1.27.00
/ Updated 1:40 p.m.
Coia agrees to
plead guilty in tax-fraud scheme
A
look back at Arthur Coia
By JOHN E.
MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau Chief
BOSTON -- Arthur A. Coia of Barrington, the former Laborers union chief
who was once one of President Clinton's top political contributors, has
agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud in a string of luxury car deals
with a major union vendor.
Donald K. Stern, the U.S. attorney in Boston, today released the terms
of the plea bargain, which bars Coia from any future role with one of
the nation's largest and most corruption-plagued construction unions.
Charged with one count of mail fraud, Coia agreed to a $10,000 fine and
restitution of about $100,000 in evaded taxes to Rhode Island and his
hometown of Barrington. Placed on two years' of probation, he will serve
no prison time.
He will also be barred from any future role in his union and, for five
years, as an employee in other unions. He will continue, however, as
``general president emeritus'' of the union, at the equivalent of his
full salary of more than $250,000.
The agreement is subject to court approval. Coia is scheduled to appear
for sentencing before U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole at 2
p.m. Monday, according to Samantha Martin, spokeswoman for Stern.
``While holding important leadership positions at LIUNA (the Laborers'
International Union of North America) . . . Mr. Coia engaged in an
extensive scheme to cheat Rhode Island and Barrington of approximately
$100,000 in taxes,'' Stern said in a press release.
``Although he spent well over a million dollars on Ferrari automobiles,
Mr. Coia repeatedly found ways to shirk his duty to pay his taxes,''
Stern said.
The crime involved a series of deals from 1991 through 1997 -- including
the purchase of a vintage 1972 Ferrari for $1,050,000 -- under which
Coia fraudulently registered his cars in Middletown, in order to avoid
the higher property taxes in his hometown of Barrington.
In two other deals described in the press release, both also involving
Ferraris, Coia made purchases that avoided full payment of the 7-percent
use tax on vehicle purchases in Rhode Island.
Coia's partner in the deals was Carmine Carcieri of Lincoln, a lifelong
friend and the proprietor of the Viking automobile agencies in
Middletown, according to evidence presented in the secret 1998 hearings
of a series of internal union charges against Coia.
During the years when Coia held the top two posts at the Laborers,
Carcieri's firm held the contract to lease cars to the union, business
that came to be worth more than $1 million a year.
As part of a reform program imposed on the union by the Justice
Department in 1995, the Laborers severed business ties with Viking
because of its alleged organized crime ties.
During hearings on internal union charges against Coia in 1998, his
defense team presented evidence that the Viking firm had no ties to
organized crime.
Carcieri has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Coia, 56, a Providence-born lawyer who once enjoyed a friendship with
President Clinton through his political and fundraising clout, had
announced his resignation from the general president of the Laborers'
union on Dec. 6, 1999. The resignation took effect on Jan. 1.
He had been found guilty of conflict of interest and fined $100,000
last March by the anti-corruption unit that he had helped to create in
order to stave off a federal takeover of the union almost five years
ago. The same internal tribunal cleared Coia of improper dealings with
mobsters
Coia had also been reported to have negotiated a plea agreement with
federal prosecutors in connection with the conflict of interest with a
union vendor. But the Justice Department, the union and Coia's attorney
would shed no light last month on whether that matter was still under
negotiation.
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