Ex-Indiana Democrat party chairman Peter Manous pled guilty on April 13 to bribing a union official to steer union pension investments to a real estate boondoggle. Gerry Nannenga, exec. treasurer-secy. of the Ind. Reg. Council. Of Carpenters, pled guilty last Nov. to accepting payments to influence pension fund investments. Kevin Pastrick, owner of the 640-acre Coffee Creek Center in Chesterton, is awaiting trial.
According to the Sept. 8th indictment, Pastrick received a $600,000 commission when the N.W. Ind. Carpenters Union pension fund paid about $10 mil. for 55 acres of the property. The property was reportedly worth far less than the purchase price, and only a handful of houses and no commercial development has occurred since then. According to the U.S. Attny. for the North. Dist. of Ind., Pastrick paid Manous, then the state party chair and lawyer for the pension fund, $200,000 out of his commission. Pastrick and Manous then paid Nannenga, through his wife, $65,000. As part of the plea agreement, Manous agreed to cooperate with the continuing investigation. [Indianapolis Star, 4/13/04]
NYC Mob Boss Sentenced for Racketeering
U.S. Dist. Judge Frederic Block (E.D.N.Y., Clinton) sentenced Peter Gotti to 9 yrs., 4 mos. in fed. prison for racketeering and extortion within the Intl. Longshoremen’s Assn (ILA). Gotti reportedly has led the Gambino crime family since his brother’s son, John, pled guilty to extortion and was sent to prison in 1999. Gotti and 7 others were convicted in March 2003 of controlling ILA Locals 1 and 1814 in NYC, and extorting contracts from the ILA’s health plan. One of the principal witnesses against Gotti and his co-defendants, George Barone, testified that he and current ILA president John Bowers conspired with the Genovese crime family to “have our man as president” of the union. [New York Times, 4/16/04]