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Two Plead Guilty to Racketeering and Kickback Charges, Reports U.S. Attorney  

BOSTON, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Two men pled guilty on December 18, 2000 in Chicago to federal racketeering conspiracy and pension fund kickback charges arising out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission kickbacks paid to two trustees of Chicago-based labor union pension funds. United States Attorney Donald K. Stern, announced that CHRISTOPHER P. ROACH, age 34, and RICHARD S. TRINGALE, age 56, of Detroit, Michigan and Sarasota, Florida, pled guilty in the Northern District of Illinois to conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), and with paying kickbacks to trustees of employee benefit plans. ROACH also pled guilty to tax charges stemming from the money-laundering and kickback scheme. William V. Close, age 67, of Chicago, Illinois, a former trustee of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union Number 710 and the Automobile Mechanics Local Union Number 701 pension funds, pled guilty earlier to receiving kickbacks and to money laundering. Federal prosecutor Jeanne M. Kempthorne told the court at Monday's hearing that ROACH and TRINGALE controlled a Detroit-based brokerage firm known as East/West Institutional Services, Inc. through which they contracted with clearing brokers to pay them commissions generated by investment trades of labor union pension plan assets.  During the period of the conspiracy, from March 1994 through August 1997, ROACH and TRINGALE made promises and threats to investment advisors that Local 710 and 701 pension fund business would be won or lost depending on whether the investment advisors agreed to funnel commissions through the clearing brokers to East/West. ROACH and TRINGALE paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to two union pension fund trustees, William V. Close and Robert J. Baker, who died in 1997.  Both trustees influenced and voted on the selection of investment advisors to the Local 710 and 701 pension funds.  Millions of dollars of commissions were transferred from bank accounts in the United States to Cayman National Bank in the Cayman Islands and then distributed to accounts in various names for the benefit of Baker, Close, ROACH, and TRINGALE.  Close then transferred the funds to accounts in England and the Isle of Man. As fiduciaries, pension fund trustees are prohibited by federal law from accepting or soliciting gifts or kickbacks in connection with their actions or decisions with respect to the pension funds. ROACH also pled guilty to having caused his corporation, Christopher Roach, Inc., to under report commission income related to the scheme for tax years 1995 and 1996, in the total amount of over $740,000. The racketeering conspiracy charges against ROACH and TRINGALE also include allegations of international money laundering and interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering. The defendants have agreed to the forfeiture of over $7 million in commissions paid to the racketeering enterprise. The court set no date for sentencing pending the defendants' cooperation ROACH and TRINGALE face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the racketeering conspiracy charge, and three years' imprisonment on each of the 26 kickback counts alleged against them.  ROACH faces a total maximum sentence of 8 years on the tax charges. The investigation leading to the racketeering and kickback indictment was conducted by agents assigned to the Boston offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Labor's Division of Labor Racketeering and Pension Welfare and Benefits Administration.  It is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeanne M. Kempthorne, Alex Whiting and Victor Wild, in Stern's Office, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago.  The tax charges were investigated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Michigan. SOURCE.  U.S. Attorney  