Former longshoreman Edward Aulisi was sentenced to thirty months in prison for extorting
Christmas tribute payments from New Jersey dockworkers on behalf of the
Genovese crime family as reported by Warren Cooper for NJN Publishing:
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court,
Edward Aulisi conspired with his father, Vincent Aulisi -- a former
president of International Longshoremen Association Local 1235 who
succeeded another co-defendant, Albert Cernadas -- and Michael Coppola, a
Genovese organized crime family captain, in the scheme.
Coppola was convicted in July 2009 for decades-long extortion against Local 1235, and is serving a 16-year term.
Former longshoreman Edward Aulisi has pleaded guilty to extorting Christmas tribute payments from New Jersey dockworkers on behalf of the Genovese crime family according to a DOJ press release.
The feds secretly recorded a telephone conversation between Edward Aulisi and reputed Genovese capo Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola as reported by Richard Perez-Pena for The New York Times: "on the recording, the man said to be Mr. Aulisi updated the other man on news -- a subpoena served to a Genovese associate, a loan shark customer falling short on a payment -- and mentioned that the 'Christmases' had doubled in a few years."
In 2001 Barone coughed up the family's secrets for Team America after growing tired of the betrayals he had suffered from the so-called men of honor. The Genovese first squeezed Barone out of the waterfront rackets while he dutifully served a seven-year stretch in prison from 1983 to 1990, and in 2001 then-boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante ordered his death. There was only so much indignity Barone could endure, and enough had become enough.
The feds apparently aren't done with their investigation into suspected Genovese-driven corruption on the New Jersey docks.
Last month the feds indicted Albert Cernadas Sr., a former vice president of the ILA and president of Local 1235 in Newark, NJ, for allegedly "shaking down his union members under threats of violence, in what was described as a long-running racketeering operation tied to the Genovese organized crime family" as reported by Ted Sherman for The Star-Ledger. Earlier in the same month the feds indicted Robert Ruiz, a Local 1235 delegate, on extortion charges after he allegedly solicited cash donations from union members intended as tribute payments to the Genovese boys.
And now "sources say a federal grand jury in Newark is investigating the family's links to sister Local 1478 -- whose longtime leader Nunzio LaGrasso was hit with corruption charges in March" as reported by Jerry Capeci for The Huffington Post: "The grand jury is also probing the murder of Genovese mobster Lawrence Ricci, who was killed while he was on trial for labor racketeering in 2005."
The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor "for the first time since the 1970s took a long look at the influence of organized crime on the docks" as reported by Steve Strunsky for The Star-Ledger: "commission officials say the series of hearing -- which gathered testimony and other evidence of corruption to be presented in a report next year -- were meant to send a message to local leaders of the longshoremen's union and the shipping companies that employ its 6,000 local members that the agency plans to again police the docks aggressively."
The hearings commenced last October, and at the first one officials played a purported recording of a 2007 telephone conversation between longshoreman Edward Aulisi from Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen's Association and reputed Genovese capo Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola as reported by Richard Perez-Pena for The New York Times:
The two men spoke using code, translated by Joseph Longo, another commission detective: "Christmases" meant kickback payments, for example, and "shingle" meant lawyer. On the recording, the man said to be Mr. Aulisi updated the other man on news — a subpoena served to a Genovese associate, a loan shark customer falling short on a payment — and mentioned that the "Christmases" had doubled in a few years.
Aulisi, whose father Vincent was a former President of Local 1235, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions at the hearing. In July 2009 Coppola was convicted for decades-long extortion against the local.
Last week the feds indicted Albert Cernadas Sr., a former vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association and president of ILA Local 1235 in Newark, NJ, for allegedly "shaking down his members under threats of violence, in what was described as a long-running racketeering operation tied to the Genovese organized crime family" as reported by Ted Sherman for The Star-Ledger: "The charges come nearly five years after Cernadas, 75, of Union Township, was removed from the ILA after pleading guilty to corruption charges involving thousands of dollars in union funds being funneled into a pharmaceutical company controlled by organized crime." Cernadas "was sentenced to only two years probation" in that case after U.S. District Judge Leo Glasser received from the NJ political establishment "292 letters asking for leniency" as reported by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure in their book The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption.
The feds earlier this month busted Robert Ruiz, a delegate for Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen's Association, on extortion charges after he allegedly solicited cash donations from union members intended as tribute payments to the Genovese boys.
The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor is holding a series of hearings which "officials say they will expose favoritism, no-show jobs and organized-crime involvement on the docks," and yesterday at the first hearing officials played a purported recording of a 2007 telephone conversation between longshoreman Edward Aulisi from Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen's Association and reputed Genovese capo Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola as reported by Richard Perez-Pena for The New York Times:
The two men spoke using code, translated by Joseph Longo, another commission detective: "Christmases" meant kickback payments, for example, and "shingle" meant lawyer. On the recording, the man said to be Mr. Aulisi updated the other man on news — a subpoena served to a Genovese associate, a loan shark customer falling short on a payment — and mentioned that the "Christmases" had doubled in a few years.
Aulisi, whose father Vincent was a former President of Local 1235, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions at the hearing. In July 2009 Coppola was convicted for decades-long extortion against Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen's Association.
Ironically, on the same day that the hearings began, NJ State Sen. Ray Lesniak introduced a bill "to dissolve the 53-year-old commission and turn its regulatory powers over to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey" as reported by Steve Strunsky for The Star-Ledger.
