Copyright 1993 Newsday, Inc.  

Newsday (New York)
April 9, 1993, Friday, CITY EDITION
Correction Appended
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3

LENGTH: 1027 words

HEADLINE: Blast Firms' Tangled Mob Ties

BYLINE: By Kevin Flynn and Michael Weber. NEW YORK NEWSDAY INVESTIGATIONS TEAM. Michael Moss contributed to this story.

BODY:
The rush to repair the crippled World Trade Center has benefited at least four firms that have had affiliations with organized crime figures or relatives of imprisoned godfather John Gotti.

The job of towing cars from the devastated garage went to Gotti's son-in-law, a reputed mob soldier.

Major repairs are being made by a company that employs Gotti's nephew, the shop steward for a mob-linked laborers' local.

Emergency bracing is being installed by a firm whose president spent five years on the board of a company controlled by a reputed mob capo.

And supplies are being furnished by a firm founded by a Gambino family associate and convicted labor racketeer.

"We faced a terrific emergency and hired people we think were the best to do the job," said Lloyd Schwalb, a Port Authority spokesman. "We have no control over who they may have associated with or have on their payroll. And not one of these people that you have mentioned did anything other than a superlative job."

The repair contracts, many of which were not competitively bid, are expected to cost millions of dollars. But officials said they don't know how much has been spent so far because bills have not come in.

The authority did try to cancel one contract because of a Gotti connection. But Jamaica Auto Salvage, owned by Gotti son-in-law Carmine Agnello, had finished towing 279 cars from the rubble, the authority said.

The city has suspended doing business with Agnello, a reputed Gambino soldier, in part because of his alleged ties to organized crime. Agnello, who is appealing, did not respond to calls for comment but his attorney, Joseph Faraldo, said, "He works his butt off. If that means he's a soldier in organized crime, that means we're all soldiers in organized crime."

The Port Authority defended the contract, saying Agnello offered the best equipment and lowest price of three bidders - $ 45 per car. The two other bidders, New Jersey firms whose prices were $ 95 and $ 175 a car, said they had to factor increased travel costs into their bids.

Some of the biggest repairs since the Feb. 26 blast have been undertaken by Turner Construction, which once employed John Gotti's brother Vincent, a reputed capo, and now employs Vincent's son, Peter.

Peter Gotti, 23, is a Trade Center laborer and the shop steward for Mason Tenders Local 23. Federal authorities say the local is mob-linked because it was led, until a few years ago, by Louis Giardina, a convicted felon and reputed Gambino soldier.

Turner said it hired Peter Gotti in 1989, when it received a contract for construction at the Trade Center. That contract was expanded to include the blast repairs.

"We took over a contract and took over a workforce that was on that contract," said Beverly Benn, a Turner spokeswoman. "He's been there since before we were there and he remains there."

She said Turner also hired Vincent Gotti, a convicted cocaine dealer, two years ago on the recommendation of Local 23 but he only stayed for five months.

Benn said that, under its contract, Turner must use members of Local 23. Port Authority officials disputed that, saying Turner is not required to hire Local 23 members, but said that the local has customarily provided laborers at the Trade Center.

Local 23 president Lawrence Giardina said Peter Gotti oversees wages and safety conditions for the union. Giardina, who replaced his father Louis as president, did not have a phone number for Gotti, who could not be reached for comment.

Peter Gotti does not have a criminal record, according to Bruce Cutler, the Gotti family attorney.

A second repair company, Karl Koch Erecting, has an impressive resume that includes work on the Javits Center, Giants Stadium and now the bracing that supports the blast site.

But Koch's president, John Daly, and a second principal of the firm spent five years on the board of a company founded and controlled by reputed Colombo crime family capo Thomas Petrizzo.

Petrizzo appointed Daly and the late Jerome Koch to the board of his construction supply company, A.J. Ross Logistics, in 1984. Petrizzo wanted them because Koch has done a lot of business with A.J. Ross, Daly said.

But Daly denied ever hearing about Petrizzo's alleged mob ties.

"I don't think he is affiliated with organized crime," Daly said. "He doesn't have the time. The guy's a workaholic. He does 70 hours a week."

Petrizzo has never been convicted of a crime, but a mob informant told the FBI he was powerful enough to sign off on a mob execution for the Colombo family, according to court papers filed for the pending trial of reputed capo Thomas Gambino.

He resigned as president of A.J. Ross last year, but remains a director and the controlling stockholder. He did not return calls seeking comment.

Port Authority officials said they hired Koch, hours after the blast, because they had helped build the Trade Center and were familiar with it..

A fourth company, Miron Lumber of Brooklyn, a supplier of materials for the repairs, was founded by Julie Miron, a Gambino crime family associate convicted in 1987 of labor racketeering.

Miron was identified by state investigators in 1989 as a lumber vendor "with organized crime connections." He is listed with Dun & Bradstreet as an officer of the company.

Jonathan Miron, a spokesman for Miron Lumber, said Miron used to be an officer but now "has nothing to do with this particular location." He declined to comment further.

Miron is best known in law enforcement circles as the man who unwittingly sparked the late godfather Paul Castellano's problems with law enforcement. He told the FBI that Castellano loved to sit in the kitchen of his Staten Island mansion. The FBI then knew exactly where to plant its bug and the resulting "kitchen tapes" began the don's downfall and subsequent murder, ordered by John Gotti.

The Port Authority said Miron was hired by one of its contractors, Slattery Associates. Slattery wanted questions submitted in writing, but did not respond to them.
 
QUOTE:'He's as clean as gold. All the children are.' - Gotti family attorney Bruce Cutler, referring to Vincent Gotti's son Peter

CORRECTION-DATE:: April 10, 1993

CORRECTION:

 
CORRECTION: Because of an editing error, New York Newsday mixed up the brothers of John Gotti in a story yesterday about repairs at the World Trade Center. Peter Gotti is a reputed capo in the Gambino crime family and the father of Peter Gotti Jr., shop steward for Mason Tenders Local 23 working at the bomb site. Vincent Gotti has not been identified as a member of organized crime.