Since Tasty’s recent
post about Tyrone Freeman, several readers have spotted him in Los Angeles.
What’s Ty up to these
days?
Well, it looks like he’s
taken a page out of Andy Stern’s “entrepreneurial”
playbook.
Freeman, who formerly headed the
nation’s largest union of homecare workers (SEIU Local 6434), is now
running a consulting firm to help homecare companies make more profit.
No joke.
Tyrone’s firm is called Maven
Innovative Consultancy, LLC. The company’s homepage has images like
this:
And this:
But wait a sec. Tasty thought Tyrone wanted to defend workers?
Nope.
His website says,
“Mr. Freeman specializes in the defense of small business, in the full range of business matters, including advising business owners. In addition, Mr. Freeman is an Executive with substantial business development, management/leadership experience. High premium on providing cost saving management practices… operational cost saving… Maven Innovative Consultancy, LLC – a boutique consulting firm specializing in the exclusive representation of management in business affairs. A large portion of the Firm’s clients are home care agencies and other health-care related employers.”
Tyrone says he’s a “specialist” in
“housing development strategies.”
That’s interesting.
When Freeman was the president of
SEIU Local 6434 and also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board, he set up a
housing scam that helped land him in jail.
In 2004, Freeman set up a nonprofit
housing organization called the “Long Term Care Housing Corp” to supposedly
build housing for low-income workers.
Only… it didn’t.
Freeman, who controlled the
organization, listed the home of one of his aides, Rickman Jackson, as
the organization’s administrative office. Ty then paid Jackson tens of
thousands of dollars in “rent,” which Jackson
pocketed.
Btw, despite stealing $33,000 from
workers, Jackson is still on
SEIU’s payroll to this day.
That’s not all.
Freeman also had the housing
organization hire him as a “consultant” and pay him tens of thousands of
dollars of the in consulting fees, according to an SEIU report described by the Los Angeles Times. (Paul Pringle, “Union-founded
nonprofit spent zero on its charitable purpose in two years,” Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2008)
In other words, Freeman is quite an
expert in “housing development strategies.”
Which brings us to the elephant in
the room.
Why did SEIU’s top officials reportedly
devise a scheme to secretly fund Freeman’s legal defense after he was indicted
in February 2012 for stealing millions of dollars from SEIU’s own members?
In 2008 -- after the Los Angeles Times published a series of
revelations about Freeman’s corruption (remember the Grand Havana Room cigar
club?) -- SEIU officials ousted Freeman, banned him for life from SEIU
membership, and ordered him to pay back more than $1 million in money he stole
from SEIU’s members.
Tasty bets dollars to donuts that
Freeman never paid back the $1 million.
So… why the f*ck did SEIU officials
secretly give him six and seven figures to fund his criminal defense?
What role did Andy Stern play in
the secret payments? What about Mary Kay Henry? She became president of
SEIU on May 8, 2010 and presumably was involved in funding Freeman’s legal
defense until his appeal was dismissed in October 2014.
SEIU officials are struggling with
the union’s widening sexual harassment scandal. They also need to investigate
the massive ethical questions swirling around the Freeman scandal. For example,
did SEIU officials commit conflict-of-interest violations by diverting SEIU
cash to Freeman in order to buy his silence about their involvement in his
crimes?
Workers have enough problems with greedy bosses and corrupt politicians. They deserve democratic, transparent and accountable unions. It's time for SEIU to come clean.
