MOUNT OLIVE TWP – Benito Tavano had a big labor problem after he won a $4 million subcontract to help build the Mount Olive Middle School in 1999.
PHIL GARBER, Managing Editor
05/19/2004
The
solution?
According to
federal authorities, Tavano allegedly called for help from a few organized
crime acquaintances, like Peter “The Crumb” Caprio, Raymond
“Frenchie” LePore, Wayne Cross, Anthony Proto and Vincent
“Vinny Beeps” Centorino.
But when the
smoke cleared, the people Tavano had called for help had pleaded guilty to
various federal charges.
And a fourth
person who was helping in the FBI investigation, has landed in prison on
charges of being an organized crime hitman.
Cross, 54, of
Clifton pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday, May 10 to labor extortion
and fraud. Proto, 68, of Bloomfield, LePore, 66, of Brick, and Centorino, 72,
of Lebanon, previously pleaded guilty.
Jury selection
in a trial against Cross, LePore and Proto was scheduled to begin on Monday,
May 10, but each pleaded guilty instead to taking part in a scheme to defraud.
They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and fines ranging to $250,000
when they are sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise in the fall.
Cross, Proto
and LePore were indicted in 2001 and were named in a five-count superceding
indictment returned last September, charging them with extortion and attempting
to defraud union health care plans along with making false statements in
connection with the Mount Olive project.
Centorino
pleaded guilty last December to extortion in connection with the case and is
awaiting sentencing, facing a maximum 20 yeas in prison.
Tavano escaped
prosecution as he cooperated with authorities in the investigation.
Caprio, 74, of
Union, agreed to be a government informant in the case and also is awaiting
sentencing.
Another
individual who helped authorities in the Mount Olive case, Bill Casale of
Newark, is serving a 20-year term in federal prison after admitting to eight
murders.
The case was
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Grady O’Malley and Steve
D’Aguanno. In discussing the case on Friday, the federal prosecutors
described Proto and Centorino as “made guys” or direct members of
organized crime while Caprio is a capo or lieutenant in the Bruno organized
crime family of Philadelphia. Others involved in the case were described as
organized crime associates.
O’Malley
said on Friday that Tavano and his Connecticut company, TMT Masonry, had won a
$4 million contract in March 1999 to help build the $28.4 million Mount Olive
Middle School.
Tavano’s
winning bid was based on using non-union workers, largely low-paid, Latino
employees he would bring in from Connecticut. But when he arrived in Mount
Olive he was confronted by pickets from the bricklayers and laborers union
locals who demanded Tavano use union labor.
The indictment
identified the locals as Local 4 of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
Union in Morristown and Local 913 of the Laborers International Union of North
America in Dover. Union workers originally lodged their protests in 1999
against the general contractor, Worth Construction of Bethel, Conn., for hiring
non-union, out of state, workers.
Worth Construction
is a major contractor for numerous school and governmental projects in the New
Jersey and New York area. Worth also was the general contractor for the Morris
County Correctional Facility, completed in 2001 and located on John Street in
Morris Township.
O’Malley
said that during the investigation authorities learned of a “personal
relationship” between Worth and TMT. O’Malley did not elaborate
further.
Tavano also
was overheard in tapes saying he had been involved in construction of the
Morris County Jail and was trying to win projects in Connecticut and Newark.
A spokesman
for the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the
matter.
Tavano
initially capitulated to the union demands at the school project but after three
weeks, changed his mind because it was going to cost him an added $200,000 if
he had to hire, the higher-paid, union workers, O’Malley said.
Initially,
Tavano reached out for Centorino who set up a meeting with Caprio. The three
met at a Newark diner to discuss the problem.
“Caprio
said he knew people who could alleviate Tavano’s problems,”
O’Malley said.
After the
meeting, Caprio called on Lapore and asked him to try and
“persuade” the unions to allow Tavano to use non-union workers.
Lapore subsequently met with the union reps but “the deal he made
didn’t accomplish much,” said O’Malley.
Tavano was
still being stopped from using non-union workers so Caprio said he’d ask
Cross to help. Cross visited the job site but he too “didn’t get it
done,” O’Malley said.
For his
efforts, Tavana paid Cross $10,000.
Not to be
defeated, Caprio next called on Proto who had just been released from a federal
prison after serving seven years for labor racketeering. Proto and LePore
together went to Mount Olive and threatened the union reps to give in.
“That
works,” said O’Malley.
For the next
11 months, through November 2000, the union reps underreported the number of
union workers on the job, saving Tavano not only the added wages but also the
payments he would have to make to the union pension funds. The deal, however,
did cost Tavano another $30,000 he paid to Proto and Caprio, O’Malley
said.
The situation
first came to light as part of an unrelated federal investigation involving
Bill Casale, a Caprio associate who was cooperating with the FBI.
O’Malley
said the FBI believed Casale was someone who knew many organized crime
individuals but they didn’t know that Casale also was an organized crime
hit man.
Casale tried
to escape prosecution by cooperating with the FBI in 1999. At one point, Casale
met with Caprio and wore a wire to record his conversations. The two discussed
several issues including the problems at the Mount Olive worksite,
O’Malley said.