ADVOCATE
Road Wars
Mob allegations explode as unions enter
battle for $5 billion booty
The Mob, the unions, and
the state's plan to rebuild highways and bridges
By Rick Hornung
March 28, 1984
Tom Rossetti is not after small change, nor is
Dominick Lopreato. At stake is a huge piece of Gov. William O'Neill's
monstrous $5-billion program to rebuild the state's roads and bridges. As members of the
task force that developed the exorbitant plan and as leaders of key
construction union locals in Fairfield and Hartford counties, Rossetti and Lopreato
understand the opportunities presented by the governor.
This is a big game and some of the Northeast's biggest players are
standing near Rossetti and Lopreato, eager to seize the winnings if the General Assembly
goes through with a large scale road improvement plan as demanded by
O'Neill.
Rossetti and Lopreato are under the scrutiny of
federal authorities who suspect their union locals are tainted with corruption ranging
from misuse of health and dental insurance funds to extortion and
beatings, stemming from leadership challenges. With an estimated $5 billion worth of road
and bridge construction expected to be dished out across the state, union coffers will be overflowing with dues, employer contributions to benefit funds and other
revenues.
As business agent for the Bridgeport- based Local 191 of the
Teamsters Union. Rossetti considers himself an important man, driving around in a a late
model Cadillac paid for by his rank and file. As a member of the city's
school board, Rossetti is privy to much of the backroom dealing that surrounds
Bridgeport's Democrats. His years in the Teamsters union and with the party have won him
many friends. During the 1982 gubernatorial campaign, Rossetti opened his
house for a fundraiser to help out Gov William O'Neill
As secretary-treasurer of the
Hartford based Local 230 of the Laborers' International Union, Lopreato also considers
himself an important man. His position entitles him to a union-bought late-model luxury
car. As labor representative for thousands of construction workers, Lopreato works closely
with developers and roadbuilders who give generously to the Democratic
Party. When a construction magnate needs a crowd to stack a public hearing, Lopreato is
willing to oblige, cranking rank and file to shout down those opposed to office towers,
highways or shopping centers.
Last year, when O'Neill needed construction union
representatives to serve on his task force to study rebuilding the state's roads and
bridges, Rossetti and Lopreato came to the governor's attention as ideal
candidates Apparently, no one in O'Neill's office knew of their separate roles in
allegations of labor racketeering and extortion that is part of what authorities believe to be 'turf wars" throughout the Northeast.
Though Rossetti and Lopreato work in different unions that are not
related authorities said each is caught up in the attempts of New York and Providence
based hoodlums to take advantage of Connecticut's gargantuan
road-building plans.
According to records filed in Bridgeport's federal court,
Rossetti's Local 191 is the larger of an ongoing investigation by the U S. Justice
Department's Organized Crime Strike Force, which suspects the business
agent and others siphoned union funds to members of the Genovese crime
family out of New York. Though Rossetti's office said he is unavailable for comment court
records show Local 191 and the statewide umbrella organization of Teamsters, Joint Council
64, throughout last year unsuccessfully moved to quash grand jury subpoenas for checks,
ledgers, account books, insurance policies, premium payments, benefit payments and office
memos for the five-year period of May 1977 through
December 1982.
While U.S. Attorney Alan Nevas declined comment on the
investigation, the Teamsters' motions to quash subpoenas show that prosecutors are
concentrating on Rossetti's handling of his local's disbursement of denial benefits and
his role as trustee of the Teamsters' Tri-State Health
Plan, a multi-million dollar fund involving 12 locals stretching across Connecticut, Rhode
Island and Massachusetts. The prosecutors are now presenting evidence to a grand jury
sitting in New Haven.
Court records show prosecutors and the Teamsters'
lawyers skirmished over the dental plan, which is run out of the same building that houses
the offices of Rossetti's Local 191. This is also the location of the offices of another
Bridgeport-based Teamsters group, Local 145. According to the U.S. Labor Department, Local
191 told authorities that the dental plan is administered by an independently owned entity
called Teamsters Dental Office Co. Incorporation papers for that company
are not on On file with the Secretary of State's office.
Prosecutors subpoenaed the dental plan's
administrator Carol Rizzieri, who successfully invoked her Fifth Amendmend privilege
against self-incrimination in a dispule over financial documents pertaining to the dental
plan, according to court records. Though the prosecutors eventually
received more than 200,000 checks. ledgers, memos and other office records pertaining to
the operation of Local 191, the denial plan and Rossetti's involvement in the Tri-State
Health Plan, the probe centers on the relationship between Local 191's operations in
Bridgeport and John "Buster" Ardilo. identified as a
high-ranking member of the Genovese family. Ardito could not be reached for comment.
Besides his relationship to the Teamsters in southwestern
Connecticut, Ardito has drawn the attention of prosecutors investigating gambling,
extortion and loansharking in Fairfield County. Acting on information gathered through
wiretaps and informants, the FBI in December conducted a number of raids
throughout Bridgeport, Derby, Shelton and Trumbull that netted detailed gambling records,
a cache of weapons and cash believed to be part of a Genovese controlled network of
illegal activities.
The Teamsters' health and denial plans offer a
constant flow of cash that authorities suspect was diverted from the payments of benefits.
While the Tri-State Health Plan is run out of its own building in
Milford and is accountable to a board of trustees that include at least two members from
each of the 12 participating unions, the operations of the dental plan are much less
stringent.
According to defense lawyers familiar with the
probe, Local 191 in 1982 successfully negotiated an additional 50-cent per member,
per-month contribution from employers to the dental plan. That hike was
retroactive to November 1981 and brought in additional thousands of dollars to the
Teamsters Dental Office Co. located in the same building as Rossetti's local. When
prosecutors subpoenaed records of how those funds were received and spent, the Teamsters
resisted, claiming disclosure would involve turning over medical information that was
privileged.
Teamsters' lawyer William Barnes declined to
discuss the investigation of Local 191 and its related health and dental plans. Though his
motion to quash the subpoena was available in court files available to
the public, Barnes said the secrecy of grand jury proceedings prevents
him from discussing the probe that is questioning Rossetti's relationship to organized
crime figures such as Ardito, defense lawyers said.
"Most of the records are under seal because they pertain
directly lo the grand jury investigation," Barnes said. Asked about allegations that
union funds controlled by Rossetti were misspent or diverted to people outside of Local 191, the lawyer replied, "I don't think it is proper for me to make
any statement at this time."
Barnes insisted that government claims about Rossetti's
relationship with organized crime figures like Ardito are erroneous. The Teamsters' lawyer
charged that prosecutors are exaggerating and, in some instances, fabricating information
that gives the appearance of impropriety in Local 191's affairs "Just because
government and its agents put something in a report doesn't mean it's true. It is often
done to give legitimacy to charges that frequently turn out to be false," Barnes said
Despite the confidential nature of grand jury proceedings, a partial picture of
the Teamsters' operation emerges from testimony before the National Labor Relations Board,
where opponents of Rossetti and his allies are challenging the autocratic rule of the
union. According to NLRB testimony, Teamsters who challenge Rossetti or his slate for
union of office often find themselves out of a job. In another Teamsters unit-Local 145,
situated in the same building as Rossetti's outfit, dissidents also found that shop
stewards openly run gambling operations at Dresser Industries, according to testimony
before the NLRB.
The Teamsters' relationship to Dresser management is quite cozy
since the Tri-State Health Plan loaned the firm close to $250,000 000, according to
financial statements provided by Teamsters to the U.S. Labor Department. As a trustee of the plan,
Rossetti approved the loan.
The union's close relationship with Dresser management extends to
the Connecticut Bakery-Milk Industry Teamsters Health Services and Insurance plan, which
lists Local 145 president William Kuba and Dresser executive Thomas Hockenga as trustees.
As business agent for Local 145, Kuba negotiates contracts and arbitrates grievances on
behalf of Dresser employees working under Hoekenga A staunch ally of Rossetti, Kuba
appoints the shop stewards' who run the gambling activities at Dresser's plant in
Stratford
Last year, when Gov.
O'Neill needed construction union representatives to serve on his task force to study
rebuilding the state's roads and bridges, Rossetti and Lopreato came to the governor's
attention as ideal candidates. Apparently, no one in O'Neill's office knew of their
separate roles in allegations of labor racketeering that is part of what authorities
believe to be "turf wars" throughout the Northeast.
Bridgeport-based Teamsters are not alone in
drawing the attention of federal authorities. according IO local police reports and FBI
memoranda obtained by the Advocate. In April 1983, less than three weeks
after the Organized Crime Strike Force served a critical subpoena in their probe of
Rossetti, Hartford-area Teamsters leader Richard Robidoux,
secretary-treasurer of Local 671, was beaten in the parking lot of Fast
Hartford's Marco Polo restaurant. Robidoux's attackers, described as three men, cracked
him over the head with a baseball bat and fractured his legs. The $1,000 cash in
Robidoux's pockets remained untouched.
While the police reports and the FBI memoranda do not directly
connect the Robidoux attack to the strike force probe of Rosseitti's relationship to the
Genovese family, those documents link the East Hartford assault to three
similar incidence involving known gambler Nicholas "Bonesy" Grano-owner of
Brother Bones Cafe on Franklin Avenue in Hartford-and Laborers' union
officials Leonard "Butch" Granell and Lopreato. Neither Robidoux, Grano, nor
Granell could be reached for comment.
The police reports note the similarity between
the Robidoux assault and a late 1982 beating of Granell. vice-president of Laborers' Local
230. Police said Granell was jumped by three men wielding a baseball bat and his legs were
broken, like Robidoux's. Local police reports also highlighted the similarity between the Robidoux incident and the January 1983 attack on Nicholas Grano outside the
Piper Brook Cafe in West Hartford. A known gambler, Grano was beaten and left on the
sidewalk until police arrived. According to federal court records, Grano's bar-Brother
Bones' Cafe-figured in several cocaine-related prosecutions, where
undercover agents scored the drug inside the establishment. The authorities never charged
Grano with a crime, but his bartender was convicted of
drug-relaled charges.
As for the third incident that police link to the Robidoux attack,
detectives' reports cite the February 1983 mauling of Lopreato outside the Casa Loma
restaurant on Welhersfield Avenue in Hartford. According to one report
Lopreato was punched in the mouth by William "Billy" Grasso, a New Haven-based
hood who is trying to muscle into the Hartford area. Grasso could not be reached for
comment.
Detectives' reports of the Lopreato incident
include a Jan. 10, 1983 memo prepared out of the FBI office in New Haven describing a tip
that Grasso is trying to muscle Lopreato's union and share its
widespread contracts throughout the Hartford area construction industry. The FBI memo
claims that Lopreato appealed to Providence-based Laborers' union official Arthur Coia for
help in fighting off Grasso.
Coia is currently under indictment with Providence-based Mafia
kingpin Raymond Patriarca and two others for their alleged skimming from Laborers' union
insurance funds. Coia could not be reached for comment. A Jan. 20, 1983 memo prepared in
the New Haven office described Coia's relationship
with the wife of a known bookmaker who at one time held a job on the payroll of Robidoux's
Local 671.
Asked about his connection to the activities
described in the reports of local detectives and the FBI memos, Lopreato
insisted he knew nothing about the people involved or the reported wrongdoing. He said the
incident outside the Casa Loma was a minor scuffle. "I had an argument with a guy
about a job. It was that simple," he said. "I don't know anybody named Billy
Grasso. All I do is keep reading about him in the papers. Pressed on the attack and his
meetings with Coia, Lopreato began to contradict himself, saying "I
don't know how the police even found out about all that." As for
his relationship with Coia, Lopreato said he knows the Providence based union officials
through their work on Laborers' business, insisting that there is no wrongdoing in their
frequent meetings. "I plan to see him tomorrow and we are going to talk about a
negotiation," Lopreato said.
The Laborers' union officials said that authorities attempt to
link him to organized crime figures are erroneous and misleading. Lopreato claimed that he
is only a union leader actively standing up for his rank-and-file.
"They're talking about things that I have no knowledge about," he said of the
police and FBI.
Picking up on his activities as a key member of the state's
construction industry Lopreato talked about his role on the governor's task force, which
laid the foundation for the $5 billion road and bridge program sitting before the General Assembly. Lopreato immedialdy spoke of the work it will create
for the construction industry and members of his union, let alone the employer
contributions to pension, health and welfare funds controlled by leaders
like himself
"It's an important job that has to be done and it should be
done before the work gets too expensive," Lopreato said of the plan
to fix highways and bridges. Asked how he came to serve on the task force, Lopreato said
he did not seek O'Ncill's appointment, but was recommended for the slot by either
officials of other building trades unions or the state AFL-CIO.
O'Ncill's press secretary Larrye deBear said the governor solicited the advice of statewide labor leaders when looking
for union members to be represented on the task force. As for the appointment of Rossetti
and Lopreato to the task force, deBear said the governors' office had no knowledge of the
information gathered by law enforcement officials concerning Teamsters' and Laborers'
alleged links to organized crime figures
"We asked for some names of union leaders because rebuiding
the infrastructure involves labor, management, capital as well as state
officials," deBear said. We were given some names and made the appointments because
we felt the building trades should be represented."