efforts in recent weeks and months by elements associated with organized crime figures to reassert their influence in the local."

"These concerns are sufficiently serious that the parent union, the ILA, as well as Milton Mollen, the ethical practice counsel for the ILA, support this motion," McGuire's statement said.

McGuire said extending government oversight will thwart efforts by mobsters to undermine reform efforts, and will provide government supervision of the local's next election of officers in 18 months.

I don't really want to say too much more, considering I use to live in Sopranoland.