Businessman sentenced in corruption case

BUFFALO — Joseph Anderson, 51, of Sanborn, has been fined $50,000 by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny for conviction of mail fraud.

Anderson’s cooperation with the government in its investigation of former Niagara Falls Mayor Vincenzo Anello led to Anello’s felony conviction and a 13-month prison sentence Judge Skretny imposed Dec. 20.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul J. Campana said Anderson, a prominent businessman in Niagara County, pleaded guilty Nov. 7, 2008, to aiding and abetting former Anello in a scheme to deprive Niagara Falls citizens of the honest services of an elected official. Anderson admitted paying Anello $30,000 while Anello was a candidate for mayor and a sitting member of the Niagara Falls City Council, plus another $10,000 a week after Anello was elected mayor in November 2003.

Campana said the payments to Anello were styled as “loans,” but there was no written loan agreement and no interest rate. Anello made no re-payments during his single four-year term as mayor, which ended Dec. 31, 2007.

Early in his first year as mayor, Anello proposed a no-bid lease for the city’s East Pedestrian Mall, recommending to the City Council that it grant the lease to a company owned partly by Anderson. Neither Anello nor Anderson ever told the City Council that Anello had received $40,000 from Anderson and that none of the money had been repaid. The City Council approved the lease.

After he left office, Anello, an electrician, performed electrical contracting work for Anderson’s companies while Anello was in retirement status with his union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 237. On Sept, 2, 2010, Anello pleaded guilty to defrauding the union’s welfare fund by filing of false transmittals claiming he had worked about seven hours a week beginning in March 2008, when in fact he was working full time.

Judge Skretny also ordered Anello to repay the $45,000 owed to the union’s welfare fund.