New York Criminal Lawyer Blog
A former union boss claimed the formerly-influential head of the city’s largest contractor’s association as a major crime family’s contact for corrupt construction unions, sources told a New York Criminal Lawyer.
The ex-union boss claimed the contractor was a messenger for a powerful mob capo who carried orders to the unions in the late 1990s. The contractor is currently on trial in Manhattan Federal Court for allegedly lying about his ties to the crime family, sources told a New York criminal Lawyer.
The ex-boss confessed to bribe-taking in 2004 and says he was only following the contractor’s orders to give union cards to mob favorites. When he refused to raise a “totally corrupt” union official to a management position, he says he was warned by the contract, “If you don’t, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
Later, the ex-boss was taken to a meeting with the capo himself. “I was patted down. … He said, ‘Don’t take it personal, but I had problems in the past with wires.” The mob boss says the contractor was there the whole time. The former union boss eventually convinced the capo to change his mind. The union boss retired too months later. The capo died in prison in 2009, at the age of 73.
The contractor is the last big name in construction to come before the court in a case that involved a District Council of Carpenters chief and seven cohorts pleading guilty in a 29-count federal racketeering indictment.
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