Union Executive Charged with Extortion and Illegal Labor Payments

Manhattan – The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has charged Warren Joseph Annunziata, an executive of Local 91 of the United Craft and Industrial Workers’ Union with extortion and receiving unlawful payments in violation of the Taft-Hartley Act, prohibiting payments from regulated industries to union officials.

Annuniziata, 57 of Roslyn Heights, New York was arrested Friday morning at his residence by Department of Labor Agents.

The investigation involved members from the Department of Labor, Special Agent in Charge Marjorie Franzman, Office of Inspector General, and Ralph Gerchak, District Director of the New York State, Department of Labor.

According the indictment unsealed Friday:

Local 91 is a union that represents approximately 2,000 individuals, including bus drivers and bus escorts who work for companies that contract with the New York City Department of Education to provide students with school bus transportation to public schools throughout New York City. ANNUNZIATA was previously the President and Executive Director of Local 91, and is currently the union’s Pension Fund Administrator, in which capacity he oversees pension and benefit funds holding over $85 million in assets.

From approximately 1992 through 2009, ANNUNZIATA used his position as a high-ranking Local 91 official to solicit and collect cash payments totaling over $500,000 from various bus company owners whose employees were members of Local 91. If convicted of the two counts alleged in the Indictment, ANNUNZIATA faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the extortion charge and a maximum of five years in prison on the unlawful labor payments charge. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

Posted by rgrone on February 28, 2010. Filed under Crime - Punishment,National News,US Criminal Justice,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.