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Extortion Sentence Handed Down
A former member of Local 17 of the International Union of Operating Engineers has been sentenced to six months in prison, six months home confinement, and two years of supervised release for his role in an extortion plot.
According to a joint investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New York State Police, George Dewald, 56, of Springville, N.Y., was part of a campaign designed to force Marcy Excavation of Frankfort, N.Y., the low bidder on the 2003 expansion of the Chaffee Landfill in Chaffee, N.Y., to sign a collective bargaining agreement with Local 17.
The plot involved Dewald and three other Local 17 members going to the Chaffee Landfill under the cover of darkness and putting sand used for sandblasting into the engines and hydraulic lines of nine separate pieces of heavy equipment.
This caused significant delays in finishing the job and over $240,000 in damage to the equipment, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce, who handled the case.
Dewald was one of 12 officers and members of Local 17 arrested and charged in this case, with six defendants pleading guilty, President Mark Kirsch being convicted at trial, four being acquitted at trial, and charges pending against the twelfth defendant.
Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny also ordered Dewald to pay $240,000 in restitution to the victims of the extortion plot.
The investigation was handled by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, under the direction of Cheryl Garcia, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Regional Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Michael Cerretto.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: White Collar Crime|Public Corruption|Organized Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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