National Legal and Policy Center: For more than seven years, John McNamee, Jr. avoided getting caught. Then reality caught up. On February 15, McNamee, formerly president and secretary-treasurer of Stage and Picture Operators Local 829, an affiliate of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), was indicted in Manhattan federal court on charges of embezzling nearly a quarter-million dollars from the New York City union and filing false financial reports. The following day, on February 16, he was arrested and arraigned. The union is also on the hot seat in a much more expensive way. On March 14, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed suit against the trustees of the local pension plan, alleging they had conducted more than $3 million worth of illegal transactions since 2006 and had failed to perform due diligence in managing another $11 million in assets.
1 comment:
Ok... this whole thing seems more like something you'd find in either the city of Chicago, or a bad gangster movie. There is a LOT of money involved here, and it seems that the plot runs deep and wide. McNamee seems to have embezzled a lot of money, but the story of the union trustees as a whole is a lot more worrying. There's still quite the story to unravel here, and I imagine it will hurt the union members at some point- they've lost a lot of money that probably won't be coming back.
Also, I had no idea about the history of the events center in New York and the previous union issues. Crazy.....!
Post a Comment