SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry Removes President of SEIU Local 99

In early December, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry removed SEIU Local 99 President Barbara Torres from office and suspended her membership in SEIU for four years, according to notices distributed to union members and also available online. Henry also removed a second officer, Executive Board member Jacqueline Brown, and appointed Eliseo Medina to serve as a “monitor” of Local 99.  

Based in Los Angeles, SEIU Local 99 represents 25,000 public school workers.

According to SEIU, the actions came after “a thorough investigation and hearing by SEIU International” that reportedly was prompted by charges against union officials.

In October, SEIU’s International Executive Board held two days of hearings in Las Vegas to investigate separate charges filed against the top leaders of SEIU Local 1107, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Local 1107 represents approximately 9000 workers in Nevada.

Eliseo Medina’s assignment to Local 99 is his second such gig in a handful of months. In August, Henry appointed Medina as the “trustee” of SEIU Local 73 after she imposed a trusteeship on the Chicago-based union, which represents 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and northwestern Indiana.

Medina addressing Local number 73 members in Chicago

Readers may recall that Local 99 has a troubled history of scandals and corruption by its top officials.

In 2004, Andy Stern appointed Bill Lloyd as the trustee of Local 99.

Lloyd, who subsequently took on the job of Local 99's Executive Director, pocketed no fewer than three separate paychecks from SEIU totaling $224,000 a year along with multiple perks including an eight-year-long, SEIU-paid hotel room at the Wilshire Grande Hotel.

Lloyd is also known for his infamous sexual affair with Local 99’s then-president, Janett Humphries, at the same time that she was embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the union's members. In 2006, Humprhies pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of embezzlement and one count of conspiracy.

Steve Trossman -- who reportedly covered up Tyrone Freeman’s million-dollar theft from SEIU members for years -- also did damage control for Lloyd. Trossman now works for Dave Regan as SEIU-UHW’s "Communications Director."

In 2012, Lloyd silently disappeared from his job as the Executive Director of Local 99.

Max Arias currently serves as Local 99’s Executive Director. Arias, a former staffer at SEIU Healthcare Illinois-Indiana, parachuted into California in 2009 as part of SEIU’s trusteeship of SEIU-UHW. Arias was initially assigned to nursing homes, where workers reported about his disrespectful attitude towards workers.

SEIU Official Makes Bail after Surrendering to Authorities on Corruption Charges

Check out this two-minute TV news clip with the latest details on the corruption scandal involving SEIU's Dana Cope. 

Cope is the latest member of SEIU’s International Executive Board to face criminal corruption charges.

In recent weeks, Cope surrendered to authorities and posted bail after being charged with two felony counts that could land him in jail for 15 years, according to WNCN TV in Raleigh, N.C.

Cope was nabbed by union members who blew the whistle after uncovering records that he spent $570,000 of workers' dues dollars on personal flying lessons, clothing, jewelry, massages, plastic surgery, landscaping for his home, a trip for his family to China, etc.

COPE is a member of SEIU's International Executive Board and also is the highest official at the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC), an SEIU local that represents 55,000

Mug shot of SEIU's Cope

state employees.

On the news clip, Michael Weisel, an attorney who represents the whistleblowers, says the following about SEIU: 

"There was a complete failure within the organization itself. They didn't follow their own rules. They didn't follow the written bylaws. They didn't follow the written procedures..."

After union members blew the whistle on Cope's corruption, SEIU officials "vilified" them... until journalists and criminal investigators proved they were completely correct.

Cope is the latest SEIU official to face charges, an indictment, an/or jail time for corruption. Others include Tyrone Freeman, Alejandro Stephens, Annelle Grajeda, Janett Humpries, Byron Hobbs, Rickman Jackson and Paul Varacalli.

Click the following hyperlinked text to see the WNCN news story: “Dana Cope Makes Bond after Surrendering to Authorities.” 

Bill Lloyd Disappears from SEIU Local 99

Bill Lloyd has been silently and unceremoniously removed from his job as the Executive Director of SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles, according to inside sources and online materials.

In 2004, Andy Stern appointed Lloyd as the trustee of Local 99, which represents 25,000 public school workers in Los Angeles. 

For those who don’t know him, Lloyd is the fat-cat SEIU official who’s notoriously ineffective despite pocketing no fewer than three separate paychecks from SEIU totaling $224,000 a year. Lloyd also enjoys multiple perks, including an eight-year-long, SEIU-paid hotel room at the Wilshire Grand Hotel.

Lloyd is also known for his infamous sexual affair with Local 99’s previous president, Janett Humphries, while she was embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the union's members. In 2006, Humprhies pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of embezzlement and one count of conspiracy.  Oh yeah… Bill Lloyd is also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

So what happened to Bill Lloyd?

According to a source inside Local 99, Lloyd -- after eight years as Local 99’s top official -- was quietly removed from his position earlier this week. Tasty’s source says that Lloyd’s disappearing act has many people scratching their heads. The source writes:

there wasn’t a ceremony or anything. No announcement really to most of the staff either – one day he was just gone.

Hmmm….   So where’s Lloyd now? 

Well, just like other corrupt SEIU officials such as Rickman Jackson and Annelle Grajeda, Lloyd was given a purple parachute that landed him inside the Purple Palace where he’s now (get this) a “Senior Adviser” to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry!

Huh?? For anyone who knows Lloyd, the only advice he’s capable of delivering is related to expensive clothes and fat paychecks.

So who replaced Lloyd at Local 99? Courtni Pugh, according to this announcement on Local 99’s website. Pugh formerly served as the Executive Director of the SEIU California State Council until she was ousted because she couldn’t do the job. For the past two years, she’s been working as Bill Lloyd’s “Special Assistant.”  Wow!

Pugh also has another interesting connection to Local 99 that brings everything full-circle. At one point, Pugh was hired by Martin Ludlow to work at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Ludlow was Janett Humphries’s partner in crime during the embezzlement scandal at Local 99 that's discussed above. In 2006 Ludlow pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to embezzle the union's funds with the help of Humphries. Here’s how the Los Angeles Times described it:

In hopes of avoiding jail, Ludlow agreed to cooperate with authorities in the federal prosecution of Janett Humphries, the former head of Service Employees International Union Local 99, who is accused of working with Ludlow to divert the funds… Ludlow admitted to improperly using union money to pay six people who were put on the union payroll but who actually worked on his City Council election campaign.

A federal judge ordered Ludlow to pay back nearly $40,000 to Local 99’s members and sentenced him to five years’ probation, 2,000 hours of community service and barred him from serving in any leadership position in SEIU for 13 years.

Well, sounds like Pugh has all the experience and connections she'll need  for her new job at Local 99!

Federal Prosecutors: We're Investigating SEIU Officials Linked to Freeman

Tasty hears that California’s healthcare workers greeted Tyrone Freeman’s indictment with cheers, jubilation and continuing anger. Here are two individual's comments that capture the mood:

 I rarely wish jail on people, but I hope they throw the book at this arrogant mother fucker.  

Finally!! Who is next? Andy Stern and Ana Burger. For sure they have so much to report to IRS and NLRB                        

Who's next? Good question. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that the Feds are actively investigating SEIU officials connected to Freeman’s alleged crimes:

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, declined to comment on whether any other SEIU officials could be charged, citing a continuing investigation.

Tasty believes the officials under investigation may include Andy Stern, Anna Burger, Dave Regan, Eliseo Medina, Mary Kay Henry, Dave Kieffer and Steve Trossman. In fact, Tasty has obtained documents that directly implicate top SEIU officials in Freeman’s massive corruption scandal. Tasty plans to post the information in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, the BNA’s “Daily Labor Report” offered additional coverage of Freeman’s indictment, including a summary of some of the recent corruption scandals involving SEIU’s officials. Here's an excerpt:

The Freeman scandal is just one of several that have tarnished the international union over the past five years, some involving leaders, including Freeman, appointed by former SEIU President Andy Stern.

During its investigation of Freeman, the union opened a separate investigation into the financial activities of Rickman Jackson, president of Healthcare Michigan, SEIU’s statewide local for health care workers, during the time when Jackson was employed as Freeman’s chief of staff.

Following the investigation, Jackson was removed from his positions as president of the local and a member of the international’s executive board, was barred from holding union office for three years, and agreed to make complete financial restitution under a settlement agreement reached with the international (199 DLR A-8, 10/15/08).

Annelle Grajeda, who was appointed president of Local 721 in Los Angeles by Stern, and was later elected international executive vice president of the union, stepped down from both those positions following internal allegations that the local paid money to Alejandro Stephens, a former boyfriend of Grajeda, in violation of a severance agreement he signed in 2007 (47 DLR A-7, 3/13/09).

Stephens, the former president of SEIU Local 660, later was sentenced to four months in prison and an additional three months of home confinement for his role in a scheme to defraud a nonprofit organization called the Voter Improvement Project (171 DLR A-14, 9/3/10). Stephens pleaded guilty in August 2009 to mail fraud and tax evasion charges (166 DLR A-13, 8/31/09).

And that's not all. The BNA doesn’t even mention other corruption scandals involving SEIU's Dave Holway, Janett Humphries, Byron Hobbs, Paul Varacalli, Sharon Frances-Moore… 

Rickman Jackson offers a poignant reminder about the culture of corruption that pervades SEIU. When Tyrone Freeman was president of SEIU Local 6434, Rickman was Tyrone Freeman’s "Chief of Staff" and personally accompanied Tyrone on union-funded adventures to “the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills for $175 glasses of cognac” and other felonious funfests. In 2007, Stern appointed Rickman -- fresh from his apprenticeship under Tyrone -- to serve as the president of SEIU's healthcare union in Michigan. In 2008, Rickman was nabbed by the Los Angeles Times for stealing more than $30,000 from SEIU’s members. 

So where’s Rickman today?

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry -- instead of punishing Rickman -- actually gave him a job at SEIU’s DC headquarters! Last year, she paid him more than $140,000, according to SEIU’s annual filing with the US Department of Labor. (Click on image below to enlarge.)

Rickman Jackson's Salary in 2011 from SEIU International (Source: DOL Form LM-2)

What does it say when SEIU's president allows one of its top officials to rob the union's members with impunity? (Imagine what would happen to you if you stole $30,000 from your employer!) Also, Rickman undoubtedly helped Freeman implement his criminal schemes while he was Chief of Staff at Local 6434.

Lastly, here’s the 15-page indictment of Freeman that was handed down by a federal grand jury. While Freeman’s crimes were more numerous than the ones cited in the indictment, prosecutors reportedly decided to zero in on the ones that are easiest to prove to a jury. It turns out that based on these ‘slam-dunk’ charges alone, Freeman could be sentenced to as many as 200 years in jail.

Here’s the full text of the indictment.

 Federal Indictment of SEIU's Tyrone Freeman on 15 Criminal Counts February 2012

SEIU's Bill Lloyd Joins Steve Trossman in L.A. Scandal

Tasty uncovered some salacious details about Bill Lloyd, the current head of SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles. Lloyd, who also sits on SEIU’s International Executive Board, has spent the past 7 years living in the Wilshire Grand Hotel… all on the members’ dime… while pulling down three separate SEIU paychecks for more than $220,000 a year.

Tasty’s newest details about Bill Lloyd would fit perfectly in a trashy airport novel: secret love affairs, embezzled funds, federal criminal indictments… and even SEIU’s Steve Trossman. Here’s the scoop:

In 2004, Lloyd landed atop the 25,000-member Local 99 when the Purple Palace appointed him to be a trustee of the local union. What’s perhaps less well known is Lloyd’s sexual relationship with Local 99’s previous president, Janett Humphries, who was abruptly removed from the union’s top spot after embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the union. 

In fact, in 2006 Humphries pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of embezzlement and one count of conspiracy. In a separate case, she was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy and two counts of perjury. And that’s not even counting her conviction in state court for breaking campaign finance laws and perjury. Among her deeds? Embezzling $30,000 for political campaigns and using union funds to buy plane tickets for her personal travel.

And here’s where Bill Lloyd enters the SEIU drama. While Humphries was doing her criminal deeds, Bill was literally doing Humphries, according to Lloyd’s courtroom testimony. Despite their intimate relationship, who did SEIU choose to take over Humphries’ position atop Local 99? None other than her “former” boyfriend, Bill Lloyd!

Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse! Tasty wonders how hard Lloyd actually worked to find additional evidence of his ex-girlfriend’s criminal acts. “Hey honey, you shoulda seen the papers I found in your bottom desk drawer today…”

So how does Steve Trossman fit into this sordid affair? Well, Trossman was SEIU’s public relations spin-meister and was assigned to do “damage-control” with the press – the same role he played in covering up Tyrone Freeman’s million-dollar theft from SEIU members.

Here’s what Trossman, who’s not known for his honesty, told the Los Angeles Times about Bill Lloyd’s appointment to run Local 99: 

Asked why Lloyd remained a trustee despite his relationship to the case and to Humphries, Steve Trossman, a spokesman for SEIU in Washington, wrote in an e-mail to The Times: "Mr. Lloyd was no longer having an affair with Janett Humphries prior to the time he was appointed to the position of deputy trustee of Local 99. Mr. Lloyd is an experienced leader and has done a very good job as deputy trustee."

So there you have it in all its disgusting detail:  another SEIU corruption scandal, slathered with cronyism and wrapped in an SEIU cover-up courtesy of Steve Trossman. Trossman, of course, currently serves as Dave Regan’s right-hand propaganda man at SEIU-UHW, where he earns $200,000 a year. Last year, Trossman famously waged SEIU’s law-breaking disinformation campaign against Kaiser workers, which notoriously violated SEIU members’ federal labor rights and overturned the largest US union election in 70 years. Quite a revealing tale!