Malvestuto Jr Fingered CONGI.LIBERALE for the FBI

[Bringthetruth]

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/cover4.22.08.html


ANALYSIS By Mike Hudson
(Editor's Note: The following article contains excerpts taken from FBI transcripts of a discussion between Laborers Local 91 hoodlums Robert Malvestuto Jr. and Randall Butler. The language is at times strong.)




On the surface, Robert "Bobby" Malvestuto Jr. was a cocky young labor racketeer whose widely reported love for his family didn't jibe with a reputation for violence. To his cohorts on the picket line, Bobby was known as a stand-up guy.

He quickly rose to Niagara Falls notoriety following the 2002 arrests of the corrupt leadership of Laborers Local 91 here, and by 2004 had been elected president of the troubled union. He sought to match his popularity inside the Laborers' Seneca Avenue headquarters out in the wider world, and was soon making appearances at events like Johnny Cheff's annual Democratic picnic, where he rubbed elbows with Western New York's political elite.

But according to a sheaf of tape transcripts used by the U.S. Attorney's office to successfully prosecute its case against the Laborers and made exclusively available to the Niagara Falls Reporter last week, Malvestuto Jr. was also an FBI informant who wore a wire in an effort to ensnare other union members into admitting to crimes during what they believed to be private conversations with a trusted ally.

"He used to brag he was a tough guy and he turned into the biggest rat of them all," said a union source familiar with the transcripts. "These were his closest friends. Union brothers."

Bobby had been born into the life. His father, Robert Malvestuto Sr., was one of former Local 91 strongman Michael "Butch" Quarcini's handpicked lieutenants. Sentenced for shooting his wife in 1995, Malvestuto Sr. was gifted by Butch and the boys with a brand new Lincoln Continental before going off to prison.

The younger Malvestuto grew close to a number of up-and-comers who didn't have to wait as long as they thought they would to assume leadership roles in what they considered their family business. Originally appointed with his close friend Rico Liberale as business agents by current business manager Rob Connolly, he soon decided to run for higher office. In 2004, he was elected president of the local, while Liberale won the race for secretary-treasurer.

But with 14 members of the union's old guard facing terms of up to 25 years in prison, nobody who'd ever done anything wrong was completely safe. Many were willing to spill the Laborers' beans all over the table in order to receive lighter sentences or stay out of prison altogether, and the U.S. Attorney's office in Buffalo was swamped with aging thugs looking to make deals.

Both Malvestuto Jr. and Liberale were named as unindicted co-conspirators in the massive Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act case against the union, but it wasn't until 2005 that a second round of indictments was handed down. Suddenly, the young union president found himself in deep, deep trouble.

According to the FBI, Malvestuto Jr. was one of two men who threw bombs through the windows of a Town of Niagara residence that had been rented by a group of non-union workers one dark night in April 1997. It was a miracle nobody was killed. Anthony Cerrone, an accomplice in the bombing, fingered Malvestuto Jr. as part of his plea agreement with the feds.

Facing 20 years behind bars, young Malvestuto began looking for a way to save his own skin. Before long, the Laborers' feared enforcer was a federal informant, willing to take down anyone and everyone so long as it got him a lighter sentence.

According to extensive notes accompanying the tape transcripts made available to the Reporter, Malvestuto Jr. gave evidence against his predecessor as union president, Mark Congi, who headed Local 91's notorious "Goon Squad"; his close friend Rico Liberale; Local 91 sergeant-at-arms Randy Butler, who was sentenced as the second bomb-thrower in the Town of Niagara case; Laborers executive board member Patrick McKeown; Malvestuto business partner and Local 91 member Tony Fazzolari; and Dr. Scott Geise, a Newfane dentist indicted by the feds last summer for submitting fraudulent benefit claims to the Local 91 Welfare Fund and various private insurers on behalf of union members.

All but Liberale have been indicted or are serving sentences in federal prison. And until today, Malvestuto Jr.'s involvement in the cases has remained secret, since Congi, Butler and Fazzolari pleaded guilty and Geise has yet to go to trial.

On Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005, Malvestuto Jr. drove to Lockport to meet with Randy Butler at Butler's 29 Nichols St. home. He was wearing a concealed recording device and had orders to engage his friend in conversation regarding illegal activities Butler participated in on behalf of the Laborers.

The meeting was prompted by concern over an exclusive Reporter cover story, written by Sports Editor David Staba and published the day before. "Malvestuto, Liberale named by feds in papers outlining Local 91 case," the headline read. Malvestuto had a copy of the paper in his hand when he walked through the door.

The stool pigeon cut right to the chase.

"I don't know where they got this from, but you can see they noted ..." he said.

"Everything," Butler replied. "Come on, they laid it right out. A to B to ****ing C." Butler grimaced. "****ing ... Randy Butler. Oh. I'm all over there."

"Well?"

"Alright, let me keep reading. Ah **** Rob, you knew it was coming, right? We knew. The Clarion Hotel, Congi, Celeste ... Congi ... Look at this mother****er. We're out there now man. News is all over the place."

"The fat lady just come out?" Butler finally asked.

"Yesterday. Today. What day is it?" Malvestuto replied.

"Today is Wednesday."

"Yeah."

"Today is Wednesday the tenth."

"Yeah, it came out yesterday ..."

"Oh man. They're gonna come any day now. I think this is what they were waiting for probably, right? Get it out to the press. Is it in the Gazette?"

"Nope."

"Has it been in yet?"

"No."

Outside, the neighborhood was crawling with cops that afternoon, including Special Agents Frank Runles and Louis Alessi of the FBI, Niagara County Sheriff's Department Investigator Michael Messina and Niagara Falls Police Department Det. John Humphries. Sitting in their vehicles for more than an hour, sweating as the blazing heat of the August sun poured down, they weren't interested in yesterday's headlines.

Malvestuto got down to brass tacks, pumping Butler for information on his own activities as well as those of Congi and Liberale.

"Rico Liberale, they're gonna try and pound him," Butler said, reading further. "See, throw him out, take us over again. We're done."

"Yep."

"All done. ****ing A."

"Rico tells me he was not there," Malvestuto prompted.

"Maybe it was just that he worked on that job or something," Butler said.

"I don't know, I don't know ..."

"They got me in on other **** too?"

"No. I don't know, I don't remember. Did you do anything else?"

"**** no ... I never did anything that would shock you. **** no. No. Oh boy ..." He kept reading.

Bobby's efforts to link Butler to Congi in the Town of Niagara bombing again resulted in some not-so-subtle prompting.

"I never even talked to him," Butler said about Congi's role in the plot. "It was us."

"Yeah, but he turned around, that night there, inside he turned around," Malvestuto Jr. said. "Remember, Butch was singing and Mark was singing?"

"I wasn't there for that."

"Oh. You weren't?"

"That was, remember when you guys said tonight you're gonna be one of us? Remember?"

"No," the stool pigeon replied.

"Something like that. Some bull****," Butler said. "I never talked to him and I'm telling them I never talked to him. Far as I know, we were getting together to slash some tires of non-union workers and cut some brake lights. And that's all I know about anything until after we went to Mr. B's and I found out there was explosives at that ****ing table."

Based in large part on information given them by Malvestuto Jr., Butler was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Arcara in April 2007 to 34 months in federal prison for his role in the Town of Niagara bombing. Congi was sentenced to 15 years, while Liberale was never charged with any crime.

But the songbird himself wasn't done singing. In addition to his duties with Local 91, Malvestuto Jr. operated a residential contracting business with Tony Fazzolari, whose wife, Wendy, worked for Dr. Scott Geise at his Newfane Family Dentistry clinic.

According to a 65-count federal indictment handed down on July 3 of last year, Geise ran his own lucrative side business processing phony claims for Local 91 members, billing both private insurance companies and the union's welfare fund for dental work that was never performed. The fraudulent activity occurred between September 2002 and November 2006, according to the indictment.

Represented by longtime Local 91 attorneys Joel Daniels and George Muscataro, Geise is looking at a long stretch in federal prison and upwards of $1 million in fines if convicted, and sources say he is eager to avoid jail time at all costs.

In January, the FBI raided the Local 91 headquarters on Seneca Avenue, seizing documents and questioning business manager Rob Connolly for more than an hour. While the feds have been tight-lipped about the motive behind the raid, union sources have indicated it had to do with the Geise case and the possibility that other labor leaders were involved in the scam. Connolly, who has thus far managed to remain above the fray, is godfather to Malvestuto's youngest son, Joseph.

As for Malvestuto Jr., he is currently serving a 51-month sentence handed down by Judge Arcara despite his yeoman's service in bringing his former friends and co-workers to justice. Federal law enforcement sources told the Reporter last week that his crimes were simply to great to allow for his release back into society. He is currently fighting a move by the Laborers International Union of North America, of which Local 91 is an affiliate, to bar him from ever again working as a laborer on a union job.

At his sentencing, Bobby seemed to have lost all of the swagger that helped fuel his rapid ascent to the top of the violent and corrupt organization he briefly ruled. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he pleaded for mercy and told Arcara of his sincere remorse for what he had done.

"The tears I shed are not for me. It's for my family," he told Arcara. "If I could give you my left arm and still provide for my family with the right, I would do that."

But the judge wasn't buying it, and neither were a lot of Laborers.

"How are you going to believe a guy who double-crosses his friends like that?" one of the betrayed men asked last week. "How are you going to believe anything he says?"

[bigpoppapuff]

i had lunch,at the como,with bobby's dad and butch on a number of occasions...

[Bringthetruth]

These guys faces should be posted in the post office just because