Presser Insisted FBI Gave Permission for Pay Scheme

Teamsters Union President Jackie Presser’s trump card in persuading Justice Department officials not to prosecute him was his insistence that the FBI had given him permission to participate in a payroll-padding scheme involving alleged mob figures, The Times has learned.

FBI officials refused Thursday to confirm or deny that Presser had been given such authority, which the bureau is allowed to grant under federal guidelines governing its dealings with informants.

But the claim by Presser’s lawyer, John R. Climaco, persuaded top-level Justice Department officials that the union leader may have acted “without criminal intent” in the broad scheme involving his Cleveland local, an official involved in the matter said.

Climaco, apparently reluctant to disclose the union leader’s role as an FBI informant out of fear for Presser’s safety, raised the issue only at the last minute--months after a federal strike force had recommended Presser’s indictment in the scheme, and after his other legal maneuvers failed.

The lawyer, reached by telephone Thursday, angrily denied the account of his negotiations, calling it “insane.” But he refused to discuss specifics and added: “I’m not going to comment on this case or on any contacts I’ve had with the Justice Department.”

Department spokesman Terry Eastland said: “We’re not going to comment on any particulars.”

When Climaco made his 11th-hour appeal in June, David Margolis, chief of the Justice Department’s organized crime and racketeering section, already had endorsed the strike force’s indictment recommendation.

But after a deputy, Paul E. Coffey, investigated Climaco’s claim, Margolis reversed himself. Senior department officials later decided not to seek an indictment.

Top FBI and Justice Department officials have begun an internal probe into why the department was taken by surprise--more than two years after the fraud inquiry began--by the disclosure that Presser was working for the FBI.

Senate Begins Inquiry

The Senate Government Operations permanent investigations subcommittee has begun its own inquiry into those issues and the handling of the politically sensitive case, which involves President Reagan’s only supporter among major labor leaders. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has begun another inquiry.

Under guidelines issued in 1980 by then-Atty. Gen. Benjamin R. Civiletti, FBI agents can obtain written authorization for informants to participate in crimes “to establish and maintain credibility or cover” with criminal suspects.

But the payroll-padding scheme, in which Presser allegedly approved the payment of more than $250,000 from his hometown Cleveland local to “ghost employees,” occurred in the late 1970s. Rules then in effect permitted the FBI to authorize certain criminal acts by informants, but with a much less stringent approval process.

Relationship Unclear

That difference could help explain why the Justice Department had difficulty in establishing until very late in the three-year Presser investigation the nature of his relationship to the FBI.

A source with detailed knowledge of the Presser investigation said Climaco argued to Justice Department officials that Presser had FBI authority to engage in what the guidelines describe as “ordinary crimes”--in this case, padding the union payroll with mob figures who did no work.

By doing so, the source said, Presser was to have enhanced his value as an informant by putting the mob figures in his debt and by establishing a pipeline to organized crime.

Organized Crime Ties

Although the source emphasized that he had no information that the alleged ghost employees actually served as a pipeline to the mob, three of them did have ties to organized crime: Jack Nardi, John J. (Skip) Felice Jr. and George (G. G.) Argie.

Nardi, the son of a murdered mob figure, has admitted that he was illegally paid $109,800 between 1972 and 1978 by Teamsters Local 507 in Cleveland, of which Presser still serves as secretary-treasurer.

Felice and Argie are convicted felons. Felice is a former Local 298 officer who was convicted in 1978 of embezzling union funds, and Argie has been tied to Cleveland gambling figures.

Ronald J. Ostrow reported from Washington and Robert L. Jackson from Cleveland.