After confessing that casino gambling on the Ohio River and in Las Vegas as well as sport wagering led him to embezzle $130,507 from the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers & Allied Workers Local 86 in Columbus, Ohio, Robert D. King, Jr., was sentenced Apr. 17 to 21 months imprisonment and three years probation. He stole $88,757 from the local plus $41,750 from local’s benefit funds. He was ordered to make full restitution. He pled guilty to two embezzlement counts Dec. 11 before U.S. Dist. Judge George C. Smith (S.D. Ohio, Reagan). King stole the money from Aug. 1999 to Jan. 2001 by writing himself checks from Local 86’s general and apprentice-training accounts.
King served as the local’s business manager and financial secretary for six years until the union ousted him in Jan. 2001. Local officials became suspicious because King’s sloppy record-keeping. The int’l union audited the books and confronted King with numerous discrepancies. The case was then turned over to the Dep’t of Labor. [DOL 4/17/02; Columbus Dispatch 12/12/01]
International Boss Admits $103,100 Embezzlement
Raymond Robertson, ex-general vice president of the Int’l Ass’n of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental & Reinforcing Iron Workers and ex-director of its Nat’l Training Fund, pled guilty Apr. 11 in U.S. Dist. Court in Washington, D.C., to one count of conspiracy to defraud an employee benefit plan, one count of aiding and abetting embezzlement from an organization receiving federal funds, and six counts of embezzlement from an employee benefit plan. He agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and $103,170 in restitution and to assist the government in other probes.
Robertson is the seventh to be charged in the federal probe of BSORIW. Four other bosses have pled guilty to embezzlement or related charges. A fifth, ex-BSORIW president Jacob “Jake” West, is awaiting trial on charges related to a $50,000 union embezzlement and he also been linked to the ULLICO insider trading scandal. Others charged in the scandal are: Darrel E. Shelton, ex-general organizer, who pled guilty to embezzling as much as $120,000; Fred G. Summers, ex-executive director of organizing, who admitted embezzling more than $50,000; James E. Cole, ex-general secretary , who pled guilty to embezzling more than $10,000; and Michael J. Brennan, the ex-head of the Iron Workers Political Action League, who pled guilty to charges involving the theft of $7,000. Finally Kerry J. Tresselt, ex-bookkeeper, pled guilty to embezzling more than $350,000 from BSORIW’s training fund. [DOL 4/11/02]