The president of a Cincinnati public employees union has been indicted by Federal prosecutors for defrauding the union of over $750,000. Diana Frey, president of the Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees, is accused of “knowingly and willfully creating a scheme to take money from the union from at least 2005 to June of this year.” Federal prosecutors say she wrote checks, used credit cards, withdrew money from ATMs and made wire transfers of money from the union to bank accounts she controlled. Frey was the first and only president of CODE that represents 800 managers, technical employees and nurses employed by the city’s government. Their dues generate about $200,000 a year in dues. This would not be Frey’s first brush with the law, either. In 1983, Frey was convicted of theft by deception for stealing between $300 and $5,000, according to Cincinnati police and Hamilton County court records. In that case, she received a suspended one-year prison term, being sentenced instead to five years’ probation, a $500 fine and restitution. It was unclear Tuesday whether anyone at the city or union knew of the previous convictions – some under her maiden or previous married name – before she was elected union president in 2003. But when Frey applied for another city job in 1994 she checked “no” to the question “Have you ever been convicted of a local, state or federal offense?” In both her position as spokesperson for the city’s public service department and CODE president, Frey is a recognizable public figure, most recently making a number of on camera statements against city council budget trimming measures. Last summer, Frey was a vocal opponent of proposed changes to the city’s retirement system that would require most employees to work more years for a smaller eventual pension. “It’s so unfair than I’m almost speechless,” said Frey, who complained that the changes would force her to work to age 65 – rather than 61, as she had planned – to earn roughly the same benefits.
