Douglas Gow
Inspector General Laborers International
Robert D. Luskin
General Executive Board Attorney
FACSIMILE #202-625-1230
FACSIMILE #202-942-2260
Mr. Gow & Mr. Luskin:
There has not been an adequate response to any of my recent or
past communications to you concerning my readmission and the "Cram Down. of my
pension hours.
As I understand it, instead of investigating the
present leadership, you plan to conduct a disciplinary hearing if and
when Mr. Cooksey and I are readmitted. Then, as I understand it, we will be removed from
Local 230 for Barred Conduct.
All of the fabricated allegations that you have, come from the
present criminal/government informant leadership who were suppose to be removed from the
local twenty seven years ago.
I assume that the six questions that Inspector
Lill asked me over the phone from Washington were a prelude to this hearing. Neither of
you gentlemen know me. I am no where near the type of character that Local 230 leadership
and their Attorney try to portray me as being.
Mr. Gow & Mr. Luskin what I am about to
expose to you both is going to put your relationship with Arthur Coia, Jr. in a difficult
position if Arthur Coia,Jr. does not act correctly!
I have attached documents and articles which are
only a preliminary showing but sufficient enough on their face alone to show immediate
cause for government trusteeship of local 230.
In 1969 the Harfford Times did an investigation and disclosed to
the public at the time that key officers of local 230 were involved in organized crime.
These disclosures by the
Harfford Times caused the Intemational to put local 230 into trusteeship. Arthur Coia,
Sr. was appointed trustee (Times article attached).
On August 29, 1969 the trusteeship of local 230 was established
(LM 15 attached). There was also filed February 6, 1970 LM 15 a form also attached and a
terminal trusteeship information report filed May 31, 1971 LM 16 form
attached.
I also have attached the face of the LM 2 form filed March 1970
reporting for the year 1969. I have in my possession LM 2's 1rom 1969 to
1995.
They have in them documented evidence that the LM
15,15a,16 and the LM 2 for 1969 were filed with fraudulent information by Arthur Coia, Sr.
There are many officers who were named in those
forms as being suspended who show up as auditors and judges for quite some years later.
When some of those officers do not show up on the reporting forms, their sons take their
place.
For your information because it is not in these
articles and because it occurred a short time after these articles were
printed, Michael Belesano committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
As you will read in the Hartford Times articles, there was
an estimated $200,000.00 embezzled from local 230.
You will also read as the Times disclosed,that Dominic Lopreato
was an auditor appointed by Belesano during the time the $200,000.00 was embezzled.
You will also see by the LM
forms that Dominic Lopreato was appointed acting SecretaryTreasurer by Arthur Coia, Sr.
As you are aware, Dominic Lopreato was convicted last year of
diverting out of our local 230 five million dollars in order to take a
$450,000.00 bribe, even though he should have been suspended 27 years ago.
The Harttord Times
investigation also showed that Dominic Lopreato was appointed President of the Connecticut
Laborers District Council by Belesano.
As you will read in the
Hartford Times article dated September 11, 1969, Dominic Lopreato states as a new
business manager "that other officers listed by the Times as having histories of
relationships with organized crime had been relieved of their duties prior to the Times
disclosure..
Dominic Lopreato states they are "John (the mustache)
LeConche and William DelGazio.. William DelGazio shows up on LM 2 forms as an auditor six
years in a row after the investigation and is replaced by his son as an
auditor.
William DelGazio testified against Mr. Cooksey
and I (in the capacity of a dispatcher at the hiring hall) at an NLRB hearing 20 years
after he was supposed to be suspended.
John LeConche is presently in control of the
criminal activity of this local and has been operating freely as a government informant
and a criminal for three decades.
There are others too numerous for me to write about at this time.
What is of immediate concern to me and should be to everyone is John Pezzente (read Times article October 5, 1969). John Pezzente
was assistant businese manager under Michael Belesano.
The Times investigation found that John Pezzente was close to
Belesano and was his strong arm man for him during the time the
estimated $200,000.00 was embezzled from local 230. Arthur Coia, Sr. appointed Mr.
Pezzente field representative and acting business manager.
Today he is the Secretary-Treasurer of the local 230 appointed by
Dominic Lopreato before he went to jail. John Pezzente has been making forced collections
and receiving kickbacks at the hiring hall for thirty years.
I am requesting that the both of you advise
Arthur Coia, Jr. to exercise the power given to him in the consent decree which reads as
follows:
"Notwithstanding the above
procedures, whenever the General President determines that an emergency exists in which
the welfare or preservation of the union is at stake, he may suspend without pay any
officer or elected union official,"
I am requesting through the both of you that Arthur Coia, Jr.
suspend John Pezzente without pay because of the documented evidence and pursuant to the
above quote.
I am requesting that you advise Mr. Coia, Jr. that an emergency situation exists that threatens the reputation of the
Intemational and the consent decree with the United States.
I am also requesting that Arthur Coia, Jr. remove Mr. Pezzente
immediately before Mr. Coia, Jr. runs for the presidency of the Intennational.
If you choose to ignore this documentation and request, it will be
part of my complaint pursuant to paragraph 51 of the consent decree,
which states the United States has jurisdiction over
any dispute arising between parties within the consent decree.
My final request is that after you suspend Mr. Pezente without pay
that you send your investigators to my attorney's office, Marc Mercier,, ( not
investigator Gilbert R. Heitert) this time to investigate the leadership of local 230
rather than Mr. Cooksey and I.
You will wonder how they operated so blatantly for such a long
time. The answer is the same answer as what occurred to the Buffalo, New York local 210.
Criminal/Govemment informants ran
them both.
The amounts of money that were lost from the funds of these two
locals is staggering. The prolonged use of government informants where working people's
money is at risk is a mistake in procedure. It is too costly to the workers. The
Intemational if it is a true Brotherhood should pay back these locals what they lost.
Arthur Coia, Jr. has an obligation to the membership of the
International to prove to them, before he runs for the general presidency of the
Internationai, that this is a new union The best way he can prove this
is to clean up his father's local and start by
suspending John Pezzente without pay.
Gary R. Wall
60 Carriage Hill rive
Wetherfield, Connecticut 06109