Hoffa's Top Aid Identified as Bagman Who Shredded Documents
Feds Charge Hoffa's Benefactors with Embezzling Union Funds for Campaign
Michigan's top Teamster and five allies have been charged by the Independent Review Board (IRB) with embezzling $30,000 in union funds for their campaign against a reform slate of the rank and file Teamsters in Detroit Local 337. Those charged include Michigan Joint Council 43 president Larry Brennan, who in the mid-1990s gave James Hoffa an "administrative assistant" job to provide him with the eligibility he needed to run for Teamster president.
Even more startling, Hoffa's Executive Assistant Carlow Scalf his most powerful appointee is identified in the IRB report as the bagman in the scheme, and the one who shredded records when he learned law enforcement agents were investigating.
The IRB recommended on June 2nd that charged be filed against Brennan and five others on the Local 337, when they faced an election challenge in late 1996 from rank and file members aligned with TDU.
Brennan and his fellow officials schemed to illegally provide inflated bonuses and temporary raises to 15 officials. The secretary-treasurer then cashed all the bonus checks and gave the money to Carlow Scalf, who distributed the cash and then recollected it as campaign contributions.
Scalf, the bagman in this sordid scheme to tale dues money to buy an election, is now the highest appointed per in the union. The IRB charges, which are detailed in a 42-page report that cited 69 exhibits, note that Scalf played a pivotal role, though he has not yet been charged. The report details he shredded the records of his operation in June 1997, after the feds began to interview involved parties; that he kept all the money in cash; and that his explanation for his actions lack credibility.
For Kroger Advantage Logistics Michigan driver and Local 337 member David Iho, the charges are long overdue. "It's disappointing that it's taken so lone for these changes to come down. Bit hopefully they'll help us get a fair election and clean up our local"
Iho, who was on the reform slate that the old guard beat with embezzled money, went on to say. "A number of Teamsters I work with hope this cleans house at the local, including the BAs who were part of Brennan's scheme. None of them should be allowed to move up the corrupt food chain".
Hoffa and Brennan
Hoffa owes Brennan a lot: he could not have run without Brennan's move to give him a "lot" that made him eligible to run for office and a base to campaign from. Brennan and Hoffa go way back: their fathers were partners in business and crime.
Hoffa has claimed he will run the union with "ethics" and has hired consultants to sell that claim. But now that his benefactor has been caught deep in corruption, he has taken no action at all to clean it up. He has not even issued a statement criticizing the embezzlement, but has instead tried cover up the matter. And worst of all, instead of turning the matter over to the IRB for a hearing the International officers hold one. The URB has already stated that crucial FBI evidence would not even be available to such a union hearing.
Brennan has reportedly bragged around his Detroit headquarters that, "If they get me, they'll get Carlow. If the get Carlow, they'll get Jimmy". No wonder Hoffa has to protect his corrupt pals.
"Scalf's explanation for not having a bank account is unpersuasive and misleading. Scalf's explanation for not retaining records is also unpersuasive. From the failure to maintain these records it may be inferred that Scalf knew that these records would reveal something improper related to the Local election campaign."
Independent Review Board's recommendation to James Hoffa to file charges against members of the Local 337 executive board.
