Monday, August 31, 2009

Frank Spencer Finally Speaks Out

On August 10, 2009 General President Douglas McCarron placed the 25,000 member, New York City District Council of Carpenters under emergency supervision.

GP McCarron also appointed the UBC’s Eastern District Vice President Frank Spencer to lead this supervision for an indefinite period.

As controversy and corruption charges continue to swirled around, newly appointed Frank Spencer finally speaks out in a letter to the membership dated August 25, 2009, posted on the councils website today. Since the August 5th, arrest of carpenter boss Michael Forde and others on corruption charges the membership has been completely left in the dark.

Update: As of September 1, 2009 no member has received any mailed letters regarding the arrest of Mike Forde and others, corruption or the supervision.

Frank Spencer

NYC Carpenters District Chieftain, Others Indicted for Racketeering

The last two times out, Michael Forde was a lucky man. Prosecutors believe the outcome will be different this time. On August 5, the 54-year-old Forde, longtime head of the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Joiners, was arraigned in Manhattan federal court after being slapped with a 29-count indictment for taking bribes from contractors in return for helping them avoid making required contributions to union benefit funds, among other offenses.

He and nine other defendants pleaded not guilty to various charges following a lengthy federal and city joint probe. It's not the first time that officials of the mob-connected union have been accused of selling out rank and file for personal gain.

The District Council of Carpenters is a major force in New York City-area organized labor. Consisting of 11 local affiliates representing more than 20,000 members, the union has provided labor for numerous construction projects.

It's also provided backing to incumbent political candidates seeking re-election, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The union also has a past. Back in 1990, state prosecutors brought forth a civil racketeering suit against the council, a case that led to a consent decree in 1994 and a court-appointed overseer in 2002. Both arrangements are still in place.

Then in September 2000, Forde, also a vice president of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 608, was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office along with 10 other union bosses and more than two dozen other persons on various bribery, bid-rigging and racketeering charges.

The district council and its local affiliates, said prosecutors, had diverted millions of dollars to the Lucchese crime family and associates, or what amounted to a 5 percent "mob tax."

Twice Forde would be tried. The first time he would be convicted and acquitted on appeal; the second time he would be acquitted at trial.

But the indictments also produced guilty pleas, most significantly, from acting Lucchese crime boss Steven Crea.

At the time of the latest indictment's unsealing, Forde, a resident of Woodside, N.Y., had been attending a union conference in Nova Scotia.

Upon his return to New York, he surrendered to FBI and Labor Department agents. Prosecutors say that Forde over the years received about $1 million in contractor bribes in return for allowing the builders to pay union members below-union wages without benefits; hire nonunion workers, including illegal aliens; and skip contributions to union pension, health care and other benefit funds as mandated by collective bargaining agreements.

As with the previous criminal case, there's a mob angle here. One of the defendants, Joseph Olivieri, a benefits trustee of a district affiliate, the Association of Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York, has a long history of ties to New York's Genovese crime family.

Though the indictment does not cite the crime syndicate as wielding influence, law enforcement officials say their investigation is continuing.

Prosecutors sound confident. "Instead of protecting the financial interests of union members and their families, corrupt union officials and the contractors who bribe them are charged with betraying the carpenters' union and its benefit funds to enrich themselves," said Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin.

Gary Rothman, a lawyer for the district council, says the evidence doesn't warrant a conclusion. "We understand that the charges are serious, but we also believe in the presumption of innocence and we will have a further statement as the situation becomes clearer," he said.

Michael Forde's personal lawyer, Andrew Lankler, declined to comment.

If Forde does beat the rap on corruption charges, he's got something else to worry about. Upon his arrival in New York, he tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. The man is living on a tightrope.

Submitted by Carl Horowitz

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Say It Ain’t So: NYC Carpenters Union Dirties Labor’s Name

By Wall Street standard’s, it was barely lunch money. Only one million bucks or so changed hands, the feds say.

What did the money buy?

It allegedly bought handshakes from a bunch of New York City carpenters union officials (pictured: Peter Thomassen, Mike Forde and Dennis Sheil) for deals that benefited contractors and cheated their members.

Officials at the union, the full name of which is New York District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America, allegedly allowed contractors to undercut union pay rates and to avoid contributing toward members’ benefits. They let them hire undocumented workers and others who do not belong to the union for jobs where the workers were supposedly union members.

And then they allegedly kept the scam going by warning the contractors about visits by union investigators, by handing out union cards to non-union members, and by destroying documents.

It was a neat financial deal for a handful of contractors, most of whom were not named in the August 5 indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York City.

They got to save millions in union salaries and benefits, the government says. Indeed, it was a boost that helped one of them became “one of the largest union drywall subcontractors in New York City,” according to the government.

Like I was saying a minute ago, it wasn’t much by Wall Street standards.

From outright thievery to more subdued white-collar banditry, mortgage brokers, bankers and Wall Street brokers have filched billions from unsuspecting Americans.

But when union officials allegedly steal from their own it is different. The wound is deeper. It lingers on and gains mythic proportions because labor’s foes seize on each morsel of corruption to condemn organized labor as a whole.

And at a moment when labor should be climbing back on its feet, it’s stuck fighting nasty attacks on its character. Which is another reason I wonder whether it makes sense to repeat the bad news here.

Richard Hurd, a labor expert at Cornell University, agrees that news of union corruption becomes a plague without a vaccine in the hands of organized labor’s opponents.

But there is also something unions can do besides dealing with bad news, he says. They can set ethical standards and police them, which is something, he says, that some unions don’t do enough of.

What happened after the feds announced their charges against the heads of the Carpenters Union District Council, seven other union officials, a contractor and a contractor’s representative?

Within days, the union ousted the district council head and two other top-ranking union officials. Twice before the council head, Michael J. Forde, had faced bribery charges. One case ended in an overturned conviction and the other in acquittal.

Ironically, the latest charges came almost a year after a federal judge refused a union bid to lift federal supervision of the District Council. In 1994, the union had agreed to court-ordered supervision after federal prosecutors said that mobsters had a strangle-hold on the District Council.

So years later, a local union is pulled in again by the government on corruption charges that do not seem to have changed over the years. It’s not good for labor. That's why I wince even talking about it.

But is it better to play deaf and dumb? What do you do?

Posted by Stephen Franklin

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Job Site Flyers

Tired of hearing about Lies and Corruption? Then do something. In order to bring about reform in our union you need to GET MAD, ORGANIZED and EDUCATED! We need to make our voices heard to avoid catastrophic consequences to our union. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up ― ― and send a LOUD and CLEAR message to the leadership of this union.

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

I made up two flyers so you can print and post them on your job sites (off hours). Please feel free to share these flyers with others. Post them on community bulletin boards, take them to rallies or picket lines, leave them in stores, bars, restrooms, subways... anywhere where union brothers and sisters will see them.

This action is the first step in what will be a massive mobilization of our members to lead a rank and file movement to confront and rid our union of corrupt self-serving leaders.Trusteeship Flyer



Hear No Evil



Rebellion

Saturday, August 15, 2009

FEDS WANT LAWYER OFF MOB CASE

By BRUCE GOLDING

The feds are seeking to disqualify the lawyer for an allegedly mobbed-up contractors' representative accused of paying bribes in a massive labor-racketeering scheme.

The scheme led to the ouster of carpenters boss Michael Forde and two other union leaders.

Joseph Olivieri's attorney has a "non-waiveable" conflict of interest because she's a "fact witness" regarding a perjury charge against him, prosecutor Lisa Zornberg said in court yesterday.

Zornberg said lawyer Michele Bonsignore represented Olivieri, a reputed Genovese family associate, when he denied under oath having any business dealings with drywall contractor James Murray, who is under indictment.

Olivieri was named last week in a sweeping, 29-count Manhattan federal court indictm

Friday, August 14, 2009

Letters from Douglas J. McCarron, General President United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of American


It has been well documented at the UBC Hearings, both Pete Thomassen (salary $268,827) and Dennis Sheil, (salary $253,500) among other things, turned a blind eye to contractor corruption and failed to protect our financial interest. Dennis Sheil retired on December 31, 2009 and is rumored to collect a yearly pension over $200,000. Pete Thomassen, the last remaining member of the disgraced "Unity Team" suddenly resigned on Thursday May 6, 2010


It took UBC leadership 269 Days, 11 Hours, 33 minutes, 42 seconds, to start firing those who have betrayed us!

Membership(4)


Peter

Send A Message To Mr. Frank Spencer

Tired of hearing about Lies and Corruption? Then do something about it! We need to make our voices heard to avoid catastrophic consequences to our union. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up ― ― and send a LOUD and CLEAR message to Mr. Frank Spencer who has assumed supervision over our District Council.

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

Note: All messages will be sent to Mr. Spencer and his reply will be posted.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Two Irish Involved in Massive Probe into Carpenters Union

By KENNETH HAYNES IrishCentral.Com Staff Writer

An Irish contractor is due in federal court tomorrow to face corruption charges related to a bribery scheme involving New York City’s carpenters union.

Finbar O'Neill, 44, from County Tyrone, surrendered to the FBI at Newark International Airport on Wednesday after returning from Ireland.

O'Neill, 44, who was released on $500,000 bail, has been charged with acting as a so-called bagman, ferrying thousands of dollars in cash to the Irish American head of the New York Carpenters' Union, Michael Forde.

O'Neill, who has been linked to the mobbed-up Luchese family, has been charged with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy, wire fraud and deprivation of honest services and unlawful acceptance of payment by a labor representative.

Another Irish contractor, James Murray from County Meath, is expected to testify in the massive case.

Murray, who owned On Par Contracting, was indicted on federal fraud and embezzlement charges in 2006 and was believed to have fled to Ireland.

However, sources in New York say he has returned to the U.S. and is involved in the case against Forde.

Court records obtained by the Daily News show he was freed on $8 million bond in November and began plea bargain negotiations with US Attorneys who are prosecuting Forde.

In his absence, federal official seized and sold millions of dollars worth of property belonging to Murray including sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, and nearby Mount Vernon. They also seized and disposed of a 200-acre estate with its own pond and creek, and a Cape-style home in leafy Millbrook; a town which counts Liam Neeson amongst its residents.

Prosecutors say Murray made about $10 million in the scam which saw contractors paying workers off the books, hiring non-union labor and pretending they were union and then claiming they were hiring all-union labor.

Prosecutors have accused Forde and other union officials of accepting substantial bribes from contractors who then paid workers below the union rate, hired non-union labor at union-only job sites, and abandoned payments to the unions’ benefits funds.

New Carpenters Local 608 head Martin Devereaux was once convicted of taking bribes

BY Brian Kates

The union official put in charge of the city's troubled carpenters' union was once convicted of taking bribes from mobsters - though he was later acquitted in a retrial.

Martin Devereaux has been named to lead Carpenters Local 608 after it and 10 other unions were put under emergency supervision last week after District Council of Carpenters boss Michael Forde was indicted on federal bribery charges.

Last summer, Devereraux and Forde beat a the rap in a case charging they took bribes from a man linked to the DeCavalcante crime family, the mob that inspired the hit HBO series "The Sopranos."

The two were convicted in that case in 2004, but a Manhattan Supreme Court justice tossed the conviction because some jurors had read news accounts of the case. The pair was acquitted after a second trial in June 2008.

On Wednesday, the feds charged Forde and nine others, including two mob associates, with taking bribes to let contractors cheat workers of wages and benefits.

Devereaux, vice-president of Local 608, was named acting president late Wednesday to replace John Greaney, who is one of the defendants in the federal indictment.

Devereaux has served for years with Greaney as a district council delegate.

The move follows union bylaws, which promote the vice-president to the top slot if the president cannot serve.

The action was approved by Frank Spencer, chief of the eastern district of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters, a spokesman said.

Spencer was brought in by the International Brotherhood to supervise the district council in the wake of Forde's indictment.

Also in the shakeup, District Council president Pete Thomassen was named special assistant to Spencer in running the the tainted organization, the spokesman said.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Culture of Corruption: Forde and Co-Conspirator's Fired

Michael Forde the indicted head of the carpenters union and his two union paid co-conspirators were fired from office Wednesday by International Brotherhood of Carpenters General President Douglas McCarron.

The firing of district council boss, Michael Forde, 54, as well as John Greaney, 49, a business manager and president of UBC Local 608, and Brian Hayes, 38, a business agent and trustee of Local 608, came one week after they were indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges.

Mr. McCarron ordered the trio to step down and placed the 25,000 member District Council under emergency supervision.

McCarron also appointed the UBC’s Eastern District Vice President Frank Spencer to lead this supervision for an indefinite period.

McCarron called the indictments "profoundly disturbing."

In 1996, the council was placed under international union supervision amid corruption charges. The oversight was lifted three years later, but the council remained under federal monitoring.

Forde, who has run the district council since 2000, was tried in 2004 and 2008 on bribery charges but was permitted to remain in office following his indictment in those cases. He was convicted in the 2004 case but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in the 2008 case.

Also in 2007 Local 157 was placed under emergency supervision by the General President and Spencer was appointed to lead the supervision which lasted about one year.

Forde and his co-conspirators which also included contractor Finbar O’Neill, 44, union shop stewards Michael Brennan, 53 Brian Carson, 49, Joseph Ruocco, 49, John Stamberger, 52, and Michael Vivenzo, 61 and Mr. Olivieri, 54, a benefits fund trustee and the executive director of the Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York were charged in a 29-count indictment with stealing millions from the union and its benefit fund.

In exchange for bribes, prosecutors say, union officials falsified reports and turned a blind eye as contractors paid workers below the union rate, hired non-union labor at union only job sites, and skipped out on payments to the unions’ benefits funds, according to prosecutors.

On Tuesday, it appeared that Mr. Forde might still seek to maintain his position in the union. People briefed on the matter said he would go on disability to seek court-ordered drug treatment and step down from his position as trustee with the union’s benefit funds.

Forde tested positive for cocaine and marijuana use after his arrest, Lisa Zornberg, the assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, said at his arraignment.

No official communication of the emergency supervision has been shared with the membership. You'd think that in the age of computers and smart phones the details of this firing and coup would have already been posted on the councils website, instead members get a UBC logo and a message stating "Under Construction".

Sources say VP Frank Spencer will address the councils delegates this afternoon at a regular schedule meeting and explain the Internationals actions.

3 Indicted Leaders of Carpenters’ Union Are Fired

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the labor organization that represents the nation’s carpenters, placed its New York chapter under emergency trusteeship Wednesday and ousted the chapter head and two other leaders who are targets of racketeering charges unsealed last week by federal authorities.

The firings and emergency supervision were in stark contrast to the action taken nearly a decade ago by the parent union when the head of the chapter, the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Joiners, Michael J. Forde, was last indicted, on bribery charges. At that time, the president of the parent union, Douglas J. McCarron, kept Mr. Forde in his union post.

Mr. Forde was tried twice on those earlier charges, in 2004 and 2008; the first case ended in a conviction that was later overturned and the second ended in acquittal. Mr. McCarron let him stay in office during both trials.

The actions by the parent union, which is based in Washington, and the district council’s future were the focus of a meeting of the district council’s delegates on Wednesday afternoon.

Fired along with Mr. Forde, 54, who had led the district council since 2000, were John Greaney, 49, a business manager and the president of Local 608, and Brian Hayes, 38, a business agent and officer of Local 608.

Mr. McCarron, in a statement released by the parent union, called the charges in the 29-count federal racketeering and bribery indictment “profoundly disturbing.” They include accusations that Mr. Forde and other union officials let members work “off the books” in exchange for bribes from half a dozen contractors. The statement did not say who would replace the fired officials, and the precise parameters, impact and duration of the trusteeship remained unclear.

But Mr. McCarron said the parent union’s eastern district vice president, Frank Spencer, would supervise the district council and, along with other international officials and staff, would conduct an internal investigation.

Mr. McCarron will appoint officials from outside the New York City area to hold hearings on the district council at which members can air their grievances. A lawyer for the district council, Gary P. Rothman, said he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

On Tuesday, it appeared that Mr. Forde might still seek to maintain his position in the union. People briefed on the matter said he would go on disability to seek court-ordered drug treatment and step down from his position as trustee with the union’s benefit funds.

He tested positive for cocaine and marijuana use after his arrest, Lisa Zornberg, the assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, said at his arraignment last week.

Mr. Forde’s lawyer, Andrew M. Lankler, declined to comment on the firings, as did Mr. Greaney’s lawyer, Marc Weinstein.

James R. Froccaro, who represents Mr. Hayes, said he believed his client would be exonerated at trial, adding of the parent union, “Apparently they don’t believe in the presumption of innocence.”

Also on Wednesday, the 10th and last defendant, a contractor, Finbar O’Neill, surrendered at Newark Liberty International Airport after returning from Ireland. He was expected to be arraigned later in the afternoon.

Indicted head of Carpenters union head Michael Forde replaced by national labor leaders

BY Brian Kates

The indicted head of the city's carpenters unions and his two top lieutenants were booted from office Wednesday and their posts taken over by national labor leaders, sources told The Daily News.

The firing of District Council of Carpenters boss Michael Forde, Carpenters Local 608 chief John Greaney and the local's business agent, Brian Hayes, came just days after they were indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges.

The International Brotherhood of Carpenters ordered the trio to step down and placed the 25,000 member District Council under emergency supervision.

Frank Spencer, who runs the east coast operations of the national union, will run the organization, made up of 11 union locals, for an indefinite period, Brotherhood president Douglas McCarron said.

McCarron called the indictments "profoundly disturbing."

In 1996, the council was placed under international union supervision amid corruption charges. The oversight was lifted three years later, but the council remained under federal monitoring.

District Council lawyer Gary Rothman declined comment, as did Forde's lawyer, Andrew Lankler.

Forde and his District Council cohorts, along with two purported mobsters and three shop stewards, were charged in a 29-count indictment with stealing millions from the union and its benefit fund.

The scheme involved millions in bribes to union officials to look the other way while corrupt contractors cheated workers out of benefits and wages, according to prosecutors.

The alleged scheme began in 1996, when Forde was head of Local 608, and continued into his tenure as District Council chief -- a position he'd held for a decade.

Forde's resignation was in stark contrast to his refusal to step down when he was indicted on bribery charges in 2000. The union stuck by him even after he was convicted in 2004 and the rank and file continued to pay his legal fees right up to his acquittal after a retrial last year.

This time, the union decided that Forde, Greaney and Hayes can run for reinstatement if they are acquitted, sources said.

Forde, free on $750,000 bond, is one of the most politically powerful labor leaders in the city.

The District Council, which includes 11 union locals, has given out $3 million to politicians since he took the helm in 1999 and his eagerly sought endorsement was better than gold in the campaign chests of Hillary Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg, among others.

Federal Corruption Probe Leads to Riverdale

By N. Clark Judd

Cambridge Mews, a four-square brick apartment building just off the commercial corridor of busy Riverdale Avenue, doesn’t exactly look suspicious.

The structure, which occupies about half of the block between Riverdale Avenue and Cambridge Avenue along West 236th Street, was completed last year. It sits in a neighborhood that’s been sprinkled with similar complexes in the last decade, their brick-and-mortar facades emulating older townhouses and co-ops.

But the quiet building on a quiet street plays a cameo role in a federal court indictment unsealed on Aug. 5 that alleges the head of the Carpenters Union District Council in New York City, Michael Forde, and nine others were involved in a scheme in which $1 million in bribes and gifts changed hands.

It’s not the first time on this stage for the building at 3536 Cambridge Ave. The chief financier of the building, James Murray, is already under indictment for allegedly skipping out on payments he was required to make to the union. Mr. Murray is also locally infamous for leaving the skeletal tower on Tulfan Terrace unfinished.

In exchange for bribes, prosecutors say, union officials falsified reports and turned a blind eye as contractors paid workers below the union rate, hired non-union labor at uniononly job sites, and skipped out on payments to the unions’ benefits funds.

The benefit funds provide insurance as well as money for retirement for union members.

Accused of perjuryJoseph Olivieri, a trustee of the District Council’s benefits funds and the head of a contractors’ trade group, is accused of perjuring himself when he described under oath how his own company won excavation work at the Riverdale site.

“I had met a gentleman who was doing the projects in the area,” Mr. Olivieri said under oath, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say he lied when he said he couldn’t recall the gentleman’s name.

Prosecutors also say Mr. Olivieri is associated with Louis Moscatiello, described in the indictment as a soldier in the Genovese crime family who has already pleaded guilty to being involved with racketeering in the construction trades.

Mr. Murray, the financier, is head of On Par Contracting Corp. He was indicted on fraud and embezzlement charges in 2006 for failing to make benefits payments as well as structuring his finances to hide it.

He was believed to have fled to Ireland after the indictment came, sources have said, but is now back in the United States and out on bail, with $8 million in government-seized property as his bond.

The federal government is seeking $15 million from him, alleging that money and his stake in several real estate projects — including Tulfan Terrace and Cambridge Mews — are forfeit because they are ill-gotten gains.

Court documents show Mr. Murray’s lawyer is discussing “a possible disposition” of his case with federal prosecutors.

No comment
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Mr. Murray’s lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.

It’s unclear if Mr. Murray is one of the contractors — unnamed in the indictment — who allegedly gave bribes to union figures. But, among other coincidences, the charges filed against Mr. Murray in 2006 stem from how he allegedly operated On Par, a drywall business. “Contractor #1” in the indictment from last week was a drywall contractor.

Michael Brennan, a District Council shop steward, is accused of lying about how he came to be assigned by the union to “Contractor #1” work sites on West 34th Street and another project in Times Square.

According to transcripts of earlier court depositions, On Par operated both those job sites.
If true, the alleged bribery might explain how Mr. Murray was able to build in Riverdale so quickly and cheaply, said Joseph Gordon, an engineering consultant who keeps tabs on Riverdale real estate development.

“There has to have been something, shenanigans going on between the developers and the carpenter’s union,” Mr. Gordon said of Cambridge Mews. “Because they didn’t get struck and they were using non-union labor.”

Mr. Gordon explained that the union carpenters, under normal circumstances, would have protested in front of Cambridge Mews until the construction site hired only union workers.

Low bidder
And Mr. Murray frequently under-bid other contractors on Riverdale-area projects, Mr. Gordon said, by as much as 20 percent.

His work was technically solid, said Mr. Gordon. But the word in the industry was, “there was something crazy going on with Murray.”

Indicted Aug. 5 were Mr. Forde, the head of the Carpenters Union District Council in New York City; John Greaney, business manager and president of Carpenters Local 608; Brian Hayes, a business agent and Local 608 officer; Mr. Brennan, Brian Carson, Joseph Ruocco, John Stamberger, and Michael Vivenzo, shop stewards; and Mr. Olivieri, a benefits fund trustee and the executive director of the Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York, a trade group representing unionized contractors.

Prosecutors also accused contractor Finbar O’Neill of helping to deliver cash to Mr. Forde.

Supervision For Carpenters

Update1: Sources say District Council EST Michael Forde, Business Manager/Local 608 President John Greaney and Local 608 Business agent Brian Hayes have been fired and resigned their elected position...story developing.

This just in…informed sources are telling me that the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America and Local Union 608 have been places under emergency supervision today by Douglas McCarron, the president of the parent union in Washington. In a story still developing sources say Eastern District vice president, Frank Spencer has arrived at the district council this morning, to temporarily oversee the council. Stay tuned story developing.

Again Facing Bribery Case, Union Head Is to Resign

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

The head of the union that represents carpenters in the New York City area refused to relinquish his position during two previous corruption trials, but he is planning to step down, at least temporarily, in the face of new federal criminal charges filed against him last week, several people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.

The leader, Michael J. Forde, is expected to enter a 28-day drug treatment program soon, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his plans.

Mr. Forde tested positive for cocaine and marijuana after his arrest, Lisa Zornberg, an assistant United States attorney, said at his arraignment last week. At the time, a magistrate judge ordered Mr. Forde and several of his nine co-defendants to undergo drug treatment.

Gary P. Rothman, a lawyer for the union, the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America, said Mr. Forde and another defendant, John Greaney, the union’s business manager, would step down for now as trustees of the union’s benefit funds.

Mr. Rothman said the union’s delegates will meet on Wednesday to discuss how to respond to the indictment. The delegates can vote to reassign or fire Mr. Forde and the other two officials, or change or limit their duties.

The 29-count racketeering and bribery indictment against the union officials and contractors says that, together, they stole millions of dollars from the union and its benefit funds. In exchange for bribes, the union officials allowed contractors to pay union members cash wages below union scale with no benefits, hire illegal aliens and nonunion workers and forgo benefit funds contributions, it said. A lawyer for Mr. Forde, Andrew M. Lankler, declined comment.

In an earlier case, Mr. Forde went to trial twice on bribery charges; the first ended in a conviction that was later overturned, and the second in acquittal.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Bloomberg Ally, Union Boss Michael Forde, Gets Hammered

Handcuffs for a carpenters' union chief

By Tom Robbins


Mike Bloomberg will never suffer one of those embarrassing political stories in which a big campaign donor is revealed as a big crook. Such episodes are the bane of most candidates who must scramble for funds. One of the many advantages of being New York's wealthiest man and being able to write your own ticket is that these problems do not apply.

But if the mayor doesn't need fat checks to help him win a third term, he does need big endorsements. And sometimes, these can be just as embarrassing.

Bloomberg had one of those moments of political candidate's remorse last week when one of his biggest union supporters was arrested on federal racketeering charges, charged with sharing $1 million in payoffs to look the other way as contractors cheated his own members. Just six weeks earlier, carpenters' union chief Michael Forde had wrapped Bloomberg in a warm bear hug as he gave him his union's endorsement.

The event was a grand dinner at the Sheraton Hotel in honor of the 20,000-member union's very worthy apprentice program. Forde, a big man with a flushed face and a thinning mop of reddish hair, roared his appreciation for the mayor that night. The mayor hugged Forde back and thanked the "hardworking men and women of the carpenters' union for their support."

The mayor could not be expected to know that less than two months later, his host would be in handcuffs. But he might have noted the fact that Forde had spent the better part of the past decade under indictment for similar bribery charges. Forde was convicted at one trial, and then un-convicted after the judge decided that jurors may have read a story about the case in The Village Voice. At his long-delayed retrial last year, Forde finally caught the brass ring and was acquitted.

Even if the mayor wanted to give an innocent man the benefit of every doubt, he might also have asked his highly paid campaign brain trust if they knew any reason not to celebrate this endorsement at a big public bash. If they'd asked around, they might have picked up what many union carpenters already knew: that right at that moment, a very busy federal grand jury was asking witnesses tough questions about Mike Forde.

These fine trades workers also knew that the grand jury's interest began last year, the moment a man named James Murray stepped off a plane from his native Ireland. There to greet him was a team of federal agents. Murray had been gone for two years, having fled New York just ahead of an arrest warrant on charges of laundering more than $10 million and cheating scores of union carpenters out of wages and benefits.

Before that 2006 indictment, Murray had run one of the city's busiest construction firms, On Par Contracting Corporation. He was taught by the best: His first boss in the business was another politically active builder and Irish immigrant named Finbar O'Neill, who has twice pleaded guilty to his own schemes.

Murray and O'Neill's first company was a wallboard-hanging outfit called K&F Construction. The company was infamous for paying its workers by piece-rate, in violation of the union contract. Carpenters appropriately renamed K&F as "Kick'em & Fuck'em."

After O'Neill's criminal problems drew heat, Murray went out on his own, operating out of the same Bronx building where O'Neill had been based. The new company, On Par, quickly landed many of the biggest jobs, including the massive conversion of the old office building at 63 Wall Street. It also became notorious for preferring to pay its employees in untraceable cash.

That was the conclusion of Walter Mack, the former court-appointed monitor whose job, thanks to a 20-year-old consent decree, was to check up on the union's operations. "On Par habitually paid carpenters in cash," wrote Mack in a 2005 memo, thus "cheating the [district council's] benefit funds of well over $10 million that I have been able to identify."

Mack also noted that Murray was assisted by a team of hand-picked union shop stewards who cleverly manipulated the union's appointment process. The designated stewards conveniently neglected to list dozens of union employees on required reports for the union. When Mack sought to question a steward named Michael Brennan about the practice, Brennan immediately took the Fifth Amendment.

Mack's successor was another ex–federal prosecutor named William Callahan, who also investigated On Par. In 2006, Callahan went to talk to Murray's attorney. "We said, 'Your client owes the union millions,' " Callahan said last week. "Two days later, he fled the country."

Just how Murray was persuaded to return has not been spelled out. But court records show that, in his absence, federal prosecutors seized and sold millions of dollars' worth of property he'd acquired, including sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Mount Vernon. There was also a lovely 200-acre estate with a pond, a creek, and a 19th-century Cape-style home in upstate Millbrook. As one attorney familiar with such negotiations said, "The money gets them every time."

After Murray's return, prosecutors were remarkably forgiving. In November, he was released on bail subject to an $8 million bond. The bond, records show, came from a remarkable source: the money that the government had earned by the sale of Murray's assets.

Murray's name is not mentioned in the indictment, and his attorney did not return calls. But knowledgeable sources confirm that he is the contractor referred to in the indictment as co-conspirator #1 .

Late Wednesday afternoon, eight of the 10 men charged in the case were arraigned in federal court on Pearl Street. Michael Brennan, the shop steward who had clammed up when asked about his dealings with Murray, was indicted, as was Murray's old sidekick, Finbar O'Neill. Brennan didn't get around to surrendering until a day later; as of last week, O'Neill was still at large.

Mike Forde was in Nova Scotia when the news broke, at a meeting with the president of his union's international, Douglas McCarron, and other top officials. He arrived late in the day wearing a summery, striped blue polo shirt. He slumped forward in a chair, his big chin hanging on his chest. He was released on a $750,000 bond. Lead prosecutor Lisa Zornberg also asked that the union leader be subjected to drug tests. "He tested positive today for both cocaine and marijuana," she told the judge.

Seated near Forde in the row of defendants was his management counterpart, Joseph "Rudy" Olivieri, director of the Association of Wall-Ceiling & Carpentry Industries. The association negotiates labor agreements and holds frequent golf outings for union officials and contractors. An old-timer in mob circles, Olivieri used to pass messages for the Genovese family's late and legendary leader, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. That's according to government memos submitted in the two-decade-old civil racketeering case that alleged back in 1990 that the carpenters' union was under the mob's thumb. More recently, a witness testified at a 2006 mob trial that Olivieri threatened to bring "a world of hurt" down on those who crossed him.

Glowering at the arraignments from the gallery was Steve McInnis, the carpenters' union political director, who helped arrange the Bloomberg endorsement. At City Hall, the mayor was asked about Forde's indictment. He had a ready answer: Guilt or innocence was up to the courts, he said. But he was still "thrilled" to have the union's endorsement because, "you know it's the men and women of the carpenters' union that have endorsed me." Actually, rank-and-file carpenters had no say in Mike Forde's pick in the mayoral race. That's not how things work in the top-down union. Nor were some members waiting for the courts to decide the latest charges. "We want them out, once and for all," as one local member put it in a message.

Related Content:

'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

Culture of Corruption: Forde and His Team of Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies

'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

On Wednesday August 5, 2009, federal authorities charged New York carpenters union leader Michael J. Forde, seven other union officials, a contractor, and contractor’s representative with 29 counts of corruption, including racketeering, fraud, bribery, and perjury. The indictment says that, together, they stole millions of dollars from the union and its benefit funds. In exchange for bribes, the union officials allowed contractors to pay union members cash wages below union scale with no benefits, hire illegal aliens and nonunion workers and forgo benefit funds contributions.

This is a must read for all union Brothers and Sisters who care about The Carpenters Union.
Carpenters Indictment

Monday, August 10, 2009

Quotables

"We have the greatest anti-corruption program there ever was.”--District Council EST Mike Forde August, 2003

"The union’s anti-corruption program is nearly worthless.” --Independent Investigator Walter Mack June 3, 2004

"The anti-corruption committee is composed of members of the district council who do not have any formal investigative training or experience; do not have a handbook of investigative procedures or written guidelines and cannot on its own do much more than inquire into allegations of improper conduct."--Independent Investigator William Callahan December 2007

“The anti-corruption committee is also hampered by its limited resources and a lack of training which restricts its effectiveness, it has increasingly relied on my office to establish and take investigative initiatives.”--Independent Investigator William Callahan December 2007

“Massive fraud was able to continue for many years due to the union's “culture of corruption”--Independent Investigator William Callahan December 2007

“The district council must demonstrate that the union’s efforts to combat corruption have reduced the frequency and scope of corrupt practices to the extent that this court is convinced that the union and its constituent locals can adequately police themselves, without further government involvement and court supervision, At the present time, the District Council has not made that showing.”--Hon. Charles S. Haight Jr. Federal District Judge Manhattan August 11, 2008

“It was disgraceful — thugs took over the meeting, the group yelled insults at Mr. Davenport and threw a roll of toilet paper at him when he was on the stage, while members of the Unity Team Administration did nothing to stop them.” --Local 608 member Eugene Clarke August 8, 2008

"There seems to be a perception that if you give your name when voicing your opinion that there will be some kind of retribution.”--District Council EST Mike Forde Summer 2007

“The assault last week on the dissident union candidate, William Davenport, undermined the union’s assertions of a change in its internal culture.”--Hon. Charles S. Haight Jr. Federal District Judge Manhattan August 8, 2008

"I urge union leaders to ensure that there would be no more beatings at candidates’ forums."--Hon. Charles S. Haight Jr. Federal District Judge Manhattan August 11, 2008

“This internal corruption contributed to the long delay in the discovery of Tri-Built's wrongdoing. At the current stage of the investigation, it is impossible to know how many other contractors were able to cheat the District Council and the Benefit Funds with this crude but effective methodology, but I am certain that others exist.”--Independent Investigator Walter Mack June 3, 2005

“If the system remains as it currently is, I believe that it should be explained clearly to the membership so that they do not operate under the misapprehension that the out-of-work list operates to dispatch people on the basis of how long they have been on the list. The union membership deserves to have this information. I regret that I was not permitted to provide it."--Independent Investigator Walter Mack June 3, 2005

"The District Council has not made the fundamental shift it needs to make in order to become an effective anti-corruption force: to change the organizational culture to one that insists on integrity and diligently pursues wrongdoers. This is an issue of leadership, plain and simple."--Independent Investigator Walter Mack October 26, 2005

“The bribery of shop stewards and off-the-books compensation of Carpenter journeymen are made possible because the District Council has allowed the out-of-work list to be rendered meaningless."--Independent Investigator Walter Mack May 2, 2005

“Union officers played vital roles in facilitating, enabling, or abetting the employer's frauds, by failing to supervise the job sites”--Hon. Charles S. Haight Jr. Federal District Judge Manhattan August 8, 2008

“The District Council leadership and the Anti-Corruption Committee have yet to develop fully the will, competence and dedicated perseverance to discover and root out wrongdoing on Carpenter job sites.”--Independent Investigator Walter Mack June 3, 2005

"Union representatives and officials need to understand that they will go to prison if they show no respect for the law or their duties under the Consent Decree.”--Hon. Barbara S. Jones United States District Judge May 8, 2008

"The dreaded request letter which has destroyed the 50/50 provision and led to much malpractice in our industry."--Local 608 President Mike Forde December 1999

“If the members want to fight for 50/50 rights on the job, then we have to convince the contractor that all of the members coming from the out-of-work-list are qualified.”--District Council President Pete Thomassen Spring 2006

“Mr. Forde's conduct was dishonorable and revealed his personal contempt for the job-referral system and the union's agreement with the government”--Hon. Charles S. Haight Jr. Federal District Judge Manhattan September 17, 2007

“The fact that District Council auditors are assigned to determine both wage and benefit deficiencies is yet another indication that the purported distinction between the District Council and the Benefit Funds is an artificial one. It has been invoked, I believe, in order to hinder my ability to determine how and to what extent Tri-Built and possibly other contractors were able to avoid detection of their routine CBA violations for such a long time.”--Independent Investigator Walter Mack June 3, 2005

“Time and time again, when District Council representatives were confronted with their failures to detect, investigate or eradicate job site wrongdoing, their explanations were based on assumptions and investigative methods that are shallow, sloppy and ineffectual.”--Independent Investigator Walter Mack June 3, 2005

"The District Council engaged in, at least, willful ignorance of the corrupt conduct by companies like Tri-Built and On Par, which were notorious among Carpenters as "cash" companies, yet were permitted to work corruptly for years."--Independent Investigator Walter Mack October 26, 2005

District Council Of Carpenters Delegates To Meet


The agenda for the gathering has yet to be set, according to a union source, but it's safe to assume that Forde and his future with the embattled organization "will be a topic of discussion."

Forde remains on the job - "he's still here as of 10:30 this morning," the source said - but following the indictment, the question of whether he would keep his post was "under review," according to the union's attorney, Gary Rothman.

The politically powerful district council is made up of 11 constituent locals, each of whom is represented on the executive committee (Forde is also a member). The delegate body is made up of 88 members who are elected by the unions based a proportional system (similar to the House).

The head of the union isn't elected by the delegates, but through an election in which all the roughly 25,000 members are able to cast a vote. Forde was re-elected last year.

It's unclear (to me, anyway, and my source wasn't immediately certain) whether the delegates would be able to remove Forde, or even call for a vote of "no confidence."

"It's not something we have discussed internally," the source said. "The fact that there is any kind of vote I don't even know if it's possible. What anyone's intentions are, I also don't know. But if anyone is telling you anything is certain, they're either making it up or I’m out of the loop."


UPDATE: The source did some research and adds: "Contrary to what you may have heard, there is no bylaw provision for the removal of an officer by the delegate body."

"Bylaw provision" refers to the union's own internal rules, which govern the election of officers.

This isn't the first time Forde has faced bribery charges.

He was indicted on state charges in 2000 following an investigation by the Manhattan DA's office and tried twice. He never gave up his leadership post, even after he was convicted in the first trial - a decision that was later overturned - and acquitted in the second.

I Warned You!



Mail Out

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Local 157 Business Agent Named as Unindicted Co-Conspirator

According to the 29-count bribery and racketeering indictment a Local 157 business agent accepted cash payments from Contractor No. 1 who sources say is contractor James Murray owner of On-Par.

Murray went on the lam in Ireland after he was indicted on federal fraud and embezzlement charges in 2006.

Sources said he has returned and is believed to be helping the feds prosecute Carpenters boss Michael Forde.

Court records show he was freed on $8 million bond in November and began plea bargain negotiations with Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Lisa Zornberg, who is prosecuting Forde.

Prosecutors refused to say if Murray is cooperating.

Prosecutors also would not confirm that On Par is one of six unnamed companies that paid bribes to Forde and his cohorts.

It appears Murray may be Contractor No. 1, the unindicted co-conspirator with the deepest involvement in the bribery scheme.

Contractor No. 1 is identified in the indictment as a major drywall company, as was On Par.

Among the numerous accusations linked to Contractor No. 1 is skulduggery at 63 Wall St., where On Par was a key player and Carpenters Local 157 had jurisdiction.

According to page 45 of the 29-count bribery and racketeering indictment, in or about 2003 Contractor No. 1 made cash payments to a unindicted co-conspirator who was a business agent at Local 157.

Sources believe the unindicted co-conspirator business agent maybe cooperating with the feds in prosecuting Forde.

Culture of Corruption, How Forde and His Unity Team Sold-Out The Carpenters

Cash in an envelope. In return, a promise that a development project will speed along, unhindered by the union's CBAs. A nod and wink to seal the deal.

It is the most clichĂ©d, unimaginative form of corruption — and its persistent hold on New York City Carpenter's elected leaders seems unrivaled in the UBC. Over the last few years alone, hundreds of working carpenters and shop stewards have been charged with corruption and expelled from the union.

Members have been arrested and charged with leaping at the chance to engage in this lowest-common-denominator crime, at times for laughably small sums of money.

On Wednesday August 5, 2009, federal authorities in a predawn roundup arrested Forde and his team of Cheats, Crooks and Cronies as they made their way to work.

The 29-count indictment which was unsealed in Federal District Court in Manhattan hours after the arrest charged New York carpenters union leader Michael J. Forde, seven other union officials, a contractor, and contractor’s representative with 29 counts of corruption, including racketeering, fraud, bribery, and perjury. According to the charges, bribes were paid out to union leaders to allow contractors around the city to pay cash to workers at below union-rate wages and therefore avoid paying benefits.

Here we go again, "nobody knows what the hell is going on," griped a veteran carpenter, the city's carpenters union is again embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Why is New York City's largest trade union so unshakably corrupt?

That answer, it turns out, has as many nuances as corruption itself. Interviews with law enforcement officials, prosecutors and, perhaps the best authority on the subject — those arrested in previous sweeps, reveal a culture of corruption so ingrained that it has become impossible to resist when the envelope appears.

A decade-long building boom has flooded New York with millions of development dollars, but sources say the latest round of corruption can be traced back to the signing of the 2001 collective bargaining agreement where Forde and his "Unity Team” sold-out the carpenters by "bargaining away" the job referral rules giving the contractors what they wanted—The unfettered right to "request" anyone they want from the out-of-work list!

Forde and his Unity Team negotiated this shocking contract change without notifying or seeking the approval of the 15-member negotiating team, the 88-member elected delegate body, the rank-and-file who were expressly opposed to the contractor request and the federal government who has oversight supervision.

Forde and his Unity Team had absolutely no constitutional authority to bargaining away the job referral rules. They have abused their authority, violated their oath of office, violated the 1994 Consent Decree and more importantly violated the trust of the membership they claim to represent.

“Rather than doing what they were elected to do — safeguarding wages and benefits for union members — they took cash and other bribes to turn a blind eye on contractors’ schemes to cheat the rank and file,” Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the head of the New York F.B.I. office said.

They turned the out-of-work list into an absurd paperwork dance, where "non requested" carpenters languish on a phony out-of-work-list and job site corruption is encouraged by "cash" contractors said several rank-and-file members who expressed dismay.

"It doesn't seem like it's ever going to change," said a carpenter who had supported Forde.

History Lesson 101, How the Carpenters were sold-out:

December of 1999, as our council emerged from International supervision, The Unity Team, among other things, campaigns against the "contractor request" promising to eliminated if elected!

September 7, 2000 The Manhattan district attorney charged 38 union officials including Michael Forde , contractors and reputed mobsters yesterday with bribery, bid-rigging or other racketeering schemes that he said siphoned millions of dollars from construction projects in the last two years.

May of 2001, John Greaney, Local 608’s President/business manager mailed questionnaires to the Local’s membership to ascertain its views on issues relevant to the collective bargaining. Greaney learned through compiling data from completed questionnaires that the members wanted to “eliminate the contractor request”, Greaney then presented his membership’s “collective sentiment” to The Unity Team, but the change was not made.

June 2001, The Unity Team "bargained away" the job referral rules in the 2001 contract negotiations without notifying or seeking the approval of the 15-member negotiating team, the 88-member elected delegate body, the rank-and-file and the federal government who has oversight supervision.

November 5, 2004, former Independent Investigator, Walter Mack filed a report on the 50/50 Rule and Request System. Mack concluded that the “current request system reduces the out-of-work-list into a paperwork dance with little value to anyone but the contractors who can select the Carpenters they want to work for them.” (read Independent Investigator Walter Macks November 5, 2004 report about the 50/50 rule and the request system.)

April 12, 2005, we learn for the VERY FIRST TIME, the disastrous 2001 contract change made by The Unity Team. Unity Team President Peter Thomassen, testifying before judge Haight (click to read testimony) about the 2001 contract negotiations said "we enhanced the request system for the contractors of the association". We gave them what they wanted—the unfettered "right to request" anyone they want from the out-of-work list.

July 2005, After learning the truth about the 2001 contract negotiations, a member of the 2001 negotiating committee commented "no one ever informed me about the change in the job referral rules, I was shocked to find out about it."

September 15, 2005, Federal prosecutors ask judge Haight to hold The Unity Team in contempt for changing the union's job referral system without government approval, arguing that the changes will encourage more corruption.

December 2005, As The Unity Team campaigns for re-election and as the truth about the 2001 contract becomes more know to the membership, The Unity Team promises to fix the job referral rules and address the "contractor request" issue.

February 20, 2007, after years of costly ligation, The Unity Team was found GUILTY OF CONTEMPT by the United States Court Of Appeals for violating provisions of the Consent Decree when they eviscerated the job referral rules with the 2001 contract change, which has encouraged job site corruption by "cash" contractors!

August 11, 2008, citing continued corruption, Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan wrote, The Unity Team "has not demonstrated they can combat corruption and adequately police themselves without further government involvement and court supervision."

October 24, 2008,
Federal District Judge Charles S. Haight has scheduled a hearing. The Court will hear oral arguments on the issue of remedy for the contempt charge against The Unity Team. Click for transcript of hearing

December 2008, As The Unity Team again campaigns for re-election they deny any wrong doing and deny bargaining away the job referral rules in the 2001 contract.

May 26, 2009, after years and costly litigation, Federal District Judge Charles S. Haight issued his final order and judgment of contempt and remedy to the 2001 collective bargaining agreement.

August 5, 2009, Forde and nine others - including two mob associates - were charged with taking $1 million in bribes to let contractors cheat workers of wages and benefits.

This is why you cannot trust anything The Unity Team says!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Carpenter's make FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending August 7, 2009


1. Washington Field Office: Former Congressman William J. Jefferson Found Guilty

After hearing evidence for more than one month in a federal court in Alexandria, Va., a jury found Jefferson guilty on 11 charged counts, including solicitation of bribes, honest services wire fraud, money laundering, racketeering and conspiracy. Jefferson was acquitted on three counts of honest services wire fraud, an obstruction of justice charge and of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Full Story

2. Los Angeles: Three Sentenced to Federal Prison for Illegally Exporting Highly Sensitive U.S. Technology to China

In two separate cases, three men have been sentenced to federal prison for attempting to transport sensitive and advanced U.S. technology to the People's Republic of China (PRC). The defendants in the two cases were charged under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) for procuring and illegal exporting sensitive technology in violation of United States export laws. Full Story

3. Chicago: Chicago Man Arrested for Interfering with Operation of CTA Trains and Busses

Marcel Carter, age 20, was arrested by officers of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and subsequently turned over to members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). The JTTF conducted additional investigation resulting in the filing of a criminal complaint charging Carter with Interfering with the Operation of a Mass Transit Vehicle, which is a felony offense. Full Story

4. New York: Ten Charged in Carpenters Union Corruption Case

An indictment was unsealed Aug. 5, 2009, charging the head of the Carpenters Union District Council in New York City and seven other Carpenters Union officials, one construction contractor, and a contractors’ representative, with a series of offenses stemming principally from a scheme by which Carpenters Union officials, in return for bribes, allowed construction contractors to avoid full payment of union wages and benefits at various job sites in New York City. Full Story

5. Las Vegas: USA Capital President Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud

Joseph D. Milanowski, the owner of a Nevada investment company, who misappropriated over $50 million of client monies to fund loans for his own pet projects, pled guilty on Aug. 4th, 2009, to wire fraud. Full Story

6. Los Angeles: New York Rabbi Pleads Guilty to Scheme to Defraud I.R.S.

Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz, the Grand Rabbi of Spinka, a religious group within Orthodox Judaism, pled guilty this morning to a criminal conspiracy charge, admitting that he worked with others to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service by soliciting charitable donations with secret promises to refund donors the vast majority of the money they “donated.” Full Story

7. Newark: FBI Arrests Two in Foreclosure Scheme

Garth Celestine and Phil A. Simon – better known collectively as “Home Savers Consulting Corporation” – were arrested and charged with attempt and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a home foreclosure scheme. Celestine and Simon caused lenders to fund more than $10 million worth of fraudulent loans and stole $1.5 million worth of equity from the properties. Full Story

8. Washington Field Office: Husband of Former Army Officer Pleads Guilty to Laundering Money Stolen From Iraq

William Driver, a New Jersey accountant, pled guilty to laundering portions of more than $300,000 stolen from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in the Republic of Iraq and brought back to the United States by his wife, a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. Full Story

9. Albany: Three Charged in Wire Fraud Involving Kickback Scheme

A federal grand jury returned a 29- count indictment charging defendants Joseph Queri, Jr., Benjamin Viloski, and Gary Gosson relating to a conspiracy and scheme from 1998 through 2005 to receive and conceal kickback payments in connection with the development of new Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. stores. The indictment alleges that there were approximately $2 million in kickbacks paid. Full Story

10. Atlanta: Former Polk County Jail Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Federal Civil Rights Charges

Joshua David Lowe, a former sergeant at the Polk County Jail, pled guilty in federal court to a civil rights charge of using excessive force against an inmate in his custody. Lowe admitted during the guilty plea hearing that he abused his authority as a law enforcement officer when he unnecessarily and repeatedly struck an inmate in his head and face while the inmate was strapped in a restraint chair. Full Story