New York City Government and the Mob

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GIULIANI'S SUICIDAL CONNECTION.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONER JOEL MIELE'S LINKS TO MANES, MOB.

By Wayne Barrett, (Published by Village Voice)

Unseen, perhaps even by the mayor, the ghost of Donald Manes is
haunting Rudy Giuliani's administration.

Joel Miele, installed by Giuliani to run the multi-billion-dollar
Department of Environmental Protection last year is a two-decade
fixture of the Queens Democratic organization, ling active in a Howard
Beach club, who was named by Manes and his successor, Claire
Schulman, to a half-dozen powerful posts. A Voice investigation has
revealed that the 64-year-old engineer, like many who got their start
under onetime borough president and party boss Manes, has his own
history of mob ties and questionable self-dealing.

Miele was initially appointed building commissioner by Giuliani
in 1994 on the recommendation of Schulman, who took over as borough
president in 1986 after a banner-headlined bribery investigation, led by
then U.S. Attorney Giuliani, ended with Manes plunging a kitchen knife
into his hearth. Switched to DEP in July 1996, Miele is the highest-
ranking appointee associated with Schulman in the administration, and
is said to be under consideration for deputy mayor in a second term.
Schulman's endorsement of Giuliani has been featured in his television
commercials.

The Voice has identified five clients or business associates of
Miele's development firm, Miele Associates, who were tied to organized
crime, an irony in an administration headed by the nation's most famous
mob-buster since Eliot Ness. In addition, Miele's son, Joel Jr., who now
helps run the family business, was arrested years ago in a mob-tied auto
theft case that has curiously disappeared, except for a docket number
and a date, from the records of the Queens district attorney's office.

A Voice review of Miele's 16-year tenure on Community Board
10 - one of his Manes appointments - also found a pattern of apparent
conflict, with his firm frequently retained by the neighborhood's most
significant interests, including at least 10 clients during his 12-year
rein as the board's chair.

The best known of the mobsters involved with Miele was SAL
REALE, identified by law enforcement as a Gambino crime family
associate for more than two decades. Reale was sentenced to a 10-year
federal prison term in 1990 for a probation violation on an extortion
conviction - after he was caught at the Texas border with $3.8 million
in Swiss and American currency in the trunk of his car.

Miele personally executed a complicated real estate deal with
Reale in 1982, buying a large, mostly vacant tract of land from him just
off the Belt Parkway that included the Howard Beach Racquet Club.
Reale took back a $640,000 mortgage on a purchase price of $723,000,
meaning that another Miele company, M&M Management, paid only
$83,000 up front even though Reale placed a $200,000 value on the
tennis club alone.

Reale effectively became Miele's partner in the condo
development planned for the site, with payment to him pegged at $10
per square foot for every unit M&M marketed. Over the next four years,
Reale signed dozens of releases, lifting his lien on individual plots each
time M&M sold an apartment. In the years after closing the deal with
Reale, Miele conveyed control of M&M to several experienced builders,
though he still lists himself as a partner in the firm on his personal
disclosure forms. In addition to acting as the architects on the project,
Miele, His brother Jean, and the third partner in their small engineering
firm granted M&M a $290,000 mortgage. Their mortgage would be
repaid as condos were sold, similar to Reale's.

At the time of the sale, Reale was already a flashy and well-
connected figure in the Ozone Park - Howard Beach area, running a
mysteriously lucrative gold-exchange business. Convicted in the '70s in
a New York felony case that was subsequently overturned, he was
indicted again 1n 1983 by a Florida grand jury that charged him with
being a part of a Gambino loan-sharking operation. That same year, his
three Gambino-tied partners in the gold business were busted for
running a fencing operation out of his office. Reale's third indictment
came in April 1986 - on the extortion charges - and one month later
M&M paid off the mortgage, ending the business relationship.

While the cases against Reale did attract significant stories in
city papers, he did not become a major news figure until late 1986, when
Newsday reported that he'd participated in a 14-hour lunch with Queens
District Attorney John Santucci. Coming in the midst of an explosion of
a scandal stories about Manes and the Queens party, the Reale luncheon
meeting symbolized the mob's infiltration of the borough's political
establishment.

Like Reale, who was described in news accounts as "John Gotti's
representative at Kennedy Airport," most of the rest Miele's mob-
connected clients have been linked to the now-jailed, Howard Beach-
based boss of the Gambino family. Here is the list:

JOHN GURINO JR>, and other members of his family, ran a
Howard Beach nightclub in 1982 that used Miele Associates as its
architect. Gurino also bought a condo unit from M&M in 1985. Indicted
in a mob murder in 1984, Gurino was represented by Bruce Cutler, who
won both acquittal and the admiration of the Gotti gang, which
subsequently made him their top defense counsel. When Gotti himself
was finally convicted in 1992, Gurino was charged with organizing the
1000-person rally for him at the federal courthouse that turned into a
riot. Gurino, who led the "Let's free John" chants at the rally,
ultimately pled to a misdemeanor.

One contractor on the Gurino nightclub was Ace Plumbing, which
listed Gotti as a salesman and was owned by John Gurino's cousin
Anthony. A childhood friend of Gotti's, Anthony Gurino has been
sentenced to 13 years in prison in two federal cases, including one in
1987 that involved a conspiracy to hide the assets of a multi-million-
dollar heroin ring headed by Gotti's brother. A next-door neighbor of
Donald Manes, Anthony Gurino did plumbing work at Queens Borough
Hall in the early '80's, though he was under federal surveillance since
1982.

The Gurinos are major Howard Beach developers, with a shopping
center, restaurant, and other interests on the Cross Bay Boulevard strip
that is the commercial center of the neighborhood. When the Voice
inquired about Miele at LaNora's, the family's restaurant, John Gurino's
brother Anthony (not the Anthony of Arc) emphatically denied that
Miele has done the nightclub work, though he, too, was involved in the
club. Confronted with several permit documents, including one signed
by Miele, Gurino suddenly said he "couldn't answer the question" about
Miele's work, and terminated the interview.

As chair of the community board, Miele initially forced the
Gurinos to sign an agreement that the club would be alcohol-free teen
disco, and he pressed city officials to revoke the variance for the club
when it began serving alcohol. Then his firm was hired to convert it into
an adult bar without dancing.

THE RUSSO FAMILY - including FRANK SR., FRANK JR., and
GEORGE - have used Miele Associates on a variety of commercial jobs
since at least 1980, including an Ozone Park office building and a
Howard Beach Roy Rogers. Owners of Russo's on the Bay, a block-long
catering hall, and Russo Plaza, a shopping center/office complex, on the
Cross Bay Boulevard strip, the family may have done more projects
within Miele's community board boundaries than anyone else in recent
years. Miele recused himself on at least two votes involving Russo
projects - Once in 1989, and again, as a member of the City Planning
Commission, in 1992.

The elder Russo was convicted on state tax fraud charges in 1989,
charged with under-reporting $640,000 in income from Villa Russo, the
legendary Ozone Park restaurant and catering business that was the
springboard for the family's commercial empire. Russo was ostensibly
targeted in the tax investigation, according to law enforcement sources,
because of the still unproven suspicion that Gotti had a "hidden
financial interest in the restaurant."

The Gambino boss and his crew frequently ate there, and Russo's
brother Joe, who jointly owned the restaurant with him until his recent
death, was also periodically observed on surveilances visiting Gotti at
the nearby Bergen Hunt & Fish Club. One former top aide in the Queens
D.A.'s office told the Voice that the office "picked up Joe Russo on a
wire at the Bergen, reassuring a Gotti lieutenant that investigators had
visited him, but that he hadn't told them anything." In a rambling
interview with the Voice, Frank Russo Sr. confirmed his late brother's
association with the Gotti crew, saying: "He was single, so he socialized
with people."

Russo facilities are also well known for hosting mob weddings,
including the 1991 reception for the daughter of Colombo capo
Dominic "Donny Shacks" Montemarano. Once close to Manes and still
tied to Queens Democratic politics, the Russos, with support from
Schulman, won a 20-year lease this April from the Giuliani
administration to do a $2 million renovation of the Flushing Meadows
boathouse and convert it into a restaurant/catering hall. A Parks
Department attorney told the Voice that the lease had been suddenly
canceled. Frank Russo said that Voice questions - ostensibly about the
family's Gotti connections - had helped prompt the Parks action.

THE CHELSEA SEAFOOD & LOBSTER HOUSE was described
in one 1991 FBI memo as "a known hangout of many burglars and
robbers." Lucchese capo Ray Argentina was specified as a frequent
visitor. An ex-cop who specialized in organized crime told the Voice
that gangsters like it because it fronts on a Belt Parkway ramp, leading
onto Cross Bay, thus law enforcement "can't park and watch the front
door; no surveillance technique will work." A 1994 Times story said it
was owned by Gambino capo Jo Jo Corozzo, who is currently doing
three years on a federal racketeering conviction. Corozzo's brother Nick
succeeded Gotti as head of the family.

In 1990, Miele Associates filed as the engineering firm for work
done on the air-conditioning system and roof for the building that
houses the Chelsea.

JOHN STALUPPI, a Colombo soldier who may have become the
family's most successful earner, started an auto dealership empire,
eventually totaling 48 facilities all over the East Coast, on the Cross Bay
Boulevard strip. Staluppi opened a motorcycle shop in 1972, turned it
into his first car dealership. And built a customer base that included
every wiseguy since Joe Colombo himself. It is unclear just when
Staluppi got out of the Cross Bay location, since he once admitted
putting it in the name of an employee because of his own felony
conviction. It is also unclear when Miele Associates got in, though they
definitely did years of work on sensitive variance issues involving the
property.

August Sergiovanni, who has owned the site since the '60s, told
the Voice that Miele "first worked there 25 years ago," precisely when
Staluppi converted the restaurant space there to a dealership. The Voice
has not located any building permits listing Miele, but these old records
are often incomplete.

Jean Miele actually wrote a letter to Community Board 10 - on
behalf of Sergiovanni and Cycle Power Inc., the tenant at that location
in 1985 - addressed "Attention: Mr. Joel A. Miele, Sr., Chairman" and
beginning "Dear Mr. Miele." The letter, which appeared to be written on
the letterhead of Miele Associates, was dated about the same time that
Joel Sr. was himself sending letters to other city officials seeking a
variance for the same clients, and contending that a denial would be
"economically devastating." Miele's board has opposed another city
agency's decision years earlier to revoke the variance for the dealership,
and Miele had abstained on that and every other vote involving the
property, suggesting the long history of ties to the property that
Sergiovanni recalls. The variance was eventually restored.

JOEL MIELE, JR., 37, who has replaced his father both at the
family business and on Community Board 10, was arrested while
driving a stolen car in 1981, according to records in the Queens D.A.'s
office. A law enforcement source involved in the case says that police
intelligence reports were filed indicating that Tommy Frigenti and
Frankie Burke, both of whom were associates of the Lucchese crime
family and the young sons of major mob figures, visited Miele Jr.
shortly after his arrest.

Frigenti, who was convicted years later of running a multi-million
luxury auto theft ring, reportedly demanded payment from Miele Jr. for
the loss of the stolen vehicle. Through an intermediary, Miele Sr. was
able to get Frigenti's father Frank, a reputed Colombo soldier, to back
off the money demand and threats. The case against Miele Jr. was
mysteriously dropped by D.A. Santucci's office and the record was
sealed.

Confronted by the Voice at the door of his Howard Beach home
and asked if he knew Frigenti and Burke, Miele Jr. said: "There's
nothing I want to say about it." Questioned about his arrest in a stolen
vehicle, he said again that he had "no comment."

MOB clients aside, questions about Miele's community board
conduct - including the fact that his partner, Benjamin Leonardi, was
simultaneously the chair of neighboring Community Board 9 - led to
issuance of two opinions by the old Board of Ethics in 1981 and 1982.
The decision identified no wrongdoing but drew a hard line, barring him
and his firm "from representing clients before that Community Board."
Miele, however, apparently interpreted the opinions as merely
restrictions on formal appearances by his firm before the board, which
neither he nor his partner made. But they frequently lobbied the board
by letter, and presumably by phone.

In one case - an office complex that was the neighborhood's
hottest controversy over an 11-year period - Miele abstained on several
key votes, yet acted to block a 1989 request by five members of the
board for a special meeting on the authorizing permit. Though Miele
was intimately involved in every aspect of the $2 million project as an
engineer, he wrote a letter as chair finding "no grounds at this time" for
a special meeting.

Concerns about Miele's two hats became so common that one
well-known Queens architect, Phil Agusta, wrote a blistering 1986 letter
to Miele after the board rejected a variance he'd sought for a client.
Miele had done some minor work on the project, but had unsuccessfully
bid against Agusta to steer it through city approval process. "It seems
to me very awkward that you would remain seated at the meeting when
you removed yourself from discussion," wrote Agusta. "Our client
commented to me that he felt the Community Board action was a result
of your not getting the commission to do their work. I felt that way,
too, however refrained from saying so."

Miele not only ducked Voice questions for months, even when
caught exiting his city limo in front of his waterfront home, but he and
the city's Department of Investigations refused to make public a report,
completed in the early '80s, about these alleged conflicts. Though Miele
boasted at a 1989 public meeting of the community board that DOI
found "no impropriety" after grilling him "for 16 hours," he never made
the findings available to the board. One of the published ethics opinions
did indicate that the charges were "not substantiated," but community
questions continued to dog Miele for years after the probe ended.

His first public appointment came in 1974, when Manes installed
him on the community board at a Borough Hall ceremony, reappointing
him every two years thereafter. Manes also made Miele one of the five
incorporators and directors of Queens Public Communications Corp., a
"public access" cable organization that collected hundreds of thousands
of dollars from the cable companies that the Times blasted as "blatantly
political payoffs" (the editorial accused Manes of stacking this
corporation with his "cronies"). In addition, Manes recommended
Miele's appointment to the Queensborough Public Library and
Creedmor Psychiatric Center boards, also naming him to his own
Citizens Advisory Council. In addition to two county board
appointments, Schulman selected him to serve as Queens's
representative on the City Planning Commission in 1990.

Chair of the Peninsula Hospital Board in the Rockaways, Miele is
apparently so oblivious to ethics guidelines that he saw nothing wrong
with the hospital's nursing home board, which he separately heads,
naming his 29-year-old newly licensed daughter, Janet Powers, the top
administrator of the 200-bed facility in 1994. Similarly, the Daily News
reported that Miele Associates failed to get necessary permits to repair
the company's headquarters in early 1996, even though Miele was then
building commissioner.

Finally, as president of the Queensborough Public Library until
this February, he led the fight against complying with a subpoena served
by the city comptroller for records involving a seven-figure secret "slush
fund" that had already been blasted in a DOI report. Ironically, a top
budget official in the Giuliani administration filed an affidavit
supporting the comptroller's subpoena when Miele's board sued to bar
access to the records. A few months after Miele stepped down as chair,
the library and comptroller settled, with Queensborough agreeing to
shift $6.5 million out of the private fund.

Though the issues raised in this story were conveyed over a period
of months to Miele, members of his family, and his press office, his
press secretary waited until our Monday deadline to fax a disingenuous
letter to the Voice, asserting Miele's willingness to consider answering
some written questions.

(Story research Anita Chan, Eileen Markey, Tracie McMillan, and
Olivia Morgado.)

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