Kevin Clor may have had a difficult domestic situation, but that didn’t win him much sympathy from the judge. On August 8, Clor, formerly general counsel for New York Thruway Employees Local 72, a Teamsters affiliate, was sentenced in Manhattan state court to at least two years and eight months, and up to eight years, in prison for defrauding the union of $184,000. The actual take had been somewhat higher. He had been indicted in January, and eventually pleaded guilty in June to 34 counts of grand larceny, possession of forged documents, and falsification of records. In a brief statement to Acting State Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman, Clor accepted responsibility for his actions and vowed to fully compensate the union. As of August, he had paid around $30,000.
Clor, now 41, served as union general counsel during January 2001-April 2011, working out of his home office in Buffalo. Starting in January 2006, prosecutors argued, he sent approximately 150 phony receipts to the union for reimbursement as compensation for educational activities that never took place. He received about $84,000 in such invoices from the Thruway Employees Local 72 general fund and another $128,000 from its welfare fund for a grand total of some $212,000. While admitting guilt, Clor stated that much of the money went for care for his autistic son and a dying mother. “This was not somebody in any way who was living a life of luxury,” said Clor’s attorney, Jeremy Saland. Still, theft being theft, his union brothers were less than forgiving. Martin Latko, current president of the union, expressed his dismay this way: “For 10 years we relied on his counsel and his advice. We trusted him.”