Upstate New York Chieftain Sentenced for False Record-Keeping

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To the Department of Labor, there was something strange about the way William Drake kept the books.  Their suspicions were well-founded.  On February 28, Drake, formerly president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1013T, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York to two years supervised probation, fined $500 and ordered to perform 260 hours of community service for omitting material facts on the union’s DOL annual financial reporting forms for 2001, 2002 and 2003.  Drake, 48, a resident of Avoca, N.Y. (near Hornell), had submitted claims to the union for lost time due to a disability.  Those claims, however, were in addition to similar ones he’d filed with his employer, Phillips Lighting Company – and hadn’t reported to Local 1013T.  In addition to his sentence, he will have to make nearly $3,500 in restitution.  Drake pleaded guilty in November.  The sentencing follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.  (OLMS, 3/18/08).