Last modified: Thursday, October 30, 2008 3:10 AM EDT Seekonk contractor charged in RI kickback scheme STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS PROVIDENCE - Federal racketeering investigators have charged a Seekonk construction contractor and a former Rhode Island labor organizer with conspiring in a kickback scheme. An Oct. 17 federal charge was unsealed Tuesday with the arrest of Gerald Diodati, 59, and Harold Tillinghast, 44, of Cranston, R.I., U.S. Attorney Robert Corrente and Department of Justice racketeering investigators said. Corrente said in a statement that Tillinghast is a former Rhode Island organizer for Laborers International Union of North America. Diodati allegedly gave Tillinghast, then a union official, an envelope stuffed with $2,000 cash. Tillinghast had pledged to help get a contract on a demolition job for a fake company set up by FBI agents, with whom Diodati allegedly then agreed to subcontract. Both men were released on bond from federal court Tuesday. A message left with a Gerald Diodati was not immediately returned. His attorney did not return a call for comment, and Tillinghast's federal public defender declined to comment. A message left for Tillinghast with a person at his home was not returned.