FORMER TEAMSTER’S PRESIDENT CONVICTED BY JURY FOR ELECTION FRAUD AND UNION EMBEZZLEMENT FOR TAKING KICKBACKS

HOUSTON, Texas – Charles “Chuck” Crawley, 56, former president of the Teamster’s Local Union 988, was convicted by a jury on all counts related to union corruption, U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.  The verdict convicting Crawley was returned this afternoon following a five-day trial over which U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon presided. 

        Crawley was taken into federal custody following the jury’s verdict and will remain in custody pending his sentencing scheduled for March 23, 2007.

        Crawley was indicted last June for mail fraud relating the union’s 2002 election, embezzling union funds through the election fraud, embezzling union funds by accepting a $20,000 cash kickback from a vendor, and making false entries into the union records.  Crawley served as Local Union 988's elected president from 1997 until his ouster in October 2003. 

        " Today’s conviction demonstrates that union officials who abuse their position of trust for personal gain, and run afoul of federal law, will be held accountable,” said U. S. Attorney DeGabrielle. 

        The jury found Crawley guilty of mail fraud arising from a scheme to defraud the Local Union members’ right to honest services by using the mail during the October 2002 election.  The scheme involved Crawley placing 362 phony ballots marked in his favor for union president into false return envelopes representing members of Local 988 whom Crawley believed would not be voting in the election.  Crawley was also convicted of trying to ensure his re-election as union president by secretly increasing the number of votes registered on his behalf.  Given the fraud scheme, Crawley was not entitled to the salary paid him as president beginning in January 2003.  The embezzling union property charge arises from Crawley’s alleged use of the union’s computer system to generate the fraudulent ballots.

        The jury also convicted Crawley of arranging and accepting a $20,000 kickback from the installer of a telephone system into the Union’s new hall between February and June 2002 and causing false entries into official union records regarding the telephone installation. 

        James P. Hoffa, Teamsters general president, suspended Crawley as president of the Local on Oct. 16, 2003, and imposed a temporary emergency trusteeship pending an internal investigation by an Independent Review Board (IRB).  Crawley was later permanently barred from the union in September 2004. 

        Local 988 is the largest Teamsters Union in Houston, representing over 4,000 long-haul truckers as well as local cargo truckers, including United Parcel Service, Yellow Freight, Roadway, and a number of bakery and car hauling companies.

        Crawley faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years of imprisonment for the mail fraud conviction and a maximum of five years of imprisonment for each of the two embezzlement convictions.  These felony counts also carry a $250,000 fine for each count of conviction.  The conviction for causing false entries into official union records carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $25,000 fine.  

        Richard Hammond, who preceded Crawley as Local 988 president, was run out of office and sentenced to four years of imprisonment following his April 1998 conviction for embezzling union funds.  Hammond was similarly ousted by an international trustee in 1995.  Hammond, now free from prison, attended portions of the trial.  Two additional Teamster’s presidents from a different local, Union 1111, were convicted of offenses in the Southern District of Texas: Alton Ronald Kern in April 1995 for the falsification of pension records, and Lynn McDon Wells for accepting kickbacks from an insurance broker in June 1992.

          This three-year investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor - Office of Labor Management Standards (OEMS) and Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Wright and Edward F. Gallagher with assistance from Trial Attorney Vincent Falco of the U.S. Department of Justice Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.