Fiat Chrysler has agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to violate the Labor Management Relations Act, stemming from its participation in the UAW corruption scandal. FCA will also pay a $30 million fine.
Here’s FCA’s statement:
FCA US LLC (FCA US) today announces that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan to resolve its investigation into past misconduct of certain former FCA US employees involving the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC). The agreement, which is subject to U.S. federal court approval, includes a guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to violate the Labor Management Relations Act and the payment of a $30 million fine. FCA US has also agreed to implement an independent compliance monitor for three years with respect to the dissolution of the NTC and internal controls as they relate to the trusts being implemented to replace the NTC.
And here are a few of the specifics that the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan is accusing FCA of, according to court documents filed by the feds on Wednesday.
Between in or before approximately January 2009 and continuing through in or after approximately 2016, one or more persons acting in the interest of FCA agreed to pay and deliver, and willfully paid and delivered, more than $3.5 million in prohibited payments and things of value to officers and employees of the UAW.
[...]
In June 2014, FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli authorized the expenditure of approximately $262,000 to satisfy the outstanding mortgage on the residence of UAW Vice President General Holiefield in Harrison Township, Michigan.
In August 2014, FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli authorized the expenditure of approximately $25,000 for a party for UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell and the UAW’s International Executive Board.
In January and February 2015, FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli approved the use of NTC credit cards to pay for over $30,000 in meals for UAW officials at various restaurants in Palm Springs and southern California.
Iacobelli is currently an inmate at a federal prison in West Virginia, serving a four-year sentence, recently reduced because of the pandemic and Iacobelli’s cooperation with authorities. Holiefield, meanwhile, died in 2015, while Jewell was given 15 months in prison for his role; he was released to home confinement in May.
Former UAW presidents Dennis Williams and Gary Jones have also pleaded guilty in the scandal, which has been investigated and prosecuted for years at this point, though it feels like we’re finally approaching its end. That’s given today’s announcement and the earlier announcement that there would be no federal UAW takeover.
You can read the full court filing from today below.