Central States Pension Fund
The Central States Pension Fund (CSPF) is a US cross- company pension fund in which the largest US union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is a major contributor.
The fund's investment capital for the year 2000 is estimated at 19.3 billion US dollars, making it the largest cross-company pension fund, followed by the Western Conference Trust with 17 billion dollars. The vast majority of US pension funds are corporate funds, the largest of which is General Motors' pension fund with $ 85 billion in assets.
history
founding
As Vice President of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa reached an initial agreement in 1955 with truck drivers and warehouse workers in the American Midwest and South. The members agreed to pay 2% of their real wages into a joint fund, which already built up a volume of 800,000 US dollars in the first month, which had grown to 10 million US dollars after a year. The fund was based in Chicago .
Hoffa then enlisted the support of Paul "Red" Dorfman to attract loyal members within the union, as he wanted to become president of the entire union. In 1960 it became a national fund and Allen Dorfman , the son of Paul Dorfman, became managing director .
Roy Williams was appointed trustee and administrator of this pension fund and so this (or the funds collected for it) served as a source of finance and money laundering for the US American La Cosa Nostra , because Hoffa had gotten involved with the gangsters, who are now in numerous branches (am: locals) made the union wide open.
Williams in particular was under the control of Nick Civella , and the fund became known over time as "the mob's bank" (am: Die Verbrecherbank), which was particularly responsible as a source of funding for the rise of Las Vegas with its casinos from 1958 to 1977. In principle, all casinos on the Las Vegas Strip were skimmed in some form by mobsters during this period . Even when the fund had not acted as a source of finance for construction, purchase or renovation, it was also used as a money laundering facility . A total of around 250 million US dollars are said to have flowed from the fund to Las Vegas.
In 1963 the fund had $ 213 million, which at the time made up two-thirds of all real estate investments in the country.
Las Vegas
As early as 1958 Hoffa had invested 4 million US dollars in the Dunes , which was operated by James "Jake" Gottlieb and Major A. Riddle . US $ 250,000 went to Hank Greenspann of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper so that he could build the Paradise Valley Golf Course , a golf course that is now the base of the Las Vegas National Golf Club . Greenspann later received an additional $ 250,000.
In 1959, Moe Dalitz received $ 1 million to build Sunrise Hospital , a private clinic that was converted into a hotel to accommodate union members. Dalitz had already gained casino experience in the Desert Inn hotels and received 6 million from the fund for the Stardust and 4 million for the Fremont .
So was Jay Sarno a 1962 credit over 10.6 million US dollars and built the 1965 Caesars Palace , which opened the 1966th In total, Sarno was even to receive 20.4 million US dollars from the fund by 1972; the largest amount that the fund should spend to an individual. Sarno opened the Circus Circus with the new funds in 1968 .
Further funds flowed into the Las Vegas Strip ; so in the Landmark, Aladdin (now Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino ), Four Queens , The Sands , Tropicana . Corresponding facilities in Lake Tahoe and Reno or Overton , Nevada were also funded.
When Jimmy Hoffa was sentenced to 13 years in prison, the fund was still open to illegal transactions. In 1974, Allen Glick bought two casinos for $ 63 million from union funds. The contact was directed via official Teamsters channels to Frank Balistrieri , the boss of Milwaukee , who then contacted Nick Civella and the fund manager Roy Williams then practically only had to sign.
In 1974, Joseph Lombardo , a member of the Chicago Outfit , was charged with embezzling $ 1.4 million from the fund. However, the witness Daniel Siefert was murdered two days before his court date, so the prosecution failed.
In 1978 "skimming" (skimming off profits without taxation) in Las Vegas was finally discovered, and numerous house searches took place. Allen Glick , front man who owned the Argent Cooperation , which some casinos had funded from the Fund, became a pentito and testified as a key witness in court. Glick had also used his contacts to the fund to obtain loans from the fund to other third parties, although it was clear from the start that these would never be repaid. One of the people involved - Tamara Rand - was therefore probably murdered by Anthony Spilotro . Roy Williams was sentenced to ten years in prison for bribery .
Since 1981 the former fund manager Allen Dorfman had been bugged by the FBI on a massive scale. Although he had no control over the fund since 1977, he continued to play an important role within the Teamsters. Dorfman was shot dead in January 1983 before he could be sentenced to prison. Along with Joseph Lombardo , he had been accused of attempting to bribe Howard W. Cannon - the Senator from Nevada - who wanted to overturn the Teamsters' monopoly over a new amendment to the antitrust law .
1986, Joseph Aiuppa , Jackie Cerone , Joseph Lombardo, Angelo Lapietra , Milton J. Rockman and Carl DeLuna because of financial levies of casinos in Las Vegas sentenced in the amount of two million US dollars.
With the end of “skimming” in Las Vegas, the union fund dried up as a source of funding in the background and the influence of the mobsters was reduced.
Movies and movie quotes
- The 1995 film Casino deals with the financing of the Mafia casinos in Las Vegas from union funds . The film is largely based on the modified biography of Frank Rosenthal .
- The American documentary television series American Justice from A&E Network took up the topic of casinos and mobsters in Las Vegas, especially with episode 52: “Vegas & The Mob”. Subject Frank Rosenthal and the Mafia Casinos in Las Vegas; and Allen Glick occurs in this episode.
swell
- ↑ a b c d Central States, Southeast, Southwest Areas Pension Fund (English)
- ↑ The history of the Caesars Palace Casino in Las Vegas 1962-1967 on www.casinospiele.de
- ↑ The Hoffa Files: How This Tough Guy Made Las Vegas ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on klas-tv.com (English)
- ^ "Blood Threat" , time.com, February 3, 1986
