Report Links Three Montreal Canadiens Players to Man with Possible Organized Crime Ties

National Hockey League officials are investigating a report linking three Montreal Canadiens players to a man with possible ties to organized crime.

The NHL “is aware of the reports and is in the process of gathering additional information,” Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said today in an e-mailed statement.

Montreal’s La Presse newspaper reported today that defenseman Roman Hamrlik and forwards Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn have relationships with Pasquale Mangiola, who was arrested last week during a police raid on street gangs and drug dealers, according to a Feb. 17 Montreal police statement. He could be charged with conspiracy and possessing and trafficking cocaine.

Andrei Kostitsyn told La Presse after his team’s game in Pittsburgh last night that he knows Mangiola but that he knew nothing about his situation. None of the Canadiens players mentioned by La Presse has been accused of wrongdoing. Andrei’s brother Sergei said today he can’t comment, according to a broadcast on Montreal radio station CKAC.

Donald Beauchamp, a spokesman for the club, told reporters at a televised press conference in suburban Montreal today that Canadiens players won’t be available to comment on non-hockey related matters.

Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainey said he’s “very concerned” by the report and won’t tolerate the kind of behavior the newspaper described. The Canadiens, winners of an NHL record 24 Stanley Cups, are celebrating their centenary season this year. “We’ve made the players understand that this is not the kind of conduct that is part of people in our organization,” he said. “As young athletes, they have to make stronger choices than the person besides them. We’ve upped the message, we’ve upped the intensity.”

Off-ice behavior may be one of the reasons the team hasn’t performed well, Gainey said. The Canadiens have won three of their last 15 games. “I can only go on what I know today, and what I know today is not good for our team,” he said. “It doesn’t reflect well on our team or on the individuals. It cannot be extinguished as a possible inhibitor to our performance.”

Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau, in comments broadcast in Quebec by television network RDI, said the club must do a better job of monitoring what its players do outside the rink. “Our players are adults and we try to protect them as best we can, but they are in demand all over the place,” Carbonneau said. “One thing is for sure, we are going to tighten the leash, and tighten it quite a bit.”

Gainey said he’s not surprised by the report, given the level of interest for hockey in Montreal. The Canadiens have sold out 168 consecutive games, stretching back four years. “It’s not very surprising if you have a sense of how many people would like to get their tentacles not only on the players individually, but into the organization,” he said.

While the team regularly fields requests for appearances at charity events, “there are also people who are looking for trophy friends or the possibility of being close to somebody who earns a million dollars plus,” he said. “They are still young kids and some of them could still be in high school.”

Thanks to Frederico Tomesco

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Labor Union Drops Attorney Who Was Mentioned by Witness at Family Secrets Mob Trial

The union representing hotel and restaurant workers severed ties with a politically connected Chicago lawyer whose name surfaced at the Family Secrets Chicago mob trial.

Samuel Banks was on the payroll of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, and its successor organization, Unite Here, since at least 1989. A court-appointed union watchdog raised questions more than a decade ago about what Mr. Banks did for his salary there.

In August 2007, former mob-linked burglar Sal Romano testified at the Family Secrets trial that he had bribed police officers through Mr. Banks and another lawyer. Mr. Banks, who is also a criminal defense attorney, hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.

Mr. Banks is the brother of Chicago Alderman William Banks (36th), father of tollway board member James Banks and father-in-law of state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago. Mr. Banks did not return calls.

Mr. Banks and the union parted ways at the end of last year. A labor leader said the split had nothing to do with the accusation made at the trial. “It was based primarily on finances,” said Henry Tamarin, an executive vice-president of the international and president of Chicago-based Unite Here Local 1, which represents roughly 15,000 workers, including those on strike at the Congress Hotel.

U.S. Labor Department records indicate Local 1 paid Mr. Banks $48,000 for “legal counsel” in 2007. As for Mr. Banks’ role at Local 1, “he generally advised us politically,” Mr. Tamarin said.

Mr. Banks also was on the international union payroll as a lobbyist and was paid $88,000 in 2007, the most recent year federal records are available. His employment ended with the new year, a spokesman confirmed.

Unite Here groups contributed at least $25,000 over the past three years to the campaign fund of William Banks, and at least $10,000 to Mr. Fritchey, now running for Congress.

Mr. Banks was a close associate of the late Ed Hanley, who ran the international union until he was forced out in 1998 amid corruption allegations by a court-appointed monitor.

Around that time, the monitor, former U.S. Justice Department attorney Kurt Muellenberg, released a report that, among other things, questioned what Mr. Banks and other consultants did for the union since their work was not documented or itemized.

Thanks to Robert Herguth

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Mob Informant Testifies that Actor Was Mobster On and Off the Screen

GOODFELLAS star FRANK SIVERO had links to real life mafia bosses and hitmen, a mob informant has testified in court.

On Wednesday (18Feb09), a New York court was shown photographs of Sivero posing with Charles Carneglia, who is on trial charged with five murders, including the slaying of an off-duty cop. Prosecution witness Kevin McMahon claims Sivero - who played Frankie Carbone in the 1990 movie - was a regular visitor at the Brooklyn junkyard where cops believe Carneglia dissolved the bodies of his victims in acid. And he suggested the 57-year-old actor, who is not accused of any crime, used his underworld connections to settle vendettas. McMahon, a former associate of jailed New York crime boss John Gotti, told the court, "(Sivero) had some kind of problem with somebody in jail, I am not exactly positive." When approached by the New York Daily News, Sivero's agent Mitchell Shankman declined to comment.

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