From: News and Views | Crime
File |
Thursday, June 17, 1999
DA's Team Raids Unions
In Tri-State Investigation
By TOM ROBBINS
Daily News Staff Writer
 team of more than 300 police and state
investigators probing construction-industry corruption raided more
than two dozen sites in three states yesterday, hauling away
hundreds of boxes of records, officials said.
Among the locations raided were three of the city's most powerful
construction unions and the offices of a building contractor in New
Jersey allegedly tied to the mob. Investigators also hit undisclosed
locations in Connecticut, sources said.
The raids were launched by Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau, who is probing widespread alleged employer payoffs to
union officials, often with organized crime involvement, law
enforcement sources said.
Police in blue Windbreakers arrived early yesterday at the Eighth
Ave. offices of Local 608, the city's largest carpenters local.
"There's nothing going on here. We've got no comment," said
Maurice McGrath, an official of the local, as police stacked boxes
of seized documents near the door. The Bronx office of Local 608
also was raided, officials said.
In Linden, N.J., investigators raided the offices of S & S
Contracting, a firm owned by Sara Riggi, daughter of John Riggi,
reputed head of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family.
The Daily News reported in February that Local 608 officials
allegedly ignored the use of dozens of nonunion workers by S & S
Contracting in a multimillion-dollar renovation project at the Park
Central Hotel on Seventh Ave. Sara Riggi declined comment
yesterday.
Investigators also went to the offices of the bricklayers union
in Queens and Laborers Local 79 on W. 18th St.
"They are welcome to whatever they want. We are cooperating, and
we have nothing to hide here," said Richard Weiss, a spokesman for
the laborers union. Bricklayers union officials could not be
reached.
E-mail Tom Robbins at
http://www.nydailynews.com/1999-06-17/News_and_Views/Crime_File/trobbins@edit.nydailnews.com
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