National Legal and Policy Center -- Organized Labor Accountability Project
 
UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE
 
December 4, 2000 -- Vol. 3, Issue 25

 
For Influential Leaders & Important Decision Makers:
Information on America's most corrupt & aggressive unions

 
AFL-CIO
New Hampshire Boss Guilty of $124,000 Theft
A "longtime labor activist" pled guilty in U.S. Dist. Court in New Hampshire Nov. 27 to stealing funds from the N.H. AFL-CIO while he was secretary-treasurer. Daniel P. Courchesne pled guilty to one count of mail and wire fraud. Federal investigators accused Courchesne of taking about $124,597 from the N.H. AFL-CIO between 1995 and 2000. Some of those funds were repaid, but remainder was used to pay his personal expenses.

Courchesne, who also is an ex- agent of the N. New Eng. Council of Carpenters, admitted to depositing into his account checks payable to the N.H. AFL-CIO. He also admitted to using a signature stamp without authorization to draw checks against the union's account for his personal benefit.

Mark MacKenzie, N.H. AFL-CIO president, said the chapter cooperated fully in the investigation after it alerted the U.S. Atty.'s Office in June of "problems in record filings" discovered during an internal audit. The chapter is bonded and will recover all the money that was lost, he said. He estimated the chapter is still owed about $50,000. The funds came from the per-capita tax local unions pay to the N.H. AFL-CIO. "It's caused us to look at a lot of things," MacKenzie said. "We have a whole separate accounting policy in place that really stiffens things up." [Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.) 11/28/00]

Union Corruption Update is made possible by the generous contributions from readers like you. NLPC, P.O. Box 6273, McLean, VA 22106-6273. Thank you.

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.

Email NLPC

Union Corruption Update Article Index (by Union)

Union Corruption Update Article Index (by State)

Organized Labor Accountability Project

NLPC Home Page