ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW)
Chicago Informant Convicted of Perjury
A federal jury convicted ex-FBI informant William A. Russell on May
13 on two counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for staging
a recorded conversation in Sep. 1991 to make it appear as if he passed
a $10,000 bribe to IBEW boss Jeremiah J. O'Connor. Investigators initially
thought O'Connor took the bribe and began a major union corruption investigation
code-named Operation Chi-Lite. The probe cost taxpayers $173,000 and Russell
received nearly $113,000. He faces two years in prison. The scheme unraveled
when O'Connor produced records showing that he attended a union meeting
five hours from Chicago, in Eau Claire, Wis., on the night the alleged
payoff on Chicago's Westside. [Chicago Tribune 5/14/99]
In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update, readers can look forward to news and information on other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
All back issues of the Union Corruption Update can be viewed at NLPC's website (www.nlpc.org). Also available is a union-by-union and state-by-state index of all Union Corruption Update articles.
If you have story ideas or suggestions for future editions of Union Corruption Update, please email NLPC at nlpc@nlpc.org. Thank you.
Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project which is investigating and exposing corruption and extremism in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and many other union organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
Union Corruption Update Article Index (by Union)
Union Corruption Update Article Index (by State)
Organized Labor Accountability Project