Former Teamsters President Indicted

Friday, January 26th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Former Teamsters President Ron Carey has been indicted for lying during an investigation into how $885,000 in union funds were diverted to his 1996 re-election campaign.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday accused Carey, 64, of perjuring himself twice before a grand jury in 1997. The seven-count indictment also alleges Carey made 39 false statements to the election officer, the chief investigator for a review board and the board itself.

``We're extremely disappointed with this indictment,'' said defense lawyer Reid Weingarten. He said Carey would ``contest these charges until he is fully vindicated.''

If convicted, Carey faces up to five years in prison on each of the seven counts.

Carey's 1996 re-election victory over James P. Hoffa was overturned following allegations his campaign had improperly benefited from donations the union made to third-party political organizations.

Prosecutors alleged that money was paid to four organizations â€” including one for senior citizens â€” with the understanding it would then be contributed to the effort to re-elect Carey.

The 1.4 million-member Teamsters, the nation's largest private-sector union, is not permitted to use its money to fund elections for union members.

According to a partial transcript of grand jury testimony attached to the indictment, Carey in 1997 insisted no one told him about a deal to trade a Teamsters contribution for a donation to his campaign.

``No. And if they did, obviously, I would have stopped that dead in its tracks,'' Carey said.

The indictment charges Carey with falsely denying knowledge of Teamsters contributions to the organizations and falsely claiming he could not remember conversations with Teamsters employees and his campaign manager about those contributions.

William W. Hamilton Jr., the former Teamsters director of governmental affairs, was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of participating in the scheme. Three consultants to Carey's campaign have pleaded guilty in federal court and await sentencing.

Hoffa lost to Carey in 1996 but won the presidential election in December 1999.

In a release Thursday, Hoffa said the Teamsters union supports the decision to indict Carey.

``The members of the Teamsters union have paid a terrible price for the misdeeds of Mr. Carey,'' Hoffa said.

Federal oversight of Teamsters elections resulted from a March 1989 consent decree after the federal government in 1988 alleged the Teamsters union had been corrupted by organized crime.

Carey was scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Feb. 1.

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On the Net:

http://www.teamster.org