Ex-MBTA worker admits theft from union
AP / October 4, 2012
BOSTON (AP) — A former MBTA employee has been sentenced for stealing thousands of dollars from a union local he served as secretary treasurer.
He was ordered to serve four months of a nine-month jail sentence, with five years’ probation.
Prosecutors said he made more than $98,000 in unauthorized cash withdrawals from a union account, and used a union credit card for at least $3,000 in gasoline for his own car. He also allegedly inflated his union pay.
Sheehy’s lawyer said his client had gambling and alcohol problems.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/10/04/mbta-worker-admits-theft-from-union/g4SCeajMU2skMJmVlg3KmO/story.html
Prosecutors said 43-year-old Brian Sheehy of Quincy pleaded guilty to three counts of larceny Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court.
He was ordered to serve four months of a nine-month jail sentence, with five years’ probation.
Sheehy also must repay more than $130,000 to the MBTA inspectors’ union, Local 600 of the Office and Professional Employees International. He was the local’s secretary treasurer from 2005 to 2010.
Prosecutors said he made more than $98,000 in unauthorized cash withdrawals from a union account, and used a union credit card for at least $3,000 in gasoline for his own car. He also allegedly inflated his union pay.
Sheehy’s lawyer said his client had gambling and alcohol problems.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/10/04/mbta-worker-admits-theft-from-union/g4SCeajMU2skMJmVlg3KmO/story.html
T union tells court ex-officer stole dues
Local 600 says its treasurer took $250,000
Globe Staff / June 10, 2011
The MBTA Inspectors Union says its former treasurer stole $250,000 from membership dues, withdrawing cash, writing checks to himself, and spending freely with a union credit card.
Officials at the union, known as Local 600, say they discovered the alleged theft only after Brian C. Sheehy ran unsuccessfully for the union presidency, then scrambled in vain to retain his old post and avoid turning over bank records to the new officers of Local 600.
Sheehy, a 41-year-old Quincy resident, still works for the T as an inspector on the Red Line, because he has not been accused of stealing from the MBTA and because the matter is pending, said a spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Neither Sheehy nor his lawyer returned multiple calls seeking comment in recent weeks. However, in his bankruptcy filings, he acknowledges but disputes the union’s assertions.
The new union president, Robert Didrikson, and the lawyer for Local 600, Howard B. Lenow, declined to discuss the pending case or to say whether they have contacted police for a criminal investigation.
But union filings in court depict Sheehy as a man who became remorseful after being caught, according to an affidavit from Didrikson that includes what it describes as a text message from Sheehy.
“Hi Bob I know I’ve been advised not to contact you but please don’t notify [the lawyers],’’ Sheehy allegedly wrote in December. “I [messed] up terribly and made a major mistake. I breached the trust of a lot of people and acted like a total [jerk] along with it.’’
Sheehy then paid the union $93,000, apparently hoping the new officers would accept the sum and drop the matter, according to the filings.
When that failed, he filed for bankruptcy and made what Local 600 says were legal maneuvers to avoid repayment and shelter assets that include a vacation home in Dennisport that he shared with his wife, an executive at an investment firm.
The alleged theft has roiled Local 600, the union that represents the 320 inspectors and chief inspectors who work in the MBTA subway and bus system, managing stations, responding to emergencies, helping customers, and providing a uniformed presence.
Those inspectors contribute 1.5 percent of their pay for union dues, money that was supposed to fund organizing, labor negotiations, member defense in job disputes, and other expenses, but much of which is now missing. The union, run by a full-time president and volunteer board, lacked financial safeguards and other controls to discourage theft.
In a recent letter to the membership, Didrikson asked for patience while trying to clean up what he dubbed “the wreckage of the past,’’ pursuing legal avenues to recover the money while digging through records and opening the union to the first of what will become annual audits.
Sheehy was elected to the union’s executive board as the Red Line representative and was chosen by that board as secretary-treasurer in 2004. The union says he began enriching himself about a year later through “fraud, embezzlement, and other wrongdoing,’’ contending that the pattern continued until the retirement of 12-year union president John Horan last year.
Horan has told the union that he did not know $250,000 had been siphoned from the coffers during his tenure.
Sheehy ran in a three-way race to replace Horan. He had to give up his appointed treasurer role in the process. After losing the election, he made “extraordinary efforts’’ to try to win back his old seat, lobbying the international union with which Local 600 is affiliated, Didrikson said.
In 1996, he was assaulted on the job by a disorderly customer at Quincy Center Station. In 2007, he and his wife were featured in a local newspaper for responding to a story about a Marine who could not afford airfare from Camp Lejeune by buying him a ticket home for Thanksgiving.
The Sheehys have apparently separated. Sheehy, who is due back in court June 28, told the court last month that he had moved from their four-bedroom home in Quincy to an apartment nearby.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/10/former_treasurer_stole_dues_mbta_union_says/?page=2
The union’s allegations have come to light in US Bankruptcy Court, where Sheehy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection one day before he was scheduled to be tried by a union tribunal seeking to recover the money.
The union has asked Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Bailey to prevent Sheehy from using Chapter 7 to avoid repaying Local 600. And the US trustee charged with administering the bankruptcy has asked the judge to dismiss Sheehy’s filing altogether, saying his $70,000 income from the MBTA is too much for him to qualify for Chapter 7 protection.
Sheehy, a 41-year-old Quincy resident, still works for the T as an inspector on the Red Line, because he has not been accused of stealing from the MBTA and because the matter is pending, said a spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Neither Sheehy nor his lawyer returned multiple calls seeking comment in recent weeks. However, in his bankruptcy filings, he acknowledges but disputes the union’s assertions.
The new union president, Robert Didrikson, and the lawyer for Local 600, Howard B. Lenow, declined to discuss the pending case or to say whether they have contacted police for a criminal investigation.
But union filings in court depict Sheehy as a man who became remorseful after being caught, according to an affidavit from Didrikson that includes what it describes as a text message from Sheehy.
“Hi Bob I know I’ve been advised not to contact you but please don’t notify [the lawyers],’’ Sheehy allegedly wrote in December. “I [messed] up terribly and made a major mistake. I breached the trust of a lot of people and acted like a total [jerk] along with it.’’
Sheehy then paid the union $93,000, apparently hoping the new officers would accept the sum and drop the matter, according to the filings.
When that failed, he filed for bankruptcy and made what Local 600 says were legal maneuvers to avoid repayment and shelter assets that include a vacation home in Dennisport that he shared with his wife, an executive at an investment firm.
The alleged theft has roiled Local 600, the union that represents the 320 inspectors and chief inspectors who work in the MBTA subway and bus system, managing stations, responding to emergencies, helping customers, and providing a uniformed presence.
Those inspectors contribute 1.5 percent of their pay for union dues, money that was supposed to fund organizing, labor negotiations, member defense in job disputes, and other expenses, but much of which is now missing. The union, run by a full-time president and volunteer board, lacked financial safeguards and other controls to discourage theft.
In a recent letter to the membership, Didrikson asked for patience while trying to clean up what he dubbed “the wreckage of the past,’’ pursuing legal avenues to recover the money while digging through records and opening the union to the first of what will become annual audits.
“There are some members that feel there is not enough being done or not being done fast enough,’’ he wrote. “The world was not built overnight, and these issues can’t be fixed overnight.’’
Sheehy was elected to the union’s executive board as the Red Line representative and was chosen by that board as secretary-treasurer in 2004. The union says he began enriching himself about a year later through “fraud, embezzlement, and other wrongdoing,’’ contending that the pattern continued until the retirement of 12-year union president John Horan last year.
Horan has told the union that he did not know $250,000 had been siphoned from the coffers during his tenure.
Sheehy ran in a three-way race to replace Horan. He had to give up his appointed treasurer role in the process. After losing the election, he made “extraordinary efforts’’ to try to win back his old seat, lobbying the international union with which Local 600 is affiliated, Didrikson said.
Sheehy has worked for the T since high school, starting in 1988.
In 1996, he was assaulted on the job by a disorderly customer at Quincy Center Station. In 2007, he and his wife were featured in a local newspaper for responding to a story about a Marine who could not afford airfare from Camp Lejeune by buying him a ticket home for Thanksgiving.
The Sheehys have apparently separated. Sheehy, who is due back in court June 28, told the court last month that he had moved from their four-bedroom home in Quincy to an apartment nearby.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/10/former_treasurer_stole_dues_mbta_union_says/?page=2
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment