BOSTON (AP) The former head of the Laborers' International
Union of North America has agreed to plead guilty to not paying $100,000
in taxes on expensive sports cars, federal prosecutors said this morning.
Arthur A. Coia, 56, of Barrington, R.I., was charged in U.S. District
Court with mail fraud in a scheme to evade state and local taxes in Rhode
Island on a succession of Ferraris.
''Although he spent well over $1 million on Ferrari automobiles, Mr.
Coia repeatedly found ways to shirk his duty to pay his taxes,'' U.S.
Attorney Donald K. Stern said in a statement.
Coia and the government agreed to ask a judge for a two-year probation
sentence, along with $100,000 restitution to Rhode Island and the town,
and a $10,000 fine.
The plea agreement is subject to approval by a federal judge.
Coia retired as general president of the union Jan. 1. As part of the
plea agreement, Coia also agreed to be barred from any future role in the
union or its related entities in any capacity and to be barred from being
an employee of any other union for a period of five years, the U.S.
attorney's office said.
The union has more than 800,000 members, mostly in the construction,
environmental cleanup and maintenance industries.
Coia and the union have seen their share of controversy.
In the 1980s, the union was accused of having mob ties by President
Reagan's Commission on Organized Crime. In 1995, to avoid racketeering
charges, the union entered a formal agreement with the Justice Department,
promising to remove alleged mob lieutenants from its ranks and hold direct
elections of its officers.
Investigations of internal corruption reached as high as Coia. Last
year, Coia was cleared by an independent hearing officer of charges that
he had ties to organized crime. But he said he was tired of continuing
scrutiny of his conduct and resigned.
Citing ''substantial progress,'' the Justice Department said this year
it would relax its oversight of anti-corruption efforts within the union.
Coia's number in Barrington is unpublished and he could not immediately
be reached for comment.
U.S. District Judge George O'Toole could consider the plea agreement as
early as today, according to Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for the U.S.
attorney's office.
