Posts tagged credit card
Sean O’Brien Has a Credit Card for You
August 22, 2025 // Mr. O’Brien likes to denounce credit-card issuers for their rates. Interest rates on “credit cards are 19 to 29 to 30% depending on your credit,” he said in a recent interview. “So it’s like a strategy I think just to keep people in debt now and make them beholden to work in 2 or 3 jobs.”
Boilermakers sue ex-president, demand he repay union nearly $500,000 he ‘misused’
August 3, 2025 // The Kansas City-based International Brotherhood of Boilermakers is suing the president it ousted two years ago, demanding that Newton Jones pay back nearly $500,000 of union money it says he misused. Filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the lawsuit says Jones has ignored the union’s order to reimburse the money he’s accused of taking.
LA firefighters union leaders suspended after audit finds $800,000 in undocumented spending
May 6, 2025 // A more extensive audit was ordered, revealing that Escobar had spent more than $300,000 on his union credit card between July 2018 and November 2024. Kelly said there was no way to determine that the funds were used for “legitimate union expenditures.” Auditors had warned union leadership in March 2024 there were “significant deficiencies” in the local's financial practices. Escobar spent more than $70,000 without submitting a single receipt that year. A former treasurer, Domingo Albarran, was also found to have spent more than $300,000 over about five years without documentation of the expenditures, according to the letter.
Union Corruption Case Exposes Missing Millions in Pennsylvania
April 4, 2024 // In Pennsylvania, a union corruption case has revealed that officials misused $1.8 million in funds for a trust that remains unaccounted for, leading to the destruction of evidence regarding its existence. The case, initiated in 2020 by The Fairness Center on behalf of Cory Yedlosky, William Weyant, and Chris Taylor—three workers at a state prison—alleges the misappropriation of $20,000 by the treasurer of the local chapter of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association between 2009 and 2018. Despite raising concerns with union executive board members in Harrisburg, the workers’ complaints were disregarded. An internal forensic audit later revealed over $400,000 in credit charges for personal expenses by local and state union leaders, including a $12,000 Rolex, Miami Dolphins game tickets, $3,000 bar tabs, and luxury golf trips. In 2023, five senior union officials were charged with forgery and theft, with court orders to repay nearly $82,000, of which about $23,000 has been returned.
Former Pa. Corrections Union President Facing Six Felony Theft Charges
August 10, 2023 // Corrections officers searching for the truth about their union’s finances have helped expose financial corruption within the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association (PSCOA) that has led to criminal charges for two different union officials and major reforms within the union. In July, former PSCOA president Jason Bloom was charged by state police with six felony counts of theft for allegedly using the union’s credit card for personal expenses totaling $8,286. According to court filings in filed by concerned corrections officers, PSCOA officials also spent members’ money on golf outings, NFL tickets, a $12,000 Rolex watch, iTunes purchases, and personal expenses totaling more than $200,000 on union credit cards.
Southeast Iowa man sentenced for embezzlement and theft of labor union assets
April 21, 2023 // According to court records, James Darin Boatman, 53, of New London, embezzled and stole union funds for his personal use. Boatman is the former president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 617 Union. UFCW Local 617 members include production workers and skilled trade workers at the Conagra plant in Fort Madison. An investigation revealed Boatman, the president of the union from 2010 until 2019, set up a credit card in the union’s name, without authorization, and from at least May 2017 to August 2019 used the card for personal expenses, including vacations to Florida, large repairs on his personal vehicle, and to pay for attorney representation for an unrelated matter.