http://search.newschoice.com/Display.asp?story=d:\index\newsarchives\conpst\
loc\20010813\1032249_10.txt&searchtext=al+gore&puid=6747&deal=no
Tainted
funds
linked
to Gore Took contributions from execs
with ties to organized crime
August 13, 2001
By PETER URBAN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore accepted campaign
contributions from executives of a Connecticut business allegedly tied to
organized crime and the federal corruption investigation in Waterbury.
Executives of Worth Construction Co. donated $4,000 to the Gore campaign on
Feb. 19, 1999 -- a week after the Senate voted to acquit President Clinton
in his impeachment trial.
Worth President Joseph Pontoriero gave $1,000, as did his son, Michael, and
two other executives of the Bethel firm. Pontoriero was listed as an
unindicted co-conspirator in the 1987 trial of Genovese crime-family don
Anthony Fat Tony Salerno.
Worth Construction, whose offices were reportedly searched as part of an FBI
probe of Waterbury City Hall, was banned in 1998 from bidding on school
construction jobs in New York City because of Pontoriero's alleged mob ties.
Company officials have declined to speak to reporters.
Pontoriero's contribution to Gore 2000 was obscured by incomplete and
inaccurate documentation submitted by Gore campaign treasurer Jose Villareal
to the Federal Elections Commission.
Pontoriero's occupation was left blank on the form and his home address was
erroneously listed as being in Bridgeport. The address is actually the home
of another Joseph Pontoriero -- a school bus driver.
The Bridgeport resident told the Connecticut Post that he did not make the
$1,000 contribution and had no knowledge of another Joseph Pontoriero living
in Connecticut.
Villareal said that he had no idea how the mistaken address appeared on the
FEC report. He referred the Connecticut Post to Eric Kleinfeld, an elections
attorney working for the Gore campaign. Kleinfeld did not respond to a
request for an interview.
Larry Makinson, a senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, said
that he has never heard of a similar disclosure snafu.
I feel sorry for the bus driver. He's going to be on every fund-raiser's
mailing list now, Makinson said.
It is not unusual, Makinson said, for a campaign to fail to fully disclose
the home address and occupation of donors that give at least $200.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Gore campaign provided
incomplete information on 18.2 percent of its contributors. By comparison,
the CRP's analysis shows that Bush had missing information from 12.4 percent
of his contributors.
Pontoriero, who made the campaign contribution, is hardly a humble school
bus driver, but rather a wealthy Greenwich executive with a passion for
Ferrari racing cars.
Pontoriero and his son, Michael, appear to live in an exclusive waterfront
enclave of 33 homes where a 14,000-square-foot house on 6 acres sold for
more than $20.7 million in 1999.
The two are also members of the Northeast Region of the Ferrari Owners Club
and participate in the Ferrari Challenge racing circuit, according to
regional director Jamie Ross. The club's Web site lists the Pontorieros as
its relaxation chairmen.
Business documents filed with the Connecticut Secretary of the State list
Pontoriero's mailing address as 136 Field Point Circle. His son, Michael
Pontoriero, is listed as a trustee of the property and receives the property
tax bills, according to the Greenwich Assessors office.
The Gore campaign listed no occupation for Michael Pontoriero and gave his
home address as 37 Revere Place in Ridgefield.
The FEC document did disclose the occupation and residence of the two Worth
executives -- Diana L. Vossen (construction manager) of Danbury and William
Dizenzo (senior vice president) of Trumbull -- but Pontoriero's occupation
was left blank.
The FBI is examining records involving a $94 million upgrade to Waterbury's
sewage-treatment plant that was overseen by Worth Construction.
Worth, which was founded in 1978, has been barred since April 1998 by New
York City's School Construction Authority from ever bidding on school
projects in New York.
They were subjects of an investigation of criminal connections that were
between the president of the company and several organized crime figures,
said Daniel McCormack, a spokesman for the construction authority.
Worth was disqualified from bidding on New York school jobs after Pontoriero
refused to answer any questions from authorities about his alleged
association with gangsters.
At Salerno's 1987 trial, an FBI agent testified that a hidden microphone
recorded a conversation between Pontoriero and Salerno at Salerno's Palma
Boys Social Club in East Harlem, N.Y. The 1985 conversation was reported to
be about FBI surveillance.
Pontoriero's name appeared on a list of 172 unindicted co-conspirators that
prosecutors presented to prospective jurors.
Worth was also under investigation in 1997 by the New Jersey Attorney
General to determine if it was run by organized crime. In 1996, the company,
which had won a $154 million contract to build the Atlantic City convention
center, was forced to drop two subcontractors because of their alleged ties
to organized crime. One of the companies was run by Richard Gotti, brother
of former New York mob boss John Gotti, according to a report in The Record
in Bergen County, N.J.
Worth Construction also surfaced in a 1998 federal indictment of Gotti's
son, John Junior Gotti and 22 mob associates. Gotti associate Vincent Zollo
was accused of skimming money while working as a subcontractor for Worth on
a project at Public School 43.
Story.url
