At Ground Zero, Builder Is Barred but Not His Kin

[DoYouEverWonder]

July 21, 2006

The pieces of Dino Tomassetti Sr.’s construction empire are all over ground zero.

A glance into the pit at the World Trade Center site reveals his company’s Laquila cranes, heavy equipment, pickup trucks and crews. His oldest son’s blue and white Empire Transit Mix trucks will deliver concrete for the foundation of the Freedom Tower, the most symbolic of the five planned skyscrapers. His daughter’s company will deliver the steel rods, or rebar, that strengthen the concrete walls.

But Mr. Tomassetti, the 79-year-old patriarch of this empire, is barred from setting foot on the 16-acre site.

He is under indictment, accused of making thousands of dollars in illegal payoffs to union officials over a 10-year period. He denies the charges.

Federal prosecutors and testimony have linked him to organized crime figures. His companies have been banned from obtaining city contracts and stripped of a special permit to operate a solid waste transfer station. One Laquila company was fined for its part in a scheme organized by a member of the Gambino crime organization to dump construction debris illegally in New Jersey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/nyregion/21rebuild.html?_r=1&oref=slogin