By JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau Chief

BOSTON -- Arthur A. Coia of Barrington, the former Laborers union chief who was once one of President Clinton's top political contributors, has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud in a string of luxury car deals with a major union vendor.

Donald K. Stern, the U.S. attorney in Boston, today released the terms of the plea bargain, which bars Coia from any future role with one of the nation's largest and most corruption-plagued construction unions.

Charged with one count of mail fraud, Coia agreed to a $10,000 fine and restitution of about $100,000 in evaded taxes to Rhode Island and his hometown of Barrington. Placed on two years' of probation, he will serve no prison time.

He will also be barred from any future role in his union and, for five years, as an employee in other unions. He will continue, however, as ``general president emeritus'' of the union, at the equivalent of his full salary of more than $250,000.

The agreement is subject to court approval. Coia is scheduled to appear for sentencing before U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole at 2 p.m. Monday, according to Samantha Martin, spokeswoman for Stern.

``While holding important leadership positions at LIUNA (the Laborers' International Union of North America) . . . Mr. Coia engaged in an extensive scheme to cheat Rhode Island and Barrington of approximately $100,000 in taxes,'' Stern said in a press release.

``Although he spent well over a million dollars on Ferrari automobiles, Mr. Coia repeatedly found ways to shirk his duty to pay his taxes,'' Stern said.

The crime involved a series of deals from 1991 through 1997 -- including the purchase of a vintage 1972 Ferrari for $1,050,000 -- under which Coia fraudulently registered his cars in Middletown, in order to avoid the higher property taxes in his hometown of Barrington.

In two other deals described in the press release, both also involving Ferraris, Coia made purchases that avoided full payment of the 7-percent use tax on vehicle purchases in Rhode Island.

Coia's partner in the deals was Carmine Carcieri of Lincoln, a lifelong friend and the proprietor of the Viking automobile agencies in Middletown, according to evidence presented in the secret 1998 hearings of a series of internal union charges against Coia.

During the years when Coia held the top two posts at the Laborers, Carcieri's firm held the contract to lease cars to the union, business that came to be worth more than $1 million a year.

As part of a reform program imposed on the union by the Justice Department in 1995, the Laborers severed business ties with Viking because of its alleged organized crime ties.

During hearings on internal union charges against Coia in 1998, his defense team presented evidence that the Viking firm had no ties to organized crime.

Carcieri has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Coia, 56, a Providence-born lawyer who once enjoyed a friendship with President Clinton through his political and fundraising clout, had announced his resignation from the general president of the Laborers' union on Dec. 6, 1999. The resignation took effect on Jan. 1.

He had been found guilty of conflict of interest and fined $100,000 last March by the anti-corruption unit that he had helped to create in order to stave off a federal takeover of the union almost five years ago. The same internal tribunal cleared Coia of improper dealings with mobsters

Coia had also been reported to have negotiated a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in connection with the conflict of interest with a union vendor. But the Justice Department, the union and Coia's attorney would shed no light last month on whether that matter was still under negotiation.

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