Former President Of The New York Constructing And Design Trades Council And 10 Other Union Officers Plead Responsible To Accepting Bribes And Illegal Payments | USAO-SDNY

Damian Williams, the United States Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, and Raymond A. Tierney, District Attorney for Suffolk County, declared now that 11 former union officers — JAMES CAHILL, previous President of the New York State Building and Design Trades Council, CHRISTOPHER KRAFT, PATRICK HILL, MATTHEW NORTON, WILLIAM BRIAN WANGERMAN, KEVIN MCCARRON, JEREMY SHEERAN, a/k/a “Max,” ANDREW MCKEON, ROBERT EGAN, SCOTT ROCHE, and ARTHUR GIPSON — have pled guilty to charges stemming from their acceptance of bribes and illegal cash payments from a development contractor (“Employer-1”) from in or about Oct 2018 to in or about Oct 2020 although the defendants were serving as union officers.  MCCARRON and EGAN pled guilty previously currently prior to United States District Decide Colleen McMahon to violating the Taft-Hartley Act, and the remaining defendants beforehand pled guilty both to genuine services fraud conspiracy or to violating the Taft-Hartley Act.  Each individual defendant has or will be sentenced by Choose McMahon in Manhattan federal courtroom.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated: “The defendants exploited their union positions and tricky-operating union customers to feed their have greed.  They approved bribes to corruptly favor non-union employers and affect the development trade in New York.  The convictions in this circumstance reflect our continuing determination to root out corruption and carry to justice individuals who abuse positions of electrical power out of individual greed.  I thank the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Workplace for their partnership in this situation.” 

Suffolk County District Legal professional Raymond A. Tierney claimed: “These convictions highlight a stunning degree of corruption among the powerful labor officers in New York Condition.  Through their greed and self-working, these defendants betrayed the really hard-functioning customers of their respective unions, and undermined the protections intended to be afforded by arranged labor.  While their users ended up executing challenging do the job at occupation web sites throughout the region, these defendants offered out their membership by accepting bribes and dollars payments in cafe bogs.  My Office environment will carry on to uncover and prosecute corruption of all sorts, which includes that committed by union officials.  I would like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Business office for the Southern District of New York for partnering with my Place of work on these circumstances, and for bringing these prosecutions to a successful conclusion.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment, statements built in courtroom, and court docket filings:

JAMES CAHILL was the President of the New York Condition Making and Construction Trades Council (the “NYS Trades Council”), which represents above 200,000 unionized development staff, a member of the Govt Council for the New York State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Businesses (the “NYS AFL-CIO”), and previously a union agent of the United Affiliation of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Sector of the United States and Canada (the “UA”).  Through the charged conspiracy, CAHILL recognized somewhere around $44,500 in bribes from Employer-1, and as component of his responsible plea, CAHILL acknowledged obtaining previously recognized at the very least close to $100,000 of further bribes from Employer-1 in relationship with CAHILL’s union positions.

KRAFT, HILL, NORTON, WANGERMAN, MCCARRON, SHEERAN, and MCKEON ended up Enterprise Agents, EGAN was the Secretary-Treasurer, and ROCHE was the Enterprise Agent At Substantial of the Nearby 638 of the UA (“Local 638”).  GIPSON was a Business Agent of the Local Union 200 of the UA (“Local 200”).  Each and every of these defendants approved thousands and, in some scenarios, tens of hundreds of bucks of hard cash bribes from Employer-1, a contractor who had jobs and probable jobs within just the jurisdiction of Nearby 638 and Local 200.

All 11 defendants acknowledged dollars from Employer-1 — typically stuffed in envelopes that Employer-1 handed off within the restrooms of dining establishments.  Through the conferences at which the payments ended up produced, Employer-1 repeatedly asked for favorable motion from Nearby 638 and/or Regional 200 which include the following: (1) that the relevant union would assist Employer-1’s bids on different tasks, (2) that the union would take into consideration signing Employer-1 to labor agreements that Employer-1 regarded to be favorable (including agreements that would shell out union workers reduced costs than their working experience merited), and (3) that the union would allow Employer-1 to falsely claim to builders that Employer-1 utilized union employees.  JAMES CAHILL was the leader of the conspiracy and introduced Employer-1 to quite a few of the other defendants, even though advising Employer-1 that Employer-1 could experience the advantages of getting connected with the unions with out actually signing union agreements or utilizing union workers. 

Employer-1 contracted to operate on — or would bid on — jobs that could have otherwise utilized union workers belonging to Community 638 and/or Regional 200.  At the time Employer-1 was bribing the defendants, Employer-1’s organization utilized employees who were being not customers of Nearby 638 and/or Neighborhood 200 but would have been suitable for membership.

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A chart containing the names, offenses of conviction, optimum penalties for the defendants, and sentencing dates for every single is established forth under.  The optimum potential sentences in this situation are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be identified by the decide.

Mr. Williams praised the remarkable investigative operate of the Particular Agents and investigators inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office environment.

This situation is being dealt with by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit and the Public Corruption Device.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank J. Balsamello, Marguerite Colson, Danielle Sassoon, Jason Swergold, and Jun Xiang, and Distinctive Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura de Oliveira, are in charge of the prosecution.

Defendant	Offense of Conviction	Max. Penalty	Date of Sentencing
JAMES CAHILL	Genuine Companies Fraud Conspiracy	20 decades in prison	March 7, 2023, at 4:00 p.m.
CHRISTOPHER KRAFT	Straightforward Products and services Fraud Conspiracy	20 several years in prison	December 12, 2022, at 4:00 p.m.
PATRICK HILL	Genuine Providers Fraud Conspiracy	20 decades in prison	December 19, 2022, at 2:00 p.m.
MATTHEW NORTON	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Felony)	Five decades in prison	December 13, 2022, at 11:00 a.m.
WILLIAM BRIAN WANGERMAN	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Felony)	Five many years in prison	January 30, 2023, at 4:00 p.m.
KEVIN MCCARRON	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Misdemeanor)	12 months in prison	March 14, 2023, at 2:00 p.m.
JEREMY SHEERAN	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Felony)	5 many years in prison	January 13, 2023, at 2:00 p.m.
ANDREW MCKEON	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Felony)	Five yrs in jail	January 18, 2023, at 2:00 p.m.
ROBERT EGAN	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Felony)	Five yrs in prison	March 14, 2023, at 12:00p.m.
SCOTT ROCHE	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Misdemeanor)	12 months in prison	Sentenced on December 6, 2022, to two years’ probation and $10,000 fine
ARTHUR GIPSON	Taft-Hartley Act Violation (Felony)	Five a long time in prison	March 9, 2023, at 2:30 p.m.