Gotti family business faces state lawsuit

The office of the state of New York Attorney General has announced a lawsuit against the owners and operators of LSM Auto Parts & Recycling in the Queens borough of New York City. While the news release announcing the suit does not mention them by name, among the owners of the company or the property on which it sits, according to local media reports, are Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr., a grandson of deceased organized crime figure John Gotti, and Gotti’s daughter, Victoria.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos describe LSM as an automobile salvage yard and accuse it of “releasing dangerous automobile chemicals and oil into the environment.”

“If you make a mess, you clean it up,” James says. “Most learn this old adage before they speak their first words, but it’s clear LSM never did. Instead, LSM flouted our environmental protection laws and mismanaged toxic chemicals and pollutants which pose a serious, long-term threat. LSM will not get away with knowingly jeopardizing the health and safety of our communities. It’s time they clean up the dangerous mess they have made.”

Sagos says, “The daily operations at LSM Auto Parts and its unremedied oil spills led to contaminated runoff that threatens the environment and the community. Despite DEC’s ongoing outreach to take proper steps for cleanup, the owners are unresponsive and continue to operate with blatant disregard for the environment and the local community.”

The two agencies say LSM is responsible for multiple unremedied gas and oil spills, petroleum and other fluids “pooled in several areas throughout the salvage yard.” They also contend LSM employees “often drained vehicle fluids directly onto the ground instead of into a waste container, thus allowing the chemicals to directly permeate the soil and groundwater. Gas, oil and antifreeze regularly spilled out of the salvage yard and into the street, running down sidewalks and into storm drains.”

The defendants in this matter are LSM and Liberty Scrap Metal Inc., which have operated the salvage yard, and Three Sons Real Estate Group LLC and its subsidiary, BGN Real Estate LLC (BGN), which own the property on which LSM sits.

A different member of the Agnello family has been involved in the auto recycling industry in Cleveland, where he faced prosecution for allegedly weighing down auto bodies sold to shredder yards.