The UCU has now learned that the two last unaccounted for defendants in the Teamsters money-laundering scandal were sentenced in Mar. 2002, at two hush hush court hearings, which that have gone unreported by major daily newspapers. When the UCU previously reported that scandal figure Jere Nash was sentenced on Apr. 9, it incorrectly reported that the two other defendants who pled guilty with Nash, had not yet been sentenced. Both were sentenced some 54 months after they pled guilty on Sept. 18, 1997. The three engaged in a series of schemes which led to the embezzlement of some $885,000 from the Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters and to $538,100 in illegal campaign contributions to the failed 1996 reelection campaign of expelled IBT president Ron Carey.
First, Washington, D.C., political consultant Martin Davis, who ran direct mail operations for Carey’s campaign, was sentenced by U.S. Dist. Judge Thomas P. Griesa (S.D.N.Y., Nixon) Mar. 22 to a probation term and ordered to pay a $300 fine. He pled guilty to three counts: conspiracy, union embezzlement, and mail fraud. Davis already paid $700,000 in restitution as part of his plea. Second, Griesa sentenced Carlisle, Mass., telemarketer Michael Ansara to a probation term on Mar. 7. Ansara had pled guilty to one count of conspiracy. Although Ansara had already paid $395,000 in restitution as part of his plea, Griesa ordered Ansara at sentencing to pay an extra $250,000. Ansara filed objections to the additional amount, but the court records indicate that the judgment has been paid and the case closed.
The restitution orders were based in part on claims made by IBT president James P. Hoffa’s administration that IBT was entitled to $2,635,000 to cover losses incurred as a result of the crimes. That figure included the $885,000 embezzlement amount plus $2.2 million in rerun election costs. Subtracted from the total was $450,000 that IBT received from fidelity-bond claims made over the Carey administration’s anti-fiduciary conduct. Also, Nash paid $25,000 in restitution. Plus ex-IBT political director William Hamilton, who pled not guilty and was convicted on related charges, was order to pay $100,000 in restitution. He was the only scandal figure sentenced to prison (three years). Still, the IBT was not made fully whole. But IBT has a pending amended civil suit seeking the remaining sums. [BNA 4/30/02]