On February 24, Juan Carlos Recinos, former business manager and secretary-treasurer for International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Local 201, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of fraud against seven fellow union members in the sum of $26,900. He had been indicted last March for defrauding these individuals out of $18,700. The scheme involved false assertions by Recinos about the need for the employees to forward a portion of their back pay awards to an unnamed “attorney.” Rather than forward the collected funds, he simply kept the money. Local 201 represents public works employees, including those at the District of Columbia’s Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant, where Recinos and the others worked. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
