The Manhattan Dist. Atty.s Office announced Aug. 24 that Corrado’s Family Affair, Inc., pled guilty to larceny for ripping off members of scandal-scarred Am. Fed’n of State, County & Mun. Employees Dist. Council 37 by overcharging them for 11,500 holiday turkeys in 1997. The N.J.-based grocery was charging 99 cents per pound of turkey in Nov. 1997 when it made the massive sale to the AFSCME Local 372. But, the grocery reportedly inflated the weight of the turkeys sold by more than 40 tons, to cheat the union out of $85,000.
The local has been the focus of a massive union corruption investigation that led to the turkey probe. In June, ex- president Charles Hughes was sentenced to nine years in prison after he admitted stealing more than $2 million from union members since 1971.
Gloria Montealegre, a D.A. spokeswoman, said the company pled guilty Aug. 17 to theft before N.Y. Supreme Court Judge Charles H. Solomon. It was sentenced to pay $85,000 in restitution and $85,000 in fines. The company has already paid $ 50,000, and will have two years to pay the remaining $120,000, she said. [Record (Bergen County, N.J.) 8/25/00]