Ex-boss of Am. Fed’n of State, County & Mun. Employees’ Dist. Council 37 in New York, Mary Wilson was indicted Sept. 11 on charges of stealing more than $3,000 by steering union business to an conference center, the Friar Tuck Inn near Albany. Wilson, a vice-president of Local 1549, is already awaiting trial on charges of conspiring with other union bosses to steal more than $2 million through a variety of other schemes. Owner Steven Caridi pled guilty in May 2000 to paying $15,000 to Wilson to get union business. He agreed to a prison sentence of two to six years, and his company agreed to have a monitor for five years. [Newsday 9/12/00]
Clinton Supporter Indicted
One of the eleven union bosses indicted Sept. 6 in a crackdown on alleged racketeering in the construction industry is a high-profile supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate campaign. Michael Forde heads the N.Y. Dist. Council of Carpenters and United Bhd. of Carpenters Local 608. He was among those Clinton singled out for thanks at a May 31 rally at the union’s headquarters. Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson declined to comment. [Daily News (N.Y.) 9/8/00]
QUOTABLE QUOTE
“[E]xactly 10 years to the day after federal prosecutors filed a civil racketeering lawsuit aimed at ridding the powerful [N.Y. Dist.] Council of Carpenters of corruption, the union’s long and tortured relationship with organized crime was once again on public display. Michael Forde, the newly elected head of the…council, was charged with the oldest and most practiced crime in the playbook of corrupt trade unionists: taking bribes…
Forde’s indictment came after his union spent millions to settle a federal lawsuit, including payments to high-priced, court-appointed monitors, and millions more on lawyers to negotiate a series of reforms to satisfy the government. Upon his arrest, Forde became the fourth chief of the council since 1980 to be charged with corruption.”
– Tom Robbins, Writer, Village Voice, Sept. 19, 2000.