Saturday, October 31, 2009

UNION CORRUPTION CORNER

The following is from the blog at LaborUnionReport:

Union Corruption Corner:

For more, go here.

Monday, October 26, 2009

NJ Union Boss Gets Sentenced for Stealing $2 Million...

Union boss Carmelo Sito seems to have done okay for himself. In fact, according to press accounts, Mr. Sito helped himself to about $2 million to help pay for a boat, a house in Mountainside, NJ and a condo on the posh resort island of Martha's Vinyard.

The problem is, it wasn't his money--it was money that was belonged to the members of the Hudson County District Council of Laborers consists of Locals 21, 31, 202 and 325 of the Laborers International Union of North America.

According to NJ.com:

Carmelo J. Sita, 66, spent 22 years as executive manager of benefit funds for the Hudson County District Council of Laborers. He pleaded guilty in 2004, saying he took the money from funds belonging to union members.

“I do believe that Mr. Sita, for whatever reason, thought the union was his own little bank,” U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh said.

Sita, who was arrested in 2001, took the money between 1995 and 1999.

For stealing about $500,000 a year for four years, Mr. Sita was sentenced to one year, nine months.