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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

OIG Press Release: Guilty Plea By Former Marine Engineers Union Representative Ends Case Involving 16 Union Officials [11/12/1996]

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A guilty plea today by another official of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association/National Maritime Union (MEBA/NMU) brought an end to a case involving 16 former officials caught rigging union election ballots. Vincent T. Oliveri's plea closed the first criminal prosecution case ever taken by the government against union officials for rigging ballots in national elections.

Oliveri, former representative of the union in Seattle, today admitted to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, D.C., that he unlawfully solicited members' ballots, voted and blank, during a union election and gave them to another official, knowing that the blank ballots would be voted by that official.

On July 5, 1995, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted the former top officers of the union on RICO conspiracy, mail fraud, extortion and embezzlement charges. The verdict came after a five-month trial and was the first criminal prosecution of a nationwide election fraud scheme carried out by union officials.

In that case, the union's top officers--C. EUGENE DEFRIES, CLYDE DODSON, REINHOLD SCHAMANN, CLAUDE DAULLEY, and ALEXANDER CULLISON--were convicted of fixing union elections by unlawfully obtaining ballots from union members and then voting the ballots for themselves. CULLISON and SCHAMANN are now cooperating with the government. DEFRIES, DODSON, and DAULLEY were sentenced, respectively, to 63 months, 57 months, and 21 months imprisonment while allowed to remain free pending appeals, and were ordered to forfeit a total of $4.6 million in racketeering proceeds.

Last week, five other former officials also entered guilty pleas before Judge Jackson. MICHAEL A. BAKER and DURWIN DAVIS, of the Houston, TX, union hall, PAUL T. REYBURN of the San Francisco, CA, union hall, and MICHAEL A. RIBERA of the New Orleans, LA, union hall, pled guilty to one felony count of mail fraud for unlawfully soliciting the voted and blank ballots of members during union elections, and either voting the blank ballots themselves, or giving blank ballots to other officials, knowing that the other officials would vote them.

Additionally, WALTER J. BROWNE, of the union's Federation of Public Employees division in Plantation, FL, pled guilty last week to a criminal information charging him with one misdemeanor count of Delaying or Destruction of Mail. BROWNE admitted opening mail containing merger referendum material addressed to union members without their authority.

In September, WILLIAM M. FAST, of the Portland, OR, hall pled guilty to one count of mail fraud, and THADDEUS "TED" KEDZIERSKI, of the Wilmington, CA, hall pled guilty to one count of mail fraud in October, based on the same conduct as their co-defendants.

Defendants BAKER, DAVIS, KEDZIERSKI, REYBURN, and RIBERA all received agreed sentences of two years supervised probation. BAKER and DAVIS were ordered to pay fines of $2,500, and REYBURN and RIBERA $1,500. BROWNE will be sentenced on January 29, 1997. FAST's sentencing has been deferred.

MEBA/NMU was the largest maritime union in the U.S. after the 1988 merger and represented licensed marine engineers, unlicensed seamen and shoreside employees nationwide until the merger dissolved in 1993 following controversy and litigation within the union.

OLIVERI, who pled guilty to one felony count of mail fraud, was sentenced to two years supervised probation and a $1,500 fine. The case was investigated jointly by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of the Inspector General and the FBI and was prosecuted by the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.

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