Compared to the estimated $14.6 billion tab (and counting) to complete Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a/k/a “the Big Dig,” the $25,000 or so that Scott Boidi stole was a tiny fraction. But the former business manager of Tunnel Workers Local 88, an affiliate of the Laborers International Union of North America, received little in the way of courtroom sympathy. On October 13, a federal jury, after a 12-day trial, convicted Boidi on six counts related to the project’s construction. He had been indicted last year on nine counts of criminal activity taking place between 1994 and 2002.
The indictment alleged that Boidi, who served as Local 88 business manager during June 1991-May 2002, embezzled more than $25,000 from the union. He obtained it by writing a check to himself for $16,000, charging $1,800 for personal use of a rental car, and stealing $7,500 in union dues. He also accepted things of value in exchange for processing applications for union membership, and possessed with the intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine. The jury convicted him on one count of racketeering, three counts of embezzlement of union funds, one count of drug possession with the intent to distribute, and one count of use of a communications facility in furtherance of a crime. The jury acquitted him of one count of a firearms violation and two counts of witness tampering. The case was the result of a joint investigation by the Labor Department, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the local police departments of Boston and Quincy. (PR Newswire US, 10/13/06; Daily Labor Report, 10/17/06).