By Rick Pfeiffer
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
Former Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello will plead guilty Thursday morning to charges he embezzled benefits from a union pension fund.
In return for that guilty plea, federal prosecutors will dismiss a four-count public corruption indictment that has hung over Anello since November 2008.
The plea deal will subject Anello to a possible prison sentence of 10 to 16 months. If Chief U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny wants to impose a harsher sentence, Anello can withdraw his plea.
U.S. Attorney William Hochul could not be reached for comment. Anello’s defense team however confirmed the “resolution” of the former mayor’s cases.
“It was a tough call for us,” defense attorney Joel Daniels said. “Vince always said there was never any deal with Joe Anderson, no wink and a nod.”
Anello had faced single felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of scheme to deprive of honest services in his public corruption case. Those charges stemmed from his dealings with Tuscarora businessman and developer Joseph “Smokin Joe” Anderson and three loans that Anello received from him.
Prosecutors had claimed that the loans Anello received deprived “the city of the intangible right of the honest services of a public official” because he took the loans while Anderson was doing business with the city and failed to disclose the loans as required by the city’s Ethics Law.
Anderson has already pleaded guilty to a single honest services count of scheme to deprive and is currently awaiting sentencing. He had been cooperating with prosecutors in the case.
“The government made a proposal to us,” Daniels said, “that they would dismiss the Joe Anderson case, but they wanted a plea on the union case.”
In that case, a criminal complaint charges that Anello, 64, “did knowingly and intentionally embezzle and steal” money from the pension fund operated by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 237 in the Falls. Anello was also accused of making false statements about the number of hours he worked as an electrician so that his pension benefits would not be suspended for working over 40 hours per month.
“The more we looked at (the union embezzlement case), we thought it was a problem,” Daniels said. “That would have been an uphill battle for us. The government case was strong.”
After Anello’s arraignment on the embezzlement related charges, Daniels had said he didn’t anticipate a plea deal in the case. On Tuesday, he called the government’s plea offer too good to pass up.
“It’s extremely rare for (the government) to dismiss (public corruption) charges,” Daniels said. “We were prepared to go to trial on that case and believe could have fought those charges. The union charges were another matter.”
A Gazette review of documents filed by prosecutors in the case shows that Anello needed the $40,000 in loans because he was delinquent, in that amount, to the electrician’s union benefit fund. In early August 2004, nine months after his election as mayor, Anello’s electrical company owed the IBEW benefit plan more than $40,000 in payments for himself and his employees.
The complaint that Anello will plead guilty to charges the former mayor collected pension benefits from IBEW Local 237 between March 1, 2008, and March 31, 2010, while working over 40 hours per month as an electrician. The benefit plan suspends pension payments if a retired electrician returns to work and works more than 40 hours a month.
Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer
at 282-2311, ext. 2252.
