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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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9-6-00 City: Firm's ouster won't have effect on landfill closing.
A construction company owned by 2 former Islanders is alleged to have mob ties; attorney rips city and says the firm is clean September 6, 2000
By REGINALD PATRICK Citing alleged mob ties, the city has sacked a construction firm owned by two former Staten Islanders and hired to help close the Fresh Kills landfill, but City Hall maintains the departure of Interstate Industrial Corp. should not delay the dump's closing. First Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota described the Clifton, N.J., firm, which had over $80 million worth of contracts with the city, as playing a largely peripheral role at Fresh Kills, providing clean fill for landfill cover and piping to remove toxic run-off. An attorney for the two brothers who own the firm -- Frank and Peter DiTommaso -- said they are outraged over the city's charges and said the brothers are doing everything possible to prove to the city that their firm is "clean." "They had no real direct role in our landfill closure plan," Lhota said, referring to the fear that the action might delay the landfill's closure. "...They weren't bidding on the export of refuse from this city." Sanitation officials also said much of Interstate's work at the dump had been completed over the past few years, making it relatively inexpensive to bring in a new bidder to finish whatever has to be done without significant additional costs. A spokesman said the city has "a number of firms lined up." The firms were not named. A Sanitation Department source said Interstate, which has a subsidiary in Rossville that had been supplying some of the materials for work at Fresh Kills, was bounced after the city Department of Investigation (DOI) disclosed the $100 million company has indirect ties to the Gambino crime family. Back in March, the source said, Sanitation received a letter from DOI indicating that a background check on corporate officers of the firm "turned up links to organized crime." At that point the contracts were suspended, the source said. Earlier this week, the city took the further step of declaring the company "a non-responsible" contractor, meaning the firm has been completely knocked out of the box. "It's unlikely we'll be doing any business with them in the foreseeable future," the source said. Meanwhile, Harold Ruvoldt, Interstate's attorney, said last night the DiTommasos were "absolutely outraged" by the city's action. Ruvoldt, a former prosecutor, charged the DiTommaso brothers are being summarily penalized even as they've been bending over backward to supply the city with documentation showing the firm is completely clean. Said Ruvoldt: "I equate this to a judge coming to a decision in the middle of a trial without all the evidence being presented." He complained that the firm is being smeared because it purchased a South Shore company fours years back that had had an association with organized crime. "The city approved that transaction and now honest people are being tarred," Ruvoldt maintained. Since May, he said, the DiTommasos have been cooperating with the New York City Trade Waste Commission on the operation of the company since the firm acquired Metropolitan Stone Corp., a transfer station for dirt and debris. "They've provided detailed information on everything right down to checks issued for as little as $50," Ruvoldt said. "Clearly the Department of Sanitation's decision is unjustified." Metropolitan was owned by a reputed member of the Gambino crime family, Mario Garafola, and controlled by his father, Edward Garafola, a fixture in the construction industry for more than two decades. Edward Garafola is the brother-in-law of Mafia snitch Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, the Graniteville mobster whose testimony put Gambino boss John Gotti away for life. The DiTommasos purchased Metropolitan in October 1996 in a move aimed at giving the firm wider latitude to compete for landfill management contracts. Ruvoldt said before Metropolitan was acquired, the entire deal was submitted to the trade waste commission for "pre-approval." But after the purchase, the commission began reviewing Interstate's license application for the transfer station and then opened a criminal investigation with federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, sources said. A Sanitation source said last night a check of contract records showed that "one high ranking member of the board of directors was associated with organized crime. "That kind of thing raises a red flag for the city," the source said. "Now that Interstate has been declared non-responsible, they can't do business with us. And it's unlikely they'll be doing any business with us in the foreseeable future." Ruvoldt, the lawyer for the DiTommasos, maintained there is no mob link to the company now. While the firm has been having its problems in New York City it has also run into difficulties in New Jersey. Garden State officials have raised questions about links to organized crime while reviewing the firm's application to do work at a casino in Atlantic City. Earlier this year, when New Jersey officials were issuing a report raising questions about mob links to the firm, an official of Interstate, Lawrence Ray, was indicted on stock fraud charges by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn following an investigation unrelated to the New Jersey inquiry. A spokesman for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, Daniel Henigan, said last night Garden State gaming officials had recommended against granting Interstate a license to perform work for one of the Atlantic City casinos. The casino in question was not identified. Henigan said companies are required to obtain a state license if they plan to do more than $75,000 worth of work for a casino during a 12-month period. Interstate has been involved in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of major public and private projects since the early 1990s. For example, the firm did $7 million in concrete work at the minor league ballpark scheduled to open in St. George in June 2001. Interstate's Rossville subsidiary, Interstate Materials Corp., houses a registered and permitted dirt and rock transfer station that recycles stone, dirt and rock. Some of the materials had been used at Fresh Kills for landfilling and final cover procedures. Last summer, the firm planned to expand the Rossville operation to include a transfer station that would accept construction debris and dredge spoils from city marinas as well as commercial garbage. In March, the city halted work on $31 million in Sanitation Department contracts that Interstate had already started. Contracts were also suspended for another $30 million worth of work the firm was scheduled to start at the landfill and a $24 million contract for road construction in Brooklyn, according to a published report. Interstate has dug gas wells and pipes for the Fresh Kills gas collection system, installed smokestacks that burn gas and has provided dirt cover and final cover for the open sections of the 3,000-acre landfill.
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