James Galante

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James Galante (b. 1953) is a convicted felon and reputed mob figure, owner of the Danbury Trashers minor league hockey franchise and CEO of Automated Waste Disposal, a company which holds waste disposal contracts for most of Western Connecticut and Westchester and Putnam Counties in New York. Galante was sentenced in 1999 to 12 months and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion^[1].

1 Controversy
2 References

[edit] Controversy

[edit] AWD - Automated Waste Disposal

Galante was charged along with 29 others for paying a 'mob tax' to Matthew "Matty the Horse," Ianniello, the alleged boss of the Genovese crime family^[2]. Galante's business, which handles 80% of garbage hauling in Western Connecticut ^[3] was accused of muscling out local competition through no-bid contracts and payments of up to $120,000 per year to Genovese crime family boss Matthew "Matty the Horse," Ianniello^[4]. In September of 2006, Ianniello pled guilty to racketeering, and interfering with a federal grand jury probe and was sentenced to between one and a half to two years in prison^[5].

[edit] Danbury Trashers - United Hockey League

In June, 2006, twenty-nine people, including James Galante and former Trashers' coach Todd Stirling, were indicted for various fraud charges which included defrauding the United Hockey League in the Trashers' operation. Among the inductees was Matthew "Matty the Horse," Ianniello of Old Westbury, NY, a reputed boss in the Genovese crime family.

Among the allegations, Stirling and Galante allegedly violated the UHL's $275,000/team salary cap by giving several players and their wives no-show jobs with AWD and hiding illegitimate payments as housing allowances, according to the indictment. Stirling also faces six counts of wire fraud related to the filing of fraudulent weekly salary-cap reports. According to the indictment, the Trashers' real payroll was nearly $750,000. ^[6].

Amidst these allegations, the Danbury Trashers have suspended operations, and will not play during the 2006-07 season.

In a separate incident, Galante was also charged with assaulting a United Hockey League official in December 2004 during a game between the Danbury Trashers and Kalamazoo Wings^[7].

[edit] Putnam Victory Fund

Galante was accused of donating to a PAC (Political Action Committee) which laundered money to several politicians who may have used their influence to award contracts to Galante's trash hauling business^[8]. Former State Assemblyman Willis Stephens, who also serves as the legal counsel to the town of Southeast, New York, accepted over $9,000 from Galante, who was in turn awarded a 1.5 million dollar no-bid garbage contract by the town board after his recommendation^[9].