Culture of Corruption: Forde and His Team of Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies

Wednesday August 5, 2009, federal authorities charged New York carpenters union leader Michael J. Forde, seven other union officials, a contractor, and contractor’s representative with 29 counts of corruption, including racketeering, fraud, bribery, and perjury. According to the charges, bribes were paid out to union leaders to allow contractors around the city to pay cash to workers at below union-rate wages and therefore avoid paying benefits.

The New York District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America has been here before. In 1990, the union had been infiltrated by organized crime and the federal government came in, cleaned out union leadership, and established monitoring. Yet, here we are again.

Union leader Forde was hailed as a reformer in 2000, after his predecessor was indicted on corruption charges, but his tenure has been plagued by no fewer than two bribery charges-—one ending in an overturned conviction and the other in acquittal. This apparently didn’t set off any alarms for court-appointed and union-paid monitor, William Callahan, who was almost removed in 2007 for a lack of evidence he was actually doing his job—but a federal judge refused to remove him. Fast forward two years.

Last week's slew of charges is the activity the court-appointed corruption monitor is in place to prevent. Clearly the current system of corruption monitoring isn’t working.

Forde and His Team of Cheats, Crooks and Cronies are specifically charged with the following offenses:

Ct	Charge	Defendant(s)	Maximum Penalty
1	Racketeering Conspiracy	FORDE, GREANEY, HAYES, O'NEILL, BRENNAN	20 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
2	Racketeering	FORDE, GREANEY, HAYES, BRENNAN	20 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
3	Conspiracy (as to Contractor #1)	FORDE, GREANEY, O'NEILL, BRENNAN, OLIVIERI, CARSON, RUOCCO, STAMBERGER, VIVENZIO	5 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
4	Conspiracy (as to Contractor #2)	FORDE, GREANEY, HAYES	5 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
5	Conspiracy (as to Contractor #3)	GREANEY, HAYES	5 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
6	Conspiracy (as to Contractor #4)	GREANEY, HAYES	5 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
7	Wire Fraud and Deprivation of Honest Services (as to Contractor #1)	FORDE, GREANEY, BRENNAN, O'NEILL, CARSON, RUOCCO, STAMBERGER, VIVENZIO	20 years in prison; fine of the greater of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
8	Wire Fraud and Deprivation of Honest Services (as to Contractor #2)	FORDE, GREANEY, HAYES	20 years in prison; fine of the greater of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
9	Wire Fraud and Deprivation of Honest Services (as to Contractor #3)	GREANEY, HAYES	20 years in prison; fine of the greater of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
10	Wire Fraud and Deprivation of Honest Services (as to Contractor #4)	GREANEY, HAYES	20 years in prison; fine of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
11	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	FORDE, O'NEILL	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
12	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	GREANEY	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
13	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	GREANEY, HAYES	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
14	Unlawful Payments to Labor Representatives	OLIVIERI	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
15	Unlawful Acceptance of Payments to Labor Representative	HAYES	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
16	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	BRENNAN	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
17	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	VIVENZIO	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
18	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	CARSON	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
19	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	STAMBERGER	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
20	Unlawful Acceptance of Payment by Labor Representative	RUOCCO	5 years in prison; fine of $15,000
21	Acceptance of Loan to Influence Operations of Employee Benefit Plan	OLIVIERI	3 years in prison; fine of the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense
22	Perjury	OLIVIERI	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
23	Perjury	FORDE	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
24	Perjury	GREANEY	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
25	Perjury	HAYES	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
26	Perjury	BRENNAN	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
27	Perjury	CARSON	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
28	False Statements	RUOCCO	5 years in prison; fine of $250,000
29	Obstruction of Justice	BRENNAN	10 years in prison; fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense

GREANEY, 49, of Yonkers, New York; HAYES, 38, of New York, New York; OLIVIERI, 54, of Yonkers, New York; CARSON, 49, of the Bronx, New York; RUOCCO, 49, of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; STAMBERGER, 52, of Brick, New Jersey; and VIVENZIO, 61, of Mahwah, New Jersey, were arrested this morning. FORDE, 54, of Woodside, New York, is expected to surrender to federal authorities later today. O'NEILL, 44, of Paramus, New Jersey, and BRENNAN, 53, of Bushkill, Pennsylvania; remain at large.