Lonardo appeared as the star prosecution witness in a two-month-old trial of eight alleged Mafia officials who are accused of skimming $2 million from the Stardust and Fremont casinos, in which they allegedly became silent business partners after arranging loans worth $62.7 million from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Each man got cash payments of $1,500 a month, Lonardo said. Williams, former union president, and the late William Presser, longtime Ohio union official and father of Jackie Presser, current Teamster president. Lonardo, 74, who signed an agreement to cooperate with the FBI last August, said that Teamster leaders who personally profited from untaxed gambling proceeds included Roy L. Lonardo, the highest-ranking Mafia leader ever to turn government witness, told a hushed courtroom Friday how top organized crime figures conspired with Teamster Union officials in the mid-1970s to share illegally skimmed money from Las Vegas casinos.
