Reputed Mob Figure, Ex-Mayor, Arrested

[Judi Lynn]

June 9, 2006, 11:45AM
Reputed Mob Figure, Ex-Mayor, Arrested

By MATT APUZZO Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A reputed mob boss, a former mayor and the owner of a trash hauling business were among 29 people charged Friday in a federal investigation into the mob's influence over the region's trash hauling industry.

The indictment alleges that companies owned by James Galante paid a "mob tax" to Matthew Ianniello, the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family. The payments were part of a scheme in which trash haulers carved out routes and agreed not to steal each other's customers, according to the indictment.

"One of the effects ... has been to stifle competition by preventing small independent companies from competing," the indictment alleges.
(snip)

The indictment also names suspended state Trooper Paul Galietti, who is charged with two counts of misusing state computer systems to run criminal background checks for a Galante company; former Waterbury Mayor Joseph Santopietro, who is charged with racketeering; and seven companies.

Santopietro worked as a consultant for Galante's companies. In an interview a few months ago, he said he was not a target of the investigation and had not hired a lawyer. In 1992, while mayor, Santopietro was arrested in an investigation of bribery and kickbacks and served more than six years in prison.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3955005.html

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Interested in the mayor's politics? He's a Republican, of course!

Former Waterbury mayor Joseph Santopietro, who was all of 26 when he took office, had older, more worldly-wise advisers to help pull off his crimes. Within months of his swearing in, influential Republican Town Chairman Perry Pisciotti and aldermanic president Paul Vitarelli were among the chief figures who helped him siphon, in illegal kickbacks, more than $700,000 disguised as loans, sales of options, and property leases from the now-failed Security Savings and Loan Association. Santopietro was convicted in 1992 on charges of bribery, bank fraud, embezzlement of federal funds and tax evasion. He served by far the longest sentence of any of his five co-conspirators-six years of a nine-year sentence.
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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11652940&BRD=2329&PAG=461&dept_id=484827&rfi=6

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Remember another Republican Waterbury Mayor, Phillip Giordano?

Two mayors of Waterbury who were in jail at the same time Joseph Santopietro and Phillip Giordano. Santopietro for corruption. Giordano turned out to be like Caligula. He's in jail for horrid sexual crimes committed against minors right in the mayor's office. The feds haven't even been gotten to charges from the corruption investigation during which they stumbled over the sex felonies. Santopietro is out on community release. The Mayor of Bridgeport, Joseph Ganim, is in prison for corruption.
(snip)

http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/curryinterview.htm

[WhiteTara]

1. sounds like a really tough town

glad I don't live there!