Message from the Office of the Inspector General

NEWS From the Office of the New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters Inspector General Scott C. Danielson

Contact: Karolyn Castillo
212.366.3354
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2011

JOSEPH OLIVIERI, FORMER TRUSTEE OF CARPENTERS UNION BENEFIT FUNDS, SENTENCED IN MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT TO 18 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR PERJURY CONVICTION

On June 3, 2011 Joseph Olivieri was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 18 months imprisonment for perjury. Olivieri, a former trustee of the New York City District Council of Carpenters Benefit Funds and the former Executive Director of the Association of Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York was convicted by a jury following a one-week trial before U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in October 2010.

According to evidence presented at trial in this case Olivieri lied under oath about his ties to the Genovese Organized Crime family, as well as his ties to a union contractor who was defrauding the Carpenters Union Benefit Funds while he was a trustee. Olivieri committed this perjury during a court-ordered deposition in a Civil RICO case the United States Attorney’s Office brought against the Carpenters Union that was intended to rid the union of corruption and organized crime influence. He was one of ten defendants convicted in the case.

“Joseph Olivieri was a corrupt union trustee who, along with his cronies both inside and outside the union, exploited the hard-working carpenters whose pension and benefit funds he was supposed to protect,” stated Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Today’s sentence is the latest result of this Office’s campaign to root out organized crime and corruption in the union and to prosecute those responsible.”

In addition to his prison term, Judge Marrero sentenced Olivieri to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.