By Alex Davidson
Judge Roger Rosengarten sentenced Anthony “Tony” Piccolo, 58, whose past businesses were proven to have links to organized crime, to serve a term of 2-3/4 to 8-1/4 years in prison and pay more than $500,000, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Piccolo's daughter, Toni-Lynn Piccolo, 32, was sentenced to serve six months in jail and a five-year probation term, the district attorney said.
“Anthony Piccolo secretly obtained the use of the trade waste licenses of two other companies under which he ran his criminal enterprise and directed his subordinates, including his daughter, to collect, illicitly, proceeds of extortion, coercion, restraint of trade and grand larceny schemes, orchestrated the commercial bribery of his customers' employees and secreted monetary proceeds made through his unlicensed carting company into various bank accounts,” Brown said.
Piccolo, of 65 Southgate Circle in Massapequa, and his daughter, of 9 Winwood Court in Islip, pleaded guilty Sept. 23 to illegally cheating three Brooklyn hospitals and a host of other retailers, supermarkets and restaurants from the headquarters of Tony Piccolo Carting Co., based at 350 Beach 80th St. in the Rockaways, Brown said.
The father and daughter pair pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption charges following a 58-count indictment, the district attorney said. Brown said that his office's investigation, called “Operation Hidden Interest,” began in March 2002 and was able to seize $500,000 in assets from the Piccolos, including 11 garbage trucks valued at approximately $300,000.
On Oct. 22, an Ozone Park man and another from Howard Beach pleaded guilty to helping orchestrate the waste collection fraud scheme that relied on bribery and physical threats to bilk three hospitals out of millions of dollars, Brown said.
Genaro Bruno, 30, of 150-15 Tahoe St. in Ozone Park and Todd Labarca, 32, of 149-09 88th St. in Howard Beach admitted they worked as enforcers for the Tony Piccolo Carting Co., Brown said.
Piccolo and others admitted he and his company threatened, coerced and extorted competing garbage collection companies by demanding payments to allow those carters access to customers in Brooklyn, Brown said.
Bruno, who was in federal custody, pleaded guilty to grand larceny and will serve a prison term of between 3-1/2 to seven years, while Labarca pleaded guilty to charges of attempted coercion and faces a possible prison term of 1-1/2 to three years, Brown said.
The two men said they participated in the scheme that involved Kings County, Brooklyn and Brookdale Hospitals, Brown said. The pair pleaded guilty Oct. 22 in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens also in front of Judge Roger Rosengarten.
Reach reporter Alex Davidson by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
