A growing financial scandal in the 2-million-member Service Employees International Union has prompted a federal criminal investigation into the labor organization's largest California local, sources familiar with the probe say.
U.S. Labor Department authorities are examining payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the union and a related charity to firms owned by relatives of the Los Angeles local's president and expenditures of similar sums on a golf tournament, restaurants, a cigar lounge and entertainment companies, according to people with knowledge of the investigation.
The investigators are also looking into allegations that some union staff members faced retaliation last week after they refused to sign a petition supporting its president, Tyrone Freeman, the sources said.
The Times disclosed the spending practices of the United Long-Term Care Workers this month. The union's 160,000 dues-payers earn $9 an hour or slightly more tending to the elderly and infirm in their residences or nursing homes.
Two agencies of the Labor Department are conducting the inquiry -- the Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Inspector General's Office. They are responsible for investigating allegations of criminal embezzlement and racketeering in unions and work with U.S. attorney's offices in pursuing prosecutions.
A spokeswoman for SEIU President Andy Stern said late Wednesday that the Labor Department had notified the union that an investigation had been launched.
"We are deeply concerned about these allegations," said spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette. "We are cooperating fully. We will not tolerate in any leader actions that threaten the best interests of our members."
Labor Department officials declined to confirm whether an investigation was underway. In response to the allegations of retaliations, however, the head of the Office of Labor-Management Standards, Don Todd, said in a statement: "We take seriously any allegations of intimidation, violence or retaliation. Intimidation of union members is unacceptable and is prohibited by law."
Investigators from Todd's agency and the Inspector General's Office are interviewing potential witnesses about the local's financial transactions and the role that Freeman played in the expenditures, the sources said. The sources asked to remain anonymous because they feared reprisals.
