SEIU Executive Board Member Is Indicted; Faces up to 15 Years in Prison for Embezzlement

SEIU's Dana Cope: "Let's fly away."

On August 3, Dana Cope -- a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board and the Executive Director of SEIU's 55,000-member State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) -- was indicted on felony charges for embezzling $570,000 from union members, according to news outlets.

A Wake County grand jury charged Cope with obtaining property by false pretenses, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years.

According to the News and Observer:

Among the improper spending with SEANC funds listed in the indictment: landscaping, clothing and jewelry, home renovations and appliances, vacations, hotel rooms, massages and plastic surgery. 

Cope also used $31,345 of union members' money to pay for private flying lessons.

SEIU officials, who resisted workers' early calls for an investigation of Cope, issued a powder-puff comment reminiscent of SEIU’s statements following the criminal indictment of another favorite son, Tyrone Freeman.

Mitch Leonard, SEANC’s new Executive Director, called Cope's indictment "an unfortunate turn of events for Mr. Cope," according to the News and Observer.

 

Cope (left) and his attorney (right) at bail hearing

On August 4, Cope posted a $200,000 bond and was released from the Wake County Detention Center. The bond appeared to be secured by a condominium owned by his wife.

Below is the indictment issued by the grand jury.

Here's a brief video statement from Betty Jones, a former SEANC treasurer, about how she first came to notice the unusual expenditures by Cope.

When she and a second SEANC board member, Art Anthony, raised questions about the expenditures, they were voted out of office. Jones then brought information and documents to the local newspaper. Jones and Anthony "were later vilified by the SEANC executive board," according to the News and Observer.

Here’s Jones's statement to the News and Observer:

  GrandJury-DanaCopeIndictment-August2015.pdf

Breaking: Another member of SEIU’s IEB goes down in corruption scandal

Yesterday, Dana Cope -- a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board (IEB) and the Executive Director of SEIU’s State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) -- stepped down after a North Carolina district attorney requested a criminal investigation into his alleged financial corruption, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

According to the newspaper:

Cope faces an inquiry from the State Bureau of Investigation for his handling of SEANC finances. The national union with which SEANC is affiliated, the Service Employees International Union, said it is taking the allegations of financial misconduct seriously.

Cope resigned just two days after the News and Observer published an article about his alleged financial corruption.  SEANC, which is known as “SEIU Local 2008,” represents approximately 55,000 current and retired North Carolina State employees.  

Cope is an example of SEIU’s so-called “21st century unionism.” Just like Andy Stern and Dave Regan, Cope is way more "business" than "labor." For example, Cope was a Vice-President of the Texas Future Business Leaders and has carefully transformed SEANC into an insurance company that only masquerades as a union.

In fact, Cope’s corruption scandal was uncovered by a union member who criticized one of Cope’s latest schemes, whereby union members purchase consumer electronics by paycheck deduction at elevated prices.

In an earlier post, Tasty revealed an internal SEIU memo that reports that SEANC’s "primary function" is "selling insurance." The memo notes that SEANC’s staff consists of 14 insurance salespeople… and only 3 union representatives for its 55,000 members.

As far as the breaking news about Cope's corruption scandal... 

Cope is one of SEIU's 21st Century labor leaders

According to an investigation published earlier this week by the News and Observer, Cope improperly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union's bank account into his own pocket by using a creative maneuver. He hired construction and landscaping companies to renovate his home, and then instructed union staffers to hire the exact same companies and pay them more than $350,000 for apparently no-show projects.

There were also phony invoices. “One check for nearly $19,000 was justified by a phony invoice and was made out to a defunct computer company,” according to the News and Observer, which also reports the following:

Cope and SEANC’s general counsel admit the memo is phony but will not explain beyond saying it’s a personnel matter.

Oh, and there's also the personal flying lessons. It turns out that Cope really likes flying planes. So… Cope had SEIU members pay $21,000 for his flight school, according to the News and Observer.

So why were SEIU members paying for Cope’s flying lessons? Cope told the News and Observer ‘it allows him to fly with a flight instructor and to travel cheaply and efficiently on SEANC business.’ That's some serious bullsh*t, right?

And it sounds like more skeletons will soon come tumbling out of Cope's overcrowded closet.

Cope charged SEIU members for flying lessons

According to the News and Observer, SEIU allowed Cope "to put thousands of dollars of personal spending each year on SEANC credit cards. Cope has given contradictory accounts about how much of the money he has repaid…”  

One of the expenses that Cope charged to the union's credit card is "eyebrow waxing," according to the News and Observer.

 

Meanwhile, Cope has a history of problems with credit cards. Like buying too much sh*t with them. The newspaper reports that, in 2011, Cope filed for personal bankruptcy to wipe out $109,000 in credit-card debt.

As the scandal unfolded in the press this week, Cope vigorously defended his home repairs, flying lessons, credit card bills, etc. as harmless and above-board. However, once the district attorney asked the State Bureau of Investigation to launch a criminal inquiry into his spending, Cope decided to throw in the towel.

Yesterday, he held a 90-second press conference and all but admitted his guilt, saying:

“In recent days, I’ve come to realize that in carrying out the duties of my job, I have blurred the line between my personal life and my professional life.”

Cope has close ties to SEIU’s top officials.

Not only has he served on SEIU’s IEB for seven years with the likes of “Diamond" Dave Regan and David “See you at the races” Holway, but he reportedly worked with Andy Stern, Anna Burger, Tom Woodruff and Mary Kay Henry to negotiate SEANC’s 2008 merger with SEIU.

At SEIU’s International Convention in 2008, Andy Stern used a ridiculous gimmick to announce that the merger with 55,000-member SEANC had helped boost SEIU’s membership to more than 2 million members.

Which SEIU has kindly memorialized in a YouTube video.

SEIU Backs Chamber of Commerce in Slashing Unemployment Benefits for Workers in North Carolina

A reader from North Carolina sent along this jaw-dropping story about SEIU’s silent support for the North Carolina’s Chamber of Commerce and its campaign to slash unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of jobless workers.

North Carolina Policy Watch calls the campaign -- which will immediately affect 438,000 unemployed workers and their families -- “one of the most radical attacks on the unemployed in modern American history.”

This week, North Carolina’s legislature approved the draconian cuts, according to an article in the New York Times. The cuts will reduce weekly unemployment benefits by 35%, drop 170,000 of the state’s current jobless workers from benefit rolls, cut by as much as half the number of weeks for collecting benefits, and implement many other reductions.

Here’s what happened:

Last year, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Party launched a campaign to gut the state’s system of unemployment benefits. In North Carolina, there happen to be lots of jobless workers: the state has the nation’s fifth highest unemployment rate at 9.2%.

In response, grassroots groups banded together to fight back. They include the North Carolina Justice Center, the National Employment Law Project, NAACP, National Council of Churches, National Organization of Women, Children First, the State AFL-CIO, Disability Rights North Carolina, and religious leaders. 

S. Lewis Ebert, CEO Chamber of Commerce

According to these groups, the Chamber’s legislation -- known as House Bill 4 -- will push many families “into extreme poverty.” One group called the bill “an unprecedented assault on struggling families” and “an evisceration of the state’s unemployment insurance system.” Here’s additional info on the bill.

What about SEIU?

SEIU is one of North Carolina’s largest labor unions. It represents 55,000 public-sector workers through a local called the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC).

Now… it should be a no-brainer that a union would jump in and fight to protect the state’s system of unemployment benefits, right?

Well, not if you’re SEIU.

In fact… every union across North Carolina opposed the Chamber’s horrible cuts… except for SEIU. And that’s not all. SEIU’s Dana Cope (the Executive Director of SEANC) actually bragged about SEIU’s silent support for House Bill 4.

In the run-up to the legislature’s vote on the bill, advocacy organizations sent a tweet asking, “Could SEANC be the only union in North Carolina NOT opposed to House Bill 4”?  Cope responded: “Certainly the largest one with 55,000 members.” Here’s a copy of the exchange from Cope’s twitter page.

A reader in North Carolina writes: 

 I wonder, how many SEANC members have family members or friends who are unemployed and will lose everything when this bill becomes law?

The Chamber’s bill will have a particularly devastating impact on 170,000 jobless workers. Due to the ongoing recession, these workers are currently receiving extended unemployment benefits because there simply aren’t jobs for them to fill. Not much longer. Under the Chamber’s bill, all of these 170,000 workers will lose their benefits on July 1.

So why is SEIU taking a position that’s so contrary to workers’ interests? Tasty’s sources say that SEIU and Dana Cope likely cut a backroom deal with the Chamber of Commerce and the Republicans -- perhaps like the deal that SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan cut with the CEO of the hospital industry’s Chamber of Commerce in California.

In fact, in an earlier deal, Cope reportedly sold out the teachers’ union by allowing the North Carolina legislature to take away payroll deduction for union dues from the members of the North Carolina Association of Educators (an affiliate of the NEA) while preserving it for SEANC’s members.

SEIU's Dana Cope

From what Tasty can tell, it sounds like this is par for the course for Dana Cope. It turns out that Cope has an ego that’s the size of Texas. He features himself on his own personal website -- www.DanaCope.com – which gushes about his lengthy “entrepreneurial career” and fabulous accomplishments. It even features his personal blog.

Here are a few fun facts from Cope’s website: Did you know that Cope was a “Vice-President of the Texas Future Business Leaders”? He sure was! 

And that’s not all. He was also a member of the “Outstanding Young Men of America.” (Tasty is not kidding.) These and other stomach-churning facts are splashed across Cope’s website in nauseating detail.

It’s no surprise, then, that SEIU and this ego-maniac were so quick to sell out workers. In fact, Cope is a perfect match for the other egomaniacal, fat-cat officials who populate the Purple Palace. And since 2012, Cope has served as a Vice President on SEIU’s International Executive Board, a position formerly held by Tyrone Freeman. Looks like Cope will have a legendary career with his Purple Palace mates.

SEIU Insurance for Sale!

Remember this post about the SEIU insurance company that’s masquerading as SEIU Local 2008? (SEIU Local 2008 is also known as “SEANC”). Well, Tasty took a peek at SEANC’s website and found new details about the exciting insurance products it’s peddling to workers.

Now… in case you’re wondering whether you really need to buy “Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance” from SEIU, you might wanna read this important statement on SEANC’s website:

You can prepare for life's uncertainties and gain peace of mind by finding a SEANC Insurance program that fits your needs and your budget. Whether you are expecting your first child or retiring from a lifetime of public service, a big change can influence how much financial protection your family needs. Start today and take advantage of SEANC's group rates! Payroll deduction is available through most state agencies and the state retirement system.

That’s right, friends! You can simply deduct your monthly SEIU insurance premiums directly from your paycheck… along with your union dues and COPE contributions.

So what kind of insurance is SEIU peddling? Well, it’s a virtual “31 flavors” of insurance products. There’s everything from auto, dental, health and life to home, vision, accident, legal and disability insurance. And don’t forget to pick up special policies for cancer, “identity theft,” “hospital confinement” and “accidental dismemberment.” 

And... don’t miss this special offer! After all, doesn't every SEIU member need “pet insurance?” That’s right, folks! Have you been spending restless nights wondering what will happen if Fido passes a kidney stone while pissing on the neighbor’s lawn? Well, thanks to SEIU's “Healthy Paws Pet Insurance,” your worries are over! 

And just in case you’re thinking SEANC is all about selling its insurance products to workers, Tasty wants to set the record straight. Over the summer, the union actually held “three exclusive budget briefings” to explain the impacts of the state’s new budget on SEANC’s members, who are state employees. Here’s what SEANC’s website says:

Not feeling super reassured? Well, Tasty hopes that SEANC's slogan inspires some confidence... even if it's delivered by insurance salesman:

SEIU Insurance Exec on the Lam after Embezzling $350K

Readers might’ve noticed that it was none other than Brandi Madewell who wrote one of the memos about SEIU’s brave new experiment in "insurance unionism." Ironically, Madewell is the SEIU official who embezzled $350,000 from SEIU Local 521’s own insurance company while the union’s president, Kristy Sermersheim, was sending the 37-year-old Madewell on union-paid junkets to North Carolina to study SEIU’s latest insurance industry innovations.

Madewell was also featured in this earlier post, where we learned how she used Local 521’s insurance company to fuel her addiction to internet gambling. (Hey Mary Kay, this SEIU insurance thing sounds like a super good idea!!)

Well, what ever happened to Madewell? Is she being questioned by Perry Mason in a stuffy courtroom somewhere?  Tasty is no lawyer, but he suspects Madewell could make a pretty compelling courtroom defense by pointing out that it actually took her several years to embezzle the $350,000… while Dave Regan made off with $300,000 of workers’ money in just one year!

As for Madewell, Tasty sees she hasn’t landed in court quite yet. The SEIU insurance exec, who's facing three years for grand theft, apparently pulled a “Bonnie and Clyde” and hit the road... with the police in hot pursuit. An article in the Bakersfield Californian begins this way: “Brandi Marcella Madewell, where are you?”

And check out this TV news coverage describing how Madewell made off with $350K:

SEIU’s Bold New Vision for the Future?

Ever wonder what SEIU will look like in the future? Well, it may look a lot more like “AETNA” than the “AFL-CIO.” That’s according to internal documents that offer a revealing glimpse into SEIU’s newest local union.

At SEIU’s most recent convention in Puerto Rico, Andy Stern and Mary Kay Henry literally gushed about SEIU’s newest affiliate, the “State Employees Association of North Carolina” or “SEANC.”  The local, which represents 55,000 state employees, is now called “SEIU Local 2008.”

What does Local 2008 actually do? According to memos penned by two officials at SEIU Local 521, SEIU’s newest union is pretty much a giant insurance company that spends its time selling insurance products to workers. The two California officials visited North Carolina and then wrote memos for Local 521’s president, Kristy Sermersheim, about their experiences.

According to a memo authored by Chuck Waide (Regional Director of SEIU Local 521), “the primary function” of Local 2008 is “selling insurance.” In fact, Local 2008 has 14 insurance salespeople and, says Waide, is “very efficient and well organized in marketing voluntary insurance programs” to the union’s members. Here’s an excerpt from Waide’s memo:

And how many staff people are actually available to help the union’s 55,000 members with grievances, arbitrations, contract enforcement, bargaining, etc?  According to Waide:

 Waide, in an apparent effort to reassure his readers, then writes:  

Now, Tasty ain’t no Einstein, but how can you be a union if you have no “member committees dealing with labor relations,” “no shop steward program” and just 3 Union Reps for 55,000 members?

So where does workers’ dues money go? Good question. Perhaps it pays the salaries of all the insurance salespeople and bill collectors.

In Tasty's book, this ain't no "bold" and "visionary" future for the labor movement. It's a frickin' nightmare on Elm Street! The memos offer one more sign of the ongoing AETNA-ization of SEIU. After all, SEIU’s “call centers” for handling workers’ grievances fit neatly into this vision that's styled on the insurance industry.

Now, that's not to say that this new direction may be plenty "bold" and "visionary" for certain of SEIU's elite officials. After all, Mary Kay Henry and President Emeritus Andy Stern would be next in line to become the CEO of this giant insurance company (a.k.a. “union”). In fact, Tasty bets that Dave Regan is simply salivating at the chance to pocket more money, on top of his $300,000 salary, once he gets a seat on the insurance company’s board of directors!

P.S. In case you wanna read the full memos from the officials at SEIU Local 521, you can find them here.