DETROIT – The former president of the United Auto Workers, Dennis Williams, was charged in Detroit on Thursday with conspiring with utterly completely completely different union officers to embezzle tons of of an entire lot of dollars in UAW funds, U.S. prosecutors talked about.
The charging of Williams, 67, in a doc typically known as a felony information follows the accountable plea in June of Williams’ successor Gary Jones. A felony information is a courtroom doc often used when the federal authorities has reached a plea take care of a defendant to plead accountable.
Williams, of Corona, California, was charged with conspiring with Jones and others to embezzle money between 2010 and September 2019, in response to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit. Williams was the easiest of the union from June 2014 to June 2018.
‘The funds appropriate now are additional steps forward in our relentless effort to ensure that the over 400,000 men and women of the UAW have reliable and ethical administration,’ U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider talked about in a press launch.
Schneider has talked about the union nonetheless must reform and a federal takeover stays an probability.
Based on the charges, Williams faces a most of 5 years in jail and a atmosphere pleasant of as reasonably quite a bit as $250,000, prosecutors talked about.
Attorneys for Williams could not immediately be reached to comment.
Williams is the 15th defendant to be charged in reference to an ongoing felony investigation into corruption all through the UAW or relating to illegal payoffs to UAW officers by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) executives.
Williams accepted housing for himself and mates at private villas in Palm Springs, California, golf garments and utterly completely completely different merchandise, rounds of golf, meals, high-end liquor and cigars outfitted by co-conspirators, all paid for with union funds, prosecutors talked about.
The union talked about anyone who violates their responsibility to oversee members’ dues money ought to face felony penalty.
‘Today’s progress is a tragic day for UAW members,’ the union talked about in a press launch. ‘Let us begin to present the net internet internet web page to a greater union — nonetheless enable us to frequently bear in ideas the painful applications of the earlier.’
An arraignment date for Williams has not been set.
Reporting by Ben Klayman, extra reporting by Nick Carey in Davenport, Iowa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown
