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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-9301
Four former officers of the Marine Engineers Beneficial
Association/National Maritime Union have been ordered to forfeit $4.6 million
in salary and severance payments they received between 1984-90 in the first
case in which the federal government prosecuted officers of a national union
for election fraud.
The four officers include C. Eugene DeFries, former
president, who was sentenced today by federal district court in Washington,
D.C. to more than five years and ordered to forfeit nearly $2.5 million. The
former union officials were convicted of running the union as a criminal
enterprise. The other three have been ordered to forfeit $2.1 million in
salaries and severance payments.
The union officers were convicted of embezzling about $2
million in union funds in severance payments with the exception of one member,
Alexander "Doc" Cullison. They adopted a secret severance plan without
informing the members.
They also were convicted of mail fraud for soliciting
ballots from members during officer and delegate elections and during a
referendum on a merger with the National Maritime Union. MEBA/NMU was the
largest maritime union in the U.S. and represented licensed engineers and
unlicensed seamen nationwide until the merger dissolved in 1993.
DeFries and other officials were found guilty of election
fraud by soliciting blank ballots from union members and then voting the
ballots for themselves. Ballots were often given involuntarily under the threat
that the local union hall would close without adequate member support for the
incumbent officials. The union officers also were convicted of opening and
discarding legitimate marked ballots and replacing them.
The other officers, Clyde Dodson, Reinhold "Fred" Schamann
and Claude W. Daulley, all former executive board members of the union's
predecessor organization, District One- Pacific Coast District, were ordered to
forfeit the $2.1 million. In addition, DeFries' successor as union president,
Alexander "Doc" Cullison, was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud, of
extorting members of ballots and of forcing members to contribute to the
union's political action fund.
Earlier this year on Jan. 24, Daulley was sentenced to 21
months in jail. On Jan. 26, Cullison agreed to cooperate with the government
and Dodson is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow, Jan. 30. A sentencing date
has not yet been set for Schamann, who also is cooperating.
Three other union officials have already pled guilty and
nine other officials are awaiting trial for related charges.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Labor
Department's Inspector General's Office of Investigations and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with the Organized Crime and
Racketeering Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division.
The Office of Inspector General maintains a headline to
receive allegations of fraud, waste and abuse in Labor Department programs. The
hotline also accepts complaints regarding criminal activity with labor unions,
employee benefit plans and labor-management relations. The toll free headline
is 1-800-347-3756.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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