On Jun. 15, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau indicted nine more bosses of the Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees Dist. Council 37 on union corruption charges, bringing to the number of bosses indicted in the recent scandal to a shocking 27.
Albert A. Diop, ex-Local 1549 president, was accused of directing an elaborate fraud resulting in the ratification of DC37’s 1996 contract with N.Y.C. Martin Lubin, DC37 ex-associate director, was also indicted in the voting scheme. Diop also allegedly stole $1.6 million via various scams: He allegedly spent $270,000 in personal expenses on the union’s credit card. He allegedly had the union spend over $500,000 for his penthouse. He allegedly took $817,000 in wrongful “hospitality money.” He allegedly used $4,300 in unauthorized union funds for listening devices in DC37 offices after Morgenthau began his probe last year.
Robert Taylor, ex-Local 983 president was indicted on charges of stealing over $50,000. He allegedly received kickbacks by buying members’ holiday turkeys and submitting inflated catering invoices. He also allegedly committed vote fraud by in inflating vote counts in his local.
Two ex-Local 1549 vice-presidents: Mary Wilson and Lionel Scott and were indicted for stealing $213,500 and $172,000, respectively. Anthony Sessa, ex-DC37 Quality of Work Life Program director was indicted for taking over $50,000 in kickbacks from a catering firm, named Gee Whiz. Daniel Rivera, ex-Local 1503 president was indicted for stealing over $3,000 by inflating Gee Whiz invoices. Betty Silverstein, ex-Local 372 vice-president pled guilty to taking a kickback of under $200 from Gee Whiz. Andreas Koutsoudakis, Gee Whiz’s owner, pled guilty to falsifying invoices to DC37 by inflating costs and kicking back the difference. Robert Crilly, ex-Local 2627 president was indicted in Apr. for stealing over $3,000 by via the holiday turkeys scam. He died May 12. Unless otherwise noted, all these bosses pled not guilty. [N.Y. Times, Newsday 6/15/99]