Posts tagged bribery
Former head of powerful construction labor association confesses to taking bribes
December 14, 2022 // James Cahill, ex-president of the state Building and Construction Trades Council, and 10 former union officials copped to taking bribes and other illegal payments from a construction company between October 2018 and October 2020. Others who pleaded guilty to the scheme included ex-top officials from two union locals, 638 and 200. They took thousands in bribes from the same company. Federal prosecutors said the bribes were handed off in cash-stuffed envelopes usually in restaurant bathrooms. The construction firm, not named in court papers, got the unions’ support in its bids for construction jobs and favorable deals in collective bargaining that allowed workers to be paid less.
Reform candidates lead in UAW races with 73% of vote counted
December 2, 2022 // Members of the United Auto Workers union appeared on Thursday to favor replacing many of their current leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials. Reform-minded candidates, many part of the UAW Members United slate, are leading or close in multiple key races with about 73% of the vote in. Many challengers campaigned on rescinding concessions made to companies in previous contract talks, including cost-of-living pay raises, elimination of a two-tier wage and benefit system, and other items.
MADIGAN’S ARRAIGNMENT OVER AT&T BRIBERY CHARGES SET FOR NOV. 1
October 28, 2022 // Since acknowledging the scheme to curry favor with Madigan by trading legal contracts to his law firm, offering little- or no-work jobs for political pals, reserving internships for preferred candidates and advancing a Madigan ally to the company’s board of directors, ComEd also agreed to pay $200 million in restitution. Illinois labor unions contributed $10 million over 26 years to campaign funds under Madigan’s control. He responded by building up union power and a generous public pension system that Illinois taxpayers cannot afford.
Federal monitor accuses UAW of concealing misconduct probe
July 22, 2022 // Attorney Dawn Ison told the union that it was violating a court order by concealing the information, and the UAW has been behaving properly since, Barofsky wrote. But he wrote that the union was obstructing him. “The union’s concealment of evidence of the misconduct of one of its leaders and its own investigation into that misconduct interfered with the monitor’s ability to carry out his work,” Barofsky wrote. Treasury Department's special inspector general, Troubled Assets Relief Program, Judge David Lawson, Detroit,
LA developer is first to go on trial in City Hall corruption scandal
June 15, 2022 // Creed LA, in essence a coalition of labor unions, typically brings these kind of challenges to force developers into hiring union labor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassie Palmer told the jurors in her opening statement Tuesday. To avoid having their projects tied up for years in litigation, developers can negotiate a labor agreement with the unions that can cost them millions of dollars, Palmer said. George Esparza, Justin Kim, Andrew Civetti, EDVARD PETTERSSON
President Biden Sides Against Union Rank-and-File
May 5, 2022 //
The FBI informant in John Dougherty’s inner circle recorded more than 30 conversations with him
April 29, 2022 // In a court hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl expressed concern that the government had waited until earlier this year — four months after Dougherty was convicted on federal bribery charges in his first trial — to disclose that they had a mole working from within Dougherty’s union, the politically powerful Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
UAW Union Treasurer in $2.2M Embezzlement Gambled $16M at Greektown
April 3, 2022 // He was denied bail because of the judge’s concerns about his mental health and criminal history of violence.
MADIGAN PLEADS ‘NOT GUILTY’ TO 22-COUNT CORRUPTION INDICTMENT
March 15, 2022 // Besides illegal corruption, Madigan engaged in legal corruption with government worker unions in which he oversaw decades of generous benefits and pay in exchange for $10 million in contributions to campaign committees he controlled. The results have been the nation’s worst pension debt, which grew 753% during his reign.
Day after Eric Garner’s death, new deputy mayor Phil Banks partied in L.A. with cop briber and crooked jails union boss
January 17, 2022 // The chief of department and influential union leader were visiting their pal, Jona Rechnitz, who would later testify for federal prosecutors about a sprawling bribery scheme aimed at the highest levels of the NYPD and city power players.