Takes Guilty Plea: Crime Family Head Drove Bus Local

Takes Guilty Plea

Crime Family Head Drove Bus Local

By RICHARD STEIER

The acting head of the Genovese Crime Family, Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, pleaded guilty Sept. 14 to taking control of the union that represents school bus drivers and then attempting to interfere with a Federal probe of its operations.

EDDIE KAY: Rips ATU for inaction.

Mob Controlled Funds

Mr. Ianniello and several of his associates had been charged, along with three top officials of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, with having turned the local into a racketeering enterprise in which the mob family controlled its operations and benefit funds.

Under his guilty plea, which came four days into his trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the 86-year-old mobster will be sentenced to between 1-1/2 and 2 years in jail and will forfeit up to $1 million to Federal prosecutors.

One of the Local 1181 officials, Ann Chiarovano, pleaded guilty last month to having attempted to conceal the takeover of the local by the Genovese Family. Still awaiting trial are Local 1181 President Salvatore Battaglia and Julius "Spike" Bernstein, who took a leave of absence from his job as Local 1181 secretary-treasurer as a condition of his being granted bail in early summer after he was charged in a shakedown scheme that was not part of the original indictment against the union officials and Mr. Ianniello.

Prosecutors had alleged that Mr. Bernstein was a longtime associate of Mr. Ianniello's and served as the conduit in his control of Local 1181 dating back three decades. Where Mr. Battaglia and Ms. Chiarovano were accused only of taking part in a conspiracy to obstruct justice, Mr. Bernstein was also charged with extortion and racketeering conspiracy.

Shook Down Doctors?

Mr. Bernstein is accused of having demanded $100,000 in cash from the medical center based at the union's Queens headquarters to ensure that its lease was continued in 1997, and of having extorted regular cash payments since then from the provider. All these acts were allegedly committed with Mr. Ianniello's backing.

The International ATU has not taken any action - other than appointing one of its vice presidents to monitor the local's financial affairs after Mr. Bernstein's latest indictment - against any Local 1181 officials. Eddie Kay, a union organizer who is assisting a dissident group within the local known as Members for Change, said Sept. 15 that Ms. Chiarovano has continued to report to the union's headquarters despite her guilty plea.

'How's That Happen?'

"How do they allow that?" he asked regarding the leaders of the ATU. "And the International lets Battaglia stay in charge of the union and the pension after Matty the Horse pleads guilty to stealing." He also expressed astonishment that Mr. Ianniello, who if convicted of all the charges originally lodged against him would have faced 128 years in prison, could be released in as little as 18 months "after robbing the union for 30 years."

If there has been any bright side to the exposure of the corruption, Mr. Kay said, it is that the dissident group is steadily winning converts among the Local 1181 rank and file. "We intend to make our union more honest," he said.