These revelations about Gigante and SEBCO come at a time when Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau and the state’s Organized Crime Task Force, headed by Ronald Goldstock, are in the midst of a broad investigation into labor racketeering in the construction industry. SEBCO has been used to make him a wealthy man. Gigante’s business transactions appear to be laced with instances of fraud, conflict of interest, misrepresentation, and misuse of public funds. Other documents obtained by the Voice revealed that in addition to contracts for SEBCO developments, mob-connected contractors have received more than $80 million in other city, state, and federal contracts over the past six years.Īt the same time that Father Gigante’s operations have been profiting these mob-tied construction companies, the priest has enriched himself. In the course of the investigation, the Voice examined thousands of documents concerning SEBCO from city, state, and federal agencies and conducted interviews with numerous law enforcement officials, public officials, and friends of the priest. For years, Gigante has been close to the leadership of the crime syndicate, a relationship that has a distinctly personal side to it: the Genovese gang includes Father Gigante’s brothers Mario and Ralph, and is now run by the priest’s eccentric older brother, Vincent “The Chin” Gigante.
The homes that Gigante’s parishioners live in - senior citizen projects, one- and two-family houses, large and small apartment buildings - have been built, to a large extent, by companies owned by or affiliated with top-ranking members of the Genovese organized crime family.
The housing built for his hard-pressed Latino parish may be Gigante’s public legacy, but it is not the selfless contribution of a saint.Ī four-month Voice investigation of Gigante and SEBCO has revealed that the priest and his publicly financed developments have been a $50 million opportunity for the Mafia. Where once the streets of the South Bronx were Gigante’s backyard, they now seem to interest him purely in terms of their profit potential. It is unclear where Gigante actually resides, but neighbors say he does not live in either of the Manhattan apartments he owns, and his upstate home is almost a four-hour drive from the Bronx. Athanasius and, in fact, no longer lives in its rectory. While the priest, known to all as “Father G.,” once was a fixture at the church, these days church members usually see Gigante only on the Sundays he says mass. Gigante and SEBCO - of which he is president and chairman - have helped resurrect a neighborhood where garbage-strewn lots once stood.Īs Gigante later guides his gray Cadillac down Southern Boulevard and out of the South Bronx, his parishioners return to the housing projects that surround St.
In the last 10 years, the South East Bronx Community Organization, a not-for-profit housing group founded by the Catholic priest and politician, has developed almost 2000 new or renovated housing units for low-income families in the area and hundreds more are in the works. He has been credited with singlehandedly halting an urban death march by rescuing sections of the South Bronx from arsonists and abandonment. To the left of the altar, churchgoers gather around Father Louis Gigante and exchange holiday greetings.įor many families in the Hunts Point community, the 56-year-old Gigante is a saint. Inside, the 80-year-old church is glowing in the warm light of hundreds of red and white candles. Three little girls in angel costumes and a trio of parishioners dressed as the three wise men stream outside into a cool mist blowing on Tiffany Street.
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