| The
two brothers behind the plan to bring a quarry to New Hanover Township
were found guilty of bribing a union official in 1991.
The two,
Laurence J. Silvi, II, and John Silvi, owners of Gibraltar
Rock, Inc. of Fairless Hills, were also granted full pardons for their
crime by President Bill Clinton, in a rash of pardons granted during
the last days of his administration last year.
According
to court documents, The Boyertown Area Times has learned that
Laurence and John Silvi, then principals in Penn Jersey Certified
Concrete, Inc., pleaded
guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark to charges they conspired to
pay $5,000 to a Teamster union president.
The
payment, it was alleged then, was to ensure labor peace at a
construction site in Burlington County, New Jersey.
Penn
Jersey provided concrete and concrete products for the jobsite.
When
John Silvi testified last week before township officials about the
history of the Silvi Group Companies, his and his brother's past
convictions were not brought up.
Stephen
B. Harris, of the Harris and Harris law firm in Warrington,
said the two men in the 1991 federal indictment were his clients, the
owners of the rock company. |
"Yep,
it's them," he said. "It was a youthful indiscretion which
they paid for. They have atoned for their problem."
The
Silvis and other businessmen from Pennsylvania and New Jersey were
part of an FBI probe into charges that the men violated the
Labor-Management Relations Act. They said at the time that they wanted
to end picketing at a U.S. General
Services Administration building construction site.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Paul H. Zoubek, who is now deputy attorney general for
New Jersey, said the picketing started as an argument over which union
would have jurisdiction
at the job site. After the 1991
trial, Zoubek said the government intended to "send a
message" to the men who were found guilty, that doing business
the old-fashioned way would no longer be tolerated. The
Silvis faced up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines
As of
deadline, it could not be confirmed that the Silvis spent any time in
jail or paid any fines. Information supplied by the U.S. Department of
Justice in Washington, confirmed that President Clinton granted
pardons to the Silvis on November 21, 2000. The pardons were for
"Conspiracy to bribe a union official, 18 U.S.C. 371; 29 U.S.C.
186."
Berks-Mont
writer Diane Van Dyke contributed to this article. |
