HOTEL & RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES (HERE)
New York Couple Charged with $235,000 Theft
A federal grand jury in Buffalo indicted ex-union boss Frank
Ervolino and his wife, Anna, charging them with stealing more than
$235,000. The indictments come a year after a court-appointed
monitor found the couple guilty of embezzling union funds from two
Buffalo unions, including Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Int'l
Union Local 4, while they worked half-days, at most, and took a four-month
annual vacation in Florida.
The couple allegedly ransacked the AFL-CIO Hosp. & Nursing Home Council, which served as an umbrella union that included locals of HERE and the Laundry & Dry Cleaners Int'l Union. From 1990-96, they reportedly diverted $183,000 from the Council and $52,000 from its pension fund. In 1990, the two reportedly drew $275,749 in salaries and pensions while the Council showed net assets of $ 196,000; but by 1996, they reportedly drew $504,339 in salary and pensions while the Council was $178,648 in debt.
They allegedly used a variety of devices, including paying themselves severance while they were still employed and buying unauthorized insurance and annuity policies for themselves with union funds. Prosecutors say the Ervolinos never reported the transactions in required federal labor reports, and used a rubber stamp bearing a union officer's signature on the checks without his knowledge.
"I think the Ervolinos are despicable," said Marshall Blake, trustee of the Council's successor, Service Employees Int'l Union Local 1199. "I'm just gratified the feds were able to bring forth an indictment." [Buff. News 5/17/00]
IRON WORKERS (BSOIW)
Third International Boss Indicted
A third Iron Workers boss has been indicted on federal charges that
he illegally used more than $85,000 in union money to cover personal expenses,
including the costs of meals, hotels and vacations for himself, his family
and his friends. Darrell E. Shelton, Int'l Ass'n of Bridge, Structural
& Ornamental Iron Workers' organizer for Cal., was accused May 12 of
using at least $3,000 of union funds to cover personal dinners and resort
charges for Jake West, BSOIW's president, and West's family and friends.
West has not been charged but has been probed for over two years because of a relationship with ex-Washington, D.C. police chief Larry D. Soulsby--and whether West used union money to bestow favors on Soulsby, and if so, whether he received anything in return.
Shelton is the third union official to face charges. He pled not guilty to a 69-count indictment in U.S. Dist. Court in Washington. Fred G. Summers, BSOIW's ex-organizing director, pled guilty in Mar. 2000 to stealing more than $50,000. Summers, who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, admitted covering expenses for West and his and West's friends and relatives. Michael J. Brennan, who once headed the Iron Workers Political Action League, pled guilty in Mar. 1999 to charges involving the theft of $7,000 in union money. Brennan also agreed to cooperate. Shelton was arrested Apr. 26 at his home in Palm Springs, Cal. on charges of mail fraud, embezzlement and making false entries in union records. Prosecutors said Shelton stole union money by submitting phony expense claims and by making purchases on his union-issued credit card. Among other things, he allegedly used union money to pay for a family reunion in 1995 in Oklahoma, his mother's birthday dinner in 1995, and lodging for a Disneyland visit for Independence Day 1997. He is accused of collecting reimbursement for thousands of dollars in phony charges related to phone and auto expenses.
Shelton's attorney, E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr., criticized the direction the investigation has taken, saying, "The prosecutor is spending a lot of time and energy on a relatively minor internal matter." [Wash. Post 5/13/00]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (AFSCME)
Five More DC37 Indictments
Four ex-bosses and one ex-staffer of Am. Fed'n of State, County &
Mun. Employees Dist. Council 37 were indicted May 10 on charges of misusing
union funds. Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau said Eugene Bruno,
DC37's chief lobbyist, Lionel Scott and
Mary Wilson, who were both DC37 vice-presidents,
were indicted on charges of stealing $60,000 by filing expense reports
and cashing airline tickets for trips they never took. Scott and Albert
A. Diop, also a vice-president, were indicted on charges of having
DC37 pay for a $16,000 Alaskan cruise.
Of the four, all but Bruno have been indicted before in the DC37 probe. With the latest round of indictments, over 30 union officials and vendors have faced criminal charges, and over 20 of them have pled guilty.
Dan Castleman, of the DA's Office, said Wilson failed to attend a scheduled court appearance and was considered a fugitive. An investigator who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Wilson was believed to be in Aruba. Diop, who is scheduled to go on trial on June 12 on other corruption and vote-rigging charges, was released. Bail for Bruno was set at $10,000 and Pescatore at $30,000.
Additionally, Joseph Alfano, an ex-staff employee of AFSCME Local 372 was reportedly indicted on charges of bribing a union official. Florence Pescatore, owner of Astra Tours & Travel which allegedly aided various DC37 bosses in travel schemes, was indicted. The DA's office also said that Steven Caridi, manager of Friar Tuck Inn, near Albany, pled guilty Apr. 6 to paying $15,000 to Wilson for union business. Caridi agreed to a sentence of 2 to 6 years in prison, and the company that owns the inn agreed to supervision by an outside monitor for 5 years. [N.Y. Times, Newsday 5/11/00]
Another Hughes Pleads Guilty
Martin Hughes pled guilty May 15
to billing AFSCME Local 372 for trips to the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four
and visits to topless clubs. Hughes pled guilty to grand larceny in a Manhattan
court in a plea bargain that will get him 2 to 6 years in prison when he
is sentenced in July by Justice William Leibovitz. Hughes is one of more
than 20 officials of DC37 to have pled guilty in the union corruption probe.
Hughes was second vice-president of Local 372, representing school lunch workers. The local was headed by his father, Charles Hughes who pled guilty to corruption last month and will be sentenced to 3 to 9 years in prison.
Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau said of the indictments in May 1999 that the defendants had used the Local 372 treasury "as their own private candy store." He added, "Funds contributed by hard-working municipal employees were looted for the defendants' personal benefit to support a lifestyle no union member could afford." [Newsday 5/16/00]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Ex-Indiana Boss Admits to Conspiracy
The ex-boss of the Ind. Teamsters and Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local
135 in Indianapolis, John L. Neal, and his wife, Cleo E., pled guilty May
15 to federal conspiracy charges and acknowledged that the machines they
had defended as legal amusements and games of skill were in fact part of
an illegal gambling enterprise.
In 1990, John added video gambling machines to the collection of pool tables and jukeboxes the two distributed. The machines, known as Cherry-masters, paid money for the right combinations of cherries, lemons and bells. Allegedly, the two, owners of Video Service in Muncie, bought 230 machines over 5 years and split the money they raked in with their client bars, bingo halls and restaurants. The two conspired to defraud the IRS of an estimated $325,000 to $550,000 for the years 1992-94. Further, John pled guilty to money laundering--he bought four businesses with money from the illegal gambling business.
John resigned his two Teamsters posts in 1996 after federal agents searched
his home and seized $970,176.71 in cash contained in safes. As part of
the pleas, the couple agreed to give up claims to the money seized by the
government.
Prosecutors are recommending John serve 3.5 years in prison and
his wife one year. John agreed to pay the IRS $200,000 and the government
$265,000, and pay a fine of $7,500. Cleo agreed to pay a fine of $3,000.
[Indianapolis Star 5/17/00]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
School District Fires Ex-Tacoma Boss
The Tacoma School Dist. fired a cafeteria employee who pled guilty
to stealing money from a local food service union. Sharon
K. Kocha pled guilty last month to first-degree theft for embezzling
about $6,000 from the Public School Employees of Wash. while she was president
of the union's Tacoma chapter. Kocha had been a cook at Stewart Middle
School until Oct. 1999, when she was arrested and placed unpaid administrative
leave.
Pierce County prosecutors charged Kocha with embezzling at least $5,818 by writing checks on the union bank account to herself, her creditors or for cash from 1998 to 1999. On Apr.12, 2000, she entered a type of plea that acknowledged she probably would be found guilty if she went to trial. Pierce County Judge Terry Sebringo sentenced her to pay $6,118 to the union, less any payments already had made. Sebringo also ordered her to serve 30 days in jail but converted it to 240 hours of community service. He also ordered her to pay $810 for court costs. [News Tribune (Tacoma) 5/8/00]
POLICE UNIONS (PBA)
Tax Counts Added for New Jersey Bosses
The two ex-bosses of the N.J. State Policemen's Benevolent Ass'n, indicted
in Nov. for allegedly defrauding the union of as much as $1 million, were
charged May 8 with tax violations.
Frank Ginesi was charged with failing to report the proceeds of the alleged fraud for tax years 1993-96. William Saksinsky is charged with the same crimes for 1993-95. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count (for each tax-year).
According to the earlier 29-counts, Ginesi and Saksinsky committed the fraud using numerous secret bank accounts. They allegedly diverted union dues checks, death benefit insurance premium checks, travel agency checks and checks from a PBA fund raising company. From about 1978 to 1996, Ginesi was president and Saksinsky was vice-president of NJSPBA. [USAO D.N.J., Media Release 5/8/00]
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STEELWORKERS (USWA)
Ohio Firm Files Racketeering Suit against USWA and Trumka
AK Steel Co., which has been the target of an eight-month United Steelworkers
of Am. campaign, filed suit May 8 against USWA, its bosses, and the AFL-CIO
under the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act in federal
court in Southern Ohio.
The suit "alleges that the union and certain individuals have engaged in unlawful, violent, extortionate, and racketeering acts spanning decades in violation of [RICO]." The alleged unlawful acts include having "engineered, carried out, condoned or tolerated acts of attempted murder, bombings and threats of rape and murder" against employees and their families, said AK.
Approximately 620 members of USWA Local 169 have been idle since Sept. 1, when Armco Inc., with whom AK merged on Sept. 30, locked them out of its Mansfield plant after parties didn't reach a collective bargaining agreement. AK said its predecessor locked out the workers because of vandalism, production disruptions, and threats against the company, its employees, and their families. AK has continued to operate the plant with replacement workers.
The 173-page complaint says that the company has suffered millions of dollars of damage as a result of these activities and that it is entitled to treble damages under RICO. It alleges 13 acts of arson and more than 165 acts of extortion by the USWA against AK Steel and its contractors since Sept., AK said.
In addition to USWA and the AFL-CIO, the lawsuit also names as defendants USWA Local 169, USWA president George Becker, USWA secretary-treasurer Leo Gerard, and AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard L. Trumka (who has invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid federal investigators' questions in a union corruption probe). [BNA 5/10/00]
TEXTILE EMPLOYEES (UNITE)
AFL-CIO Finds UNITE Guilty of Raiding UFCW
An AFL-CIO "impartial umpire" May 11 ordered the Union of Needletrades,
Industrial & Textile Employees to stop giving financial support to
members of a small independent union who have protested the merger of their
union with the United Food & Commercial Workers. Umpire Howard
Lesnick found that UNITE violated the no-raiding provision of the AFL-CIO's
constitution (Article XX) by helping to pay the legal fees of members of
the Textile Processors, Service Trades, Health Care Professional &
Technical Employees, who challenged the merger
of their union with UFCW in federal court.
The members of the independent, Chicago-based union assert that they were not informed of, or allowed to vote on the merger at a specially called union convention last May. Their lawsuit also claimed that some of the union's leaders stood to receive excessive pension benefits and cash payments as a result of the merger.
In a Mar. 28 ruling, the U.S. Dist. Ct. in Chicago issued a preliminary injunction barring the merger, finding that union members likely would prevail at trial on claims that their rights to participate in the merger vote, as protected by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (a.k.a. the Landrum-Griffin Act), had been violated.
UFCW spokeswoman Jill Cashen May 12 said the umpire's ruling makes it unlikely that the Textile Processors members would be able to pursue their lawsuit, since UNITE has been bankrolling the litigation. Even if they do proceed with the case, Cashen said, it is unlikely that the district court's preliminary ruling on the merger would stand, given that the umpire found UNITE in violation of Article XX.
Leaders of the independent union pursued the merger last year after UNITE succeeded in wresting away several thousand of its members through elections among units of commercial laundry workers. By merging with an AFL-CIO affiliate like UFCW, the independent could prevent further UNITE raids on its units.
Article XX prohibits raiding by one affiliate on the membership of another. Ignoring the provision puts an offending union in jeopardy of being raided itself. [BNA 5/15/00]
POLICE UNIONS / GOVERNMENT UNIONS
South Florida Corruption Scandal Grows
The sister of South Fla. union boss Walter
Browne was suspended without pay May 17 from her new job at the Broward
(Fla.) Sheriff's Office amid allegations she embezzled more than $100,000
from her old job at the union. Patty Browne Devaney joined the sheriff's
staff on Mar. 6, about the same time she was fired as administrative assistant
for the Nat'l Fed'n of Public & Private Employees which represents
nearly all of the sheriff's correctional officers and many municipal workers
in Broward and is controlled by her brother. Walter Browne said he told
second-in-command Dan Reynolds to fire Devaney after an internal audit
discovered that well over $100,000 was missing.
The union filed a criminal complaint with the Plantation Police Dep't, but she was reportedly still on the union payroll for a few weeks after joining the sheriff's department. Sheriff's officials said they found out about the union problems only after Devaney was hired for the $49,529-a-year job as a "research and development coordinator." The allegations, coupled with uncertainty surrounding a federal inquiry of Walter Browne and the union, reportedly led to the suspension.
The federal probe seems to be directed at Browne, an ex-commissioner on the defunct Port Everglades Authority, according to his lawyer and federal officials. Hvide Marine Inc., a company for which he worked as a consultant, was charged May 15 with making an illegal payment of $60,000 to Browne. It is illegal for companies to pay money to union bosses who have the power to organize workers. A federal grand jury has issued dozens of subpoenas to his friends and for his business dealings with the School Board and the County Commission. Reynolds was subpoenaed to a federal grand jury about six weeks ago, but refused to testify. "I didn't answer any questions on the advice of my attorney (Fred Haddad) because it looked like they were on a fishing expedition," Reynolds said.
Devaney assured Browne that she'd done nothing "stupid," he said, but he still ordered Reynolds to look "at everything she ever touched." Browne said his sister wrote checks on union accounts and was able to avoid detection by the union's auditors. "The auditors said it was very, very creative. It didn't send any red flags up," Browne said. Reynolds said the union's insurance company will probably cover the loss. [Sun-Sent. (Ft. Lauderdale) 5/18/00]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Minnesota Bosses Convicted as Violence Continues to Mark Overnite
Job Action
Three bosses with Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 120 in Minneapolis
have been found in contempt of court in connection with the assault of
one Overnite Transportation Co. driver and the
harassment of a second that resulted in that driver being left inside a
locked trailer. Bradley Slawson, Jr., Edward Barnum and Lewis Miller
were convicted of violating a permanent injunction issued December 1, 1999,
limiting IBT activity during the current walkout that began on October
24, 1999.
Slawson is the recording secretary of Local 120, which is headed by C. Thomas Keegel, who also serves as the secretary-treasurer of IBT, the #2 post behind IBT president James P. Hoffa. Slawson is the son of Local 120 Vice President Bradley Slawson Sr.
The May 8 convictions in the Anoka County Dist. Court follow by three weeks the convictions in Philadelphia of IBT Local 107 and a picket line captain who were found guilty of contempt of court and fined $30,000 in connection with the assault on an Overnite driver in Bucks County, Pa. The Overnite driver was accosted in his personal vehicle on the way to work, just one day prior to his scheduled testimony as a witness in a second case involving alleged threats by a teamster in a separate incident in Philadelphia.
Despite the teamster claims of a "peaceful" job action, the National Labor Relations Board has issued nine complaints against the teamsters for violence and threats of violence. Judges in 21 cities in 14 states have issued injunctions in an effort to curtail violence by picketers and teamster supporters. In addition, a federal task force is investigating possible links to 48 reported shootings and numerous acts of assault and vandalism aimed at Overnite and its employees since the protest began. In Jan., a 225-page federal racketeering suit filed in Jackson, Tenn., named Hoffa and other executive members of the union as defendants in an orchestrated pattern of racketeering activities, including 57 predicate acts of attempted murder, aimed at extorting a labor contract with Overnite.
According to Anoka County court papers, Slawson and Barnum confronted an Overnite driver during a pickup stop in Eden Prairie, Minn., on Mar. 30. The two Teamsters subsequently locked the driver inside his trailer. The driver was released from the vehicle only after his shouts for help were heard from a dock worker. On Apr. 4, again according to court testimony, Slawson and Miller were following another Overnite vehicle in Arden Hills, Minn., when they harassed and threatened the driver before Slawson struck the driver in the face with a picket sign.
The three defendants were ordered to keep away from Overnite property and that of the trucking company's customers for the purpose of assisting the union in any labor action against Overnite. The defendants also were ordered to pay $500 each to compensate Overnite for attorneys' fees and costs. [Overnite Transp. Co., Media Release 5/15/00]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (AFSCME)
DC37 Democracy Battles Continue
Roy Commer, who won office as a DC37 reformer, was removed as president
of AFSCME Local 375 on charges of making an unauthorized mailing during
the 1998 local election, and then ignoring an order to reimburse the local
for the cost. Commer and his supporters say his removal by the union's
national body was part of a broader effort to stifle democratic reforms
in the district council. Meanwhile, a reform group within the scandal-scarred
district council was denied entry to union headquarters last night for
its monthly meeting. "I find it ironic they threw him out and the crooks
are still here," another dissident leader, Mark
Rosenthal, president of Local 983. [Newsday 5/9/00]
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