Posts tagged fraud
New York, Oregon laws could make the Supreme Court defend its Janus ruling
November 6, 2026 // Oregon and New York recently enacted remarkably similar laws. On their face, they claim their intention is to prevent organizations from fraudulently impersonating labor unions, which sounds reasonable enough. Fraud is already illegal, and nobody has a constitutional right to deceive workers. But these laws actually have a much more specific target: The Freedom Foundation, my own national watchdog organization, whose mission is to inform government employees of their right to decline union membership and dues — and when necessary, to help them exercise it, since unions often make it as difficult as they can.
Former Immigration Services Officer Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Union
October 8, 2026 // Between 2019 and 2024, Aguja defrauded AFGE Local 38 by siphoning funds from the union bank account to pay for her own personal and non-union related expenses. As part of her fraud scheme, Aguja also paid union expenses out of her personal accounts and commingled union and personal funds to conceal her embezzlement. Specifically, Aguja used the AFGE Local 38 credit card to pay approximately $12,508 for personal expenses such as restaurant meals, bills, clothing and dance lessons. She also made 128 cash withdrawals totaling over $23,700 from the AFGE Local 38 account, and transferred over $25,000 from the AFGE Local 38 account to her personal accounts. Aguja falsified annual forms regarding the union finances that AFGE Local 38 was required to submit to the United States Department of Labor-Management Standards, in order to conceal her fraud.
WATCH: Union urges lawmakers to curb influencers amid daycare fraud coverage
September 28, 2026 // Political & Legislative Director at SEIU 925 Erin Haick sent a Tuesday email to lawmakers obtained by unDivided podcaster Brandi Kruse, raising concerns about the video, and suggesting lawmakers should do what they can to make sure reporters can’t go out “harassing” daycare providers.
Powerful New York Labor Group Seeks to Unionize 190,000 Health Workers
September 24, 2026 // The unionization vote would cover all caregivers enrolled in New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, which in 30 years has been transformed from a small program into a major — and expensive — part of the state’s safety net. It enables vulnerable New Yorkers to hire a friend or relative to provide help — putting toothpaste on a toothbrush, lifting them off the toilet, cooking meals and cleaning up — instead of having a home attendant supplied by a staffing agency.
Maryland Union Leader Convicted of Defrauding Union To Enrich Herself
September 3, 2026 // Goodwin served as the president of the AFGE local 2419 union from January 2017 to August 2019. At the time of her service, the union represented approximately 500 federal employees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As part of the fraud scheme, under Goodwin’s authority, the union transferred approximately $1 million received from NIH from multiple employee grievance lawsuits into the local 2419 bank account. She then used her power as signatory of the union bank account – which she retained as part of her scheme to defraud the union even after her tenure as president had expired in 2019 – to transfer the money to a sham consulting company that she owned.
Former Immigration Services Officer Charged With Defrauding Union
August 21, 2026 // A former Immigration Services Officer was charged and has agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than $60,000 from a labor union over the course of five years. Carol A. Aguja, 55, of Reading, Mass., was charged with wire fraud. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the Court. According to court documents, Aguja was an Immigration Services Officer employed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Between approximately 2015 and August 2024, Aguja also served as Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 38 (AFGE Local 38), a labor organization that represented USCIS employees who lived in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Three Takeaways From Our Investigation Into a Shady New York Union
August 21, 2026 // Our investigation into the union — International Brotherhood of Trade Unions, or IBOTU — found that it enriches its leaders at the expense of its members, who are low-wage workers in grocery stores, ambulance companies, and home health care, among other industries. The union has repeatedly been targeted by federal regulators for labor law violations, and some of its leaders have been arrested for criminal activity. IBOTU is also a family business: three of its current top officers married the founding president’s daughters. All three currently make about $1 million per year.
Dr. Oz points to powerful California unions as ‘biggest beneficiaries’ in Medicaid fraud scheme
August 10, 2026 // The CMS Administrator claims that there is no incentive to crackdown on fraud because unions are able to increase their bottom-line if more people are able to bill Medicaid. “These incentives create a vicious cycle: Lax program integrity standards mean more demand for caregivers, more caregivers mean more union dues, and more union dues mean more donations for the elected officials who are supposed to be guarding the cash register,” he added. While joining a union is supposed to be completely optional, Oz accused some of California’s most influential labor organizations of forcing healthcare workers to join instead of offering a choice.
The Name Game: How Connecticut Teachers Union (AFT) Keeps Dues Spending in the Dark
June 29, 2026 // That reality helps explain why Congress passed the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), Public Law 86-257. Enacted by a bipartisan Congress in the wake of well-publicized union corruption scandals, the law was designed to protect rank-and-file workers by requiring financial transparency and accountability from labor organizations. Its centerpiece was the Form LM-2, a detailed annual financial report that larger unions must file with the U.S. Department of Labor, disclosing assets, liabilities, salaries, receipts, expenditures, loans, political spending, and significant disbursements. Filing false information carries criminal penalties under federal law. The promise was straightforward: union members should always be able to see how their dues are spent.
Former Philly union leader Chris Woods found not guilty of fraud
June 11, 2026 // Christen “Chris” Woods, the former leader of one of Philadelphia’s largest labor unions, was acquitted of theft and conspiracy charges Wednesday by a judge who rejected prosecutors’ allegations that he used a union-funded renovation project to secretly funnel money into local political campaigns. In delivering her verdict, Common Pleas Court Judge Tracy Brandeis-Roman said prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Woods — who once led District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees — acted criminally when he hired longtime political operative Tracy Hardy to oversee the renovation of a bar inside the union’s Center City headquarters in 2019. The case against him, she said, relied on circumstantial evidence that did not definitively tie Woods to any wrongdoing.