By N. Clark Judd
Extortion charges were dismissed against a high-level employee for a lead contractor on the Croton filtration plant project indicted in a far-reaching mob sting in February, court documents show.
Anthony Delvescovo, who was the head of tunnel operations for Schiavone Construction, the contractor digging tunnels at the Croton plant’s Van Cortlandt Park site — and scheduled to continue digging at Jerome Park Reservoir — was charged with extortion, but those allegations were thrown out in August for lack of evidence.
He was alleged to have taken a cut of money strong-armed from an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joseph Vollaro of Andrew’s Trucking, who was hauling dirt from the site.
Nicholas Calvo, an employee of contractor Nacirema Construction purported to be an associate of the Genovese crime family, name-checked Mr. Delvoscovo and Michael King, a shop steward for Excavator’s Union Local 731 at the Croton site, during conversations he had with Mr. Vollaro while the informant was wearing a wire, said Mr. King’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo.
Mr. Calvo pleaded guilty to extorting a cut of Mr. Vollaro’s contract to haul dirt from the Van Cortlandt Park site, prosecutors say, and Mr. King pled guilty to taking a cut of the money.
Mr. Delvescovo’s lawyer, Avraham Moskowitz, says Mr. Calvo dropped his client’s name, too.
“Two other people who pled guilty were apparently using his name as someone that they knew that, they were getting money from the informant and they said, ‘Well, we’re going to split it with him,’ because Anthony was high up enough that it gave him credibility,” Mr. Moskowitz said.
But the Feds couldn’t prove Mr. Delvescovo was part of the scheme, and the charges against him were dropped.
Mr. Agnifilo says Mr. King believed the money he was getting came from the proceeds of selling scrap metal from the site — something Mr. Agnifilo isn’t sure is legal, but says is a common practice, and is far from extortion.
“When they get scrap metal from the job site, sometimes they’re able to sell it, and that money is almost seen as just for the guys,” Mr. Agnifilo said. “They’ll buy pizza with it, they’ll get beer with it. It’s kind of like the site’s money.”
Mr. King and Mr. Calvo are out on bail pending their sentencing hearings, said a spokesman for Benton J. Campbell, United States attorney for the Eastern District Court of New York.
