Gardell quietly pled guilty to the fraud charge after being linked to a sweeping case of mob stock ripoffs and crooked brokers. 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 scheme was caught before any pension money was touched. Gardell was arrested in June 2000 along with 119 others in the pump-and-dump stock scheme. Weeks before his arrest, he put in for retirement and left with an $80,000-a-year pension.
Gardell asked that he be sentenced to home confinement so he could care for his ailing 87-year-old mother. In turning him down, Pauley said, "You violated the most sacred trust, a trust that is reposed in you by the community [and] by all law enforcement personnel." [Daily News (N.Y.) 3/19/02]
Union Corruption Update is made possible by the generous contributions from readers like you. NLPC, PO Box 6821, Falls Church, VA 22040. 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 (http://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 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