Construction Firm Coughs Up $20 Million; Ratted Out By Turncoat Gambino Mobster
November 30, 2010 Dapper_Don
A construction giant that lied about hiring minority subcontractors was ratted out by a Gambino mobster, sources said.
Schiavone Construction agreed Monday to pay the feds $20 million in a deal to avoid prosecution. Sources said mob rat Joseph Vollaro secretly taped conversations with executives who had promised the MTA and the Department of Environmental Protection to hire firms owned by women and minorities for projects like the Croton Water Filtration Plant in the Bronx.
Contractors often get lucrative government contracts by agreeing to hire minority companies in an effort to increase their participation in publicly funded projects.
For the Croton project, the subcontractor was merely a front: Vollaro used his own trucking outfit to haul the debris while Schiavone paid a subcontractor - who was Vollaro's neighbor on Staten Island - and listed the company in his wife's name to qualify in the minority program.
"[The subcontractor] wasn't even a trucking company," a source said. "It was a transfer station." The subcontractor, which cut checks to pay Vollaro for doing the work, could still face prosecution.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said Schiavone has agreed to hire an ethics and compliance officer and cooperate in the ongoing fraud investigations involving renovations of the Times Square and South Ferry subway stations.
Vollaro, who became an informant after he was caught in a major drug deal, also helped the feds prosecute scores of Gambino gangsters for extortion.
Another contractor, SkansakaUSA, is also negotiating with the feds to resolve a similar criminal probe. Schiavone, one of the biggest contractors in the Northeast, also will pay $2.4 million to cover investigative costs of the MTA and the city.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/11/30/2010-11-30_disgraced_construction_firm_to_pay_20m_in_hire_fraud_deal.html#ixzz16nZLZijK
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