The running story of the racketeering case against New York Local 608 of the Carpenters Union continues to unfold, revealing widespread corruption and bribery going back 15 years. In addition to the five former members already sentenced, two more were added to the list in recent weeks. Michael Brennan, who was a union shop steward, pleaded guilty on July 6 specifically to racketeering acts involving the acceptance of cash bribes and obstruction of justice. John Greaney, former president and business manager, has pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to all 13 counts against him. According to the North Country Gazette account:
“Between 1994 and their arrest in August 2009, Greaney and his co-conspirators engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to enrich themselves and others and maintain control of the Carpenters Union through, among other things, the unlawful acceptance of cash payments and other things of value from owners of construction contractors who had signed collective bargaining agreements with the Union. In exchange for the bribes, Greaney and his co-conspirators allowed and helped certain contractors to defraud the union and its benefit funds out of millions of dollars by permitting the contractors to, among other things, pay union members cash at below-union rates, without benefits, employ illegal aliens and non-union workers on their job sites; and avoid payment to the union benefit funds in violation of applicable collective bargaining agreements. Greaney and his co-conspirators helped the contractors to conceal the scheme by, among other things, filing false shop steward reports, issuing union cards to the illegal aliens who worked for those contractors for cash, giving false testimony, and destroying documents.
Greaney would face 155 years in prison on charges, but prosecutors will ask for leniency if he fully cooperates to help them nail two of the remaining defendants, former Local 608 president Michael Forde and former business agent Brian Hayes.
