Friday, November 18, 1983

From Herald Staff and Wire Reports

An Atlanta federal appeals court Thursday reinstated a Miami grand jury's racketeering indictment accusing four New England men of corruptly profiting from a labor union's welfare plans.

In March 1982 in Miami, U.S. District Judge Lawrence King had dismissed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act indictments against Laborers International Union of North America official Arthur A. Coia; his son, Arthur E. Coia; then- Rhode Island state Rep. Albert J. Le Pore; and labor fund trustee Joseph J. Vacarro.

The four were indicted in September 1981 on charges of using their influence to illegally funnel union insurance and service contracts to companies they set up for themselves.

The defendants were accused of charging union members for the most expensive insurance available and allegedly "thereafter looted the insurance premiums through the use of kickbacks, payoffs, unearned salaries and fees and improper personal expenses."

The evidence was presented to the Miami grand jury because several Florida benefit plans were allegedly abused in the scheme, which purportedly began in 1973.

When he dismissed the charges, King said that the indictment mentioned no act of conspiracy occurring within the five-year limit government prosecutors had to bring the indictment.

In reinstating the indictment Thursday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that racketeeromg cases require "delicacy and circumspection" in considering indictments handed up by grand juries. Judge Gerald Tjoflat said King should not have thrown out the indictment simply because he doubted the government could prove when some offenses allegedly had occurred.

All content © 1983 THE MIAMI HERALD