Patrick Monachino was arrested on Aug. 6 and charged with stealing $170,000 from the union for which he worked to pay for oral sex with a clerk working for the same union. Manhattan Dist. Attny. Robert Morgenthau said that the frmr. Comptroller for Local 6 of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Intl. Union (HERE) also credited the female clerk for overtime she didn’t work.
Monachino was Local 6’s comptroller from 1995-2001, then of Local 18032 of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers. Over a 3-yr. period, Monachino paid the 32-yr.-old woman, first for oral sex, then to keep her quiet about the affair. Monachino’s wife suffers from multiple sclerosis. Monachino reportedly paid the woman with union checks, then when the cancelled checks were returned, altered them by removing the woman’s name and replacing them with union vendors to make them appear to have been paid for union business. NYC investigators are still trying to determine whether the clerk knew she was being paid with stolen union funds. She has been fired by HERE Local 6.
Monachino is also charged with stealing $23,500 from Local 18302, for a total of $193,500. He was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on charges of grand larceny. Monachino’s attny. said that he has paid both unions $280,000 in reimbursed funds, auditing and other legal costs by selling his house. [New York Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, 8/7/03]