WCNYH

Longshoreman Surrenders License with Prejudice During Hearing Charging Him with Associating with Members of Organized Crime

November 2, 2018

    Nicholas Atria, 59, of Glendale, New York, a longshoreman since 1994, requested the Commission accept the surrender of his registration with prejudice following the issuance of an Amended Notice of Hearing which charged Atria with associating with two organized crime figures: Thomas Leonardis and Joseph Caridi. The Waterfront Commission Act bars port workers from associating with members or associates of organized crime groups, terrorist groups, career offenders and convicted racketeers under circumstances inimical to the Waterfront Act.

    On October 17, 2018, a hearing commenced and the Commission presented proof before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) that Leonardis had called Atria on multiple occasions from prison and had contacted Atria multiple times by phone once he was released. Leonardis was the former president of ILA Local 1235 and was convicted in 2014 in New Jersey federal district court of Extortion for his part in the Christmastime Bonus scheme, in which longshoremen were required to pay some or all of their year-end bonuses to the Genovese crime family. Three of the prison calls, which were played for the ALJ, demonstrated a friendship between Leonardis and Atria.

    In addition, the Commission presented evidence of Atria’s association with Joseph Caridi, a former Luchese crime family underboss and consiglieri, who had been convicted in 2003 in Brooklyn federal court of Racketeering and Extortion and sentenced to eight years in federal prison. The Commission had evidence that Atria visited Caridi in prison on five occasions and had been in phone contact with Caridi over 400 times in the past couple of years.

    Based on the evidence, the Commission accepted Atria’s surrender of his registration with prejudice.