Brooklyn DA, Dem party leader took campaign cash from John Rosatti
He really is “connected.”
The reputed wiseguy behind Brooklyn’s Plaza Auto Mall has
been handing out campaign cash to local Democrats — including the borough’s
district attorney and its party boss, The Post has learned.
John Rosatti’s Plaza Motors of Brooklyn donated $2,020 to DA
Eric Gonzalez for his winning 2017 campaign and the next year gave $2,000 to
Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, who in January 2020 succeeded longtime leader
Frank Seddio as head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
The following month, Plaza donated another $10,000 to the
party, records show.
John Kaehny of the good-government group “Reinvent Albany”
said pols “should be vetting contributions in order to make sure that there’s
no attempt to influence them.”
“What did this guy expect for his contribution — that’s the
question the campaigns should ask themselves,” he added.
Before amassing a reported $400 million fortune, Rosatti,
77, was identified by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement as an
alleged soldier in the Colombo crime family, according to a 1993 decision by
the state’s Casino Control Commission.
The ruling, which rejected a bid to bar Rosatti pal and
reputed Colombo family member John Staluppi from the state’s casinos, cited
testimony that confidential informants claimed Rosatti became a Colombo
associate in 1980 and was sworn in as a “made member” in 1994.
Rosatti was convicted in the mid-1970s for attempted auto
theft and again in 1994 on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a
firearm, for which he got probation and a $5,000 fine, the Village Voice
reported in 1998.
FBI memos asserted that he pledged $50,000 to the insurgent
mob faction led by Victor “Little Vic” Orena during the long, bloody war for
control of the Colombo family but refused to provide vehicles so hit teams
could search for the late boss Carmine “The Snake” Persico, the Voice said.
Rosatti also allegedly gave a no-show job to Orena’s son,
also named Victor, with a gangster reportedly telling the younger Orena,
“You’re the only salesman that never sells any cars and makes money.”
In recent years, Rosatti has made headlines by founding the
BurgerFi fast-food franchise operation and for owning a series of superyachts.
One — a 162-foot, four-deck behemoth — is named the
“Remember When,” which is also the title of a 2007 episode of The Sopranos and
several cast members attended a party on board when Rosatti docked it at
Battery Park City’s North Cove Marina for the 2011 Fourth of July celebration.
Rosatti now lives in Florida, where records show he owns a
sprawling, six-bedroom waterfront mansion with a swimming pool and a private
dock in West Palm Beach that’s on the market for $9.5 million.
His local New York political contributions are among more
than $250,000 in total that Rosatti has doled out since 1985 at both the
national and state levels, with most of the money given to Republicans last
year, records show.
Plaza Auto Mall lawyer David Grandeau said, “Mr. Rosatti
states that he is not now nor has he ever been a soldier of the Colombo crime
family.”
“He made a political donation because he has business
interests in Brooklyn, specifically Plaza Auto Mall, and he has donated to
candidates of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, in and outside of
Brooklyn,” added Grandeau, the former executive director of the Temporary State
Commission on Lobbying.
The Gonzalez campaign said, “DA Gonzalez does not know Mr.
Rosatti and has never received a personal contribution from him. However, four
years ago there was a contribution from a car dealership affiliated with him.”
A spokesman for Bichotte and the Brooklyn Democratic Party
said she was grieving the death of her mother and couldn’t be reached.
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