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| Tyrone Freeman and Monica Russo |
It appears that the purple-hued crime spree that's been splashed across San Francisco's newspapers is now shifting
south to Los Angeles. According to
an
article in the Los Angeles Daily News, a federal grand jury will soon hand
down a criminal indictment against
Tyrone
Freeman. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
For Freeman, who has
been living with family members as he has sought various jobs over the last
four years, the day of reckoning is expected to come this week when a federal
grand jury returns an indictment against him...
His wife, Pilar
Planells, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a misdemeanor federal charge
regarding her tax reports. She was fined $130,000.
The article includes a statement from Freeman about the
pending indictment:
"I'm back
voluntarily -- and confidently -- to face these false allegations, which appear
to be leading to an unjust indictment," Freeman said in a statement
released by his attorneys. "Just like what brought me to L.A, in 1999, I
am back to fight the good fight."
Freeman was appointed by Andy Stern to serve as the president of SEIU Local 6434, which
represents 170,000 homecare and nursing home workers across California. He also served
as a Vice President on SEIU’s International Executive Board and is a close ally
of Mary Kay Henry.
Tasty believes the federal indictment will be handed down tomorrow,
July 31. Earlier this month, the United States Attorney’s Office filed
this document in a related civil suit. It indicates that the current “statute of limitations”
on Freeman’s alleged criminal violations will expire on July 31.
Tasty believes the indictment will cover both familiar and unfamiliar
territory for readers. Many readers are well aware of the corruption documented
by the
Los Angeles Times, including Freeman's schemes to divert more than
a million dollars of union members’ money to his relatives and himself for
cigar bars, expensive restaurants and Freeman's lavish wedding in Hawai’i.
Less well-known, however, is an even larger scheme that
drained at least $12.5 million from the union. And the details are literally
jaw-dropping.
The scheme, which has not been reported in the press, is described
in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in June of 2009. It alleges
that Freeman plundered millions from “a union-sponsored health and welfare
plan that provides benefits to tens of thousands of workers providing in-home
care to California’s aged and disabled.”
Basically, Freeman set up an SEIU insurance fund that
was supposed to provide health, dental and other benefits to tens of thousands
of SEIU's members across California. In order to fund these benefits, Freeman collected millions of dollars of benefits payments from county
governments… and then systematically plundered the funds via a series of insider
deals, kickbacks and backroom schemes with crooked consulting firms and
fat-cat businessmen.
Companies involved in the multiple schemes include TelaDoc,
Dickerson Employee Benefits and Physicians Care Insurance Services. Here's an excerpt from the lawsuit (see a full copy at bottom). Tasty describes some of the stunning details below.
Due to the acts and
omissions of the Defendant Dickerson Employee Benefits and Freeman, the Plan
purchased over-priced, inappropriate and/or illegal benefits, was charged
excessive and improper commissions, paid money on claims not owed under the
Plan terms, and failed to collect sufficient revenue to finance Plan benefits.
Defendant TelaDoc aided in the fiduciary breaches of Dickerson Employee
Benefits and Freeman, improperly received Plan assets, and engaged in material
misrepresentations to induce the Plan to purchase an over-priced, inappropriate
and/or illegal benefit service. As a consequence of Defendants’ acts and
omissions, millions of dollars of Plan assets were wasted, and the Plan was
very nearly rendered insolvent.
Here are some examples from court records, which describe a corruption that's so appalling it would make an Enron executive blush.
In one case that's described in court documents, Freeman funneled money to a corrupt contractor
who then allegedly kicked back a portion of the funds to a special fund that Freeman used to finance his re-election to the presidency of SEIU
Local 6434.
In another case, a corrupt contractor delivered kick-backs to Freeman by "donating" money to Freeman’s lavish golf tournaments, “the proceeds of which were
whittled away on Freeman and his guests,” including “greens fees and spa
treatments provided to Freeman and his friends…”
In yet another case, Freeman channeled workers’ health
premiums to a corrupt contractor who allegedly rewarded Freeman with stock options
in a private, for-profit corporation called “IGP Technologies.” When confronted
with the details of this scheme, Freeman’s attorneys said the stock options were awarded to
Freeman in exchange for his “advice on executive strategy execution." (Hmm... WTF is "executive strategy execution"?)
In still another case, Freeman diverted rivers of money to
his principal partner-in-crime, Dickerson Employee Benefits, which then
paid Freeman $45,000 in return for Freeman’s supposed advice and business plan
for a for-profit company that was never launched. The phantom company that benefited from Freeman's astute business advice was
called Insurance Clerk, Inc.
Freeman -- who
was the full-time president of two SEIU local unions as well as a Vice President of SEIU
International -- apparently had plenty of time for consulting on the side, not
to mention lavish golf tournaments and for-profit business schemes.
Amazingly, there are even more digusting dimensions to SEIU's corruption scandal. In 2007, Freeman signed a contract with a company
called “TelaDoc” to provide
over-the-phone medical consultations to workers when they're sick or injured.
Freeman signed the contract even though he allegedly knew that many workers
could not legally receive the services. Why? In order to legally receive the
over-the-phone services, each worker is required to have a primary-care
physician who actually has conducted an in-person medical examination of each worker.
Most of the low-income workers in Freeman’s union did not have physicians! Nonetheless, under
the deal, Freeman regularly deducted money from each worker’s paycheck in order to pay TelaDoc,
which then pocketed giant profits because workers couldn't use the services! Next, Freeman negotiated a “refund”
from TelaDoc, which Freeman allegedly funneled into so-called special projects.
And there’s more… but the details are far too lengthy to include in this post.
Needless to say, the allegations -- delivered to a judge in
June of 2009 -- represent another giant vindication of Sal Rosselli and his team of rank-and-file leaders. In 2008, they rightfully
resisted Andy Stern’s order to forcibly transfer 65,000 workers into Tyrone Freeman’s corrupt
union. And they rightfully insisted on workers’ right to a transparent and democratic vote. For this, their union was placed under trusteeship by a corrupt and undemocratic SEIU.
For those of us on the outside, we can now see more clearly why Rosselli's team resisted the forced transfer of 65,000 workers. Aside from the principles of worker democracy, it's clear that Freeman’s
union was nothing less than a giant crime scene… and that Freeman’s corruption was thoroughly hard-wired
into the union’s business relationships, insurance funds, consulting
arrangements and finances.
Let's hope that Freeman -- and all of the Purple Palace officials who aided and abetted his crimes -- get their due!
