INVESTIGATION INTO CONNECTICUT & NEW YORK WASTE HAULING INDUSTRY RESULTS IN SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT

        Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that an ongoing investigation into the waste hauling industry in Connecticut and New York has resulted in a Superseding Indictment.  The Superseding Indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in New Haven on June 12 and unsealed today.

        On June 8, 2006 , a grand jury returned an Indictment charging 29 individuals and several entities with various violations of federal law.  Since that date, 21 individuals charged in the Indictment have pleaded guilty.  The Superseding Indictment charges eight individual defendants and 10 business entities that are named in the original Indictment, omits the charges against those defendants who have pleaded guilty, and adds one additional defendant.

        The Superseding Indictment includes new allegations against JAMES GALANTE, ERIC ROMANDI, RICHARD GALIETTI, CHRISTOPHER RAYNER, and ANTHONY LUCIANO.  In general, the Superseding Indictment alleges that carters in Connecticut and eastern New York engaged in a "property rights system," in which participating carters would not service or compete for other carters' customers.  The property rights system, which is predicated on mail and wire fraud, and extortion, essentially destroys free enterprise, allowing the participating carters to artificially inflate their prices and leaving waste removal customers with no other options.  In this scheme, which was principally directed at commercial and municipal customers, participating carters agreed to quote inflated prices to customers controlled by other carters.

        The Superseding Indictment alleges that the property rights system was followed and enforced by businesses owned and controlled by JAMES GALANTE and others.  GALANTE, age 54, of New Fairfield, Connecticut, is now charged in 93 counts of the Superseding Indictment with various violations of federal law, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, Hobbs Act extortion, mail and wire fraud, witness tampering, tax fraud and conspiracy charges.  GALANTE owns AUTOMATED WASTE DISPOSAL, INC. and several affiliates and subsidiaries with THOMAS MILO, age 69, of Mamaroneck , New York , or MILO 's wife.  MILO , charged in the Superseding Indictment with racketeering conspiracy, is alleged to be an associate of the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra.

        With respect to GALANTE and ERIC ROMANDI, age 60, of Danbury, Connecticut, the Superseding Indictment includes the new allegations that these two defendants and others conspired to commit arson and kidnaping by damaging a truck owned by one of GALANTE's competitors, and by kidnaping the driver of that truck at gunpoint.  Further, the Superseding Indictment adds an additional witness tampering charge against ROMANDI.

        RICHARD GALIETTI, age 34, of Riverhead, New York , is charged in 66 counts of the Superseding Indictment.  RICHARD GALIETTI was formerly employed by GALANTE as a sales manager for his companies.  The Superseding Indictment adds 23 counts of mail fraud against GALANTE, 19 counts of mail fraud against RICHARD GALIETTI, and 15 counts of mail fraud against AWD.  The new mail fraud charges allege that GALANTE, GALIETTI, AWD and others fraudulently obtained inflated payments - typically 10 percent - from Danbury customers for trash removal services by falsely claiming that the disposal site used to dispose of each customer's refuse had increased its disposal rates, which, under the customers' service contract, was a cost that could be passed directly to the customer.  It is alleged that these additional charges were fraudulent, as the disposal site had not increased disposal costs.  These allegations are also contained in additional racketeering acts in the Superseding Indictment.

        The Superseding Indictment also contains an additional racketeering act that alleges that members of the enterprise and their associates bundled campaign contributions to politicians, that is orchestrated campaign donations through straw donors who were then reimbursed in cash and, on occasion, provided unlawful favors to politicians so as to establish a corrupt relationship in the hope of improperly influencing or controlling these politicians.

        GALANTE and MILO's accountant, CHRISTOPHER RAYNER, age 45, of Wilmington, North Carolina, is charged in 25 counts in the Superseding Indictment with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, tax fraud and conspiracy offenses.  RAYNER faces one additional charge in the Superseding Indictment, Count 75, of conspiring to commit wire fraud related to the operation of GALANTE's United Hockey League's DANBURY TRASHERS.  In order to circumvent the League's $275,000 salary cap, GALANTE is alleged to have added TRASHERS players and/or spouses to the payroll of GALANTE entities where they were given positions for which they performed no work, and made several thousand dollars in extra housing payments to the players that were not reported to the League.  It is alleged that, with the players' supplemented salaries, the TRASHERS payroll totaled approximately $750,000.  The Superseding Indictment alleges that RAYNER, who allegedly was listed as the Chief Financial Officer for the UHL, participated in this conspiracy.

        The Superseding Indictment further alleges that GALANTE, his businesses, RAYNER, ROMANDI and others conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by, among other things, the creation of false business expense reports that resulted in cash payments to GALANTE, which payments GALANTE did not report to the IRS, and which expenses were claimed as business expenses by his company; the providing of "no-show" jobs at GALANTE companies for several individuals who did no work for those companies; GALANTE's acceptance of kickbacks from employees who regularly received additional paychecks with the understanding that they would cash them and provide the cash to GALANTE; the establishment of a fraudulent business entity for a private residence and horse farm owned by GALANTE that had no legitimate business purpose, and GALANTE and another defendant's skimming of cash proceeds from GALANTE's businesses.

        The Indictment also alleges that GALANTE added several members of an auto-race team he sponsors, and a coach of his son's high school hockey team, to payrolls of his businesses, even though they performed no work for those businesses.

        ARTHUR WALLINGER, age 42, of Cheshire , Connecticut , an owner and operator of AJ Waste Systems, a carting company located in Cheshire , is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy.

        ANTHONY LUCIANO, age 50, of 8 Davenport Road, Westport, Connecticut, a former salesman for a GALANTE-owned company, is also charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy.  LUCIANO, who was not charged in the initial Indictment, was arrested this morning.  He appeared this afternoon before Senior United States District Judge Ellen Burns and was released on a bond in the amount of $200,000.

        PAUL GALIETTI, age 39, of Southbury , Connecticut , the cousin of RICHARD GALIETTI and a Connecticut State Police Trooper, is charged with unlawfully accessing a state police computer to obtain vehicle registration information from the National Crime Information Center .  LOUIS ANGIOLETTI, age 36, of New Jersey, a special agent employed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is also charged in the Indictment with unlawfully accessing a law enforcement computer system.

        The Superseding Indictment charges several entities controlled by GALANTE and MILO or MILO's wife, including AUTOMATED WASTE DISPOSAL, INC. (AWD), DIVERSIFIED WASTE DISPOSAL, INC. (DWD) and SUPERIOR WASTE DISPOSAL, INC. (SWD), TRANSFER SYSTEMS, INC. (TSI), and ADVANCED RECYCLING CORP. (ARC), all of 307 White Street, Danbury.  Also charged are AWD-affiliated companies JAT TRUCK REPAIR SERVICE, INC. and TRASHERS, LLC (DANBURY TRASHERS), a minor league hockey team, and SWD subsidiaries DANBURY CARTING COMPANY, INC. and THOMAS' REFUSE SERVICES, INC.  In addition, 530 MAIN STREET NORTH CORPORATION, d.b.a. "Nutmeg Investments," a company controlled by GALANTE whose principal asset is a residential house located at 530 Main Street North in Southbury , Connecticut , is also charged.

        The Superseding Indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation based on the racketeering charges, which provides that if the assets' owners are convicted, the assets would be forfeited to the United States.  The listed assets include 25 trash carting and related businesses; two parcels of real property; 24 personal bank accounts in the names of GALANTE and his family members; six race cars; and $448,153 cash that was seized in July 2005 from GALANTE's home and business offices during the execution of multiple search warrants by federal agents.  The Superseding Indictment also seeks a money judgment of at least 100 million dollars.

        Since June 2006, in connection with the forfeiture allegations, the United States Marshals Service has been monitoring the operations of the indicted businesses in order to assure both that the businesses continue to serve their customers, and that they conduct all operations in compliance with the law.

        U.S. Attorney O'Connor stressed that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Each defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which it is the Government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

        This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General and the Connecticut State Police.  The United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency's Office of Professional Responsibility, the Connecticut Department of Correction and the New Haven, Milford and Ansonia Police Departments have provided critical assistance in the Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorneys Michael J. Gustafson, Raymond F. Miller, Henry K. Kopel and Anthony E. Kaplan are prosecuting this case.