Five deny union bribe scam.

Five senior construction executives allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payoffs to officials at two branches of the International Union of Operating Engineers over the past 10 years, federal prosecutors said this week.

The five were arraigned in Federal District Court in Manhattan this week on separate indictments alleging hidden payments had been regularly made since 1991 to union officials of Local 14 and Local 15 of the IUOE.

Dino Tomassetti, of Laquila Construction, who was named as the lead defendant; John Amicucci, president of DeFoe Corporation; Guerino Cavaliere, president of Acme Skillman Construction Company; Peter Ruttura, vice president of Ruttura & Sons; and Edward Simpson, chief engineer at NAB Construction Corporation, were indicted on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and illegal labor payments. All pleaded not guilty to the charges. They were released on $500,000 bail and prohibited from leaving the Tri-state area. It is alleged that union officials allowed the companies to use fewer workers or pay less overtime than required by contracts in exchange for payoffs.