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ProPublica inquiry sparked by the death of a motorist in Brooklyn shows
the trash company involved is headquartered on land owned by someone
banned from the industry years ago.
by Kiera Feldman
Shortly after a wheel came loose from a Century Waste garbage truck in Brooklyn,
killing a motorist in an oncoming car, the New York City agency that
oversees the private sanitation industry announced it would help the
police investigate the crash.
There would seem to be much to investigate, for Century Waste trucks
have routinely failed safety inspections in recent years. Federal
records show that 65 percent of the company’s 32 trucks subjected to
government inspection were pulled off the road for safety violations
over the past two years.
But ProPublica has discovered something else the city agency, known
as the Business Integrity Commission, could look into as well: Records
show that Century Waste’s headquarters sit on land owned by a man the
city had run out of New York’s private sanitation industry years ago
during a crackdown on mob influence and corruption. The Business
Integrity Commission, which oversees New York City’s trash collection
industry, bars companies from doing business of any kind with such
individuals. In fact, the agency was created with the express purpose of
keeping such people out of the garbage industry.
A review of New Jersey corporate and property records show that the man
who owns the land through an LLC — an industrial property in Elizabeth,
New Jersey — is Frank Savino, who along with other members of his family
ran several trash hauling companies in New York City two decades ago.
In the late 1990s, as part of a racketeering case brought by the
Manhattan district attorney’s office, prosecutors charged Savino with
conspiracy to form a monopoly. Savino eventually pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor — criminal facilitation. In order to sell the family
companies, he agreed to a lifetime ban from the private trash industry.
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