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Indictments

Office of Labor-Management Enforcement

The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) conducts both civil and criminal investigations of alleged violations of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) and related laws.

These investigations by OLMS District Offices involve issues such as embezzlements of union funds, union officer elections, the filing of required reports by unions and others with OLMS, and the imposition of trusteeships over subordinate unions by a parent body. These investigations may result in legal enforcement actions.

Date	Description
March 21st, 2006	On March 21, 2006, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Debra M. Timko and Danny L. Iverson, former Presidents of Service Employees, Local 150, were charged in a 33-count indictment with mail and wire fraud and failure to maintain union records as part of a scheme to defraud the union of over $90,000. The indictment details an alleged scheme where Iverson and Timko eliminated any audit or review of the expense vouchers they submitted for reimbursement and used their positions to authorize fraudulent payments to themselves for unused vacation time and personal or otherwise non-reimbursable expenses. The indictment also alleges that upon Iverson's resignation as president, Timko became president, and in exchange, authorized payments to Iverson totaling $50,000. The indictment follows an investigation by the OLMS Milwaukee District Office.
October 5th, 2005	On October 5, 2005, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Stanley James Kluss, former Executive Director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA), was indicted on 14 counts of embezzling union funds totaling at least $20,000 and 18 counts of mail fraud. The indictment alleges that Kluss embezzled funds by charging unauthorized personal expenses to WPPA credit cards assigned to him, obtaining unauthorized cash advances on the credit cards, and submitting false reimbursement claims in excess of $15,000 for mileage he claimed he drove on WPPA vehicles. The indictment also alleges that Kluss caused the WPPA to pay for unauthorized expenses totaling approximately $8,879.09 which included expenses for groceries, shampoo, candle holders, VHS and DVD movies, dog food, cigarettes, assorted personal items, a snowmobile, concert tickets, and a trip to Walt Disney World. Kluss is alleged to have disguised his personal expenses by altering the receipts submitted to the WPPA bookkeeper by cutting off the top and bottom portion of the receipts and taping the two sections together, thereby deleting the detail portion of the receipts that identified the items he purchased. The indictment follows an investigation by the OLMS Milwaukee District Office.
October 10th, 2003	On October 10, 2003, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Matthew Downey, a representative of Elevator Constructor Local One, was sentenced to 78 months imprisonment and three years supervised release. He was ordered to pay a total of $2.6 million in restitution for fraud involving a no-show elevator operator scheme against Local One and to forfeit the sum of $800,000 for his involvement in the Local One racketeering enterprise. Downey, jointly and severally with other co-conspirators, was ordered to pay $7 million in restitution for fraud involving the 2 Broadway Project. On February 5, 2002, Downey was indicted for unlawful activity involving Elevator Constructors Local One. Additionally, there were 27 members of Local One, including two business agents, indicted for their involvement in the no-show scheme at 19 different construction sites in New York City. On April 16, 2002, in a separate indictment, Downey was charged, along with seven other individuals (including the developer of the 2 Broadway Project, the Operating Engineers Local 14 treasurer, and Elevator Constructor Local One representatives), for defrauding the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority and ZAR Realty of more than $10 million in construction money that was intended for vertical transportation costs on the 2 Broadway project. On April 24, 2003, Downey pled guilty to various charges in both indictments. The guilty plea and sentence follow a joint investigation by the OLMS New York District Office and the FBI.
April 22nd, 2003	On April 22, 2003, in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, Ty Mariner, former treasurer for Branch 3083 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, was indicted on five counts of embezzlement totaling $953 (of the $2,346 specified elsewhere in the indictment) and one count of filing a false Form LM-4 report. He pled not guilty on May 9 at arraignment. The charges were brought following an investigation by the OLMS Seattle District Office. [Related documents: HTML \| PDF]
November 20th, 2002	On November 20, 2002, in United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Joleen Coughlon, former secretary, and Clyde Starkey, former member, were indicted for their roles in a conspiracy to embezzle the funds of Laborers Local 177 in Des Moines, Iowa. The indictment details separate activities whereby the two participated in embezzlement schemes with the previously indicted local president, Fred Risius. Starkey is charged with receiving and cashing $28,905 in union checks to which he had no legitimate claim and returning a portion of the proceeds to Risius. The indictment alleges that Coughlon accepted gifts paid for by the union by issuing fictitious payee checks to Risius from the local strike fund. Coughlon is also charged with the unauthorized receipt of strike fund checks and the falsification of related records. The charges were brought following an investigation by the OLMS St. Louis District Office.