Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Lucchese mob suspect Wayne Schumer, president of Ucon Corp., is missing, being hunted in bribe case



The boss of a big New York construction firm disappeared before he could be arrested on charges of bribing mobbed-up building inspectors, the Daily News has learned.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is hunting for Wayne Schumer, president of Ucon Corp., who is believed to have fled - possibly to Costa Rica, sources said.

Schumer is one of 29 reputed mobsters and associates charged in a wide-ranging bribery scheme that prosecutors say was led by two of the Lucchese crime family's highest-ranking members, Joseph DiNapoli and Matthew Madonna.

Among those indicted are six former city building inspectors identified as Lucchese associates, some of whom also are charged with drug dealing, loansharking and gun trafficking.

Schumer paid $44,000 to one corrupt inspector, the highest bribe uncovered in the two-year investigation, prosecutors said. He's accused of greasing palms to rig the inspection of Zorzi, an upscale Venetian restaurant and bar on E. 35th St., and to expedite a plumbing permit signoff at Salumeria Rosi, a gastro-pub on Amsterdam Ave.

Other high-end sites built by Ucon include Cipriani, the Rainbow Room, the Hudson and Paramount hotels, and the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal.




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