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"The Cheese Man" DiNunzio sentenced to six years in prison

E-mail|Link|Comments () September 24, 2009 05:21 PM

Robert Spencer for The Boston Globe

DiNunzio at a 2007 hearing.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

Carmen "The Cheese Man" DiNunzio, once the reputed boss of the Mafia in Boston, was sentenced today to six years in prison on charges that he tried to bribe an undercover FBI agent posing as a state highway inspector in a bid to get a $6 million Big Dig contract.

"Crimes of corruption go to the very heart of our system. Our system is one that depends on the integrity of its citizens… You have seriously flouted that system," US District Court Judge William G. Young said at DiNunzio's sentencing hearing.

DiNunzio's sentence also included three years of supervised release, with the condition that he cannot associate with suspected Mafia members. Young, however, rejected a request by Assistant US Attorney Peter K. Levitt, that DiNunzio also be barred from visiting Boston's North End.

DiNunzio's attorney, Anthony Cardinale, said that "essentially, he's being banished from an area of the city" and argued it was unfair because DiNunzio's fiancée and her family live in the North End.

"No one should be told that they can't go to the North End. To me, it's the best part of the city," Cardinale said.

DiNunzio, 52, of East Boston, who has been free on bail, was ordered to report to prison on Oct. 22. The judge, at the defense's request, agreed to recommend that DiNunzio serve his time at the prison hospital in Devens. DiNunzio's health problems include diabetes.

Dressed in black pants and a black short-sleeved shirt with an open collar, DiNunzio hopped into a silver GMC Yukon after the hearing and was driven away. He had no comment.

Cardinale said his client admitted and accepted responsibility for his crime.

"He understands he has to do his time. Hopefully, he will come out healthier and live the rest of his life with no more problems," Cardinale said.

Prosecutors have said that if the case had gone to trial, they would have presented evidence that DiNunzio personally delivered a $10,000 bribe to the undercover agent in September 2006 to secure a contract to provide 300,000 cubic yards of loam, a soil mix, to the Big Dig project. DiNunzio and two associates expected to receive $1 million to $2 million from the $6 million deal, prosecutors said.

DiNunzio was dubbed "The Cheese Man" because he owns the Fresh Cheese shop on Endicott Street, which has recently closed.

DiNunzio has also pleaded guilty to state charges of extortion, conspiracy, and illegal gambling and faces sentencing Friday in Essex Superior Court. Under a sweeping plea deal, his sentence on those charges will run concurrently with his federal sentence.

Law enforcement officials have said that, since his indictment in the case, DiNunzio has been replaced as underboss, a position that allegedly made him second in command of the Rhode Island-based family and first in eastern Massachusetts.