'Violent' NYC Tow Monopoly Saw Drivers Beat Up Competition: DA

NEW YORK, NY — A Long Island man ran a towing racket in New York City for years by literally beating the competition with a "violent" multimillion-dollar monopoly, Manhattan prosecutors said Wednesday.

Daniel Steininger of Oceanside, Long Island, along with 16 other people and 10 companies, was indicted Wednesday on charges including enterprise corruption, conspiracy and scheme to defraud in connection with a "criminal enterprise" that scammed city officials and drivers alike, prosecutors said.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is seeking to recoup $19 million the scheme generated for its participants, prosecutors said.

"If you were involved in a collision between June 2015 and December 2017 and received assistance from a tow company, chances are, you were an unwitting customer of an illegal enterprise that dominated New York City’s towing industry until our takedown today," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.

With help from others, Steininger allegedly bought up towing and auto repair companies and won lucrative city contracts while subverting rules against consolidation, prosecutors said.

He encouraged his drivers to enforce their dominance by beating up competing drivers and damaging their trucks, according to prosecutors and one of four indictments unsealed in the case. In an August 2016 phone call, Steininger allegedly said he wanted his drivers to "rip (another driver) out of the truck" and "(g)ive him a beating."

Steininger also colluded with the owners of other companies to get towing jobs on segments of highways where those companies had exclusive contracts to operate, prosecutors say.

In exchange for the work, Steininger would kick back $20,000 each quarter and a cut of insurance payments to the companies, which were run by Michael Mazzio, Angelo Mazzio and Salvatore Mazzio, prosecutors said.

Body shops that received towed cars were also involved in the scheme, prosecutors say. Shop managers bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from insurance companies by running up bills for damage they caused to cars, repairs they never performed and new parts that were actually used, among other deceitful claims, prosecutors said.

Steininger and three other people — Domenick Genise, Jaime Bautista and David Conti — laundered insurance money by cashing millions of dollars worth of checks written to their companies, prosecutors said. Steininger and Genise also allegedly omitted their ill-gotten income on personal tax returns.

This isn't Steininger's first run-in with city towing rules. The city Department of Consumer Affairs revoked a towing license for one of his companies, Impressive Bodyworks, and pulled Steininger's tow truck driver's license in 2011 after he failed to respond to a city subpoena, according to city records archived by New York Law School.

Steininger turned himself in early Wednesday morning and was released on a $1 million bond after his arraignment, his attorney, James Kousouros, said.

The accusations against Steininger deal with close relationships among people who have been in the towing industry "for decades" that might not necessarily be criminal, Kousouros said.

"The question ultimately will be whether or not this is a group of individuals that knew each other, cooperated with each other and whether that conduct rises to the level of criminality that’s been alleged," Kousouros said.

(Lead image: Photo by Sokolove Photography/Shutterstock)