from PROJO.COM, the website of the PROVIDENCE [RHODE ISLAND] JOURNAL:
 
By Ken Mingis, projo.com staff writer    January 31, 2000 
             
Former union chief Coia pleads guilty to tax evasion
             
BOSTON - As expected, Arthur A. Coia, the powerful national labor leader
from Rhode Island who became a key political fundraiser for President
Clinton, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to tax evasion. The
recently retired president of the Laborers' International Union of North
America had signed a plea agreement last week in which he admitted
defrauding Rhode Island taxpayers of nearly $100,000. Coia, 56, of 20 Payne Rd., Barrington, was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay
restitution, which he did today. Prosecutors had charged that Coia schemed
with long-time friend Carmine Carcieri, owner of Viking Cadillac in
Middletown, to defraud the state of taxes owed on the purchase of three
Ferraris, ranging in price from $215,000 to $1 million. Coia agreed to plead
guilty to a single felony fraud charge, and to pay a $10,000 fine and about
$100,000 in restitution for unpaid car taxes from 1991 to 1997. The deal
means Coia will do no prison time and allows him to keep his $250,000-plus
annual lifetime pay as the Laborers' "general president emeritus" - a post
created for him by union leaders following his retirement.