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
April 30th, 2003	On April 30, 2003, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Joseph Biernat, Minneapolis City Councilman, was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment and two years probation. He was also ordered to make restitution of $2,700 (to be paid jointly with co-defendant Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15) and pay a fine of $10,000. He was found guilty on November 21, 2002 of one count of aiding and abetting an embezzlement of $2,700 from Plumbers Local 15, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of making a false statement. The charges were brought following an investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office and the FBI.
April 1st, 2003	On April 1, 2003, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15, was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment and three years probation. He was ordered to make restitution of $43,323 and was fined $5,000. He had pled guilty on November 25, 2002 to one count of embezzling approximately $3,175 in union funds and one count of mail fraud. The charges had been brought following an investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office.
November 25th, 2002	On November 25, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15, pled guilty to one count of embezzling approximately $3,175 from Local 15 by using Local 15 funds to pay for plumbing work for an unnamed public official and one count of mail fraud in connection with the mailing of a Local 15 check to a contractor to pay for $2,700 in free plumbing work performed at a property owned by former Minneapolis City Councilman Joseph Biernat. Martin was named in an indictment on April 17, 2002, a superceding indictment on May 21, 2002, and a superceding indictment on October 16, 2002. Councilman Biernat was convicted of embezzlement, mail fraud, and making a false statement on November 21, 2002. The charges were brought following a joint investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office and the FBI.
November 21st, 2002	On November 21, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Joseph Biernat, Minneapolis city councilman, was found guilty on one count of aiding and abetting an embezzlement of $2,700 in the union funds of Plumbers Local 15, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of making a false statement. Biernat was acquitted on one count of extortion under color of official right and one count of conspiracy to extort under color of official right. Superceding indictments were brought against Biernat and Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15, on May 21, 2002 and October 16, 2002. The charges were brought following a joint investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office and the FBI.
October 16th, 2002	On October 16, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, a second superceding indictment was returned against Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15, and Joseph Biernat, Minneapolis city councilman. The latest superceding indictment contained the same thirteen counts against Mr. Martin and seven counts against Mr. Biernat included in the May 21, 2002 superceding indictment. It added one additional count of mail fraud against both Mr. Martin and Mr. Biernat involving an individual tax return mailed to the Internal Revenue Service. The charges were brought following a joint investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office and the FBI.
May 21st, 2002	On May 21, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota a superceding indictment was returned against Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15, and Joseph Biernat, Minneapolis city councilman. The superceding indictment contained the same five counts against Thomas Martin and five counts against Joseph Biernat that were in the original April 17, 2002 indictment. It added two additional counts of mail fraud against both Joseph Biernat and Thomas Martin, and added three additional counts of embezzling a total of $25,446 in union funds, one count of obstruction of justice concerning an OLMS investigation, and one count of concealing a material fact from OLMS against Thomas Martin. The charges were brought following a joint investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office and the FBI.
April 17th, 2002	On April 17, 2002, in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Thomas Martin, former business manager of Plumbers Local 15, and Joseph Biernat, Minneapolis city councilman, were indicted on one count of conspiracy to extort under color of official right in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1951 (Hobbs Act), one count of embezzling $2,700 in union funds, and one count of mail fraud. Thomas Martin was further indicted on two counts of embezzling $15,177 in union funds, and Joseph Biernat was further indicted on one count of extortion under color of official right in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1951 and one count of making a false statement. Also indicted was Joseph Martin, Thomas Martin's brother, on one count of aiding and abetting an embezzlement of $9,177 in union funds. The charges were brought following a joint investigation by the OLMS Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office and the FBI.