MARINE ENGINEERS (MEBA)
Florida Boss Charged with Racketeering, Embezzlement
South Fla. union boss Walter J. "Buster" Browne
pled not guilty Nov. 3 to a 40-page federal indictment accusing him and
his sister, Patricia B. Devaney, of running a racketeering scheme that
milked more than $400,000 from the union he heads and four companies. Browne
is president of the Nat'l Fed'n of Public & Private Employees (a.k.a.,
Marine Eng'rs' Beneficial Ass'n Dist. 1) headquartered in Fort Lauderdale,
which was founded in 1968 by his father Charles "Chuckie" Browne. Devaney
was union staffer for her brother.
The 22-count indictment alleges that starting in 1994, Browne and Devaney used their union posts to "dominate and control its operation for their personal gain." They are accused of engaging in a pattern of criminal activity consisting of mail fraud, bank fraud, embezzlement, gambling, and unlawful labor practices. Browne, wearing a plaid shirt and looking rumpled after a night in federal custody, was asked by U.S. Magis. Judge Barry Seltzer whether he understood the charges. "Yes, I do," said Browne, who also told reporters: "What's to say? I'm not gonna try my case in the newspapers ... unless you're on the jury."
In Apr. 2000, William J. Coleman, owner of a cargo handling firm, Coleary Transport, pled guilty to violating the Labor Mgmt. Relations Act by paying a $2,000 bribe to Browne. Browne admitted accepting the money, but claimed it was for lobbying services and had nothing to do with the union. The grand jury still included that as an alleged racketeering act in its indictment. Browne is accused of similar violations by taking and/or seeking bribes from Hvide Marine (n.k.a. Seabulk Int'l) ($263,000); SeaAmerica Cruise Lines ($50,000), and Int'l Cruises ($12,500). Hvide has pled guilty to bribery. The other firms have not been charged.
Browne is also charged with defrauding the union by submitting false entertainment vouchers, and by using union funds to pay his personal airline tickets, dinners, and phone expenses. On one trip, Browne allegedly went to Detroit for a meeting with Anthony LaPiana, Jr., according to the indictment. The Teamsters' Independent Review Bd. has reportedly identified LaPiana as a member of the Detroit Mafia. Browne was also charged with running high-stakes poker games at a union hall, a state misdemeanor. Reportedly, federal agents believed the games were used to funnel money to Browne, but that higher charge couldn't be proved.
Devaney faces similar charges: submitting false vouchers, buying airplane tickets, and taking a $30,000 union-owned car. She is also charged with embezzling $116,000 from the union over 3.5 years by issuing unauthorized checks, which she would later forge, to herself, her daughter, and husband. Browne and Devaney face up to 20 years and a $500,000 fine if convicted of racketeering. Both were released after posting personal surety bonds of $150,000 each. The case has been assigned to U.S. Dist. Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley (S.D. Fla., Clinton).
The union's sloppy accounting of its credit cards led to the prosecution of general counsel Gilbert Carrillo, who pled guilty to a misdemeanor of failing to maintain union records in Oct. 2001 and is cooperating with investigators.
Not included were any charges relating to health insurance contracts awarded by the Broward County (Fla.) School Bd. while Browne was a member of the board's insurance committee. Neither were there any charges related to a Broward license tag agency with ties to Brown. In 1999, a grand jury subpoenaed records from the School Board; HIP Health Plan of Fla. Inc.; a lobbying firm called Reg'l Consultants, run by Browne friend Andrew J. DiBattista; another lobbying firm called F.C.O. Inc., owned by Broward AFL-CIO union leader and Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Frank C. Ortis; and First Broward Auto Tag Agency.
Separately, in 1996, Browne pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mail tampering in an alleged scheme to rig a 1988 union vote. In 1993, Browne was acquitted by a judge of federal mail fraud charges in Ft. Lauderdale. [Broward Daily Bus. Rev. 11/5/01; Sun-Sent. (Ft. Lauderdale) 11/3/01]
IRON WORKERS (BSORIW)
International Staffer Admits $350,000 Embezzlement [edited 01/11/02]
Kerry J. Tresselt, ex-bookkeeper for the Int'l
Ass'n of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental & Reinforcing Iron Workers,
admit Nov. 8 that she embezzled more than $350,000 from a union job-training
fund, the Nat'l Ironworkers & Employers Apprenticeship & Journeyman
Upgrading Fund, and attempted to cover it up. She pled guilty in
U.S. Dist. Court in Washington, D.C., to three counts of embezzlement from
an employee benefit plan and one count of conspiring to make false statements.
The Va. resident admitted to illegally issuing checks to herself and others
while working for the training fund set up by BSORIW with contributions
from contractors. She agreed to make restitution and assist prosecutors
in a continuing criminal probe of BSORIW.
The Fund was established by certain Iron Worker contractors and BSORIW. The Fund was established to promote and advance the training of iron workers to insure that the iron working industry would be provided with qualified skilled iron worker craftsmen. Pursuant to collective bargaining agreements between contractors and local unions of BSORIW, the Fund receives contributions from iron worker contractors based on the amount of hours worked by eligible iron workers. From about 1985 to Apr. 2001, Tresselt worked as the bookkeeper for the Fund. In that capacity, she was responsible for issuing checks drawn against the Fund's accounts, recording payments in the Fund's general ledger, and performing other bookkeeping responsibilities.
Through several different types of schemes, Tresselt stole more than $350,000 from the Fund from approximately Apr. 1998 through Apr. 2001. Tresselt stole more than $30,000 through, in effect, a "ghost" employee scheme and more than $270,000 by simply writing checks to herself on the Fund's checking account. In addition, she stole more than $40,000 of funds obtained by the Fund in connection with a federal grant received from the U.S. Dep't of Labor to train workers in Poland. Tresselt stole that money by submitting false and fraudulent claims for work which she did not perform. Finally, Tresselt created false and fraudulent records to conceal and cover-up some of her thefts.
Tresselt is the sixth person from BSORIW to be charged in the probe launched by the FBI and Dep't of Labor. Four other bosses have pled guilty to embezzlement or related charges. The fifth, ex-BSORIW boss Jake West, is awaiting trial. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Tresselt reportedly faces up to to 27 months in federal prison when she is sentenced by Chief U.S. Dist. Judge Thomas F. Hogan (D.D.C., Reagan). [USAO D.D.C. 11/08/01; Wash. Post 11/9/01]
FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS (UFCW)
New Jersey Boss Gets 18 Months for Conspiracy
U.S. Dist. Judge Harold A. Ackerman (D.N.J., Carter) sentenced former
N.J. union boss Joseph P. Rizzo Oct. 22 to the
maximum 18 months in prison for conspiring to accept illegal gifts over
16 years. The ex-president of United Food & Commercial Workers Int'l
Union Local 1262 pled guilty to a single conspiracy charge in April. He
allegedly accepted bribes of between $200,000 and $350,000 from an employer
in return for favorable treatment for supermarkets on wages and benefits.
Indicted in Nov. 2000, Rizzo was accused of demanding and accepting payments
of cash and groceries at Christmas in exchange for the local's cooperation,
which he ran 1989-96. He was also accused of receiving payments during
a 1993 strike.
Rizzo, however, did not admit in his plea that he took bribes in return for any action. "The truth will never be known if you allowed yourself to be subjected to influence in exchange for the gifts you received," Ackerman lecture Rizzo. "The workers will never know if they received the best representation while you were president." Ackerman tacked on a $30,000 fine and barred Rizzo from holding union office for 13 years. He is free pending a Jan. 2 surrender. [AP 10/22/01]
California Boss Charged with Theft
On Nov. 1, in the State Court of Cal., Kings County, a complaint was
filed against Robert S. Ramos, ex-president of UFCW Local 193-I in Fresno.
He was charged with embezzling more than $400 in union funds. [DOL 11/1/01]
LONGSHOREMEN (ILWU)
San Francisco Staffer Charge with Union Theft
Robin Neither, ex-bookkeeper for Int'l Longshoremen & Warehousemen
Union Local 10 in San Francisco, was indicted on two felony counts: embezzling
union funds and falsifying official union records. Allegedly, Neither stole
an unspecified sum of union funds for her own personal use. She also made
false entries in the local's payroll register which was use to provide
false information to the Dep't of Labor.
Neither pled not guilty before U.S. Magis. Judge James Larson who released her after she posted an unsecured $20,000 bond. Neither's next court appearance is Dec. 12 before U.S. Dist. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton (N.D. Cal., Clinton). [DOL 10/16/01; USAO N.D. Cal. 11/7/01]
AUTO WORKERS (UAW)
New Jersey Boss Indicted for $19,200 Theft
George Wright, Jr., ex-fin'l secretary of United Auto Workers Local
267 in Union, N.J., was indicted Oct. 30, in U.S. Dist. Court for
the Dist. of N.J. on one count of embezzling $19,206 in union funds. [DOL
10/30/01]
ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTORS (IUEC)
New York Boss Accused of Witness Tampering and Obstructing Justice
Lead operator for Int'l Union of Elevator Constructors
Local 1 in N.Y.C., Matthew Downey, was indicted Oct. 30 for witness
tampering and obstruction of justice in U.S. Dist. Court for the E. Dist.
of N.Y. Further details were unavailable. [DOL 10/30/01]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (NAGE) / SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU)
National Boss Ousted after Probe
Kenneth T. Lyons, the president of the Nat'l Ass'n of Gov't Employees,
was removed from office Nov. 5 and permanently barred from participating
in union activities after a union hearing on charges that he attempted
to obstruct a state ethics probe by falsifying union records. Lyons, who
served as NAGE president for 40 years, denied any wrongdoing after being
charged in July with altering and destroying union records relating to
a dozen or so meals he had with James Hartnett, undersecretary of the Mass.
Div. of Admin. & Fin. Lyons was also accused of trying to "involve
other union officers in a scheme to thwart an investigation of Hartnett
and of attempting to mislead state investigators."
The Serv. Employees Int'l Union in Washington, D.C., NAGE's parent, confirmed that following an Oct. hearing in Boston before hearing officer Ray Marshall, an ex-U.S. Labor Sec'y, SEIU found that Lyons was trying to protect Hartnett, a longtime friend and the state's chief labor negotiator. SEIU also found that Lyons began altering his expense accounts after the state Ethics Comm'n began investigating his relationship with Hartnett. Under Mass. ethics laws, public employees are barred from accepting or soliciting gifts (or meals) valued at $50 or more from business associates. Lyons allegedly spent several hundred dollars on a dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel for Hartnett and his wife.
In a separate hearing this summer, SEIU placed NAGE in emergency trusteeship for financial irregularities and ordered that the trusteeship continue. NAGE represents state and other public workers in Mass. and several other states, including Cal., Conn., N.H., R.I., and Va.
Known for his outspoken comments, Lyons this summer was at the center of another controversy when the Int'l Bhd. of Police Officers broke ties with NAGE. The break came after Lyons made a remark on Boston TV station that was widely viewed as anti-Semitic. Lyons has had longstanding feuds with labor groups because of his support of conservative candidates who are at odds with the hard-left union movement. In 1990, he sued the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald after reports linking him to a disruption at the Democratic State Convention. [Bos. Globe 11/7/01]
POLICE UNION
New York Boss Admits to Wire Fraud
An ex-police union official has quietly pled guilty to fraud stemming
from a sweeping case of mob stock ripoffs that
reportedly netted more than 100 suspects. Stephen
E. Gardell, ex-treasurer of the NYPD's Detectives Endowment Ass'n,
had originally been charged with a host of crimes, but admitted just one
count of wire fraud in a "hush-hush" hearing Nov. 5. Federal prosecutors
in Manhattan had first charged Gardell with conspiring to move pension
investments into a crooked mob-backed financial firm in exchange for a
big payoff. The pension money was reportedly never touched. Gardell was
also accused of leaking information about mafia investigations to his crooked
associates, and was allegedly paid off with a swimming pool for his home
and gambling junkets to Atlantic City and Las Vegas. But authorities reportedly
dropped the charges when Gardell pled on the wire fraud charged. [N.Y.
Post 11/7/01]
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HOTEL & RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES (HERE)
Indicted Buffalo Boss Dies
Frank H. Ervolino, a corrupt ex-Buffalo
union boss who was under federal indictment for union embezzlement, died
Nov. 2 in a Fla. hospital after a brief illness. Ervolino, 80, was the
longtime head of the now defunct AFL-CIO Hospital & Nursing Home Council,
which had 7,000 members and served as an umbrella union for area hotel,
restaurant and laundry employees. He also was ex-president of the Laundry
& Dry Cleaners Int'l Union, based in Pittsburgh.
He and his wife, Anna May, an ex-union employee, came under scrutiny in the early 1990s for alleged irregularities in union fund balances. In May 2000, a federal grand jury indicted both Ervolinos, charging them with stealing more than $235,000 in union funds while they paid themselves some of the nation's highest labor salaries and left their unions in financial ruin. The felony indictments against the Ervolinos came a year after a court-appointed monitor of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Int'l Union found the couple guilty of embezzling funds from two Buffalo unions while they worked half-days, at most, and took four-month yearly Fla. vacations.
A one-time Broadway dancer, Ervolino had been an officer of the Hospital & Nursing Home Council since 1961 and served as its president from 1985-96. The Ervolinos split their time between homes in Crystal Beach, Ontario, and Boynton Beach, Fla. Buffalo attorney Joseph V. Sedita confirmed his client's death and claimed that he had recently filed a "very substantive" defense motion, which had potential to erode the U.S. Attorney's case against Ervolino. Ervolino's death will result in the dismissal of the charges against him. While the companion charges against his wife will still stand, there's speculation Ervolino's death could lessen the strength of the government's case against her.
The Serv. Employees Int'l Union's Local 1199-Upstate has taken over representation of a majority of the former members of Ervolino's labor empire, with the laundry workers moving over to the AFL-CIO Laundry & Dry Cleaning Int'l Union. [Buffalo News 11/6/01]
AUTO WORKERS (UAW)
Michigan Local Loses ULP Coercion Case
Hundreds of Brighton Interior Systems employees who union bosses coerced
into joining the United Auto Workers have won a settlement in an
unfair labor practice case pending against the
union that requires the revocation of all illegally obtained membership
and dues deduction authorization cards. The settlement of federal
class-action charges, filed by Brighton employee Erik Daly with the Nat'l
Labor Relations Bd. against UAW Local 599 and the Int'l UAW, stipulates
that all dues checkoff authorization/membership cards obtained at Brighton
since Aug. 5, 2001 are invalid. The union must start over, this time properly
notifying employees of their rights and allowing them to make a voluntary
decision about whether or not to join the union.
"This settlement forces UAW officers to account for their systematic bullying of Brighton workers," said Stefan Gleason, of the Nat'l Right to Work Legal Def. Fdn., which negotiated the settlement on behalf of the Brighton employees.
In violation of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Communications Workers of Am. v. Beck, UAW officials told employees they must join the union or "join the unemployment line." Under Beck, union officials may not compel workers to become union members, or pay for politics and other activities unrelated to collective bargaining activities, under the threat of being fired from their jobs.
The original charges filed by Daly in Aug. stated that the UAW "engaged in a campaign of misrepresentations, coercions, and omissions" such that "not a single employee in this bargaining unit can be considered to be a voluntary member." The settlement requires union officials to post notices informing all Brighton employees of their rights under Beck to refrain from union membership and the payment of full dues. The UAW's notices state that "WE WILL NOT threaten employees of Brighton Interior Systems that they will be discharged" for not joining the union. Art McGee, president of Local 599, said "We will abide by its terms." [NRTW 11/5/01; Flint (Mich.) J. 11/7/01]
UTILITY WORKERS (UWUA)
Boss Allegedly Embezzled $86,300 from Massachusetts Local
On June 27, in U.S. Dist. Court for the Dist. of Mass., Leo MacGillvray,
ex-treasurer of Utility Workers Union of Am. Local 446 in Lynn Mass., pled
guilty to a one-count information charging him with embezzling $86,311
in union funds. [DOL 6/27/01]
LABORERS (LIUNA)
Bakersfield Boss Indicted for $10,800 Embezzlement
On June 21, in U.S. Dist. Court for the E. Dist. of Cal, Jeremias Z.
Lopez, ex-business manager and secretary-treasurer of Laborers' Int'l Union
of N. Am. Local 220 in Bakersfield, was indicted on one count of embezzling
$10,814 in union funds and one count of falsifying union records. [DOL
6/21/01]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (AFGE)
Cincinnati Boss Indicted for False Travel Claims to Federal Government
On June 20, in U.S. Dist. Court for the S. Dist. of Ohio, Emanuel Graham,
president of Am. Fed'n of Gov't Employees Local 2031 in Cincinnati, was
indicted on 16 counts of violating 18 U.S.C. § 287 by filing false
claims for travel and per diem expenses with the Veterans Admin. when he
had already been reimbursed for those expenses by the union. He was indicted
on 16 additional counts of violating 18 U.S.C. § 641 for theft of
U.S. Government money corresponding to those claims. [DOL 6/20/01]
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