Robert Morgenthau

David Kocieniewski reports in the New York Times that former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau (at right with Rangel) owned stock in Nabors Industries at the time he introduced the company’s CEO Eugene Isenberg to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY).  Isenberg made a $1 million pledge to the so-called Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York (CCNY) while Rangel helped preserve a tax break for Nabors worth hundreds of millions.

The Times cites information from my pointed questioning of Isenberg at the Nabors 2009 annual meeting. From the Times:

Officials of the country's biggest behind-the-scenes show business union are moving to take over a New York local amid corruption allegations, the Local's chief said on Jan. 11.  Investigators from the office of Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau are looking into charges that business agent Vincent Callaghan of IATSE Local 798 tried to loot his members by selling most of the union's headquarters building to his brother at a "sweetheart" price.  

Brooklyn Dist. Attny. Charles Hynes has apparently picked up the ball that Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau dropped, starting an investigation of charges that NYC workers were forced to work for a mayoral candidate backed by their union.

Several members of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees Intl. Union (SEIU) told a Manhattan grand jury earlier this year that they were threatened with reprimands unless they worked for democrat mayoral candidate Mark Green during the 2001 primary campaign.  They reportedly did so on their own work time, were also forced to use personal leave on campaign work, and were forced to contribute to Green, all of which would violate NYC election law.

Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau is investigating charges that N.Y.C. service union bosses pressured their staffers to work for mayoral candidate Mark Green on union time, and contributed to Green's campaign from members' regular dues, as opposed to political action committee money. The grand jury investigation comes more than a year after N.Y. union dissident Paul Pamias first filed his complaint with the D.A.

 Two frmr. officials of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees Intl. Union (SEIU) said that higher-ups in the Local threatened staffers with reprimands unless they volunteered to help the Green campaign in the Dem. primary in 2001, and that they did such work on union time, which is illegal under local election law. Contributing members' regular dues to Green could violate the U.S. Sup. Ct. decision, Communications Wrkrs. v. Beck. In that 1988 ruling, the High Ct. held that it was illegal for unions to spend forced dues for political activities with which the dues-payer disagreed.