Ivy Leaguer. I'm a little rough around the edges."
These are the words of Louis Vito Stramaglia a controversial yet highly successful developer, contractor and trucking magnate who has been both lauded and criticized for his firms inconsistent performance on public works contracts in Michigan, Ohio and Florida. Stramaglia a straight shooting, tough talking product of the streets of Detroit who like other successful high profile Italian Americains from the Motor city, has been investigated for his alledged ties and friendships with members of the Detroit Partnership. Stramaglia is an admitted friend of long time Partnership leader Jack W. Tocco. When questioned as to his association with Tocco Stramaglia replyed "I've Known Jack Tocco -- what differance does it make?"...I'd rather have Jack Tocco for a friend than 20 FBI agents." While Michigan, Ohio and Florida state and Federal investigators suspect Stramaglia of being a mob associate they have been unsuccessful in their attempts to tie his business dealings in with any member of organized crime. "Oh certainly, but their problem is they don't know how to connect me. Because there is no connection. ... What difference does it make who I know?" It would appear that who Stramaglia knows is indeed one of the source's of contention with law enforcement agencies who have watched for years as Stramaglia and Tocco battled away during highly competitive games of racquetball and Tennis at the Warren Tennis Club, formerly a Tocco owned enterprise. Butch's attendance at the wedding of one of Jack Tocco's son's seems to indicate a friendship much closer than just casual competitors or business associates. What ever the connection, Stramaglia is obviously unashamed of this friendship and and continues to stand steadfast behind the convicted mobster.
"Let's be grown up about this, if what I'm doing is wrong,
they ought to lock up every F---k'n lobbyist in Washington."
Sunday February 13, 1983, the Miami Herald ran a front page story entitled 'Good Time Guy Woos Florida's Powerful.' this story introduced the business tactics used by Stramaglia and his younger brother Frank in securing lucrative public works contracts for Vito's Trucking and Excavation Company. The articled exposed Stramaglia's 3 year courtship of Florida Politician's in an effort to "according to investigator's," secure work for his firm in the Sunshine state. Stramaglia had spent much of his time visiting the offices of men like former Lee County Commissioner Ernie Averill Jr.,who remarked "He gets every once of fun out of life." Soon after the Stramaglia article appeared an investigation was launched looking into public corruption, the focus of this investigation was Butch Stramaglia and Vito's Trucking and Excavation. During the investigation Stramaglia's campaign contribution's as well as his penchant for picking up drink tabs and providing female companionship to men of influence came under scrutiny. After a long and drawn out process, Stramaglia and his firm would be cleared of any wrong doing but Stramaglia's reputation as a shady influence peddler was forged. Inspite of his growing notoriety, Stramaglia's fortunes grew steadily allowing him to purchase a yacht "the Prodigal Son," while keeping company with former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, state representative Floyd Luckey as well as Graham's campaign director Gary Smith.
"He contributes to just about everybody, and then he tries to
use his political influence or muscle."...Senator Frank Mann...
Stramaglia began courting people with access to Govenor Graham after complaints were filed pertaining to work his company performed on the East Lee County Sewer Project. The complaints led to Stramaglia and his company being placed on a list of irresponsible bidders effectively banning Vito's from bidding on any public works contracts in Lee County. This was a potentially devastating blow to the Stramagla operation not only because public works contracts were the life blood of Vito's but also because it threatened to nullify a low bid on a state road contract Vito's was currently under consideration for. Butch began making overtures to have the designation removed from his company's file by contacting Senator Frank Mann the senior Democratic legislator from Fort Myers. Mann was introduced to Butch Stramaglia by the aforementioned Gary Smith who stressed the importance of having Stramaglia as an ally with the statement "you need to get in touch with a guy named Stramaglia, he's a good contributor down there." Within weeks of this conversation Mann met with Stramaglia for the first time and was briefed on the matter of the designation which he "being Stramaglia," stressed was threating to destroy his construction business. Mann denied trying to influence the decision one way or the other. The issue finally reached a conclusion at a commision meeting held May 19th when Stramaglia agreed to withdraw his bid on the state contract in exchange for the designation being lifted from county files. Many believe this deal was the work of Ernie Averill a member of the Lee County Commission and a loyal friend and supportor of Butch Stramaglias. When questioned about his vote in the Stramaglia matter Ernie Averill stated for the record "I knew my friendship with him would appear to be a conflict, but I said, "Listen I'm not going to let my job dictate who I am friends with."
"The B--ch that testified lied. What did we do
illegal by buying two escorts? Or five of them."
Less than 3 months after the deal which restored Butch Stramaglia to the good graces of Lee County was struck he would be returned to the headlines as questions of his unusual business tactics made for sensational news all across Florida. On August 26, 1982 as Fort Myers detectives questioned escort and burglary suspect Carla Jewel about her role in a break in at the Stramaglia home, Jewel touched off one of the steamiest scandals in recent memory in Southern Florida when she stated to detectives that she and another woman had been paid to entertain Ernie Averill at Butch Stramaglia's home in Fort Myers less than a month after his support helped to lift the irresponsible bidder lable from Vito's Trucking and Excavation. Jewel's statements included the declaration, "I had sex with them both." These statements led to yet another inquiry into Stramaglia's business tactics and led to the disclosure that Averill along with fellow commissioners Wade Scaffe and Mike Roeder were entertained aboard Stramaglia's Prodigal Son by unidentified women on October 12. These allegations led to the conviction of both Scaffe and Roeder for perjury while Averill drew a 5 year term for corruption and Stramaglia wiggled free with an acquital handed down in April of 1984 on charges of bribery and corruption.
"I do business like any businessman, no more, no less."
In the twenty years that Butch Stramaglia has conducted business in South Florida his work record has been patchy to say the least. He is both lauded for his work by some while other former employers have been forced to sue Stramaglia for charges ranging from shoddy workmanship to fraud and out right theft. The $33 million dollar East Lee County sewer project finished more than $4.5 million over budget. Whereas Vito's thrilled engineers and politicians in Palm Beach County by completing another public works project ahead of schedule and $200,000 under budget on a $3 million dollar project. "They did a good job for us," was the comment of C. Lawton McCall of Palm Beach County's engineering division. Vito's was also the low bidder on projects in Lee County, Orlando and Logan County Ohio but were turned down after background checks found them to be non-responsible bidders. In each case Stramaglia resorted to threats of a law suit and in the case of Logan county won his legal challenge while Orlando caved to the threats and awarded Butch with two sewer contracts. Orlando residents and officials were infuriated by the whole ordeal when the first project came in 9 months late but the second completed slightly ahead of it's projected date of completion. These projects along with several other examples of Vito's inconsistant work leave most shaking there head as to how Stramaglia continues to do business. Other projects done by Vito's in Broward county also received mixed reviews with improvements to Sheridan Street and the construction of a park in South Broward finishing ahead of schedule and receiving high marks for quality of workmanhship. Other jobs included a lake excavation in Markham Park which completed behind schedule, and a suite filed in Hallendale in which residents sued Vito's for sinking there homes after the company removed dirt during a sewer project. Stramaglia's response to the negative reports of his companies work were a smile and a comment of "Bulls--t."
"Get Away From Me!!!"
After a decade of court battles and news paper headlines, it appeared that Butch Stramaglia had finally reached the end of the line when he was convicted on 38 counts of racketeering, fraud and grand theft stemming from his firms construction of the Sawgrass Expressway in 1990. The burly tough talking contractor was sentenced to serve a total of 85 years in prison "5 of which came from a seperate case and 80 for RICO related charges to be explained shortly," after a high profile trial which featured accusations of theft, money laundering, organized fraud and RICO violations and revisited all of the steamy scandals which had haunted the controversial businessman. The intial investigation began a full five years before the case was brought to a close On April 20,1990 with Stramaglia's sentencing. The Sawgrass express construction covered a 23 mile stretch of highway in Broward county which cost a reported $200,000,000 to complete. Stramaglia just so happened to be the contractor and the first participane convicted in the Sawgrass scandal. A grand jury investigation revealed that Stramaglia diverted $2 million dollars of Broward county funds and dispersed it through a series of transactions involving several of his business associates and other Stramaglia owned companys located around the country. When sub-contractors who the funds should have gone to submitted payment to Stramaglia for work completed, they were told Stramaglia did not have the cash and claims were then filed with Stramaglia's insurance company "CNA," who was forced to pay an estimated $1.7 million dollars to cover the claims. This action launched the initial investigation which would ultimately lead to the full blown Strawgrass case but not before Stramaglia countered with accusations of his own against CNA claiming the firm caused his cash shortage when it denied or withheld a payment $600,000 owed to one of Stramaglia's companys. The source of contention between Stramaglia and CNA was believed to have been a $25 million dollar lawsuit filed by Butch against CNA. The investigation brought forth several disturbing stories about Stramaglia's past including stories of his past associations with top level members of the Detroit Partnership and another incident in which the volatile contractor in a fit of rage rammed his new Cadillac into the wall of a restaurant and even a long forgotten case in which Butch had been charged with larceny. During his sentencing hearing Butch sat impatiently with his hands shackled infront of him as judge John Ferris sentenced him to serve 80 years in prison to be served concurrently with another 5 years for another legal matter to be followed by 15 years of supervised probation. This must have been the low point in the life of Louis Stramaglia as he watched his highly profitable Florida construction empire crumble as he was indicted in Michigan on charges of income tax evasion and his younger brother and co defendant in the Sawgrass case Frank was found dead in a suspicious drug overdose back in Michigan.
"Somebody wants it to be known that the two deaths
were connected."...Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga...
With Prosecutors closing in on the Stramaglia brothers for bilking contractors out of millions of dollars in payments, Frank Stramaglia the vice president of Four Bears Water Park in Shelby Township was observed in several meetings with members of the Detroit partnership. Frank Stramaglia had been known to indulge in the pleasures of drug use from time to time so the discovery of his body in a Comfort Inn in Utica on January 3, 1989 from what appeared to be an overdose seemed highly plausible. With 33 year old Frank Stramaglia dead of an overdose and his brother Louis preparing for trial in Florida the death of a third participant the Sawgrass/Four Bears scandal raised immediate red flags. Mark Giancotti served as the controller of the Shelby Township water park was found February 10, 1989 in his car outside of the Meijer store in Rochester Hills. The 30 year old had a single gunshot wound to the chest and an unregistered .357 magnum was found at his side. Like the Stramaglia death a month earlier, investigators initially ruled the death a suicide. Giancotti's autopsy would reveal that he had not handled the gun found next to him on the seat and he was most likely shot from outside of the vehicle but at a close range. The FBI immediately joined the investigation into both Stramaglia and Giancotti's death when it was learned that Frank Stramaglia had been considering a deal to cooperate with authorities looking into the Stramaglia contacts within the state of Florida. No one was ever able to clearly state why Giancotti had been killed but one theory held that he had been killed for supplying Frank Stramaglia a lethally pure form of cocaine which left levels of the drug in his system which was deemed to be 20 times what is needed to kill a man of Stramaglia's age and size. With Frank and Giancotti dead, Butch quietly accepted his sentence and went off to prison where he would remain for the next 36 months.
"I am confident he will be
a free man very very shortly."
...C.Craig Stella Stramaglia Attorney...
After spending 36 months locked up in a Florida prison, Louis Vito Stramaglia had his 38 count RICO conviction thrown out on a technicality. At the time of the decision Butch was serving his time in the Walton Correctional Institute in DeFuniak Springs. The multi-millionaire has maintained an extremely low profile since his release 8 years ago.
