Scollo was indicted, along with Gotti and Ciccone, on June 3 of last year for racketeering, extortion, wire-fraud, loan-sharking, illegal gambling, money laundering, witness tampering and other related crimes. In Nov., he pled guilty to extortion and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attny's. Ofc. for the E. Dist. of NY.
Scollo testified that as Local 1814 pres., he answered to Ciccone, even though he knew that under a decree in a civil racketeering case, the frmr. union official was not supposed to deal with labor-mgmt. issues. Among the services Scollo performed for Ciccone, starting in 1997, was the collection of payments for "labor peace" from Carmine Ragguci, who owned a Staten Island port company, which Scollo them gave to Ciccone. The payments of around $9,000 came every few months.
During his testimony, tapes of conversations recorded by investigators were played that showed another defendant, Gambino soldier Primo Cassarino, instructing Scollo on how to vote on officer elections at the ILA's Nevada convention in 2000.
Fed. prosecutors say that Scollo is simply the latest in a line of local
1814 presidents whom the mob has controlled for generations. Asked by U.S.
Attny. Andrew Genser why he obeyed Ciccone, Scollo simply said, "The way
it was, we just did what Sonny wanted." Pressed further, Scollo said, "I
didn't want to lose my job...I respected Sonny for what he is...It was
alleged he was with the family...The Gambino family." [The New York Times,
Newsday 1/29/03]
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