NEW YORK — Five men were charged with allegedly trying to get a job for the son of an underboss of the Colombo crime family by defrauding a newspaper union and Hudson News newsstands, according to federal officials.
A criminal complaint that was unsealed today charged Benjamin Castellazzo Jr., Rocco Giangregorio, Glenn LaChance, Rocco Miraglia, aka “Irving,” and Anthony Turzio, aka “the Irish Guy,” with mail fraud conspiracy, officials said.
The five were arrested earlier today.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the New York City Police Department.
Also a three-count indictment was unsealed today, charging Thomas Leonessa, aka “Tommy Stacks,” with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and theft and embezzlement from employee benefit plans in an unrelated scheme.
The indictment relates to Leonessa’s alleged “no show” job as a delivery driver for the New York Post.
As alleged in the complaint, officials allege that the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union, is an independent union that represents about 1,500 employees involved in the newspaper industry in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Its union members deliver newspapers for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, the New York Post and El Diario, officials said.
Hudson News, which also employs members of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union is a retail chain of newsstands mainly located in major transportation hubs, including airports and train stations, official said.
Between June 2009 and October 2009, authorities allege that Miraglia, who was a foreman at the New York Daily News – as well as an associate of the Colombo organized crime family and the son of a deceased soldier in the Colombo family – conspired with officials of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union and with Turzio, an employee of El Diario, to get an Newspaper’s union card for Castellazzo Jr. and place him in a job at Hudson News.
Authorities said Castellazzo Jr. is the son of Benjamin Castellazzo, the alleged underboss of the Colombo family, officials maintain.
Giangregorio and LaChance, who are business agents for the Newspaper Union, also participated on this scheme.
The indictment alleges that Leonessa was employed by the New York Post to deliver newspapers by truck from a New York Post warehouse in the Bronx, N.Y., to New Jersey.
He was also a member of the Newspaper Union, which maintained offices, including offices for its welfare and pension funds, in Queens, N.Y.
From about December 2010 to about September 2011, Leonessa had a “no show job” – a job for which he was paid wages and benefits for services he did not perform – at the New York Post.
When Leonessa did not complete his required deliveries, he was nevertheless, based on his fraudulent representations, paid wages by the New York Post and accurred benefits from employee pension and welfare funds managed by the Newspaper Union.
All the defendants are scheduled to be in court today.
Defendants are presumed innocent until and if, they are proven guilty.