Former ISC employees get probation over failed Staten Island track
Former International Speedway Corp. employees William Kilgannon and Todd Polakoff have avoided prison time for their roles in an extortion conspiracy in association with the failed attempt to put a race track on New York’s Staten Island.
Polakoff was sentenced to three years probation, while Kilgannon got two years of supervised release, according to court documents. They were sentenced Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court in New York.
Polakoff and Kilgannon were among 62 people indicted in February as part of a wide-ranging, 80-count federal indictment that targeted alleged Mafia members, including three high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family.
Kilgannon and Polakoff were former employees of ISC subsidiary North American Testing Co., which handles design and construction for ISC.
Polakoff worked for NATC between November 2005 and December 2006 as a project manager on the Staten Island development project. Kilgannon worked as director of construction for NATC from May 2005 to December 2006 and was Polakoff's supervisor, according to ISC.
The proposed track site required large quantities of dirt fill, thus requiring trucking contracts that were controlled by the Gambino family, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release issued at the time of the indictment.
Both Polakoff and Kilgannon pleaded guilty to the count accusing them of accepting a $9,000 check from the owner of a trucking company. They already had repaid the money prior to sentencing.
In a sentencing memorandum, Kilgannon’s attorney stated that Polakoff had informed Kilgannon, his supervisor, that he was given a $9,000 check made payable to cash. Kilgannon arranged to have the check cashed, and the person who cashed the check kept half with the other half going to Polakoff.
“Mr. Kilgannon has never been involved in any threat of physical harm to any person and has never had any association with the Gambino or any other organized crime family,” Kilgannon’s sentencing letter stated.
The sentencing letter asked for one year of probation, citing that publicity surrounding his arrest in February “falsely described him as associated with a ‘mob,’ ‘mafia’ and an organized crime family."
