UAW & The Detroit Free Press Celebrate The Conjugal Collaboration With Jazz

Much love to The Detroit News for celebrating the Conjugal Collaboration with this musical prelude.

You can find the the tale of UAW, here.

UAW leaders help feds investigate president Gary Jones

Detroit — A top deputy to United Auto Workers President Gary Jones and one of the union's most powerful officers are helping federal prosecutors build a criminal case against the labor leader for embezzling union funds, The Detroit News has learned.

Former deputy Danny Trull and retired UAW Secretary/Treasurer Gary Casteel have met with investigators and provided an insider's view of an alleged conspiracy and cover-up involving more than $1 million spent on personal luxuries, according to federal court records and six sources familiar with the investigation.

The government is building its case at the same time that 46,000 UAW members are striking General Motors Co. nationwide. The corruption investigation — marked by federal raids and criminal charges against 11 people linked to the UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV — raises questions about whether Jones and the union's senior leadership can sell a new contract to the UAW-GM rank-and-file.

Trull and Casteel join a team of former UAW officials who have cooperated with the investigation into labor law crimes, kickbacks, bribes, and embezzlement and helped prosecutors secure nine convictions.

"Those guys have bargaining chips and can give the government something about Gary Jones," said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School. "But that testimony can be attacked."

Federal authorities last month filed a criminal case against another Jones deputy, UAW Region 5 Director Vance Pearson, that outlined a scheme to embezzle membership dues spent on private villas, golf, meals and $400 bottles of Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne.

The criminal case implicated four current and former UAW officials, including Jones and former UAW President Dennis Williams, who investigators refer to with pseudonyms because they have not been charged with a crime.

The sources, who are not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, identified Trull as "UAW Official C" and former Williams aide Amy Loasching as "UAW Official D." Casteel is referred to as "CW-5," a cooperating witness, the sources said.

Sources helped decipher pseudonyms used by the government to identify four current and former UAW officials implicated in an alleged embezzlement scheme. They are (clockwise): Gary Jones, aka "UAW Official A"; Dennis Williams, aka "UAW Official B"; Danny Trull, aka "UAW Official C", and Amy Loasching, aka "UAW Official D."

Trull served as Jones' deputy overseeing a 17-state regional office based in Missouri and retired in late 2015. He is accused in the criminal complaint of using member dues to pay for golf, meals and shopping in Palm Springs and trying to conceal the expenses.

The 64-year-old from Waxahachie, Texas, told investigators he saw Jones spend member dues on golf clothes in Palm Springs and that union money paid for extravagant lodging, expensive cigars, high-end liquor and fancy meals.

He also said Jones ordered him to hide the expenses, according to the sources and a federal court affidavit written by Labor Department Special Agent Andrew Donohue.

Besides being a top deputy, Trull also served on the board of Jones' nonprofit, the 5 Game Changers Charity Fund. The News previously reported federal agents are investigating the charity.

Tour golf courses and resorts frequented by UAW officials in Palm Springs, Calif., where the union has spent more than $1 million in recent years. Robert Snell, The Detroit News

Casteel, meanwhile, who oversaw the union's finances and its $1.1 billion in assets, told investigators he did not know union money was being spent on personal luxuries in Palm Springs. He said the expenses, including 107 rounds of golf, more than $100,000 worth of golf equipment and $185 bottles of Crown Royal whiskey, were beyond what he would have approved, according to sources and the affidavit.

"CW-5 confirmed that all UAW expenses had to be properly approved and for the benefit or the UAW's membership," Donohue wrote.

Casteel, 61, of Ashland City, Tennessee, was viewed as a potential successor to Williams before abruptly announcing his retirement last year.  Casteel and Trull have not been charged with wrongdoing and did not respond to messages seeking comment.

“If reports are true that Danny Trull and Gary Casteel are cooperating, Gary Jones has nothing to fear,” Jones’ defense lawyer Bruce Maffeo told The News. “The expenditures were reported in sufficient detail that if either Casteel, who was secretary/treasurer, or the UAW accounting department had any questions, they had every opportunity to ask them and they didn’t.”

A UAW spokesman declined to comment on Trull and Casteel.

The sources also identified Loasching as an unnamed UAW official accused in the Pearson case of spending months in private villas, golfing, eating, shopping and partying in the Palm Springs area.

The UAW spent more than $11,000 renting a private villa for Loasching near Palm Springs from 2015-16, and she spent approximately $1,000 during a shopping spree at a Palm Springs golf resort, according to the Labor Department investigator.

Loasching, 56, was first linked to the investigation on Aug. 28 when federal agents raided her home in Janesville, Wisconsin. She has not been charged with wrongdoing.

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Cocktails & Popcorn: FBI & IRS Raid UAW President Gary Jones' Residence & Domicile

"Ready for another round?" said FBI
to IRS and vested interested friends.

On this exciting episode of Cocktails & Popcorn, UAW President Gary Jones got his domicile raided by the FBI & IRS.

Domicile, a selected legal term I have been doing a comparative legal analysis with residence, for the purposes of breaking it down, for everyone to understand how these people have perfected the art of stealin' through privatization, more intuitively known as ecclesiastic law.

Whenever I see a Conjugal Collaboration of this boldness, it just reinforces my faith in the protectors of the best interests of children's trust for the perpetuity of the public good, not some fake ass foreign child welfare NGO money laundering operation to do nasty stuff to children.

Much love, my Dearies, for the annals of history are being written before our very eyes.

How about some livestreaming?

FBI raids UAW president's home in ongoing investigation

FBI and IRS agents raided the home of UAW President Gary Jones in Canton at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. Agents also raided the union’s northern Michigan conference center and other UAW locations across the country.

Gary Jones, UAW President

The raids were a major step as federal officials ramped up their corruption investigation of the autoworkers union, which is in the midst of contract negotiations with Detroit automakers.

As many as a dozen agents collected evidence from Jones' home on Wildrose Drive in Canton, and they'll remain there "as long as it takes," Special Agent Mara Schneider said from the site at midday.

She declined to confirm whether Jones was home when agents arrived or during the raid. The agents conducted what is called a "knock and announce" protocol.

The raids are linked to an ongoing scandal that's been centered on misspent money intended for use by the union's joint training center with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, but has expanded in recent weeks to include vendor contracts and to touch officials tied to the union's General Motors training center.

Multiple vehicles are seen parked near UAW president Gary Jones'
house in Canton on Wednesday, August 28, 2019. FBI and IRS agents
raided the home beginning around 7:30 a.m.

The scheme redirected millions of dollars meant for worker training to goodies for former union and company officials. Nine people have been charged in the scandal so far.

Besides Jones' home, agents were at the union's Black Lake Conference Center, a 1,000-acre resort in northern Lower Michigan that includes a golf course, where the UAW is building an opulent cottage for Dennis Williams, its most recent former president.

The center near Onaway, subsidized by interest from the union's strike fund, has bled tens of millions of dollars over the years.

UAW statement
Detroit automakers, whose contract with the UAW expires Sept. 14, declined to comment on the raids. On the broader corruption investigation, GM has said it is cooperating with the investigation. FCA has said it is "a victim of illegal conduct by certain rogue individuals."

The UAW issued a statement Wednesday saying that the union and Jones "have always fully cooperated with the government investigators in this matter. As the leader of the UAW, President Jones is determined to uncover and address any and all wrongdoing, wherever it might lead. There was absolutely no need for search warrants to be used by the government today — the UAW has voluntarily responded to every request the government has made throughout the course of its investigation, produced literally hundreds of thousands of documents and other materials to the government, and most importantly, when wrongdoing has been discovered, we have taken strong action to address it. The UAW will continue to cooperate with the government in its investigation, as we have been doing throughout.

"Trust in UAW leadership is never more important than during the bargaining process, when profit-laden auto companies stand to benefit from media leaks, false assumptions, and political grandstanding," the statement continued. "The sole focus of President Jones and his team will be winning at the bargaining table for our members."

A UAW national leader who asked to not be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly said the raid on Jones’ house could have a negative impact on talks. Some rank-and-file members already have expressed a lack of trust in union leadership in light of the scandal, he said.

This is likely to create more distrust among those members, the person said.

But, he added that an expected strike authorization vote will indicate that the membership trusts negotiators to green-light a strike if necessary. The results of that vote are expected Thursday or Friday, but it is usually procedural in nature and typically members authorize it.

Plant workers were surprised and dismayed by the news.

UAW member Sean Crawford, who works at GM’s Flint Assembly plant, said the news will have a “really negative impact” on bargaining.

“Call me cynical but I feel the Trump administration willfully timed this to coincide with our negotiations so that the union would lose faith in the leadership,” said Crawford. “We’re getting ready to go into one of the biggest negotiations of our lifetime and we’re possibly going to lose faith in our union.”

Crawford said the union leadership is to blame and should take responsibility for its actions in the corruption scandal.

“All these people should step down and allow a democratic electoral process to take place, an election of leadership that is run by the members,” said Crawford. “The union has to be blamed for this too and it’s disgusting. It makes us all look bad.”

Crawford said the corruption happened because there is no accountability to the membership. The way the international executive board that runs the UAW is elected now is by delegates who represent locals at the UAW convention.

Said a longtime Ford factory worker: “I believe in the UAW. I also believe if there was any corruption, whoever was involved, belongs in jail. If Gary Jones was involved with it, he belongs behind bars. I’m really torn with this. I’m a strong union member. The whole corruption thing, it’s dirty man. How do you preach to new members the UAW cares about you? It doesn’t help the cause.”

Obtaining a search warrant
Using a search warrant rather than getting a subpoena required prosecutors to go to a judge to show probable cause that a crime has taken place and that there is evidence of the crime at the location to be searched, explained Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor who teaches law at Wayne State University.

"Those UAW bags surely do
come in handy when standing
in the line for rotten food
from Forgotten Harvest."

“It’s a way for prosecutors to ensure they get the materials they want. A search warrant is an escalation of the investigation. It indicates prosecutors are concerned there is evidence out there that they want to get,” he said.

“I would expect they may be looking at electronic documents," Henning added. "You have to have a warrant to search a phone or a computer. If the warrant authorizes electronics, they can seize a computer and create a mirror image of the computer hard drive. They can seize phones. And people put things in text messages that maybe they shouldn’t. They’ll get emails … They are doing a pretty broad sweep.”

The raids Wednesday came on the same day as an arraignment in federal court for Michael Grimes, a former UAW administrative assistant who retired last year from the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources. Grimes was charged earlier this month a federal criminal information alleging he conspired with unnamed union officials to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. The schemes were connected to contracts for watches, backpacks and jackets worth millions of dollars.

The filing against Grimes cited unnamed union officials as being linked to the corruption. The Detroit News has reported that those officials are Joe Ashton, a former UAW vice president who resigned from the GM board in 2017 as questions swirled about the federal investigation into training center corruption, and his former aide Jeff Pietrzyk.

Grimes was charged just over a week after former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell was sentenced to 15 months for his role in the scheme.

Jewell's plea agreement noted that a "culture of corruption" predated his start in the UAW FCA department in June 2014, led by former FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli and Jewell's predecessor, the late General Holiefield.

Among others who have pleaded guilty in the case are Monica Morgan, who is Hollifield's widow; Jerome Durden, a financial analyst at FCA who allegedly helped conceal the fraud by cooking the books; Nancy Johnson, the one-time senior official in the UAW Chrysler Department, who spent thousands of dollars meant for autoworker training on personal items; and Virdell King, 65, of Detroit, who was accused of — among other things — buying designer shoes, clothing, jewelry and luggage using credit cards that were issued through the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center.

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