CARPENTERS BIG NAILS DOWN A 385G SALARY

By TOM ROBBINS

The boss of the powerful carpenters union secretly collected an extra $150,000-a-year salary plus a $25,000 car allowance from a special fund intended to promote the construction industry.

The extra pay and perks, combined with Frederick Devine's hefty $210,000 base pay as president of the District Council of Carpenters of New York, bring his total take to a whopping $385,000.

Devine began cashing in the additional check and allowance last year, but he never told 25,000 union members who are footing the bill.

The salaries make him one of the nation's highest-paid union officials. In contrast, national Teamsters leader Ron Carey is paid $150,000 to run the 1.4 million-member union, and AFL-CIO chief Lane Kirkland gets $190,000.

Carpenters earn an average of $45,000 a year, officials said. But up to 40% of them are jobless.

Devine is one of the state's most influential labor leaders and a key player in revamping the operation of the Javits Convention Center, where state officials are seeking to oust mob-tied workers many of them carpenters union members.

Devine faces a four-way race next month in the union's first democratic vote, a result of a consent decree he signed last year settling racketeering charges that he and others colluded with the mob.

Devine refused to comment on his double salary, but an aide, who would only speak anonymously, defended the sum as "perfectly justified."

"He works tirelessly for that money," said the aide.

Former Manhattan Federal Judge Kenneth Conboy, who is serving as the union's court-appointed investigations officer, declined comment.

Devine's extra paycheck kicked in July 1, 1994 just as the consent decree forced him and other district council officials to stop collecting multiple salaries. In Devine's case, he had to give up a separate $150,000 salary as head of the Dockbuilders, a carpenters union local.

To replace his Dockbuilders pay, Devine tapped into a special fund created by him in 1993 as part of the union's collective bargaining agreement with contractors.

Funded with a 15 cent-per-hour contribution from working carpenters, the Labor-Management Cooperation Trust Fund was supposed to spend money on union education projects and job development.

Stephen Huff, an attorney for the fund, said Devine is a fund trustee and its paid administrator. Huff said Devine did not participate in a vote naming him the paid administrator last year.

Although an estimated $3.6 million has gone into the fund, no reports have been filed with members or government agencies.

Huff said the fund is "in full compliance with applicable laws" but declined to release specific fund figures.

In addition to Devine's salary, the fund has paid for a huge highway billboard campaign, TV ads and expense-paid trips to Florida for union officials aligned with Devine.

"It is a self-serving fund for the promotion of Fred Devine, who intentionally kept it a secret," said John Abbatemarco, first vice president of the district council, who is running against Devine.

Another Devine challenger, Patrick Harvey, head of the largest carpenters local, filed an electoral protest against the fund and Devine's salary.

CARPENTERS' LEADER FACES 1ST OPEN VOTE

By TOM ROBBINS

Carpenters union chief Fred Devine is all over the place these days.

His name is plastered on highway billboards, on TV ads and even banners flown along the beach.

So who the heck is this guy?

The message Fred Devine is paying big bucks to spread is that he is the proud president of the Carpenters District Council of New York, "professionals working together to rebuild America."

It doesn't hurt that among the motorists and TV viewers are many of the 25,000 carpenters he hopes will vote for him in the union's first-ever democratic election next month.

The election is a key reform won by a 1990 federal civil racketeering lawsuit that charged Devine and other union officials with 20 years of mob-linked corruption.

Devine wasn't charged with any crime, but authorities offered massive evidence of his ties to four organized crime families, pay-offs he allegedly took from a half-dozen contractors and even a scheme to get his teeth fixed in exchange for union referrals.

Devine denied everything, but he signed a consent decree with the government in 1993 that instituted a series of reforms and paved the way for open elections.

Now it's showdown time.

In a race that will be settled over five days of balloting in late July, all of the council's top jobs are at stake.

Devine faces three challengers for the presidency.

John Abbatemarco, the council's current first vice-president, says Devine has turned the plush, multi-million dollar Carpenters headquarters on Hudson St. into "a place of dark secrets haunted by fear and intimidation."

Similar attacks have been launched by John Greaney, a feisty rank-and-file carpenter, and Patrick Harvey, the soft-spoken chief of the carpenters' largest union local and a close ally of former council President Paschal McGuinness.

In response, Devine's allies have waged a campaign that combines lavish promotion with mudslinging.

Black nylon lightweight jackets with Devine's name on them have sprung up at construction sites all over the city and he has paid for repeated promotional m ailings.

At the same time, Devine aides have leaked revelations about one candidate's alleged sexual affairs and drunken driving conviction, another's reportedly improper use of Social Security numbers and a third's supposed gambling problem.

Still, his backers say he is the best bet for union carpenters.

"Fred Devine is the real reformer in this race," insists Devine's chief spokesman, union lawyer Bernard Cohen. "He is rescuing this union, taking it in a new direction."

Cohen himself has become a target in the campaign because of fees of more than $1 million charged by his firm, Santangelo, Santangelo and Cohen.

"We are worth it. I do nothing but work for this union," said Cohen.

Devine has also caught flack for salting the payroll with relatives.

His two sons, daughter and daughter-in-law each earn more than $50,000 annually at the council, and son Michael is paid $110,000 as a special assistant to his father.

A RACKET MAN JAVITS CENTER UNION BIG SPORTS MOB TIES AND DAPPER WARDROBE A RACKET MAN

By TOM ROBBINS

 Finally, New York has another reputed gangster with style.

Anthony Fiorino is the world's top-ranked paddleball player renowned for his uncanny returns on the courts. He's also the chief of union carpenters at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, where he has been accused of serving the mob instead of the rank and file.

But last week, when Fiorino had to leave his Javits Center day job to attend disciplinary hearings on that charge, he revealed yet another attribute: He is the best-dressed reputed organized crime associate in town.

Fiorino, 34, deeply tanned and in trim shape, arrived daily looking like the GQ models that inspired John Gotti's former sartorial splendor.

On Monday, he sported a chic, lightweight double-breasted suit and a jazzy white-and-purple tie. Tuesday, it was a teal double-breasted model with matching suede shoes. On Wednesday, he switched to a sober dark-blue single-breasted suit with peaked lapels.

Then on Thursday, as hundreds of union members rallied in support outside, Fiorino was his suavest in a jet-black six-button affair.

"Yo, Anthony!" cheered fellow carpenters in jeans and windbreakers as Fiorino exited the hearings at a downtown law firm.

Grinning broadly and waving, Fiorino dodged TV microphones and reporters like a veteran mob star, shook a few hands in the crowd, then sped away in a friend's black Maxima.

A Bronx native who graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in 1978 and spent three years at Iona College before dropping out, Fiorino vigorously denies the gangster label.

His sister is married to Liborio (Barney) Bellomo, the alleged acting boss of the Genovese crime family, and his brother Gerald is a reputed Genovese soldier.

But during a hearing break last week, Fiorino had a different characterization of himself.
"I'm an athlete. I play every sport except hockey," he said.

In fact, Fiorino is perennially ranked as the world's top paddleball player. His name is such magic in the sport that Marcraft Recreation markets rackets with Fiorino's signature on them. A top-of-the line Anthony Fiorino racket goes for $50 at sporting goods shops.

After leaving college, Fiorino worked for a year in his father's midtown jewelry business.

"I couldn't take sitting down," he told the union's special court-appointed investigators in a deposition.
At the hearings, Fiorino still seemed uncomfortable sitting down. He jiggled his leg, smirked at friends and swiveled his chair each time the door opened.

Fiorino joined the carpenters union in 1982 and three years later was made a shop steward, a post usually reserved for veterans. One contractor was picked up on secret government tapes complaining to a union official that Fiorino was a no-show on the job.


In 1991, he became chief of the carpenters union at the Javits Center.

According to union monitor Kenneth Conboy, who is seeking Fiorino's ouster from the union, Fiorino handed out the best Javits work to mob-tied cronies all on Bellomo's orders.

Separated from his wife and young daughter, Fiorino lives in a Yonkers duplex.

Although he earned more than $114,000 last year at the Javits Center, and presumably more from his paddleball activities, he has told investigators that he has no checking account. Instead, he gives his paychecks to friends to cash.

He also doesn't own a car, instead borrowing a friend's lavender Porsche.

And although records introduced at the hearings show that Bellomo "beeped" him 375 times during an 18-month period at the Javits Center, he said he "rarely" socializes with his brother-in-law.
This week, Fiorino is expected to testify in his own defense. Fashion critics, take notice.

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Ex-Union Official Convicted of Racketeering

By SELWYN RAAB
Published: July 6, 1990

A former carpenters union official in New York City who was the central figure in an assault case against John Gotti has been convicted of labor racketeering and sentenced to a prison term of one to three years.

After months of plea bargaining with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the union official, John F. O'Connor, pleaded guilty to reduced charges on Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Mr. O'Connor, who was indicted in 1987 in a 127-count indictment stemming from seven felony and five misdemeanor charges, pleaded guilty to five counts.

Mr. O'Connor, who is 54 years old and lives in Brewster in Dutchess County, had been the business manager and chief executive of Local 608 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in Manhattan. Upon accepting the plea, Dorothy Cropper, an acting State Supreme Court justice, ordered Mr. O'Connor to surrender today to begin serving his sentence. He was also fined $25,000.
Wrecking of a Restaurant

Mr. Gotti, who law-enforcement officials say is the boss of the Gambino organized-crime family, was acquitted last February on state charges that he had ordered the shooting and wounding of Mr. O'Connor in 1986. Prosecutors contended that the shooting was in retaliation for the wrecking by members of Local 608 of a restaurant owned by associates in the Gambino family.

One of the charges that was dropped in the plea bargaining with Mr. O'Connor was a charge that he had directed aides to damage the restaurant, Bankers and Brokers, in Battery Park City.

The chief of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office Investigations Division, Michael Cherkasky, said yesterday that he was disappointed in the term given to Mr. O'Connor. ''We don't think it was adequate, but we would have had no stronger leverage for a longer term even if he was convicted of all counts at a trial,'' he said.

Mr. Cherkasky noted that the conviction of Mr. O'Connor had resulted in the first prison sentence in 20 years for a union official convicted on state felony charges.

'Very Pleased'
Mr. O'Connor's lawyer, James M. LaRossa, said that Mr. O'Connor was ''very pleased with the result'' and that he hoped that through a work-release program he would be released from prison in less than one year.

In a separate trial, Justice Cropper yesterday found Martin Forde, a Local 608 business agent, guilty of two counts of bribe receiving. Mr. Forde had waived his right to a jury trial. The prosecutor in the case, Robert A. Mass, said Mr. Forde was to be sentenced on Aug. 31 and faces a maximum prison term of seven years.

Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Forde and three other carpenters union officials were indicted in 1987 after state investigators said they had uncovered widespread corruption and racketeering by carpenters union officials in New York City who had ties to organized-crime groups.

5 Carpenters' Union Leaders Indicted in Extortion

By SELWYN RAAB
Published: October 14, 1987

Five high-level officials of the carpenters' union were indicted yesterday on charges of extorting more than $100,000 from contractors.

In return for the money, the officials, who control the supply of carpenters in Manhattan, guaranteed labor peace, permitted sweetheart contracts and allowed nonunion workers on multimillion-dollar construction projects, according to the indictment.

Contractors testified before a grand jury that they made payoffs to the union officials to avert labor problems at projects that included the World Financial Center at Battery Park City, Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, the Equitable Life Assurance Building at Seventh Avenue and 55th Street and exhibits at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Madison Avenue and 75th Street.

''This is the beginning, not the end of a drive to root out corruption in the construction industry,'' District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan said after the state charges were unsealed. He said his office and state investigators were developing other possible racketeering cases concerning organized-crime figures, contractors and other officials in the carpenters' union and other building-trade unions.

Yesterday's indictments accused the five leaders of Locals 608 and 257 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of obtaining more than 200 separate payments over a seven-year period, ranging from $50 to $8,000.

Four of the five pleaded not guilty at arraignments yesterday, and the lawyer for one of them said the evidence had been illegally obtained through improper wiretaps.

Mr. Morgenthau said the indictments document only about 10 percent of the payoffs that 17 contractors said they gave because corroborative evidence could be not obtained to support all of the allegations.

The indictments, which stem partly from information provided by an organized-crime informant, included charges of extortion, larceny and bribery against the heads of the two locals.

The locals are the principal carpenters' unions in Manhattan, which in the last decade has seen a boom in the construction of office buildings and luxury apartments. Officials in both locals, industry experts said, could cause costly delays in construction schedules through strikes and slowdowns.

Additionally, it is the union officials - not the contractors - who have the authority to select work crews and therefore can determine in a tight labor market which construction company gets the most skilled and experienced carpenters. Shooting Tied to Mob

A key figure in the investigation, John F. O'Connor, the vice president and business manager of Local 608, was indicted on 127 counts. Mr. O'Connor was shot and wounded in an apparent murder attempt in May 1986 that investigators said was in retaliation for his ordering vandalism at the Bankers and Brokers restaurant in Battery Park City in February 1986.

State and city law-enforcement officials said Mr. O'Connor tried to coerce the restaurant owners to use union carpenters or to make illegal payoffs for employing nonunion labor. But, according to the officials, Mr. O'Connor was unaware that a member of the Gambino crime family had an interest in the restaurant and the shooting was reportedly approved by John Gotti, who law-enforcement authorities say is the head of the Gambino family.

The indictment supersedes a previous one for extortion against Mr. O'Connor and charges him with directing the vandalism of the restaurant, which caused $30,000 in damages.

The new indictment charges Mr. O'Connor with extortion and accepting separate bribes of up to $5,000. According to the charges, he threatened contractors that he would withhold skilled employees or create labor unrest. Stealing From Union Is Charged

Additionally, he was accused of stealing from his own union by accepting illegal payments for permitting nonunion carpenters to be employed at lower wages than union members.

In one count, Mr. O'Connor, who received $102,900 in salary and business expenses from the 5,200-member local, the largest carpenters' unit in the country, was accused of providing nonunion carpenters, including illegal aliens, for a $400 payment. Another count said he tried to coerce a contractor into perjuring himself before a grand jury about a $2,000 payoff.

Mr. O'Connor, who is 51 years old and lives on Blueberry Drive in Brewster, N.Y., was the chief executive of Local 608 until he was shot last year. At his arraignment yesterday, he pleaded not guilty before Justice George F. Roberts in State Supreme Court in Manhattan and was released, with his previous bail continued at $500,000.

After the arraignment, John W. Mitchell, a lawyer for Mr. O'Connor, said of the evidence, ''The wiretaps underly the entire case and we claim they were unlawfully obtained.'' Help From an Informant

An informant for the State Organized Crime Task Force, Dominick Lofaro, who was an associate in the Gambino group, provided information in 1983 that led to the wiretapping and bugging by authorities of the offices of Local 608 at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan and of Local 257 at 157 East 25th Street.

Martin Forde, a Local 608 business agent, was charged with extortion and soliciting a $2,000 bribe. Mr. Forde, of 39-50 50th Street, in Woodside, Queens, pleaded not guilty and was released on a $25,000 bond.

A separate 79-count indictment was handed up against Eugene Hanley, the president of Local 257, and Attilio Bitondo, the local's vice president. They were charged with extortion from 1977 to 1987, mainly by threatening to put contractors out of business unless payoffs were made. The indictment said that the largest individual demand by Mr. Hanley and Mr. Bitondo was for a bribe of $25,000 and that the highest payoff they got was $8,000. Bitondo Not Arrested Yet

Mr. Hanley of 196 Nelson Street, in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty and was released on bail and a personal recognizance bond of $500,000. Mr. Bitondo, of 5 University Place, in Great Neck, L.I., was not arrested yesterday and authorities said he was expected to surrender today.

Last year, Mr. Hanley received $114,500 in salary and expenses, and Mr. Bitondo, $116,500.

The second-ranking official of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, Irving Zeidman, was indicted for taking about $2,300 in payoffs since 1979. Mr. Zeidman was accused of soliciting the payments as business agent for Local 2155, which has jurisdiction over carpentry work in machine shops.

He also is the first vice president of the district council, the negotiating organization for about 30,000 carpenters and administers the health and pension funds of the locals.

Mr. Zeidman, of 3225 Shore Parkway in the Brighton beach section of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty and was release in his own recognizance. A Perjury Charge

A sixth official, William Holden, the chief shop steward for Local 608 at Battery Park city, was charged with perjury and criminal contempt in connection with his testimony before the grand jury that heard evidence about the Bankers and Brokers incident. Mr. Holden, of 660 Hillsdale Avenue, Hillsdale, N.J., pleaded not guilty and was released in bail and personal recognizance bond of $25,000.
The three-year inquiry was conducted mainly by Mr. Morgenthau's office, the Organized Crime Task Force and the the Inspector General's office of the Federal Labor Department.

Contractors cited in the indictment for making illegal payments included: Dieter Sonneberg of the B & S Woodworking Company, at the World Financial Center; Robert Donaldson of Donaldson Acoustics, at Pier 17; Roger Berk of the Haywood-Berk Flooring Company, at the Equitable Life Assurance Building and the Whitney Museum. Authorities said they had cooperated with the investigation.