SEIU’s Tyrone Freeman: Entrepreneur of the Year

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.

Source: SEIU Officials Secretly Funded Tyrone Freeman's Legal Defense for Crimes against SEIU's Own Members

“What ever happened to Tyrone Freeman?,” asks a reader

In late 2013, Freeman -- a close ally of SEIU President Emeritus Andy Stern -- was sentenced to a 33-month term at a federal prison in Yankton, South Dakota. 

According to a reliable source, Freeman was eventually released from Yankton and transferred to a halfway house in Long Beach, Calif. 

Tasty’s source provided answers to some of the long-standing mysteries surrounding Freeman’s criminal trial:

• Who was the secret financier who funded Freeman’s multi-million dollar legal defense?

• Why didn’t Freeman rat out the higher-up SEIU officials -- including Andy Stern and Eliseo Medina -- who were implicated in the crimes for which Freeman was convicted?

Before Tasty offers up the source’s answers, here’s some quick background:

After Freeman was indicted, a team of million-dollar attorneys from Mayer Brown LLP -- a global law firm with offices in New York, DC, London, Paris, Beijing, Dubai, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, etc -- parachuted into California to defend him.

They included Kelly Kramer, a partner at Mayer Brown LLP who leads the firm’s “White Collar Defense and Compliance Team” and has personally defended former members of the US Congress. According to Super Lawyers, he’s one of the top white-collar defense lawyers in DC.

 

Kelly Kramer, Mayer Brown LLP

After Freeman was convicted, Mayer Brown LLP filed an appeal with the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and parachuted two more attorneys from the East Coast to try to get Freeman out of jail.

They included Dan Himmelfarb, a partner in the firm’s DC offices, who specializes in appeals and has “filed more than 200 merits and petition-stage briefs in the US Supreme Court and has argued… 12 cases in the US Supreme Court...,” according to the firm's website. Before joining the firm, Himmelfarb was an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York and an Assistant to the US Solicitor General.

In other words, these guys charge beaucoup bucks -- likely $2,000-$3,000 an hour.

Who paid for these attorneys?

It sure wasn’t Freeman.

After all, when Freeman's wife appeared in court during Freeman's criminal trial, she was assigned a Public Defender because she couldn’t afford a private attorney.

So who paid Freeman’s legal bills?

 

Dan Himmelfarb, Mayer Brown LLP

Here’s what Tasty’s source says:

When Freeman was first indicted on multiple criminal charges, a clutch of nervous SEIU officials met with him to discuss his options.

Option #1: Freeman could try to beat the rap by pointing the finger at the higher-up SEIU officials who were apparently complicit in the crimes.

‘But don’t do that,’ argued the SEIU officials. ‘We’ll offer you a better option: SEIU will hire you the best attorneys in the whole damn country and we guarantee you’ll never see a day of jail time. But you can't implicate any of us.’

Of course, we all know that Freeman chose Option #2. And that’s why, during the trial, he never ratted out the SEIU higher-ups who, after all, were paying for his lawyers.

In the end, SEIU officials didn’t come through with their end of the deal -- their fancy attorneys didn’t keep Freeman out of jail.

Freeman has gotta feel burnt by his SEIU handlers, right?

Which leads Tasty to wonder whether SEIU officials might now be slipping him some hush money, given that Freeman has stayed silent even after getting out of jail.

Although Tasty’s source has provided answers to some of the long-standing mysteries, others remain unanswered:

Andy Stern, SEIU

• How much money did SEIU officials pay for Freeman’s defense and appeal?

• After the Los Angeles Times outed Freeman's corruption scandal, SEIU officials publicly condemned Freeman for stealing from low-paid SEIU members. Why did SEIU officials turn around and secretly fund his criminal defense for crimes committed against SEIU's own members? Isn't this proof that SEIU higher-ups are implicated in Freeman's crimes? After all, why else would they have funded his defense against stealing money from SEIU members?

• Who authorized SEIU's payments to Freeman's attorneys? What role did Andy Stern, Anna Burger and Mary Kay Henry play?

• Will Freeman tell his story to the public?

• Or is SEIU currently paying hush money to keep Freeman silent?

SEIU's Tyrone Freeman Spends New Years in Federal Prison

Yankton Federal Prison Camp, South Dakota

SEIU’s Tyrone Freeman rang in the New Year in a federal prison in Yankton, South Dakota, according to court records (see below).

In case you’re not familiar with Yankton, it’s a town of 14,000 people where the temperature was a balmy -5 degrees farenheit on New Years Day. 

Here’s what one writer says about the prison, which houses 825 male inmates: "The winters are tough, and the nearest city of any size is at least an hour away.”

Yankton Prison in the springtime

One of Freeman's fellow inmates is Shawn Merriman. He’s serving 12 years for masterminding a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of $20 million between 1995 and 2009. Merriman, who was featured on a TV program "American Greed," is scheduled to be released in 2020.

While Freeman cools his heels in Yankton, a secret source continues to fund Freeman's multi-million-dollar legal bills.

Court records indicate that Mayer Brown LLP -- a global law firm that defended him in his criminal trial -- has parachuted two new attorneys into the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, where they're trying to appeal Freeman's 33-month prison sentence.

Dan Himmelfarb, Mayer Brown LLP

Observers speculate that SEIU is secretly paying Freeman's giant bills as part of a deal to keep him from ratting out his purple co-conspirators such as Andy Stern, Eliseo Medina, Mary Kay Henry and Dave Regan.

One of Freeman's new attorneys is Dan Himmelfarb, a partner in Mayer Brown's DC offices. Himmelfarb specializes in appeals and has “filed more than 200 merits and petition-stage briefs in the US Supreme Court and has argued… 12 cases in the US Supreme Court...,” according to the firm's website. In other words, this guy charges beaucoup bucks -- likely more than $2,000 an hour.

Who's paying the massive bills??

   Court document verfiying that SEIU's Tyrone Freeman has surrendered himself to Yankton Federal Prison...

Tyrone Freeman Appeals His Jail Term and Insiders Ask: “Is SEIU Footing the Bill?"

Is Kelly Kramer, one of Freeman's attorneys, smiling for Purple Dollars?

According to a recent court filing (see below), Tyrone Freeman’s million-dollar attorneys at Mayer Brown have appealed the 33-month jail term handed down by a federal judge in Los Angeles earlier this month.

The appeal, filed with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, will cost beaucoup bucks… and once again has raised a burning and unresolved question:

Who’s paying Freeman's multi-million dollar legal bills?

One thing’s for certain: it ain’t Freeman. 

After all, when Freeman's wife appeared in court earlier this year during Freeman's criminal trial, she was assigned a Public Defender because she couldn’t afford a private attorney to represent her.

One source who’s carefully watched the trial believes that SEIU is undoubtedly paying Freeman's attorneys. The source says SEIU may be funneling the payments through other organizations as well as a series of law firms in an effort to hide the payments.

Here’s the court document on Freeman’s appeal:

   Records of Tyrone Freeman's Appeal of 33-Month Jail Term for SEIU Corruption Scandal, US Court of Appeals f...