A top aide in Chicago’s controversial Hired Truck Program is a manager of an adult bookstore housed in a Dixmoor building that once was a notorious brothel.
Robert Ricciarelli, in a filing with the city’s Board of Ethics, disclosed his financial relationship to the firm that owns the adult bookstore, saying he received money as an employee and manager from R.V.S. Bookstore Inc., the company that operates it. State records indicate he also plays a corporate role in R.V.S.
On Thursday, the Daley administration put Ricciarelli on administrative leave and suspended another four companies from the Hired Truck Program–bringing the total to 11. One of the newly suspended firms allegedly asked Ricciarelli to seek a waiver for an overweight truck ticket issued by the city’s Department of Consumer Services.
The action against Ricciarelli was unrelated to his links to the adult bookstore.
Ricciarelli, who has been employed by the city for 23 years and is paid more than $72,000 annually, referred questions about his employment at what he described as a “retail establishment” to Michael Caliendo, president of R.V.S. Ricciarelli said Caliendo, who declined to comment, was his brother-in-law.
Ricciarelli, 43, is an assistant general superintendent in the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department and is one of the individuals responsible for the operation of the Hired Truck Program in that city department.
The manager of the Hired Truck Program, Angelo Torres, was arrested Sunday on federal charges that allege he received about $3,800 in bribes from a trucking company owner to steer business to the trucking firm. Torres, who was fired Monday from his city job, was released on $25,000 bond.
On Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office issued a grand jury subpoena seeking a wide range of records from the city about the $40 million-a-year program that hires private firms to provide trucks for public works projects in the city.
About 165 companies were participating in the program until Mayor Richard Daley ordered its overhaul following Torres’ arrest and the federal subpoenas.
Seven firms were suspended from the program earlier this week for violating program rules, and Daley ordered that all companies that want to participate in the program must now formally reapply for work.
One of the four firms suspended Thursday, Wilson & Steward Trucking, allegedly asked Ricciarelli to seek a waiver for an overweight truck ticket issued by the city’s Department of Consumer Services, officials said. Ricciarelli asked the department to waive the ticket, according to officials.
Ricciarelli was put on leave “while his actions in connection with the Wilson & Steward Trucking incident are investigated,” according to the city’s Law Department.
Two other firms suspended Thursday, Cushing Transportation Inc. and M&J Ground Transportation, were accused of keeping inadequate records. Another firm, WMK Trucking, purportedly a female-owned company, was suspended after an investigation found that a woman did not control day-to-day management, officials said.
Formed in 1979, R.V.S. was linked by federal prosecutors in the early 1980s to alleged prostitution at the firm’s bookstores in the south and northwest suburbs. Under the name Western Health Spa, the building in Dixmoor was once a house of prostitution operated by two corrupt Cook County sheriff’s officers and Alan Masters, a south suburban lawyer convicted of conspiracy to murder his wife and others.
The Dixmoor bookstore and several others owned by Vito Caliendo and his nephew Anthony Philip Caliendo were the targets of Operation Safebet, the federal investigation into prostitution in the suburbs in the mid-1980s. In addition, the office of then Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Daley had filed a civil suit to close two of R.V.S.’s adult bookstores.
Vito Caliendo was described by federal prosecutors as an “unrepentant, dedicated career criminal” who was operating a $1 million-a-year prostitution ring on behalf of organized crime leaders.
Vito Caliendo denied having any ties to organized crime, saying after he was sentenced to 7 years in prison: “Tell them I’m Al Capone or whatever you want” but “I have no involvement” with the crime syndicate. His nephew received a 6-year prison term and six others convicted in the scheme received lesser sentences.
The Dixmoor store and a lounge in Lyons were the focus of the federal trial.
Law enforcement officials said Thursday they knew of no recent violations of the law at the bookstore.
