Hopefully, Henry Clay Green is getting counseling while serving time. On July 17, Green, former secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 26, was sentenced in Boston federal court to six months in prison and one year of supervised release for embezzling more than $170,000 in funds from the Medford, Mass.-based union, which represents certain hospitality employees in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He had pleaded guilty last December after being charged in November. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards, Office of Inspector General and Employee Benefits Security Administration. He faces a restitution and asset forfeiture hearing on September 26.
Henry Clay Green Sr., now 61, a resident of Boston, served as secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 26 during May 2011-July 2016. According to federal prosecutors, he also diverted funds from the local during much of that time, primarily to maintain his opioid addiction. Eventually, union officials confronted him about the missing funds. Green at that point confessed to embezzlement. This led to a probe by the Labor Department and then the Justice Department. Green had stolen $171,455. “Henry Green Sr. used his position as the longtime treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 26 to embezzle over $170,000 of the union’s funds,” said Michael C. Mikulka, Special Agent in Charge for the New York Region of the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General. “The Office of Inspector General will continue to investigate union officials who abuse their positions to exploit unions for their own benefit.”