Posted on 09/09/2007 8:42:46 AM PDT by Stoat
Exclusive
Sunday, September 9th 2007, 4:00 AM
The problem firms are found every day working the bulldozers, cranes, jackhammers and pile drivers rebuilding the site of the World Trade Center.
All of the companies work for the Port Authority, the Dormitory Authority or the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. on taxpayer-funded contracts worth millions of dollars.
The list starts with the John Galt Co., the shell company at the heart of growing investigations into the Aug. 18 fire at the Deutsche Bank tower that killed two firefighters.
Galt has ties to Safeway Environmental, a company with a lousy safety record that has been barred from city work because one of its directors is a reputed mob associate.
The News found six companies with issues:
QUADROZZI CONCRETE
Last week, a steady convoy of Quadrozzi Concrete's distinctive yellow and orange trucks delivered cement to the Freedom Tower job.
Six months before the Sept. 11 attacks, the city Department of Environmental Protection rejected Quadrozzi's request to be an approved city supplier, citing then-owner John Quadrozzi Sr.'s ties to the Luchese crime family and other concerns.
In 2004, Quadrozzi Sr. died and the company was taken over by his son, John Jr., who was owner of an affiliate that refused to answer a subpoena from city investigators vetting a permit application.
In October 2004, Quadrozzi Jr. reapplied to the city for approval as a supplier. Last year, Quadrozzi Concrete withdrew the request without explanation. He did not return calls on Friday.
That withdrawal came after the January 2005 indictment of Constatine Quadrozzi, then a vice president of Quadrozzi Concrete. He was charged with dumping toxic waste into Newtown Creek.
In June 2006 Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Demarest dismissed the indictment. The judge found that although Quadrozzi had knowledge of the illegal dumping, he'd fixed the problem so no further prosecution was necessary.
The district attorney has appealed.
PAL ENVIRONMENTAL CORP.
In 2005, PAL Environmental signed a consent order admitting it had illegally disposed of toxic office equipment from the notorious Deutsche Bank tower at 130 Liberty St.
For four months in 2004, PAL shredded computers and furniture at the contaminated site without obtaining a permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. This meant DEC did not monitor the job.
Instead PAL monitored itself, providing the state with data it said showed no toxins leaked into the neighborhood.
In August 2005, the state DEC dismissed criminal violations against PAL after owner Salvatore DiLorenzo agreed to take "full responsibility" for claims arising from the illegal shredding and paid a $10,000 civil fine.
The Dormitory Authority, which is paying PAL $16.3 million to clean out Fiterman Hall behind 7 World Trade Center, was aware of this violation. DiLorenzo did not return calls.
LETICIA INC.
The black and white trucks hauling dirt from Ground Zero Wednesday had an unusually un-macho name - Leticia Inc., named after company president Leticia Rojas.
In April 2006, Rojas' husband, Manuel Mier, signed an affidavit promising "for the remainder of my life" to stay out of his wife's trucking business - Leticia Inc.
That's because Mier is a felon who pleaded guilty to using Leticia Inc. and other companies in a wide-ranging tax fraud scheme. He was sentenced to a year in jail and owes $523,000 in back taxes and penalties.
In April 2006, Rojas signed an agreement with the city Business Integrity Commission promising to keep her husband out of the company. (Mier is allowed to work for Rojas' real estate company, MEM Realty LLC).
Rojas agreed to hire a special monitor picked by the city to ensure her husband doesn't get a dime. Because of the monitor, the Port Authority allowed her company to work at Ground Zero.
On Friday Rojas said, "Why do you care about this?" and hung up.
TESTA CORP.
Testa Corp.'s bright yellow cranes dominate the southeast end of Ground Zero.
In April, Pamela Ciampi, whose family owns Testa, pleaded guilty in Boston Federal Court to dodging $250,000 in federal income taxes.
Investigators had seized records from Testa and Ciampi's other firm, PT Corp., both of Lynnfield, Mass., in a probe of sham women- and minority-owned firms.
That followed a July 2005 citation by federal regulators charging Testa with 15 job safety violations after a 190-foot tall steel craneway collapsed during a Testa demolition job, killing two workers.
OSHA slapped Testa with $60,000 in penalties, alleging that Testa did not do an engineering survey to determine the craneway's stability. In July 2005 Testa agreed to a $16,800 settlement.
A Testa executive who would only give his first name, Tim, said the Port Authority was aware of the craneway accident when it was hired.
LAQUILA GROUP
The firm is an offshoot of Laquila Construction whose owner, Dino Tomassetti Sr., has long-time ties to the mob, the FBI says.
Several informants have told the FBI Laquila Construction paid off mob-controlled unions so it could inflate profits by using nonunion help. Tomasetti Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of construction labor fraud in April.
Laquila Group - owned by Dino Tomassetti Jr. - was hired by developer Larry Silverstein to do excavation for the Freedom Tower. The Port Authority took over the job this year.
When investigators discovered Laquila Group was renting equipment from Dino Sr.'s company, a monitor was put in place and Dino Sr. agreed to stay away from the job.
The monitor, Toby Thacher, says the elder Tomassetti donates equipment to his son for the $35 million Freedom Tower job.
Laquila Group executives did not return calls.
JUDA CONSTRUCTION
Juda Construction has agreements with both Westchester County and the city of New York barring any interaction with a former Juda owner, Joseph Attonito, his son, Thomas, or any of their companies.
Joseph Attonito is a convicted felon. Law enforcement sources have said he was associated with organized crime. His son, Thomas, was convicted of perjury in 2003 for trying to hide from regulators his father's interest in another company, Whitney Trucking.
Juda has no such agreement for its work at Ground Zero, where last week Juda's white dump trucks hauled dirt from the Freedom Tower excavation site.
An employee answering the phone at Juda declined to comment and said owner Nicholas Paniccia was not available.
Can’t say I’m surprised.. it is NYC after all.
NY construction firms with ties to organized crime?..
nooooo, why i have never heard of such a thing....
Imagine that. /sarcasm off/
Why is it that no one is supprized?
Why is it that no one is supprized?
the same reason no one is surprized by the growing rap sheet of democratic scandals in general, and we all know those same NY contruction groups are full of union hacks how donate exclusively to the dhimmicrats.
In April 2006, Rojas' husband, Manuel Mier, signed an affidavit promising "for the remainder of my life" to stay out of his wife's trucking business - Leticia Inc.
That's because Mier is a felon who pleaded guilty to using Leticia Inc. and other companies in a wide-ranging tax fraud scheme. He was sentenced to a year in jail and owes $523,000 in back taxes and penalties.
In April 2006, Rojas signed an agreement with the city Business Integrity Commission promising to keep her husband out of the company. (Mier is allowed to work for Rojas' real estate company, MEM Realty LLC).
Rojas agreed to hire a special monitor picked by the city to ensure her husband doesn't get a dime. Because of the monitor, the Port Authority allowed her company to work at Ground Zero.
On Friday Rojas said, "Why do you care about this?" and hung up.
Would you be surprised that just about all trash pick up in major cities is owned by organized crime? Or....try and start up a company that puts in coin operated snack machines. You’ll never develop that company. It’s all controlled by organized crime.
DemoRats + Unions = Corruption!
This is just the cost of doing business in NY.
Let’s see: New York City + construction = mob ties? Really???? Naw, say in aint so!!!
That equation is not a revelation, not news, not unique to the building being discussed.
It has been standard operating procedure in New York City since long before, and forever since I worked in one of the largest NYC construction firms, in the 1970s.
From everything I hear, nothing about the construction industry has changed (mobs have some piece of every major job). Rudy did not end it and no one else has either.
Part of it stems from the highly politicized nature of major construction projects in New York and the zoning approval process and all the other permits needed during the project.
Our firm used to spend tons of money in the budget of every project simply paying a “consulting firm” to keep the permit approval process flowing through the city bureaucracy fast enough not to delay construction.
In New York, in Construction, if you do not believe in the adage that the squeeky wheel gets the grease, then you won’t work in Construction for long; your projects will always be over budget and way past the deadlines needed for completion. Your clients will hire someone else next time and your investors will leave you. Next time they will get someone with “connections”. Someone who will not have permit delays or days when some particular union or trade just fails to show up.
Ya think? I get extorted out of $9.00 crossing over the Verrazano/Outer Bridge crossing in NY. Those corrupt Dem NY/NJ politicians SUCK and are good at it....they are skilled at Sucking your dollars out of your pockets into theirs. Piss on them ALL.
Mob ties in New York construction? Yea, right.
Like Chinese money in the Clintoon campaigns.
Next thing they will find out is that the politicians in NY are corrupt
John Quadrozzi
Salvatore DiLorenzo
Leticia Rojas
Pamela Ciampi
Dino Tomassetti Jr
Joseph Attonito
No Smiths? No Jacksons? No Johnsons or Fitzgeralds?
For the recovery and rebuilding after an American tragedy on American soil...it would be nice to see at least one name that has an American sound to it.
LOL! Wake us when they find one without ties.
LLS
Democrat Party membership is probably a Union requirement in New York City.
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