When contractors shortchange union benefit funds, it often involves help from at least someone up the union hierarchy. Gerardo and Vincent Fusella, Jr., owner-operators of a New Jersey-based trucking company, appear a classic case of paying a union boss to look the other way. On December 22, the two brothers were charged in Brooklyn, N.Y. federal court with various crimes, including embezzlement, mail fraud and tax evasion, after being indicted by a grand jury the previous day. The 31-count indictment accuses the pair, among other things, of withholding wages and benefits to members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 282 and of embezzling from the union's benefit funds. The total take is estimated at more than $1 million. Neither defendant yet has filed a plea.