Ephram Pascall’s job training seminars had something missing: trainees. Now he’s out of a job himself and likely to do hard time. Pascall, former president and business manager of International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local 1422, pleaded guilty on July 6 in Manhattan federal court to one count of embezzling nearly $35,000 from the Manhattan-based local. He had been indicted in April following an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. The defendant, said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, “treated the union coffers like his personal piggy bank.”
Pascall, now 48, a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., served in the dual capacity of president and business manager of Local 1422. Apparently, he believed this could insulate him from detection of his scams. Prosecutors charged that during February 2007-April 2009 Pascall wrote himself 92 unauthorized union checks totaling $34,199, cashing them at a local check-cashing store and logging them as legitimate union business. He listed 66 of those checks as payment to union members attending nonexistent “job training” sessions and the other 26 as office supplies, meeting expenses and other ancillary union expenses. He faces sentencing in October.