United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

TRASH COMPANY SALESMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO RACKETEERING CONSPIRACY CHARGE

Kevin J. O’Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ANTHONY LUCIANO, age 50, of 8 Davenport Road, Westport, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today before Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to one count of conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).  LUCIANO worked at Automated Waste Disposal, Inc. (AWD), serving as a sales representative for the company.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, LUCIANO today admitted that, along with others, he conspired to perpetuate a system, commonly called the “property rights system.” Carters engaged in the property rights system would not service or compete for other carters’ customers. The property rights system essentially destroys free enterprise, allowing the participating carters to artificially inflate their prices and leaving waste removal customers with no other options. In this scheme, which was directed at commercial and municipal customers, participating carters agreed to quote inflated prices to customers controlled by other carters.

In pleading guilty, LUCIANO admitted that he participated in the affairs of the enterprise by agreeing to respect the unwritten rules of the property rights system from the fall of 2004 through the winter of 2005, when he and several co-defendants conspired to fix accounts in the Danbury, Connecticut area.  Specifically, LUCIANO admitted that he knowingly participated in the conspiracy to deny fair and honest pricing for garbage removal services for a franchise restaurant in Danbury and two smaller business accounts in the Danbury area.  In one instance, LUCIANO and a fellow salesperson presented themselves to an unwitting customer, who was attempting to obtain competitive pricing, as representatives of different companies.  In another instance, LUCIANO admitted that he was aware of his fellow conspirators’ efforts to contact other carting companies to instruct that they refrain from bidding for accounts LUCIANO was handling.  In this regard, LUCIANO admitted that he advised his supervisor to contact a representative of another company to make sure that this potential competitor would not compete on a certain account.  The representative of the other company, however, was an FBI agent acting in an undercover capacity.

To date, 33 individuals and 10 businesses have been charged with various offenses stemming from a long-term investigation into the waste-hauling industry in Connecticut and eastern New York.  As to AWD and other defendants in this matter who are awaiting trial, U.S. Attorney O’Connor stressed that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Each defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which it is the Government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judge Burns has scheduled sentencing for November 6, 2007, at which time LUCIANO faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, and the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.  The United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, and the Connecticut Department of Correction have provided critical assistance in the Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorneys Michael J. Gustafson, Raymond F. Miller, Henry K. Kopel and Anthony E. Kaplan are prosecuting this case.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov