For a half-decade, father and son discovered how profitable stealing from a garment workers union could be. Joseph Nardone Sr., 80, is the founder and (retired) president of International Novelty and Production Workers Local 148 in Jersey City, N.J., while his son, Joseph Jr., 51, had been president and administrator of the local’s welfare fund. The pair had been convicted last November in federal court on conspiracy and embezzlement charges. At their sentencing hearing of July 8 they found out their ways will carry a high price tag.
The Nardones were indicted in October 2002 for conspiracy to embezzle more than $350,000 from a union welfare fund in order to cover a scheme to inflate contractor project costs in the building the local occupies. The developer with whom they conspired, Stanley Rothman, already has pleaded guilty. The Nardones were convicted last November following a six-week trial; various other Local 148 officers and business agents also have been convicted. The local remains under a court-ordered trusteeship. The elder Nardone received a sentence of a year and a day in federal prison, while Joseph Nardone, Jr. got three years and four months. The two, who recently had moved from Hudson County, N.J. to Delray Beach, Fla., also must make full restitution to the union. The investigation had been jointly conducted by the Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Associated Press, 7/8; Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, 10/1/04-3/31/05).