FBI Claims School Bus Owner Paid Mob Union
January 23, 2008 – The feds have busted a school bus company owner implicated in a growing scandal that’s tarnished the city’s Department of Education, the Daily News has learned.
Joseph Fazzia, owner of Jofaz Transportation, was quietly charged last week with making false statements to the FBI, court records show.
Fazzia has denied making payments to the mob-controlled union that represents school bus drivers, Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 1181.
OFFICIALS SAY SCHOOL BUS SYSTEM HAD TIES TO THE MOB
But that union’s corrupt president, Salvatore Battaglia, last week pleaded guilty to taking payoffs and said several bus company owners have made regular payments to his union for decades.
The union has been controlled by the Genovese crime family since the 1970s, helping private bus companies milk the taxpayers and pumping millions into mob pockets.
Prosecutors identified three owners who said they had made payments to the union: Domenic Gatto, owner of Atlantic Express; Ray Fouche, owner of Rainbow Transit and Robert Dimino, owner of Safe Coach.
These companies currently have millions of dollars in DOE contracts to transport tens of thousands of New York City students.
Prosecutors say all three have admitted making payments to Local 1181. However, Fazzia denied paying off the mobbed-up union, prosecutors allege.
Fazzia is free on $150,000 bond. His lawyer declined to discuss the case.
Fazzia’s company and its several affiliates transport hundreds of city elementary and special education students every school day.
Education Department spokesman David Cantor did not respond to a request for comment on the status of DOE contracts with companies implicated in the scandal.
SCHOOL BUSES, UNIONS AND THE MOB: A SPECIAL REPORT; SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS GO TO COMPANIES WITH TIES TO MOB
Last summer, the FBI investigation of the mob-controlled bus drivers’ union expanded to include corruption in the Education Department after The News revealed bus companies were being tipped off to “surprise” safety inspections.
The head of the school bus safety inspection unit has pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is cooperating with the FBI, as is one of his inspectors.
That inspector has told the FBI that 10 bus companies regularly made payments to inspectors. Those companies have not been named.
This ARTICLE was written by Greg B. Smith and published in The New York Daily News, on January 23, 2008.