And a fine:
Federal prosecutors say a sales manager for a trash company has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for racketeering conspiracy, the latest sentencing in the investigation into former Danbury trash magnate James Galante's Allied Waste trash hauling company.
Jeremy Everett of Shelton was sentenced in federal court in New Haven and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine.
In February, the 32-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Just a reminder of the ties that bind all of these republicans from a
February AP report:
Their pleas before Judge Ellen Bree Burns in U.S. District Court, bring the number of defendants who've admitted guilt to either racketeering or related charges to 13. A total of 29 people, including Danbury trash magnate James Galante, were indicted by a grand jury last June. Galante, whose Automated Waste Disposal is at the center of the investigation, faces 72 criminal counts, including tax fraud, racketeering, threatening and extortion.
In December, alleged Genovese crime family boss Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, 86, acknowledged in court that he participated in a so-called property rights scheme in which trash haulers carved out routes for each other and agreed not to poach customers.
Companies owned by James Galante of Danbury allegedly paid a quarterly "mob tax" to Ianniello, prosecutors said. In exchange, Ianniello provided mob muscle to stifle competition. Trash haulers who tried to challenge the system allegedly faced physical and economic threats, prosecutors said.
Just remember these Republican names as you see these mob stories:
Louie DeLuca,
David Cappiello,
Mark Boughton and
Joe neoCON Lieberman.
Contributions from associates and friends of now-indicted garbage executive James Galante to the 2004 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman have sparked the interest of federal investigators.
Lieberman's bid for the White House took in at least $14,000 from Galante, his associates and their relatives in the fall of 2003, according to a Courant review of campaign records.
The contributions to Lieberman, a longtime Democrat who became an independent in 2006, are similar to allegedly bundled contributions to three Republican officeholders that earlier this month led to state charges against Galante, who is also facing a 2006 federal racketeering indictment.
What's more, people familiar with the campaign matters say, the names of Lieberman, the three Republicans and about a dozen other Connecticut and New York politicians have turned up on what the FBI loosely refers to as a "ledger" that agents seized from Galante's office while investigating mob influence in the trash industry.
The so-called ledger, a subject of interest to a legislative committee investigating state Sen. Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury, summarizes information provided to Galante by his lobbyists on fundraising goals set by a number of candidates, the people familiar with the documents said.
A little on SOME of the donors:
A small number of 2003 donations to Lieberman, who at the time was running for president in the 2004 election, follow the same pattern.
Federal records show that $10,000 in donations for Lieberman's presidential campaign came in on Nov. 25 and 26, 2003, from donors - or their associates or relatives - who made at least one of the 38 PAC contributions mentioned in the affidavit that state investigators filed to justify Galante's Oct. 13 arrest.
Those 2003 donations to Lieberman included:
$2,000 on Nov. 26 from Mary Walkovich of Danbury.
She is the sister of Galante's local lobbyist, Joseph Walkovich.
Joseph Walkovich had written one of 15 checks for $1,000 that the investigative affidavit says were received Oct. 10, 2002, by Cappiello's PAC, the 24th District Republican Committee.
Joseph Walkovich also made donations of $500 and $1,500 to Lieberman on Sept. 30 and Nov. 14, 2003, records show.
$1,000 each on Nov. 25 from Ciro and Kim Viento of Mahopac, N.Y., each of whom gave $1,000 in 2002 to DeLuca's PAC, called 32 GOP.
Ciro Viento has worked for years as the operations manager for Galante's garbage companies, and was sentenced in August to 2½ years in federal prison after a March guilty plea to a racketeering conspiracy charge.
$2,000 each on Nov. 25 from longtime Galante employee Paul DiNardo of Danbury - who gave $1,000 each in 2002 to DeLuca's and Boughton's PACs - and from Mona Russo of Danbury, one of the 15 people who donated $1,000 to Cappiello's PAC on Oct. 10, 2002.
DiNardo was sentenced Sept. 12 to 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty last December to a racketeering conspiracy charge.
$1,000 each from Nicholas and Linda Maraglino of Danbury on Nov. 25 and 26, respectively.
Nicholas Maraglino was one of the 15 who gave a $1,000 check to Cappiello's PAC on Oct. 10, 2002, as cited in the Galante arrest affidavit. Maraglino, owner of a tire company who has done business with Galante, acknowledged the contributions in an interview with the Courant, but said he gave the money himself and was not reimbursed by Galante or anyone else.
None of the other 2003 donors to Lieberman could be reached for
comment.
