At the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters (IKORCC), theft seems to be a way of doing business. And for Luka Kljajic, business was good until he was caught. On July 25, Kljajic, a member of the Greenwood, Ind.-based council, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana to submitting nearly $50,000 in false claims to a union-sponsored benefit plan and to assisting other union members in submitting false claims to the plan. Sentencing is scheduled for November 19. The plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General and Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).
According to prosecutors, Kljajic during 2012-14 submitted fake reimbursement requests for medical plan expenses and helped other union members with similar deceptions. In the case of the latter offenses, he would receive fees ranging from $100 to $500 per claim. In his written plea agreement, he admitted to … Read More ➡
On June 25, John Zehm, former business manager for the Tile Setters and Finishers Union of Northern California, was indicted in the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento on one count of grand theft from the Sacramento union of a sum of more than $950 and one count of embezzlement. The charges follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.… 
On June 27, Audonus Duplessis, former president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2463, was indicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on one count of interstate transportation of stolen property for his role in moving $11,300 worth of stolen currency from the District of Columbia to Virginia. The Washington, D.C.-based union represents various employees of the Smithsonian Institution. The indictment follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.… 
As a Certified Fraud Examiner, Salvatore Armao knew he was in no position to do anything but plead guilty. And he did just that. Last Thursday, August 2, Armao, founder and managing partner of a Long Island, N.Y.-based accounting firm, Armao LLP, 
In the annals of American labor relations, history sometimes reverses course. That certainly was true yesterday in Missouri. By a 2-to-1 margin, 
For more than a half-dozen years, Rose Marie Lyons stole dues to cover her gambling losses. Union members are wondering how nobody could have noticed. On February 13, Lyons, former president and secretary of the William Penn Education Support Personnel Association (WPESPA), surrendered to authorities in Delaware County, Pa., where she 
As if it wasn’t difficult enough keeping up with the guilty pleas in the ongoing United Auto Workers-Fiat Chrysler corruption scandal, another name now can be added to the list. On Monday, July 23, Nancy Adams Johnson, for a while the second-highest ranking official at the UAW, 
On July 18, Pamela Noble, former financial secretary for United Steelworkers Local 6904, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas to five years of probation for embezzling funds from the Little Rock union in the sum of $43,274.97. She also was ordered to make full restitution, of which $33,274.97 would be payable to the union and, once paid, the remaining $10,000 would be payable to the union’s insurance company. Noble had pleaded guilty in February immediately after having been charged. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.… 
Hopefully, Henry Clay Green is getting counseling while serving time. On July 17, Green, former secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 26,