Former Teamster Sentenced for Extorting Boston Businesses and Benefit Fraud

BOSTON – A former member of Boston Teamster Local 82 was sentenced today in connection with extorting businesses in Boston and fraudulently receiving more than $40,000 of unemployment benefits.

James Deamicis, 52, of Quincy, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release and restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $42,091.  In November 2015, Deamicis was convicted by a federal jury of three counts of extorting businesses in Boston.  Additionally, he pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud and one count of theft of government property.  

Deamicis, a former member of Teamsters Local 82, worked in the trade show and moving industries loading and unloading trucks.  Since 2007, Deamicis, and others, extorted various entities in Boston including hotels, event planners, catering companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, music entertainment companies, and non-profit organizations, none of which had collective bargaining agreements with Local 82.  Deamicis threatened to picket and disrupt business, sometimes just hours before an event, if the entity did not accede to his demand to hire and pay him and fellow union members for unwanted and unnecessary jobs. 

Additionally, from 2008 to 2011, Deamicis received $41,391 in unemployment insurance benefits that he was not entitled to receive because he was working as a member of Local 82.  During the three year period, Deamicis earned $126,423, making him ineligible for benefits; however, he falsely reported to the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Insurance that he earned only $22,249 so that it appeared that he was eligible to receive unemployment insurance.  Although Deamicis was employed, he endorsed each of the 73 unemployment insurance checks he received and thereby falsely certified that he had no earnings except as reported in his benefit claim certification.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Scott S. Dahl, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; Jonathan Russo, District Director of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards; and Susan A. Hensley, Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, made the announcement today.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura J. Kaplan of Ortiz’s Organized Crime and Gang Unit.