New Jersey Bus Driver Union Officer Embezzled From Local

Another union official gets caught with his hand in the till in New Jersey, where union membership is high.  Even though the former finance office was only the part-time secretary for the local, he had complete power over the checkbook and took advantage of those union members who paid, willingly or not, for membership in this  union.

Jerry DeMarco reports in the Sussex Daily Voice.

A bus driver who served as finance officer for a North Jersey transportation workers union admitted in federal court Tuesday that he swiped $117,000 of the local’s money.

Angel L. Garcia, 57, of Tampa, FL, pleaded guilty by videoconference to embezzling from the operating account of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 1614 in Sussex County.

Garcia was a bus driver who held a part-time position as a financial secretary for five years at Local # 1614, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

“He alone was responsible for maintaining the check book and other financial documents of the union,†Carpenito said. “However, without executive board approval, Garcia withdrew approximately $117,000 from the union’s three bank accounts to pay for his rent, utilities, telephone and other personal goods and services.â€

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler scheduled sentencing for Nov. 17.

Carpenito credited investigators of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards and special agents from the Department of Labor’s, New York Region for the investigation leading to the investigation and subsequent pleas, secured by Senior Litigation Counsel V. Grady O’Malley of his Organized Crime/Gangs Unit.

Check out the union’s LM-3 financial disclosure form here.

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