Why was Stockbroker a Member of Hoffa Benefactor's Local?
Chicago Local 710 Pension Fund Implicated in Kickback Scheme
Hoffa likes to say that corruption is a thing of the past in our union. But a recent indictment concerning a pension fund scam involving two locals headed by prominent Hoffa backers shows that corruption remains a problem among Hoffa's friends.The indictment charges that between 1994 and 1997, Christopher Roach, Richard Tringale, and East/West Institutional Serves, Inc., their tiny Detroit-area brokerage firm, used a complex scheme of bribes, kickbacks, and money laundering to loot- millions of dollars from the Chicago Local 710fund. Local 710 is headed by $100,000 Club leader and key Hoffa ally Frank Wsol, as well as Hoffa Vice-president Pat Flynn. Their Teamster Salaries totaled 546,050 in 1998. Wsol is also a pension fund trustee.The indictment also names William Cloase, a former trustee of the Local 710-pentane fund. Prosecutors allege that Close and fellow trustee Robert Baker arranged to take kickbacks from Roach and Tringale, in exchange for influence over the selection of investment advisors for fund assets. Baker is now deceased, and Close is believed to have fled the country.According to the indictment, Roach and Tringale pressured several Local 710 Pension Fund investment advisors, including Boston-based Shawmut bank, now owned by Fleet Bank, to funnel investment commissions generated by trading Local 710 Pension fund assets to them through intermediary brokerage firms. Over $7.4 million in commissions were paid to their enterprise.Roach and Tringale then wired at least $3 million of these commissions to the Cayman Islands, and Baker. It is not known where all of the money wound up, although Close allegedly transferred the funds to other accounts in England and the Isle of Man.Here's the kicker; while he was bilking millions of dollars from the Local 710-pension fund, stockbroker Christopher Roach was allowed to sign a sham contract with Detroit Local 337, headed by Hoffa benefactor Larry Brennan. According to the contract, Roach was the employer and the only member, and received Teamster health benefits!Coincidences?
Is it only a coincidences that a small stockbroker involved with Larry Brenan's local in Detroit managed a scam with one of the largest Teamster pension funds, located in Chicago and run by another strong Hoffa ally?Could two employer trustees control the assets of a Teamster pension fund enough to pull off this scheme without anyone from the union being involved? If Wsol and the union trustees didn't know about it, didn't they have a fiduciary duty to know what was going on? $7 Billion Goes Unnoticed?
Want anybody watching the fund drastically increased the amount of stocks and bonds it sold, (and paid brokerage commissions on)? In 1995 while the scheme was in high gear, the fund sold 25 times as many securities as the year before. Those sales, almost $7 Billion, were the fund six times over during a 12-month period!
Was it just a coincidence that Tringale's family knows an employer that has a contract with Local 337? Or that Tringale's relative is married to Is it only a coincidences that a small stockbroker involved with Larry Brenan's local in Detroit managed a scam with one of the largest Teamster pension funds, located in Chicago and run by another strong Hoffa ally?
the daughter of a convicted Detroit mod boss?
Members concerned about the security of their pensions have raised these questions with the IRB, but to date there has been little response. Roach was forced to resign his membership in Local 337and the business agent who signed the sham contract was charged and barred from the union. But no one has asked how all this went on without anyone from the union finding out about it or doing anything to stop it. Hopefully the Roach/Tringale/Close trial will find some answers to these troubling questions.
