Posts tagged fraud
More transparency for the largest unions
May 31, 2026 // A new rule from the Labor Department will recalibrate the disclosure reports that labor unions are required to file. It’s a welcome update to ensure that union members know how their money is being spent. What will happen in the 2026 midterms? Sign up for Margin of Victory The reason unions have government-mandated disclosure requirements is that they are government-backed monopolies. Labor relations law gives unions exclusive power as the sole bargaining agent for the entire workplace.
Op-ed: Unions are acting as a toll booth on the road to unaccountable single-party power
May 8, 2026 // Unions do not write personal checks. They collect dues from membership — teachers, construction workers, public employees — then steer voluntary PAC contributions through ActBlue, the Democrats’ preferred fundraising apparatus. The tilt is so extreme it would embarrass a slot machine. The National Education Association’s PAC raised nearly $27 million in the 2024 election cycle, virtually every dollar aimed at electing Democrats. The four largest government unions — the NEA, the American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, and the Service Employees International Union — spent more than $700 million on election-related activity in the 2021–22 cycle alone, with 96 percent flowing to Democratic candidates and organizations. That is not grassroots democracy — it is a toll booth on the road to single-party rule.
Commentary: Congress is about to undo DOGE’s biggest win
April 13, 2026 // That corrupt flow of campaign cash into Congress’s coffers is ultimately why, instead of being eliminated by DOGE, the FMCS is on track to be given a whole new set of powers. New Jersey Democrat Donald Norcross recently filed a discharge petition on the Faster Labor Contracts Act. The petition will force the House to vote on the bill once it reaches 218 signatures. The bill can easily hit that target if all 214 House Democrats sign the petition, along with any four of the bill’s 17 Republican cosponsors. Understanding a politician’s real priorities often requires zooming into these quiet battles over little-known agencies.
Federal Crackdown Nets 8 Arrests in Southern California Health Care Fraud Schemes
April 8, 2026 // Federal officials have arrested 8 people in the Los Angeles area for their alleged involvement in various health care fraud schemes totaling $50 million. The cases include fraudulent billing for hospice services, defrauding a labor union's health plans, and forging immigration medical documents.
Labor Dept deploys ‘strike team’ to California over $21B unemployment debt, fraud concerns
February 20, 2026 // In a statement, the department cited an 83-page California State Auditor report that determined the state’s UI system is high-risk, in part due to "inadequate fraud prevention and claimant service [in its employment development department (EDD)], as well as a high rate of overturned eligibility decisions in its Unemployment Insurance Program."
Former Jacksonville teachers union leaders sentenced to prison for $2.6M fraud
February 11, 2026 // A summary from an interview prosecutors and FBI agents had with George in June 2025 said George claimed “it was an open joke in the [DTU] office that Brady did not really have any leave days to sell.” Because George’s job included keeping track of union employees' (not members') leave balances, “when Brady needed money she would say something along the lines of I need to sell some days,” said the summary, which Coolican attached to his sentencing memo. “Brady would tell George how much money she needed after taxes and then George would initiate a payment for the equivalent value of leave days. Brady directed George to do the same for herself.” For example, the summary said that Brady sold $20,000 worth of leave time when she needed roof repairs, and George assumed the two facts were connected.
‘Corrupt union boss’: Federal prosecutors call for 3-year prison sentence for former DTU president
February 8, 2026 // In January 2025, prosecutors announced a variety of fraud charges against Brady and former DTU vice president Ruby George. According to the indictment, Brady and George sold un-earned leave time back to the union, enabling each to pocket more than $1 million. The indictment said the two withheld the activity from the DTU’s auditors by signing each other’s checks, hid the payments from the DTU’s Secretary/Treasurer, and withheld the funds from Florida’s Public Employee Relations Committee (PERC) in required yearly financial statements. Brady was also charged with two counts of money laundering.
Oregon Punishes the Freedom Foundation
December 30, 2025 // The censorship is masked in the good-government language of fighting fraud, but don’t be fooled. The Workers Fraud Protection Act, which takes effect Jan. 1, makes it “unlawful to falsely impersonate a union representative” and imposes punitive fines. The law cites a definition of fraud that includes merely giving a “false impression” of union matters. The bill was written specifically to give unions a cudgel against the Freedom Foundation. The nonprofit sends mailers informing workers of their right to decline union representation. Unions say the Freedom Foundation misleads workers by using union colors and logos to make the mail seem as if it is coming from the union itself.
Largest Flight Attendant Union In The U.S. Faces Computer Fraud Allegations In Ongoing Skywest Unionization Lawsuit
December 15, 2025 // A federal judge has allowed a counterclaim accusing the largest flight attendant union in the United States of conspiracy to commit computer fraud to proceed following months of legal wrangling in a Utah District Court. The contentious allegations were made against the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) by a staff association representing crew members at the major regional carrier SkyWest, which provides services to the likes of Alaska Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines.
Teachers’ union AFT slams crypto market bill, warns of ‘profound risks’ for America’s retirement plans
December 11, 2025 // The American Federation of Teachers, the powerful labor union that represents 1.8 million members, is urging the Senate Banking Committee to reconsider its crypto market structure bill, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, calling the proposed legislation “as irresponsible as it is reckless” in a letter exclusively obtained by CNBC. In the letter that AFT president Randi Weingarten sent to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), she wrote the union opposes the bill based on the “profound risks to the pensions of working families and the overall stability of the economy.”