Buffalo Man Pleads Guilty to Labor Racketeering Charge

BUFFALO, NY—James L. Minter, III, 38, of Buffalo, New York, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge, William M. Skretny, to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit RICO, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter of the Western District of New York announced today. RICO (racketeering conspiracy) carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles B. Wydysh, who handled the case, stated that the defendant from at least January 1997 to December 2007, participated with other high ranking officers and members of Local 17 in a criminal enterprise and that the principal objective of that enterprise was to force employers to hire workers selected by the defendants. The Indictment alleged that the defendant and others threatened to commit and did commit acts of bodily harm, destruction of property, and workplace sabotage. The Indictment also alleged that those acts were not confined to construction sites, and included actions perpetrated against innocent bystanders.

More specifically, the Indictment charged that the defendant, James L. Minter, III, together with others used fear and intimidation in an effort to obtain property from Zoladz Construction and its employees during construction at several projects including 73 Tyler Street, Buffalo, NY; 216 Strauss Street, Buffalo, NY; 32 Wilson Street, Buffalo, NY; 841 Clinton Street, Buffalo, NY; and Dunkirk Landfill, Pomfret, NY. The fear and intimidation used included damaging the property of Arthur Paolucci, who owned an excavator leased to Zoladz. Also, the defendant was charged, along with others, with extorting Environmental Strategies and Ontario Specialty Contracting at the former National Fuel site in Buffalo, NY and also extorting Ecology and Environment and Earthtech and its employees at the construction project at the Fourth Street Remediation Site in Buffalo, NY. The plea was the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the DOL, under the direction of Daniel Petrole, Acting Inspector General, Department of Labor, and FBI under the direction of FBI Special Agent-in-Charge, James H. Robertson.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 23, 2010, at 9:00 time a.m. EST, in Buffalo, N.Y., in front of Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny.