Acting Lucchese crime family boss Steven Crea was sentenced on Jan. 8 to 34 mos. in fed. prison for extorting payments from Scalamandre Construction Co. in exchange for assurances of labor peace. He was sentenced by U.S. Dist. Judge Kimba Wood (S.D. NY, Reagan).
From 1994 until 2001, brothers Guisseppe “Joseph” and Fortunato “Fred” Scalamandre paid the Lucchese crime family $40,000 a year. The Luccheses then paid bosses and employees of Laborers Intl. Union of N. Amer. Local 66, Blasters, Miners & Drill Ruunners Union Local 29 and Intl. Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftwrkrs. Local 1 to avoid contributing to union benefit funds and paying union dues on behalf of Scalamandre employees. In 2001, the brothers pled guilty to reaping $5 million in illegal income from the scheme. Scheduled to begin his fed. sentence on Mar. 11, Crea still faces bid-rigging and labor racketeering charges brought by Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau in 2000. [(The Westchester County) Journal News, 1/9/04]