NOTES ON RICHARD ELLO
Richard Ello is the central figure in the massive malfeasance and the defalcation of money that was discovered missing from, the Mason Tenders District Council and its Trust Funds. The grandson of Charles Graziano, charter President of the MTDC (I937-1976), Ello is also the nephew of the late Gaspar Lupo, alleged member of the Genovese crime family, and cousins to both Frank and James Lupo, all former Presidents of the MTDC.

In I988, Ello is hired by Gaspar Lupo as a clerk at the MTDC for an annual salary of $35,000 per year. According to his own testimony, Ello claims to have been both Office Manager and Comptroller of the MTDC (a position not found anywhere in the LIUNA Constitutions). He answers telephones, collects and maintains trade agreements, collects dues check-off monies from contractors, and is responsible for those monies being distributed on a quarterly basis to the ten Mason Tender locals,

During his tenure at the MTDC under the Lupo administration, there was a continual longstanding grievance filed by Local 23 against the MTDC with respect to the collection, assessment and distribution of dues check-off funds. Incredibly Ello claims not to have been aware of this disagreement. More significantly, Ello served at the MTDC during a period of time that the MTDC was determined by U. S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet to have unconstitutionally imposed a 25% "per capita tax" on all collected dues (17% was the constitutionally agreed "tax"). This 8% differential resulted in a massive revenue shortfall which impacted the financial welfare of the ten Mason Tender locals for the last ten years of their existence, and this misconduct also assisted LIUNA Trustee Steve Hammond in his eventual successful elimination of the locals in 1996.
 

Ello was responsible for the manipulation of check-off authorization cards which were used to determine the amount of monies due to each local union. His inability to prevent the MTDC from co-mingling the check-off funds from the MTDC's own treasury resulted in a systematic loss of revenue for the locals.
According to the minutes of the MTDC Executive Board, but omitted from any report to the Delegates of the MTDC, Ello's compensation quickly skyrocketed. On December 5th, 1989 Ello received a 4 week Christmas bonus although the exact amount is not noted. However, one year later, on December 10th, 1990, Ello receives a whopping," $1200 a-week increase in salary, plus another . 4 weeks Christmas bonus The following year, on December 19th, 1991 Ello is given a 6 week Christmas bonus, and four months later, on April 18th, 1992 he receives an additional $150 a-week increase in salary.
 

In a letter from James Lupo to the Executive Board of the MTDC dated August 3I, 1992, Ello is given the full use of an automobile, even though his duties are strictly limited to the MTDC office. Three months later, on December 5th, 1992, Ello receives an 8 week Christmas bonus, By September, I993, when Ello receives another $75 a-week raise in salary, his yearly compensation rises to over   $167.000,
 
It should be noted that within one year the MTDC would be issued a massive civil suit (115 pages) by the U.S. Attorney's office in New York City, culminating a ten year investigation into the financial and political structure of the MTDC. Amazingly, Ello is not named or charged in that suit and within two months, on November 14, 1994 when the MTDC is placed under LIUNA Trusteeship, Ello is the lone individual not to be removed from his position at the MTDC or charged with any acts of misconduct by the Investigation Officer.

After the arrival of of the LIUNA Trustees to oversee the MTDC, Ello became the conduit between the Government and the International Union, Together with Steve Hammond, Ello was instrumental in the formation of the new locals and the elimination of the ten former locals. He had great input into the decisions to recruit members as officers of the new locals, while providing information for the F.B.I. and the Investigation Officer to utilize against anyone deemed to be a impediment to the new regime.

However, Ello's standing as an official of LIUNA and the MTDC is a blatant violation of the LIUNA Constitution and the MTDC Constitution, since Ello was not a member of any LIUNA affiliate until his initiation into Local 59 in December 1994, the same time that the LIUNA Trustees signed a Consent Decree with the Federal Government. Although Ello testified at the hearings against Joseph M. Giardina, former Business Manager of Local 23, that he was Office Manager, Comptroller, Organizer and handled the day-to-day affairs of the MTDC, he did so for over seven years without constitutional authorization,
 

At the above mentioned hearings, Ello gave false testimony on a number of items, including the mailing and faxing of certain material to Local 23, and also providing Investigation Officer, Michael Chertoff, with false and incorrect information regarding the number of fringe benefit hours reportedly attributed to Vincent Gotti, a member of the union. Although he failed to mention Ello by name, Chertoff later admitted this critical mistake in a letter to Lawrence Pedowitz, MTDC Monitor, dated September 9, 1996. Ello was the only person with access to the information which was being discussed.
 

Despite all of the information collected about Ello, he has continued a meteoric rise in the political structure of LIUNA and the newly reformed MTDC. In 1996, after the consolidation of the ten locals into two new locals, Ello was appointed to be a Trustee of the the MTDC Trust Funds, while in 1997, he was appointed an LIUNA International Representative, and later that year was selected to handle the daily affairs of Demolition Local 95 as a Union Trustee.
 

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