The pension fund representing glaziers, glass workers, and sheet metal workers in four western states is between $75 and $90 million in the red. The pension fund’s frmr. administrator has been indicted on nine counts of mail fraud for misleading the fund’s trustees. William Seay has pleaded not guilty to failing to disclose his part-ownership of a 157-acre landfill in Carson California.
Based on his advice, the Southern California, Arizona, Colorado and Southern Nevada Glaziers, Architectural Metal and Glassworkers Pension Plan paid $33 million for the land in 1990, ostensibly planning to build a mall. But in 1997, state regulators sued the Plan to force them to clean up the toxic waste site. The pension plan responded by suing oil companies and cites that dumped trash at the site. In 1999, the property was pitched as the home of a new Los Angeles team in the Natl. Football League. To this day, the property remains undeveloped and unsold. Seay is also accused of misleading the pension trustees about the property’s value and potential return on investment. [San Diego Daily Transcript, 6/26/03: London Financial Times, 4/11/02]