U.S. Dist. Judge David Ezra (HI, Reagan) sentenced frmr. state govt. wrkrs. union chief Gary Rodrigues to 5 yrs., 4 mos. in federal prison for his crimes of embezzlement, mail fraud, money laundering and kickbacks. But Ezra also allowed Rodrigues to remain free on bail pending the appeal of his conviction last Nov. He also ordered Rodrigues to pay the union $378,103 in restitution. He was found guilty of accepting kickbacks from insurers doing business with the United Public Wrkrs. union of Hawaii, arranging for the UPW to pay his daughter to review union benefits while she actually did little or no work, and setting up a similar arrangement for the stepfather of his ex-mistress. After Rodrigues’s conviction, the Amer. Fedtn. of State, County & Municipal Employees took over its Hawaii affiliate. [Honolulu Advertiser, 9/30/03]
AFL-CIO Raises $50 Million to Shore up Firm Damaged by Union Bosses’ Insider Stock Deals
The AFL-CIO and its 21 affiliate unions on Sept. 30 agreed to plow $50 million into the troubled ULLICO company to shore up its finances. The union-pension-owned company lost $74 million in 2002, and is expected to lose another $20 million in 2003. It incurred these losses even as many of its directors, current and retired union presidents, profited from sales of its stock before the privately held company lowered its price. In addition to the capital infusion, ULLICO sold the just-completed ofc. bldg. that would have become its headquarters. In addition to that investment, the AFL-CIO has an outstanding debt of $25.8 million to ULLICO that was used to finance the renovation of the AFL-CIO’s HQ. There were no repayments of the construction loan until 2002, when it was converted to a mortgage loan. [Washington Post, 10/2/03]
Ex-Bus. Agent for Troubled NY Local Sentenced
U.S. Dist. Judge John Sprizzo (Sou. NY, Reagan) sentenced Richard Jedlicka to 6 mos. home confinement with electronic monitoring and a $10,000 fine for lying to a fed. grand jury in 1999. That jury was investigating the Doyle family’s control of Local 456 of the Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters in Elmsford, NY. The Independent Rev. Bd. Overseeing the Teamsters had already charged the Local with buying cars from a Yonkers car dealer at inflated prices, selling them back to the dealer at deflated prices, who then sold them to the wife of then-Local president Edward Doyle Sr., Jedlicka and another union official at below-market prices.
Jedlicka lied about the alleged scheme on April 22, 1999, misstating by $3,000 how much he paid for car. Jedlicka’s lawyer, Peter Goodrich, said that Jedlicka got “not one dollar” of the alleged kickback, but that the payment went “to someone else in the union.” The Intl. union removed the exec. bd. of Local 456, incl. current president Bernard Doyle, after agreeing with the IRB that the union was beset by nepotism, favoritism and financial mismanagement. [Journal-News, 10/10/03]