Douglas Gow
Inspector General Laborers International
Robert D. Luskin
General Executive Board Attorney
FACSIMILE #202-625-1230
FACSIMILE #202-942-2260
Mr. Gow & Mr. Luskin:
There has not been an adequate response to
any of my recent or past communications to you concerning my readmission
and the "Cram Down. of my pension hours.
As I understand it, instead of investigating
the present leadership, you plan to conduct a disciplinary hearing
if and when Mr. Cooksey and I are readmitted. Then, as I understand
it, we will be removed from Local 230 for Barred Conduct.
All of the fabricated allegations that you have,
come from the present criminal/government informant leadership
who were suppose to be removed from the local twenty seven years
ago.
I assume that the six questions that Inspector
Lill asked me over the phone from Washington were a prelude to
this hearing. Neither of you gentlemen know me. I am no where
near the type of character that Local 230 leadership and their
Attorney try to portray me as being.
Mr. Gow & Mr. Luskin what I am about
to expose to you both is going to put your relationship with Arthur
Coia, Jr. in a difficult position if Arthur Coia,Jr. does not
act correctly!
I have attached documents and articles which
are only a preliminary showing but sufficient enough on their
face alone to show immediate cause for government trusteeship
of local 230.
In 1969 the Harfford Times did an investigation
and disclosed to the public at the time that key officers of local
230 were involved in organized crime.
These disclosures by the Harfford Times caused
the Intemational to put local 230 into trusteeship. Arthur Coia,
Sr. was appointed trustee (Times article attached).
On August 29, 1969 the trusteeship of local
230 was established (LM 15 attached). There was also filed February
6, 1970 LM 15 a form also attached and a terminal trusteeship
information report filed May 31, 1971 LM 16 form attached.
I also have attached the face of the LM 2
form filed March 1970 reporting for the year 1969. I have in my
possession LM 2's 1rom 1969 to 1995.
They have in them documented evidence that
the LM 15,15a,16 and the LM 2 for 1969 were filed with fraudulent
information by Arthur Coia, Sr.
There are many officers who were named in
those forms as being suspended who show up as auditors and judges
for quite some years later. When some of those officers do not
show up on the reporting forms, their sons take their place.
For your information because it is not in
these articles and because it occurred a short time after these
articles were printed, Michael Belesano committed suicide by shooting
himself in the head.
As you will read in the Hartford Times articles,
there was an estimated $200,000.00 embezzled from local
230.
You will also read as the Times disclosed,that
Dominic Lopreato was an auditor appointed by Belesano during the
time the $200,000.00 was embezzled.
You will also see by the LM forms that Dominic
Lopreato was appointed acting SecretaryTreasurer by Arthur
Coia, Sr.
As you are aware, Dominic Lopreato was convicted
last year of diverting out of our local 230 five million dollars
in order to take a $450,000.00 bribe, even though he should have
been suspended 27 years ago.
The Harttord Times investigation also showed
that Dominic Lopreato was appointed President of the Connecticut
Laborers District Council by Belesano.
As you will read in the Hartford Times article
dated September 11, 1969, Dominic Lopreato states as a new business
manager "that other officers listed by the Times as having
histories of relationships with organized crime had been relieved
of their duties prior to the Times disclosure..
Dominic Lopreato states they are "John
(the mustache) LeConche and William DelGazio.. William DelGazio
shows up on LM 2 forms as an auditor six years in a row after the
investigation and is replaced by his son as an auditor.
William DelGazio testified against Mr. Cooksey
and I (in the capacity of a dispatcher at the hiring hall) at
an NLRB hearing 20 years after he was supposed to be suspended.
John LeConche is presently in control of
the criminal activity of this local and has been operating freely
as a government informant and a criminal for three decades.
There are others too numerous for me to write
about at this time. What is of immediate concern to me and should
be to everyone is John Pezzente (read Times article October 5,
1969). John Pezzente was assistant businese manager under Michael
Belesano.
The Times investigation found that John Pezzente
was close to Belesano and was his strong arm man for him during
the time the estimated $200,000.00 was embezzled from local 230.
Arthur Coia, Sr. appointed Mr. Pezzente field representative and
acting business manager.
Today he is the Secretary-Treasurer
of the local 230 appointed by Dominic Lopreato before he went
to jail. John Pezzente has been making forced collections and
receiving kickbacks at the hiring hall for thirty years.
I am requesting that the both of you advise
Arthur Coia, Jr. to exercise the power given to him in the consent
decree which reads as follows:
"Notwithstanding the above procedures,
whenever the General President determines that an emergency exists
in which the welfare or preservation of the union is at stake,
he may suspend without pay any officer or elected union official,"
I am requesting through the both of you that
Arthur Coia, Jr. suspend John Pezzente without pay because of
the documented evidence and pursuant to the above quote.
I am requesting that you advise Mr. Coia,
Jr. that an emergency situation exists that threatens the reputation
of the Intemational and the consent decree with the United States.
I am also requesting that Arthur Coia, Jr.
remove Mr. Pezzente immediately before Mr. Coia, Jr. runs for
the presidency of the Intennational.
If you choose to ignore this documentation
and request, it will be part of my complaint pursuant to paragraph
51 of the consent decree, which states the United States has jurisdiction
over any dispute arising between parties within the consent decree.
My final request is that after you suspend
Mr. Pezente without pay that you send your investigators to my
attorney's office, Marc Mercier,, ( not investigator Gilbert
R. Heitert) this time to investigate the leadership of local
230 rather than Mr. Cooksey and I.
You will wonder how they operated so blatantly
for such a long time. The answer is the same answer as what occurred
to the Buffalo, New York local 210. Criminal/Govemment informants
ran them both.
The amounts of money that were lost from
the funds of these two locals is staggering. The prolonged use
of government informants where working people's money is at risk
is a mistake in procedure. It is too costly to the workers. The
Intemational if it is a true Brotherhood should pay back these
locals what they lost.
Arthur Coia, Jr. has an obligation to the
membership of the International to prove to them, before he runs
for the general presidency of the Internationai, that this is
a new union The best way he can prove this is to clean up his
father's local and start by suspending John Pezzente without pay.
Gary R. Wall
60 Carriage Hill rive
Wetherfield, Connecticut 06109