The identity of Michael Carney’s union forever may remain unknown, but at least Carney himself is getting a measure of justice. On November 8, Carney, a former real estate manager for an unnamed labor union based in Herndon (Fairfax County), Va., was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to eight months of home confinement and two years of supervised probation for conspiring with a private contractor to commit wire fraud and embezzlement. He also was fined $25,000. A required restitution order for $23,367 previously had been satisfied. Carney had pleaded guilty in May immediately after being charged. The actions follow a probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
As Union Corruption Update had indicated earlier (here and here), Carney, now 64, a resident of Ashburn, Va., along with an unnamed relative, during roughly mid-2012 through mid-2015, illegally received numerous things of value from Howard Janoske, a Maryland-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) contractor in return for giving Janoske preference for union service contracts. These things of value included a high-end outdoor kitchen, and free HVAC and plumbing services. With Carney’s knowledge, Janoske also inflated or concocted invoices to the union for reimbursement. Authorities estimated the total value of this quid pro quo at $146,932. Janoske pleaded guilty this March to one count of honest services fraud, theft and embezzlement. Carney’s fate was pretty much sealed at that point.