Presser Ties to Mafia Alleged : N.Y. Grand Jury Probes Efforts to Control Union

Teamster President Jackie Presser, already the target of a Cleveland grand jury’s renewed labor fraud investigation, also is under scrutiny by a federal grand jury in New York in connection with alleged Mafia efforts to control his 1.7-million-member union, The Times learned Tuesday.

Those efforts, government sources said, date back to 1983, when Presser associates allegedly gained the support of Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, reputed boss of the Genovese organized crime family in New York, for Presser’s election as Teamster president.

U.S. Atty. Rudolph W. Giuliani sought authority for the New York grand jury to take action earlier this year but was turned down by Assistant Atty. Gen. Stephen S. Trott, said the sources, who declined to be identified.

One official said that Trott wanted to delay the New York case against Presser until completion of the Cleveland investigation--which is focusing on Presser’s alleged payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars of union funds to “ghost employees” who did no work--and a related inquiry here into allegedly false statements by one or more FBI agents who oversaw Presser’s service as an FBI informant.

Any formal charges in the New York case would not be expected until well after Presser’s anticipated reelection next week to a five-year term at the Teamsters’ national convention in Las Vegas.

If charges are filed against Presser in the New York investigation, sources said, they would be added to those brought March 21 in an indictment against Salerno and 14 other defendants--nine of them alleged high-ranking members of the Genovese family. Those charges include allegations of widespread construction bid-rigging, extortion, gambling and murder conspiracies and extensive labor racketeering.

Williams’ Role Cited

One count of that indictment alleged that Salerno, Milton (Maishe) Rockman, a longtime associate of Presser and his late father, William Presser, and other mob figures selected Roy L. Williams as their candidate for Teamster president in 1981, lined up key support for him and then sought to influence Williams’ decisions and acts to benefit the mob’s interest.

Much of that information, buttressed by court-authorized wiretaps, was obtained by the FBI from Angelo A. Lonardo, a former Cleveland Mafia underboss, who turned informant in hopes of winning a reduction in the life sentence he received in 1983 after his conviction on drug and conspiracy charges.

Lonardo, in extensive FBI interviews made public last year in the Kansas City trial of Mafia leaders accused of skimming nearly $2 million from Teamster-financed casinos, also said that Rockman had won the support of Salerno in 1983 for Presser to succeed Williams. Williams resigned as union president after being convicted of conspiring to bribe former Sen. Howard W. Cannon (D-Nev.).

Tells of Meeting

Lonardo said that he and Rockman met with Salerno in 1983 at a card room in Harlem that Salerno frequented.

“When they met with Fat Tony in the card shop on West 116th Street, Tony told them he would support Presser for president because Tony wanted to put someone in as president that they knew,” an FBI summary of Lonardo’s interview said.

While the March indictment of Salerno and the other reputed mobsters included the allegations of mob efforts to elect and control Williams, it made no mention of the similar Lonardo charges involving Presser.

When asked at that time about the distinction between Presser and Williams, U.S. Atty. Giuliani would say only: “The investigation is still continuing.” He declined comment Tuesday when asked about his efforts to include Presser in the charges.

Unusual FBI Position

The New York investigation of Presser put the FBI in the unusual position of developing information against one of its “top-echelon” informants--after a Senate committee found that it had gone to great lengths to protect him from prosecution.

The New York investigation has been conducted by FBI agents based there, with assistance from Labor Department investigators, sources familiar with the case said.

A recommendation by a federal strike force in Cleveland that Presser be indicted on labor fraud charges was rejected by Justice Department officials last July after FBI agents corroborated a claim by Presser’s lawyer that he had FBI authorization to make the ghost employee payments.

Claims Called False

That investigation was renewed after the Justice Department decided that the authorization claims were false and that one or more agents was responsible.

William Baker, the FBI’s assistant director for congressional and public affairs, reiterated the bureau’s refusal to comment on the Presser investigation. But without reference to that case, he said: “Criminal activity on the part of an informant doesn’t preclude prosecution. Each case is looked at on a case-by-case basis.”

In addition to the information provided by Lonardo and wiretaps, the New York investigation of Presser apparently has developed other sources.

‘Effective Control’

Last January, for example, at a post-trial bail hearing for Rockman on his conviction for taking part in the casino skimming conspiracy, a federal prosecutor said that Rockman traveled to New York in 1984 to talk about transferring “effective control” of the Teamsters to the Genovese crime family.

David B. Helfrey, head of the federal organized crime strike force in Kansas City, said that Rockman’s meeting with Salerno and John P. (Peanuts) Tronolone, acting boss of the Cleveland Mafia family, “suggests strongly” that they talked about “transfer of effective control of the Teamsters Union.”

Tronolone is another of the defendants in the New York case.