Posted on 11/14/2003 4:52:10 AM PST by randita
Posted on Fri, Nov. 14, 2003
UNION LEADERS, PROBE FIGURES LINKED
By ERIN EINHORN & DAVE DAVIES eeinhorn@phillynews.com
THE FATHER AND son labor leaders who have been subpoenaed to testify in the public-corruption probe swirling around the Street administration have strong ties to key figures in the investigation.
Samuel Staten Sr. and Samuel Staten Jr. - the business manager and president, respectively, of Local 332 of the Laborers' International Union of North America - have not been identified as suspects.
There is no indication that they are targets or subjects of the investigation, but their union was named last month in a search warrant that sought information about a Mount Airy collection agency, and yesterday a source confirmed that both labor leaders had received subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury.
The Statens' links to figures in the investigation are many.
Besides being a major campaign contributor to Street, with donations totaling $553,000 since 1991, the Statens' union also has contributed to charities run by two other people who have come under scrutiny during the probe: attorney Ronald A. White, a close friend and fund-raiser of the mayor's, and Imam Shamsud-din Ali, a Muslim cleric who runs a school and mosque in West Philadelphia, as well as the Mount Airy collection agency.
The collection agency - Keystone Information & Financial Services - was searched by the FBI, along with Ali's suburban home, on Oct. 8, a day after a listening device was found in the mayor's office.
Sources at the time told the Daily News that Ali was a subject of an investigation related to the one that prompted the FBI to place the bug in Street's office
The Statens have a number of connections to Ali.
According to reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, the Laborers' Local 332, together with the Laborers' District Council, have contributed $22,200 to the Sister Clara Muhammad School, which is run by Ali and his wife. The district council includes Local 332 and three other locals. Both Statens are officers with the district council.
Qa'id Staten, the teenage son of Samuel Staten Sr., was a student at Sister Clara Muhammad until last spring, when he was murdered in a botched robbery attempt in North Philadelphia. A funeral for Qa'id was held at the Philadelphia Masjid, where Ali is the religious leader.
When Ali and his wife applied to the Philadelphia School District earlier this year for funds to run a charter school, Staten Sr. wrote a letter of support that was attached to the application in which he agreed to serve on the board of directors of the school. If its application is approved this spring, the school will be called Liberty Academy Charter School.
A letter from Ronald White also was attached in the charter-school application in which he also agreed to serve on the board of directors.
And, in yet another link, Qa'id Staten and Imam Ali are listed in state business records as the officers of a company called Clear Alley Inc., headquartered at the same Germantown Avenue address as Keystone Information & Financial Services.
Clear Alley and the Laborers' union were two of 18 entities named in an October federal search warrant issued to Keystone, or KIFS.
The warrant, obtained by the Daily News, seeks documents "related to the business activities of KIFS during the period of 1997 through the present, including without limitation business activities of KIFS involving...[the 18] persons and entities."
The 18 entities included the city of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Gas Works and several companies that also have received subpoenas including AAT Communications Corp., Commerce Bank and the Minority Business Enterprise Council.
The Statens also have a number of connections to White, a top political ally of Street's and a major player in city bond work. White's law office was raided by federal agents on Oct. 16.
White runs a charity that aids disadvantaged youth in Philadelphia that has received support from the Laborers' Union. The union is listed as one of the sponsors on the charity's Web site.
White also has represented the Laborer's Union in legal matters.
When the elder Staten was named as a target of a federal labor racketeering investigation in 1989, it was White, an attorney for Local 332, who came to Staten's defense.
According to news reports, Staten had been targeted in a probe that resulted in the conviction of Ralph Costobile, a South Philadelphia contractor who pleaded guilty in 1990 to using the mob to pull off a series of labor racketeering kickback and bribery schemes.
An indictment charged that Costobile had made weekly payments to the then-Nicodemo Scarfo mob in lieu of union benefits payments to the Laborers' Union. The indictment also charged that Costobile had helped Staten win re-election to his union post, which paid $85,000 at the time.
"If any of that were true," White said at the time in Staten's defense, "I assume the U.S. Attorney's Office would have taken action against Mr. Staten."
Staten was never charged.
Today, the elder Staten draws $156,666 from his business-manager job, plus $39,020 from his position as secretary/treasurer of the district council. According to Labor Department documents, the younger Staten makes $121,- 079 as president of the local and $10,400 as a board member of the district council.
Staff writers Ramona Smith, Jim Smith, Will Bunch and Bob Warner contributed to this report.
© 2003 Philadelphia Daily News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.philly.com
A collection agency ??
When they bring up Nicky Scarfo's name.....that is some serious sh!te.
We have been wondering how they got scent of White and Street.....what if there is a probe of the mob going on that we don't know about.
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