You’d think that if there was one place in America; one very much anticipated construction project in which the authorities in charge could manage to keep controversy, graft and corruption in check; it’d be the reconstruction project at the hallowed Ground Zero site in Manhattan, where nearly 2,800 innocent Americans were murdered.
Operating on tax-payer-funded contracts worth millions of dollars, seven separate contractors presently working for either the Port Authority, the Dormitory Authority or the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, are reportedly suspected of everything from ties to the mob to tax fraud to fatal accidents. The firms are responsible for operating bulldozers, cranes, jackhammers and pile drivers at various points around the spot where the WTC Towers stood.
And, they’re all getting a slice of the $16-billion reconstruction project.
Is corruption now so entrenched in American culture that we can’t even build a monument anymore without corruption or malfeasance raising its ugly head? Is it the morass of malfeasance, cronyism and unaccountability firmly entrenched in the higher echelons of our federal government that has slowly but surely seeped down into our local societies, our governments, and those corporations who contract with them?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s inculpative phrase, "culture of corruption" has officially become an understatement.
The Metro News page of the New York Daily News has the story:
The list starts with the John Galt Corp. the shell company at the heart of growing investigations into the Aug. 18 fire at the Deutsche Bank tower that killed two firefighters.
Galt has ties to Safeway Environmental, a company with a lousy safety record that has been barred from city work because one of its directors is a reputed mob associate.
Six Degrees of Aaron expounded on the John Galt Corp. back on August 24 here.
But, that’s just the beginning! The NY Daily News found six other companies working at the WTC site with "issues."
QUADROZZI CONCRETE
Last week, a steady convoy of Quadrozzi Concrete's distinctive yellow and orange trucks delivered cement to the Freedom Tower job.
Six months before the Sept. 11 attacks, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection rejected Quadrozzi's request to be an approved city supplier, citing then-owner John Quadrozzi Sr.'s ties to the Lucchese crime family and other concerns.
In 2004, Quadrozzi Sr. died and the company was taken over by his son, John Jr., who was owner of an affiliate that refused to answer a subpoena from city investigators vetting a permit application.
In October 2004, Quadrozzi Jr. reapplied to the city for approval as a supplier. Last year, Quadrozzi Concrete withdrew the request without explanation. He did not return calls on Friday.
Apparently, the abrupt withdrawal was prompted by the January 2005 indictment of Constatine Quadrozzi, then a vice president of Quadrozzi Concrete. He was charged with dumping toxic waste into Newtown Creek. In June 2006, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Demarest dismissed the indictment, finding that although Quadrozzi had foreknowledge of the illegal dumping, he had fixed the problem so no further prosecution was warranted.
The Manhattan district attorney has appealed her decision.
PAL ENVIRONMENTAL CORP.
In 2005, PAL Environmental signed a consent order admitting it had illegally disposed of toxic office equipment from the notorious Deutsche Bank tower at 130 Liberty St.
For four months in 2004, PAL shredded computers and furniture at the contaminated site without obtaining a permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. This meant DEC did not monitor the job.
Instead, PAL monitored itself, providing the state with data it said showed no toxins leaked into the neighborhood.
In August 2005, the state DEC dismissed criminal violations against PAL after owner Salvatore DiLorenzo agreed to take "full responsibility" for claims arising from the illegal shredding and paid a $10,000 civil fine.
Hmm, is a pattern emerging here?
PAL Environmental Corp. is currently cleaning out Fiterman Hall, located behind the site of the now demised WTC #7, at a cost of $16.3-million paid by the Dormitory Authority, who apparently were aware of the violation.
Seen regularly hauling dirt from Ground Zero in black and white trucks, Leticia Inc. is our next culprit company with "issues."
In April 2006, Manuel Mier, the husband of company president Leticia Rojas, signed and affidavit promising "for the remainder of my life" to stay out of his wife’s business dealings due to his felon status resulting from a plea of guilty to using the Leticia Inc. and other companies in a wide-ranging tax-fraud scheme.
Ultimately, Mier didn’t escape accountability. He was later sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $523,000 in back taxes and penalties. Rojas agreed to hire a special monitor picked by the city to ensure her husband doesn’t steal get a dime. The Port Authority allowed her company to work at Ground Zero.
TESTA CORP.
Testa Corp.'s bright yellow cranes dominate the southeast end of Ground Zero.
In April, Pamela Ciampi, whose family owns Testa, pleaded guilty in Boston Federal Court to dodging $250,000 in federal income taxes.
Investigators had seized records from Testa and Ciampi's other firm, PT Corp., both of Lynnfield, Mass., in a probe of sham women- and minority-owned firms.
That followed a July 2005 citation by federal regulators charging Testa with 15 job safety violations after a 190-foot tall steel craneway collapsed during a Testa demolition job, killing two workers.
OSHA slapped Testa with $60,000 in penalties, alleging that Testa did not do an engineering survey to determine the craneway's stability. In July 2005 Testa agreed to a $16,800 settlement.
According to a Testa executive who requested anonymity said the Port Authority was aware of the craneway accident before the company was hired for the project.
LAQUILA GROUP
The firm is an offshoot of Laquila Construction whose owner, Dino Tomassetti Sr., has long-time ties to the mob, the FBI says.
Several informants have told the FBI Laquila Construction paid off mob-controlled unions so it could inflate profits by using nonunion help. Tomassetti Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of construction labor fraud in April.
Laquila Group - owned by Dino Tomassetti Jr. - was hired by developer Larry Silverstein to do excavation for the Freedom Tower. The Port Authority took over the job this year.
When investigators discovered Laquila Group was renting equipment from Dino Sr.'s company, a monitor was put in place and Dino Sr. agreed to stay away from the job.
The monitor, Toby Thacher, says the elder Tomassetti donates equipment to his son for the $35 million Freedom Tower job.
And, finally, we have:
JUDA CONSTRUCTION
Juda Construction has agreements with both Westchester County and the city of New York barring any interaction with a former Juda owner, Joseph Attonito, his son, Thomas, or any of their companies.
Joseph Attonito is a convicted felon. Law enforcement sources have said he was associated with organized crime. His son, Thomas, was convicted of perjury in 2003 for trying to hide from regulators his father's interest in another company, Whitney Trucking.
Juda has no such agreement for its work at Ground Zero, where last week Juda's white dump trucks hauled dirt from the Freedom Tower excavation site.
The NYDN received a firm, "no comment" when it called Juda, saying that owner Nicholas Paniccia was "unavailable."
The Bush era will certainly rate right up there with the early years of the Twentieth-Century as being laden with big business cronyism, graft and corruption, i.e., the "robber barons".
Is there a Teddy Roosevelt type of leader ready to take the wheel of this listing ship of state?
How about an Al Gore?
Go ahead and sign the petition. (you know you want to)
Draft Gore
Peace