Eleven Con Ed supervisors brazenly bragged on wiretaps about shaking down construction contractors for kickbacks of $1 million in cash, goodies and football tickets – and gloated about spending their ill-gotten gains, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said yesterday.
“I used to go up to the bursar’s office at, at the campus and come out with their f – – -ing tuition for the semester in f – – -ing 100s,” defendant Rocco Fassacesia allegedly said of paying his daughters’ tuition at SUNY Oneonta and the University of Rhode Island with the money.
“The whole f – – -ing place was looking at me. Everyone else is writing a check and here’s this f – – – ing douchebag.”
Fassacesia also griped about not being able to deposit the illegal cash in a bank, for fear of attracting authorities’ attention, prosecutors said.
Investigators with Immigration and Customs Enforcement wired up a contractor and several co-workers of the men, and caught the suspects allegedly discussing how they got kickbacks in exchange for getting contractors work on projects, including emergency repairs at the site of the deadly 2007 steampipe blast in Midtown.
“From a couple of a- -holes shaking down f – – -ing contractors, we did pretty f – – -ing good,” one of the men, Thomas Fetter, 60, a recently retired Con Ed construction rep, is allegedly heard saying.
“They got, they got, believe me, they got well worth what they f – – -ing paid for and more.”
In return, the men got a share – generally 4 percent – of the contract.
One defendant, chief construction inspector Leonard DiRoma, 58, allegedly negotiated for designer sunglasses, a watch and a BlackBerry Curve.
Two others, 49-year-old Richard Zebler, a chief construction inspector, and Fassacesia, 58, a construction manager, allegedly squeezed the contractor for tickets to the Nov. 2 Giants-Cowboys game.
Zebler appeared in court yesterday in a Giants sweatshirt, and Fassacesia in a Giants jacket.
All defendants were released on $100,000 bond.
According to Brooklyn US Attorney Benton Campbell, the 11 defendants operated their scams largely unbeknownst to each other.
In an e-mail to employees yesterday, Kevin Burke, Con Ed’s president, chairman and CEO, expressed dismay.