Even as United Auto Workers, one of the country’s largest unions, is seeking “financial and moral policies and controls,” he continues to face questions about the legal unrest of his former bosses, he added Thursday, when former UAW President Dennis Williams was accused of conspiring to embezzle the union’s budget in a long-standing federal investigation.
Williams, who was president of the 400,000-member union from June 2014 to June 2018, on Thursday charged with conspiracy similar to a year-long federal investigation into extortion, corruption, and other crimes that brought one of the toughest unions in the country to the brink. of a federal acquisition, according to the Detroit News, that greatly followed the saga.
Williams, 67, from Corona, California, is accused of conspiring with former UAW President Gary Jones and others to embezzle cash from UAW shares between 2010, when he was Williams’ secretary-treasurer, and September 2019, according to the Department of Justice; FBI agents, the hard work branch and the Internal Revenue Service allege that union leaders earned bribes and illegal profits from union contractors and Executives of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, according to News.
On Thursday, the UAW called it a “sad day for UAW members,” but decided to focus on the future, saying that “we are aware of the criminal rates presented in opposition to former UAW President Dennis Williams,” but added that it plans to “focus on the full overhaul and strengthening of the monetary and moral policies and controls of our union.”
A Williams conviction could be used to force the UAW to settle for federal oversight of corruption, The News reported; In June, Texas’ 63-year-old Jones pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge to embezzle cash from UAW fees and conspiracy to use an interstate commercial facility to help with organized crime, according to the Department of Justice.
Williams, who can be contacted for comment, is the fifteenth accused of being indicted in the ongoing criminal investigation into corruption within the UAW or illegal bills to UAW officials through Fiat Chrysler executives, the Justice Department said in a press release.
The union approved Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, delivering office in mid-April, after rivals Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders withdrew.
“The charges today are further steps forward in our relentless effort to ensure that the over 400,000 men and women of the UAW have honest and ethical leadership.”
The official government billing document, known as information, alleges that Williams and other senior UAW officials used UAW cash to pay for their non-public expenses, adding months’ stay at their own villas in Palm Springs, cigars, golf clothing, green fees to play golf. courses, alcoholic beverages and high-end meals. During the conspiracy, while Williams was president of the UAW, co-conspirators Gary Jones and others managed, as well as Williams, “thousands of dollars in non-public items,” prosecutors said. UAW officials hid thousands of dollars in non-public spending, adding luxurious entertainment and non-public expenses, in charge of UAW meetings held in Palm Springs and Coronado, California, as well as in Missouri, prosecutors said. Williams faces up to five years of crime and a fine of up to $250,000. A UAW spokesman refused to talk about the effect it could have on the offender’s investigation into the effectiveness of the union as Biden’s supporter, that is, in key Midwestern states that are very important to Biden’s candidacy for the White House. In 2016, Donald Trump won Michigan, a union stronghold, with fewer than 12,000 votes.
Former UAW chief Williams, accused of embezzlement scandal as federal investigation continues (Detroit News)
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