I-Team Exclusive: Teamsters Local 710 in turmoil
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has learned a top labor leader has been removed and his large teamsters local placed into trusteeship after an investigation of widespread financial misconduct.
Teamsters officials call it an embezzlement scheme involving well-known Local 710 leader Patrick W. Flynn, who hails from a longtime Chicago labor family. The corruption runs so deep, according to union officials, that secretary treasurer Flynn has been removed from his post along with the local's president and other top officers.
Boxloads of prime beef, thousands of gifts cards as clean as cash, a fleet of cars and offices full of expensive furniture; Teamsters officials say those were the proceeds of an elaborate and elusive scheme here at the union Local 710. The local represents nearly 14,000 employees of United Parcel, UPS, and other freight and package haulers throughout Illinois, northwest Indiana and into Iowa.
The union says it found Local 710's top four officers and three other local officials had a hand in the financial malpractice and corruption.
"The local union officers were removed on July 30th and there were 7 officers that were removed. The trustee was put in their place to conduct the affairs and this was the result of the accusations that were made in the IRB report ...The officers have been moved. And what we are doing is proceeding with biz as normal. Our members are getting the service they are receiving and they will continue to receive that thru the entire trusteeship," said Brian Rainville.
Gone from union leadership is Patrick Flynn, with the teamsters since 1974 and a former national Teamsters official.
According to the 190-page investigation, the embezzlement scheme featured union officers who falsified accounting records by recording phony payments and mythical loans- all of which union investigators say the Local 710 leaders then tried to cover up.
Among the perks in the report from 2008 to 2010 are thousands of gift cards totaling more than a quarter million dollars, and hundreds of steak gift packs- one order alone for $54,000.
"There is embezzlement that leaps off the pages of this report, there is fraud on the government, there's false statements to the government, there's fraud on local union members, there's fraud on national union leadership. There's a host of crimes and host of victims in this report which, if proved true, really means trouble for anybody caught in the crosshairs here," said Gil Soffer, ABC7 Legal Analyst.
The union findings now go to the U.S. Labor Department, but our legal analyst Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, says this is bound to capture the attention of the U.S. Attorney's office if it hasn't already. Messages left for Patrick Flynn and the ousted president Michael Sweeney have not been answered. The other union leaders were not reachable.
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