A Strong Case Against Tony Muscles

Anthony “Tony Muscles” Guardino, the luckless boss of the city’s roofers union, had two marriages go bad recently. One was his stormy relationship with now ex-wife, Connie Billotti, niece of the Gambino underboss shot dead with Big Paul Castellano in 1986, Tommy Billotti. The other was his union’s close affiliation with the Genovese crime family.Of the two relationships, the one with his wife got closer to actual violence, according to tapes played at Guardino’s two-month trial on labor racketeering charges in Manhattan Supreme Court.“I’ll kill her,” Guardino told a pal as he discussed his wife’s divorce settlement demands.At trial, prosecutors argued that there was an implicit threat of violence associated with the union’s close ties to the Genovese gang. That threat dates to the 1970s, when Michael Crimi was the key official of Local 8 of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers in New York. Mr. Crimi, who was also an executive of the national union in Washington, D.C., had his own mob marriage, to a niece of the Genovese family’s up-front or “street” boss, Frank “Funzi” Tieri.Despite several trips to the bar of justice — once for loansharking, another time for murder — Mr. Crimi, who has been seen meeting with Tieri’s successors through the years and has been heard on wiretaps discussing labor payoffs, has never been convicted of a crime. When last heard from in 2003, he told Village Voice reporter Tom Robbins he was enjoying retirement in the Sunshine State.In contrast, the man the Genovese family chose to replace Mr. Crimi at Local 8 has had rotten luck. In addition to his failed marriage to Billotti’s niece, Tony Muscles had the new love of his life turn on him. At his trial, Guardino’s ex-girlfriend fingered him as a corrupt and violent union official.The testimony was convincing: Last month, Guardino was convicted of enterprise corruption, New York’s version of the federal racketeering statute. Specifically, the jury found him guilty of 40 charges of extortion, labor bribery, possession of stolen property, and restraint of trade in an 18-month racketeering scheme in which contractors shelled out more than $2 million. According to evidence at the trial, Tony Muscles & Company took in payoffs of more than $110,000 a month from 20 extortion victims in 2002 and 2003.Guardino’s recent fate mirrors that of many of Mr. Crimi’s successors who, along with their Genovese family partners, have been shaking down contractors for labor peace and other considerations — such as not getting their brains blown out — for decades, according to court papers.Before trial, the union’s business agent, Sabatino Russo, 63, pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption charges in a deal in which he agreed to take a one- to three-year prison term and forfeit $50,000.Longtime Genovese capo John “Johnny Sausage” Barbato, the powerful mob force behind Guardino, 55, and Russo, also copped a plea before trial, agreeing to take a two- to six-year prison sentence and forfeit $250,000.In a break with his old-school background — and a testament that the rules that wiseguys once lived and died by have changed — Johnny Sausage admitted his membership in a crime family, something that used to be an absolute no-no for a “made man” in good standing.He never stated specifically that he was a Genovese capo, as the indictment charged, but he left no doubt about his station in life, or his role in the lucrative scheme, according to an official transcript of the proceeding.After telling Judge Roger Hayes that he was a “member” of a “criminal organization,” Barbato, 72, said: “This criminal organization was part of a nationwide criminal organization that operated through entities called families. During the relevant period, I was a member and high-ranking official of one such family. I influenced and controlled the Local 8 labor officials, and Local 8, and benefited financially from the criminal activities of the Local 8 group.”Without identifying any of his codefendants by name, Johnny Sausage said he rigged Guardino’s election to his union post, took regular payoffs from him, and said they were aided in their criminal activity by Donna Catalano, 49.Even Barbato’s bodyguard-chauffeur, Michael Verdi, 36, took a deal. He accepted a nine-month sentence for a guilty plea to possession of stolen property.Tony Muscles, who faces up to 25 years in prison at sentencing on February 6, was remanded even before the jury reached its verdict. Soon after deliberations began, Guardino checked into a hospital rather than go to court. Assistant district attorneys Barry Ginsberg and Deborah Hickey, saying they feared that Tony Muscles just might check out of town next time, prevailed on the trial judge, Robert Strauss, to jail him until deliberations ended.At trial, jurors heard Guardino talk to his girlfriend about his failed marriage. During a December 3, 2002, tape-recorded conversation, Guardino and Ms. Catalano thrashed out ways to hide his assets from Ms. Billotti during the couple’s angry divorce proceedings.During a long, tortuous discussion about annuities, pensions, and net worth — and after Ms. Catalano noted that he had to make a decision because the longer things dragged out, “the more she gets” — Guardino spouted out an alternative.“I know,” he said. “I’ll kill her. And then she’ll get nothing. And that’ll be the end of that.”In the end, however, the only violence Ms. Catalano testified about were several beatings Tony Muscles gave her when their relationship soured, a key reason she took the stand against her former lover.Ms. Catalano’s betrayal certainly didn’t help Guardino, but the overwhelming evidence against the roofers union big consisted of the dozens of hours of audio and videotaped conversations of meetings between Tony Muscles and Johnny Sausage between April 2002 and May 2003.At trial, business agent John Esposito, 43, was also found guilty of bribe receiving and faces up to seven years at sentencing. Two other union officers, Michael Errante, 50, and Joseph Garito, 60, were acquitted of all charges.***There was one other guilty plea in the case that quietly made some history. It took place in a nearly empty courtroom last September — the same one where Johnny Sausage was sentenced earlier that day.Local 8, the union that represents 700 New York area workers in the roofing and waterproofing industries, became the country’s first labor union to plead guilty to racketeering and corruption charges based on the actions of its leaders.The union’s international president, Kinsey Robinson, and a trustee who was appointed after the charges were filed agreed to a plea bargain under which the union forfeited $200,000 and agreed to fund the cost of a court-appointed monitor. If the union, which did nothing when other officials were nailed on corruption charges in 1999, remains clean for five years, it will be permitted to withdraw the guilty plea.“This historic plea,” Manhattan’s district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, said, “ends the control and infiltration of Local 8 by organized crime and racketeers.”This column and other news of organized crime will appear today at ganglandnews.com.

A Strong Case Against Tony Muscles

A Strong Case Against Tony Muscles

More from the New York Sun

What Will the Left Do If Bibi Loses?

Republicans Take War of Words Against Talarico To a School Yard Bully Level

A Knicks Assist? Owner Jim Dolan Hosts GOP Fundraiser at MSG For Bruce Blakeman

Ilhan Omar’s Constitutional Trump Card

Catholic Soldiers Should Not Participate in Firing Squad Execution, Archbishop Says

Formula 1 Returns to Africa in 2030 Ending Void Filled With Scrutiny Over Human Rights

No ‘Special’ Treatment For Ilhan Omar as Investigators Question Her Age

Trump’s New Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia, Lands Big Headline in First Appearance

More from the New York Sun

What Will the Left Do If Bibi Loses?

Republicans Take War of Words Against Talarico To a School Yard Bully Level

A Knicks Assist? Owner Jim Dolan Hosts GOP Fundraiser at MSG For Bruce Blakeman

Ilhan Omar’s Constitutional Trump Card

Catholic Soldiers Should Not Participate in Firing Squad Execution, Archbishop Says

Formula 1 Returns to Africa in 2030 Ending Void Filled With Scrutiny Over Human Rights

No ‘Special’ Treatment For Ilhan Omar as Investigators Question Her Age

Trump’s New Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia, Lands Big Headline in First Appearance