Former Top Deputy to Rowland Is Indicted in Racketeering Case
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN and STACEY STOWE, NY TIMES, September 24, 2004

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Describing the former Connecticut governor's office as a racketeering enterprise, a federal grand jury yesterday indicted former Gov. John G. Rowland's co-chief of staff and others in a scheme that involved the manipulation of tens of millions of dollars' worth of state contracts, grants and loans in return for gold, cash, limousine rides, trips and other valuables.

The charges, outlined in a 54-page indictment, paint a picture of an administration that frequently put private gain ahead of public service. They also left no doubt that federal prosecutors are still investigating the former governor's office, with some possibility that charges could be filed at some point against Mr. Rowland, a three-term Republican governor.

The investigation is "very active and ongoing," John H. Durham, the deputy United States attorney in Connecticut, said in a statement. Mr. Durham has been supervising the case in concert with the Department of Justice in Washington.

The statement also said the "allegations in this indictment are extremely serious as they involve alleged abuse within the highest levels of the government of the state of Connecticut."

Mr. Rowland resigned from office on July 1 as a state impeachment panel was about to compel his testimony. His lawyer, William F. Dow III, released a statement yesterday noting that his client's name was not listed among the recent defendants. "Nor should it be," Mr. Dow said.

The indictment opens by saying the "supreme executive authority of the state was vested with the governor." It later says "the office of the governor constituted an enterprise" as defined under a federal racketeering law.

M. Jodi Rell, the longtime second-in-command in Hartford who succeeded Mr. Rowland as governor this summer, said she was "disgusted and angry" by the new round of charges centered around the governor's office. She also took the occasion to further distance herself from the governor she had served and supported, saying, "Let the chips fall where they may."

The man at the heart of the activities described in the indictment is Peter N. Ellef, a longtime insurance executive hired by Mr. Rowland in 1995 to head the state's economic development office and then appointed his co-chief of staff in the fall of 1997.

He, in turn, brought in a former colleague, Lawrence Alibozek, as the governor's deputy chief of staff. Mr. Alibozek pleaded guilty in March 2003 to having steered state contracts in exchange for cash and gold coins that were found in his backyard, and it is largely his cooperation with prosecutors in an effort to win leniency that has implicated Mr. Ellef.

Almost from the moment Mr. Ellef assumed his position at the governor's side, the indictment alleges, he conspired with another defendant, William A. Tomasso, to use his position to enrich both men, as well as Mr. Ellef's son, Peter Ellef Jr., a third defendant.

Specifically, the indictment alleges that Mr. Ellef steered state contracts and financial assistance to Mr. Tomasso's family-owned construction and property management business at every opportunity, and that the Tomasso companies in return gave $1.6 million to a landscaping company owned by Mr. Ellef's son and wife.

Two large Tomasso-owned companies, Tomasso Brothers Inc., the construction arm, and Tunxis Management Company, the property management arm, were also named as defendants, as was LF Design LLC, the landscaping company.

All of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit theft or bribery of federal funds, racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, mail and wire fraud, and theft of honest services.

Additional charges of attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion were levied against Mr. Ellef and Mr. Tomasso.

Mr. Ellef and his son also face charges of conspiring to commit tax fraud because of personal expenses, such as a $316 charge at Nordstrom's that the indictment says were treated as business expenses on the landscaping company's books.

Mr. Ellef, his son and Mr. Tomasso were also charged with conspiring to launder money to conceal the true nature of their transactions.

Lawyers for both Mr. Ellef and Mr. Tomasso said they would fight all charges. Lawyers for Mr. Ellef's son did not return phone calls seeking comment. "Anybody can write an indictment, and the feds can get a grand jury to indict anybody," said Hugh Keefe, a New Haven lawyer who represents Mr. Ellef. "Proving Ellef and the Tomassos guilty is a little different than having coffee with 20 grand jurors and bringing back an indictment."

He also complained that the government had made the indictment public before alerting him, a courtesy defense lawyers sometimes receive.

The Hartford law firm that represents the Tomasso entities issued a statement that said: "William A. Tomasso, Tomasso Brothers, Inc. and Tunxis Management Company have known for months that the allegations contained in the indictment returned yesterday were coming. The Tomasso parties emphatically deny those charges and they welcome a trial at which the other side of this story can finally be revealed."

Included on the list of tainted state contracts that went to Tomasso companies, according to the indictment, were a no-bid job to repair and eventually relocate the headquarters of the Connecticut Lottery Corporation after a multiple homicide made the premises unusable. It also lists the $57 million project to rebuild the state's juvenile training school in Middletown, Conn., which entitled the Tomasso Brothers Inc. as the construction manager, to a $3.3 million fee.

In return for these and other state jobs, the indictment states, the Tomassos found ways to show their appreciation besides the $1.6 million in landscaping work they awarded LF Design. They funneled $202,500 in consulting payments to the landscaping company and picked up $18,760 of its rent.

According to the indictment, they also entertained Mr. Ellef in lavish ways. He traveled with Mr. Tomasso via limousine to Boston in late December 1998 and on his own to New York in May 1999, both times with Tomasso Brothers Inc. picking up a tab close to $1885, the indictment says. In the summer of 2001, the company also paid $3,030 in limousine expenses incurred as part of Mr. Ellef's son's wedding celebration, it says.

In July 1999, the indictment states, Mr. Tomasso provided gold coins to Mr. Ellef and Mr. Alibozek.

The Tomassos' statement also noted that the family looked forward to reclaiming their reputation for "integrity, quality work and generosity to the community."

Besides having to go to criminal court, the Tomassos may also find themselves facing a civil suit.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the state would file suit no later than next week to recover state money spent on contracts awarded through favoritism and the misuse of insider information.

"We will be seeking restitution for the state," Mr. Blumenthal said.

He said figures named in the federal indictments returned yesterday could be sued "and very possibly others as well." He would not say whether the state would sue former Governor Rowland.

Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat, also did not elaborate on which contracts would be looked at.

Robert A. Mintz, a former federal prosecutor who is in private practice, said the picture looked rather bleak for Mr. Rowland. "They're saying the office of the governor constituted a racketeering enterprise," he said. "That is an astonishing claim that is unusual even in the annals of public corruption cases."

Michael Sklaire, a former federal prosecutor who helped convict Joseph Ganim, the former mayor of Bridgeport, on corruption charges, agreed that the indictment did not reflect well on the governor's office but that there was little to directly implicate the governor.

"You're left with the conclusion that either he had no idea what the people beneath him were doing and where the gifts were coming from, or he knew," Mr. Sklaire said.