The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) long has been a major booster of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. The head of an SEIU local in Los Angeles appears to have engaged in ACORN-like behavior on his own. On August 27, Alejandro Stephens, formerly president of SEIU's now-defunct Local 660, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California with two counts of mail fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. Stephens allegedly used his position as an official with the Los Angeles union to conspire with at least three other individuals to receive tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from phony "consulting" companies. Given that he's already in hot water in a separate case that surfaced last year, it makes sense that he reportedly has declared his intention to plead guilty.
