The Independent Rev. Bd. (IRB) recommended that NYC’s top Teamster official be disciplined for allowing an ex-Teamsters boss speak at a union seminar, even though he was forced to resign from the union due to charges of embezzlement.
The IRB was formed in 1989 with broad powers of investigation over the Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters and its affiliates, and continues its work under the supervision of U.S. Dist. Judge Loretta A. Preska (S.D.NY, H.W. Bush). On Oct. 17, the IRB ruled that Joint Council 16 president Anthony Rumore wrongly allowed a predecessor, Barry Feinstein, to speak at a council education seminar in Fla. in Feb. Feinstein resigned from the Teamsters union for life in April 1993, after U.S. Dist. Judge David Edelstein refused to throw out IRB charges that Feinstein embezzled nearly $400,000 from the union. Feinstein reportedly spent the stolen funds on three trips to China and the rental and furnishing of a penthouse apt. in Manhattan, among other things.
Rumore allowed Feinstein to speak before his frmr. affiliate, ignoring the objections of Local 282 president Gary LaBarbera and Local 202 pres. Daniel Kane, Jr. According to the IRB, Rumore initially said he would not let Feinstein speak to the council, then changed his mind. “Rumore…deliberately closed his eyes to apparent problems” with Feinstein’s history with the union,” concluded the IRB [New York Post 10/18/02, New York Times 10/25/02]