criminal charges

Office of Labor-Management Enforcement

The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) conducts both civil and criminal investigations of alleged violations of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) and related laws.

These investigations by OLMS District Offices involve issues such as embezzlements of union funds, union officer elections, the filing of required reports by unions and others with OLMS, and the imposition of trusteeships over subordinate unions by a parent body. These investigations may result in legal enforcement actions.

Date	Description
February 6th, 2006	On February 6, 2006, in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, Anthony Rutledge, former Financial Secretary-Treasurer for Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE), Local 5, and former President of Unity House, a non-profit labor organization that provides benefits to about 20,000 members and retirees of HERE Local 5 and Teamsters Local 996, entered into a plea agreement in which Rutledge pled guilty to one count of knowingly falsifying a tax return and was sentenced to three years probation. Under terms of the plea agreement, Rutledge must permanently disassociate himself from Unity House, which his father, Art Rutledge, founded in 1951. Rutledge's son, Aaron, pled guilty to one count of witness harassment and was sentenced to one year probation. Under terms of his plea agreement, Aaron Rutledge must resign immediately as Executive Vice President of Unity House and must disassociate himself from the organization and its assets while on probation. In August 2003, both Anthony and Aaron Rutledge were indicted for skimming $350,000 in earnings from the family's Waikiki Beach concession stand from 1992 to 1997 and using the money as a slush fund. A superseding indictment in December 2003 alleged that Anthony Rutledge had tried to divert a portion of Unity House's $42.2 million in assets to overseas investments in an apparent attempt to circumvent the ongoing criminal investigation. Twelve other fraud charges against him were dismissed as part of the agreement. The guilty pleas follow an investigation by the OLMS Honolulu Resident Investigator Office, the Internal Revenue Service, and DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration and Office of the Inspector General.
October 31st, 2002	On October 31, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, Roberta Cabral, a former Unity House consultant, was sentenced to ten months imprisonment and three years of probation. She was also ordered to make restitution of $25,000 to Unity House and to perform 2,500 hours of community service. Unity House is a non-profit organization established to benefit members of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 5 and Hawaii Teamsters locals. She had plead guilty on June 17, 2002, to tax evasion for 1992 and 1993, failing to file a federal income tax return for 1994, and wire fraud. The charges had been brought following a joint investigation by the OLMS Honolulu Resident Investigator Office and other federal law enforcement agencies.
June 17th, 2002	On June 17, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, Roberta Cabral, a former Unity House consultant, pled guilty to three felony charges of evading personal income taxes in 1992 and 1993 and wire fraud for attempting to defraud Unity House. She also pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to file an individual federal income tax return for 1994. Unity House is a non-profit organization established to benefit members of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 5 and Hawaii Teamsters locals. The fraud involved a kickback scheme to defraud Unity House by inflating the costs of producing a television movie. Cabral had been indicted on May 4, 2000 on charges of wire fraud in the amount of $150,000 following a joint investigation by the OLMS Honolulu Resident Investigator Office and other federal law enforcement agencies.