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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Dan Rene, 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org
Coia Out!?!
Statement on the Possible Resignation of Laborers' Union Boss Coia
WASHINGTON -- Today the Bureau of National Affairs reports that Laborers' Int'l Union of North America General President Arthur A. Coia will plead guilty next month to a kickback scheme associated with the Rhode Island car dealer. Coia allegedly will be forced to resign from his union post as part of the plea.
The National Legal and Policy Center, a longtime Coia critic, issued the following statement. Please attribute the following statement to NLPC's Chairman Ken Boehm:
"Coia's forced resignation from LIUNA is a major step forward in the fight against union corruption and organized crime. NLPC has been calling for this action since 1995. It is long overdue."
"Although we welcome Coia's removal, no one should pretend that LIUNA will suddenly become corruption-free and mob-free. The 'internal reform effort' is a failure. The fact that Coia has hung on for four years shows that the Justice Department made a mistake in 1995 in agreeing to allow LIUNA to reform itself. The Justice Department should now take over the union."
"The fact that Coia reportedly will be forced out by the U.S. Attorney's Office, rather than LIUNA's 'internal reform effort,' demonstrates the the internal clean-up is a sham. If it were a serious or credible effort Coia would already be long-gone. Robert Luskin, the overseer of the LIUNA clean-up, is sure to posture that he had something to do with this. But if left to the machinations of Luskin's effort, Coia would remain in office."
The National Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption watchdog group, has been the foremost critic of LIUNA's 1995 "sweet heart" deal with the Department of Justice allowing this chronically corrupt union to clean up itself. For a full report on LIUNAs failed "internal reform effort" and its ethically-challenged "in-house prosecutor" Robert D. Luskin, please visit:
http://www.nlpc.org/olap/liuna/failure/index.htm
NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project is investigating and exposing corruption in the Teamsters, LIUNA, HERE, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations. NLPC publishes Union Corruption Update, a fortnightly newsletter. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
www.nlpc.org
They should lock Bob Luskin up.
He's the Janet Reno of LIUNA.
.
Thursday, September 30, 1999
LIUNA's President Poised to Resign Under Plea Agreement Arthur A. Coia, president of the Laborers' International Union of North America, will likely resign next month from his position as leader of the 820,000-member international union under the terms of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, sources told BNA.
A government source familiar with the agreement told BNA Sept. 29 Coia is expected to announce his resignation from LIUNA by Oct. 15. Coia's resignation would be followed a few weeks later by a guilty plea on a single felony count pertaining to his purchase of an expensive sports car from a dealer who was also a vendor to Coia's union, the source said. The plea agreement was negotiated by Department of Justice prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island.
Under the plea deal, Coia would likely avoid a prison sentence, the source said. He would, however, be barred from any future interaction with the union he and his father, Arthur E. Coia, served for so many years.
Copyright © 1998-1999 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
"The Justice Department should now take over the union"
If the goal is to rid the union of corruption, how will having the Justice Dept. taking it over accomplish that?
National Legal and Policy Center
These guys are doing a hard and dirty job.
"The internal reform effort is a failure". So, send it to Justice? HAHAHAHA! Will this end up under "active investigation" or "national security"--never to be seen or heard about again?
He was a big donor to Hillary and Billy. When they found out he was under invstigation from Justice the word went out and it was dropped. Hillary addressed the union that night.
But well
Just look at what they did with the Teamsters Union.
All the federal oversight and under their noses all the money is gone and they have yet, almost one year later, to take any action against John Morris who beat Don & Teri Adams.
Just goes to prove the Billy-Goat and the Bitch in the White House have even greater ties to organized crime. Sad that all this is being brought out again and again, yet nothing is done about it. The three of them should be locked up in the same cell together in a maximum security prison for the rest of their natural life, but no, that's not what is going to happen. Rape, murder, selling this nation down the tube to nations like China, and Blair's UK, are the real Klintoons, yet the politicians continue scratching each others backs, so to protect themselves. Of course, who is the greatest of blame? We are! The hand writing was on the wall long ago, and we stumbled along like blind pigs, following the spin. When the founders of this nation placed it all together, they never thought there would be those persons wanting to become life long politicians, and remain in office for years and years. Its no wonder that each and every time "term limitation" comes up, it's defeated.
Enjoy what few freedoms remaining, for they won't last long, and Ron Paul's present defeat the national registration of this nation's populace will eventually be brought up again, especially if we have a majority in the House and Senate of the toady democrats.
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It's begining to look like the Clinton/Reno DOJ is not going to persue this any further.
What a surprise.
See this story by --->> Bob Novak
.
bttt
.
Kickback Convicts for Clinton
November 30, 1999 The Washington Times Editorial Board
In 1996 the Teamsters Union did something a little unusual for an organization that was nearly bankrupt - it gave away more than $1 million.
The money went not to the organization's dues-paying members but to liberal activist groups, the Democratic Party and, it turned out, the re-election campaign of former Teamsters President Ron Carey.
In return for the contributions, you see, the lucky recipients were supposed to return the favor by making contributions to the Carey campaign. Several did.
The idea was to circumvent federal labor laws that bar unions from spending funds on individual candidates in union elections. Earlier this month a federal district court jury in New York convicted the Teamsters' former political director, William Hamilton, of embezzlement and fraud for his part in the kickback scheme. The question now is how many others were involved in it.
On Monday, this newspaper's Jerry Seper reported that law-enforcement officials are pressing U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White to seek indictments against high-ranking union and political officials, including some close to President Clinton.
Possible targets include former Teamsters head Ron Carey, AFL-CIO official Richard Trumka, former White House deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes and top Clinton fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe.
Mr. McAuliffe, readers may recall, was the man who just happened to have $1.35 million on hand when President and Mrs. Clinton initially came up a little short on the down payment for their new house in Chappaqua, N.Y. In the ensuing uproar over his part in the purchase, Mr. McAuliffe had to withdraw his generous assistance.
Mr. McAuliffe is also the man identified in the trial of William Hamilton who tried to get the Democratic Party in on the Teamsters kickback scheme.
Former Carey fund-raiser Martin Davis, who had already pleaded guilty for his own part in the scheme, testified that he told Mr. McAuliffe the union could be very good to the Democrats if they could find someone to contribute to the Carey campaign. Mr. McAuliffe appears to have gotten the message.
Former I>Democratic National Committee (DNC) finance director Richard Sullivan testified that the Clinton fund-raiser urged the party to find a big donor for the Carey campaign.
"Terry would generally say, `By the way, I still think we can get a large amount of contributions from the Teamsters if you can help find the donor," Mr. Sullivan testified.
The Clinton-Gore campaign subsequently sent over a list of state Democratic parties to which the Teamsters should contribute, and the union actually made as much as $236,000 in donations as requested, for which Mr. McAuliffe received credit from the DNC. The deal collapsed and the Teamsters contributions ended when Democrats were unable to find a big donor for the Carey campaign.
It wasn't for lack of trying.
The DNC found a woman willing to give $100,000 to Mr. Carey, but, alas, she was foreign, and U.S. law prohibited her from making the donation.
McAuliffe attorney Richard Ben-Veniste denies any wrongdoing on his client's part, saying that he never encouraged anyone to make such a deal, nor did the fund-raiser do so himself.
Evidently Mr. McAuliffe's old friends at the DNC and the Teamsters don't agree.
If it takes a court case to resolve the differences here, U.S. Attorney White should be ready to pursue it.
.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this story ever gets 'traction' the crowd could turn ugly.
Bill Hamilton was Planned Parenthood's 'on the Hill' lobbyist before Ca$h & Carey - Michael Ansera was the head of Harvard SDS in the 60's (the have snagged fellow travelers Paul & Heather Booth & Ira Arlook amongst others in this cash-swap [read embezzlement] scam, as well as the head of every major labor union that rushed to support and endorse ALGORE).
Searchable DNC/Teamsters Trial Testimony Online at the Republican National Committee's web site.
Gore Fundraisers, Union Cronies McAuliffe, McEntee and Trumka Implicated;
Nicholson: 'So Much for 'No Legal Violations'
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- On the same day that Al Gore's toughest union lieutenants, Richard Trumka and Gerald McEntee, are organizing a mass rally following Gore's debate in Iowa with Bill Bradley, Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson announced today that he has put the entire 3,000-page transcript of the federal trial of ex-Teamsters Political Director William Hamilton on the "Spotlight Section" of the RNC's website, http://www.rnc.org .
The testimony implicates both Trumka and McEntee -- as well as Gore fundraiser Terry McAuliffe -- as participants in an illegal campaign money-laundering scheme during the 1996 election cycle.
"With Al Gore claiming there were 'no legal violations' in the 1996 election cycle, Americans can now judge for themselves whether he's telling the truth -- or whether this is another case of the Vice President's imagination getting away with him," Nicholson said.
"This sworn testimony convicted Ron Carey's number-two man at the Teamsters of 6 counts of conspiracy, fraud, embezzlement and perjury, and it implicates Al Gore's principal fundraiser, Terry McAuliffe, and his toughest union lieutenants, Richard Trumka and Gerald McEntee."
Hamilton, who was Teamsters' Political Director under disgraced former-President Ron Carey, faces up to 30 years in prison, plus fines of $1 million. His sentencing is scheduled for February 29, 2000.
Sworn testimony and exhibits in the trial tell the story of how McAuliffe, Trumka and McEntee were among those who helped carry out the illegal contribution swap schemes.
The transcript of the testimony, Nicholson said, "will be fully searchable, allowing online users to quickly and conveniently access portions of the transcript by witness, word or date the testimony occurred."
Nicholson said that the RNC will permit other groups and web pages to link directly to the testimony, "so that this incredible story gets the attention it deserves -- attention the elite media has denied it."
SOURCE Republican National Committee
From the current edition of the RNC's magazine RISING TIDE here is Laboring in America by Michael Moroney:
Sen. John McClellan called it "crime without punishment." Thirty years later, Reagan's Organized Crime Commission wanted Justice to use civil racketeering laws to clean up the national Teamsters unions. George Bush's Justice Department launched the case. But the Clinton administration sees anti-labor rackets laws as a political profit center, much like selling the nation's nuclear secrets.
In 1978 wannabe Stephen Brill, Clinton's ultimate supporter, wrote a book that painted Teamster Ron Carey as a family man with an extremely modest income. Brill did not mention that Carey 's Queens local union was controlled by the mob. Boosted by Brill and a far-left reputed rank-and-file reform group, Carey emerged in 1992 as a national Teamsters reform leader.
By 1993, Carey 's secret life had caught up with him. Stories in The New York Times, TIME magazine and Business Week began to unravel Carey's facade of reform. He tried to end court supervision over the union; appointed a mob associate to run a corrupt airfreight local in New York; the former boss of New York 's Lucchese crime family identified him as a mob figure; and in early 1994 a treasure trove of real estate Carey owned with his close friend and female business partner in the Florida Keys was revealed. With the press hounds on his heels, Carey arranged to meet union lawyer Harold Ickes, then Bill Clinton's New York campaign manager. Millions of Teamsters PAC money and support started flowing to Clinton. Carey 's new allies on the left and the Clinton Justice Department soon rallied to his defense. Expecting to get away with it, Carey 's minions then embezzled approximately $885,000 of union funds to get him re-elected, and as Carey was about to fall on corruption charges, he pulled off the famous UPS strike-the ultimate Wag the Dog trick.
Now that he has been expelled from the union, and several of his campaign aides pled guilty, Carey 's friends in the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) who escaped accountability continue to funnel union money to the Democratic Party.
Recently obtained documents shed more light on the steps taken by the Carey regime to protect their ersatz champion and to deflect scrutiny while the AFL-CIO pumped money into the Democratic Party.
Carey 's left-wing staff and supporters defined every revelation about his past as an activity of James P. Hoffa, and particularly two characters in Hoffa 's sphere who had previously been associated with Lyndon La Rouche. This was their "vast right -wing conspiracy" ploy.
Teamsters' lawyer Judy Scott brought in Scott Armstrong as an investigative consultant. Armstrong spoke to far-left lawyer Michael Tigar and Anthony Podesta (brother of now White House Chief of Staff John Podesta), who then went to Charles Ruff. Ruff shielded Carey from government investigators. He presented documents to favorably explain Carey 's finances - although Ruff's own associates observed that there were "glaring soft spots" and that it was unlikely that the explanations, insufficient for Business Week, would survive government scrutiny. (Documents show that both Carey and his girl friend would not disclose records from their joint bank accounts and that they "relied heavily on undocumented representations.") Nevertheless, Ruff' s spin worked with politically malleable investigators.
In the "it's a small world category", it's interesting to note that, using union funds, Ruff hired Clinton Arkansas "bimbo eruptions" investigator Jack Palladino to investigate internal union corruption in Chicago. Carey's people also investigated Hoffa and his supporters, including monitoring their garbage and gathering evidence on ex-wives and children.
Millions of Teamsters' dollars were spent to protect Carey. Close to a million dollars of Teamsters' funds were embezzled to get him re-elected before the truth finished him. Ruff became White House counsel and Ickes now runs Hillary Clinton's New York Senate campaign. And millions from the labor movement still flow into the Democratic Party.
This is what Sen. McClellan meant by crime without punishment.
As a former labor rackets investigator with the departments of Justice and Labor, Michael Moroney is credited with exposing Ron Carey 's organized crime association and corrupt background. From 1992 through 1994, Moroney served as a court appointed deputy trustee of the Teamsters' airfreight local at New York's Kennedy and Newark airports.
Please take a moment to thank WSJ.'s Editor, Bob Bartly, and the Writers at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. for covering a story no one else wanted to cover and driving a case no one wanted to try, with a quick EMAIL <<<-----click here.
Freepers have made a difference here before and they can again.
DNC - Teamster Scandal's Scope Widens The Washington Times by Jerry Seper 11.28.99
Labor Pains from the far left Boston Phoenix December 20, 1999
Of Guns and Goons WALL STREET JOURNAL. Editorial 11.26.99
Laboring Against America RISING TIDE the RNC magazine's current issue by Michael Moroney
The Company He Keeps by Michael Kelly in the Washington Compost 11.24.99
The Teamsters Case NY Times editorial 11.23.99
Ms. White's Conviction WALL STREET JOURNAL. Editorial 11.22.99
Teamsters Seek Further Probe Of Fund Raising After Conviction WALL STREET JOURNAL. 11.22.99 by Glenn Burkins
Big Media's Silence on Hamilton Trial Pittsburgh Review-Tribune Editorial 11.19.99
Teamsters: Who Else Conspired? The Detroit News 11.23.99 editorial
DNC Co-Conspirator's Conviction 'Just the Beginning' Republican National Committee press release 11.19.99
Witness Says Clinton Friend Had Part in Teamster Money Scheme NYT 11.18.99 by S. Greenhousegas
Swap Schemes: Campaign Finance on Trial THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Editorial Page 11.15.99 by Micah Morrison WSJ. Editorial Page Writer THIS Byline piece drove the reluctant press corps and was the subject of a mistrial motion by Hamilton's defense. USDJ SDNY The Hon. Thomas Grisa said in denying the motion, that he thought the piece was accurate and well balanced. He's right.
A Campaign-Finance Trial WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial 11.8.99
Trial of Teamster Ex-Aide to Begin; Other Union Officials Await Impact> The WALL STREET JOURNAL by Glenn Burkins 10.20.99
Nicholson to Reno: No Plea Bargain for Teamsters' Hamilton; 'The Facts Must Come Out About Hamilton and His Unindicted DNC Co-Conspirators' Republican National Committee 10.12.99
The Trumpka Card WALL STREET JOURNAL. Editorial 10.12.99 THIS Editorial drove this case to trial.
Teamster-DNC Cash Swap Trial Before USDJ Griesa SDNY To Begin October 12, 1999 Has Been Ajourned One Week -- Just Beyond AFL-CIO Convention Free Republic 10.11.99
Hoekstra Committee's Report US House of Representatives
Here's a cornerstone piece from over a year ago by Michael
Leedeen
The White House Joins the
Teamsters The American Spectator October 1998 by Michael Ledeen
Jerry Seper's front page story in the Washington Times of October 28, 1996 Teamster Slush Fund
.
The cast of characters in this stink bomb is amazing, and a reason that this story should not be allowed to drop into a black hole.
Mike Moroney's piece in the current RNC magazine Rising Tide is revealing in the way Clinton has used the pleasure & pain of the DOJ with labor bosses to shake down unions.
I would also recommend Michael Ledeen's piece in the American Enterprise Institute & The American Spectator
.
They're doing it again NOW
Here's another example of the Clinton Carrot & Stick:
Hefty Union Contribution Came Just Before Mrs. Clinton Ads
WASHINGTON (AP) A union headed by one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's top backers made a hefty contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee just before the committee began paying for a television ad boosting the first lady in upstate New York, records showed Tuesday.
Local 1199's Political Action Fund contributed $500,000 to the DSCC on Oct. 19, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The TV ad promoting Mrs. Clinton began running in New York three weeks later. The spot was funded almost entirely by about $250,000 the DSCC provided to the state Democratic Party, which arranged for the advertising, officials said.
Republicans have been highly critical of Mrs. Clinton for allowing the unlimited ``soft-money contributions'' to be used on the advertising.
Local 1199's president is Dennis Rivera, one of the highest profile labor leaders in the state and a major backer of Mrs. Clinton's expected Senate run. She is expected to face New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the race.
The New York City-based Local 1199 represents 200,000 blue-collar hospital workers. Already one of the most powerful unions in the state, Local 1199 is seeking to expand into upstate New York.
Officials with the DSCC and Local 1199 both denied the ad and the donation were connected.
``There's no connection whatsoever except in the very indirect sense that Local 1199 is interested in electing Democrats to the United States Senate,'' DSCC Political Director Jim Jordan said Tuesday.
Jennifer Cunningham, a spokeswoman for Local 1199, said the contribution was made after a conversation union officials had over the summer with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. A fund-raiser was held in early October for the DSCC in New York City which President Clinton attended.
The DSCC-financed ad features the first lady talking with upstate New Yorkers and shaking hands. An announcer ends by saying:
``Call Hillary. Tell her to keep fighting for children, for families, for our future.'' The telephone number for the New York state Democratic Party then appears on screen.
The ad has been running for about three weeks across upstate New York, an answer to ads being run and paid for by Giuliani's campaign that are also running in upstate New York.
While the Clinton camp has admitted to coordination with the Democrats over the pro-Hillary Clinton ad, aides to the first lady insist everything they did was legal. Giuliani has said the FEC should investigate the financing and coordination.
There is no limit on so-called soft money contributions that can be made to fund issue-oriented ads that do not specifically advocate voting for a candidate. Critics of the soft money-funded issue ads say they allow candidates to skirt campaign contribution limits. The soft money issue ads became popular during the 1996 presidential campaign between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.
The New York ads were the DSCC's first for the 2000 election cycle.
A phone call placed to Mrs. Clinton's campaign was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Local 1199 has been quite visible lately. They have joined in recent weeks with the Greater New York Hospital Association in an ad campaigns calling for New York to use money from the multibillion dollar settlement with tobacco companies to help more lower-income New Yorkers afford health insurance. The two groups also launched another ad campaign pushing state officials to keep the hospital subsidies in place in the state's Health Care Reform Act set to expire at the end of December.
Local 1199 has also been pushing the Clinton administration and Congress to restore money to New York hospitals that was cut under the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
AP-ES-11-30-99 1704EST
:SUBJECT: NY USPO
Copyright (c) 1999 The Associated Press
.
Revera used his Local's money and phone bank for the Carey Campaign - then 'forgave' the loans.
Revera was one of the first of the 'A' list to arrive at the White House New Years Eve bash.
The head of his parent union SEIU's, Andy Stern, is up to his eyeballs in the cash-swaps/embezzlements.
Maybe this one is not going to go away.
But with out some outrage, perhaps it will see Thursday's--->>Bob Novak
Please help to keep this on the radar screen - just take a moment and send a quick EMAIL <<<-----click here.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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