Illinois state senator indicted on embezzlement charges
An Illinois state senator has been indicted on federal charges that he took more than $250,000 in salary and benefits over a three-year period from the Teamsters while doing little or no work, prosecutors announced Friday.
In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said Thomas E. Cullerton of Villa Park was indicted by a federal grand jury on 39 counts of embezzlement from a labor union, one count of conspiracy to embezzle from a labor union and employee benefit plans and one count of making false statements in a health care matter.
According to the release, the 49-year-old Cullerton, a member of the Teamsters before he took office, was hired as a “purported union organizer” for Teamsters Joint Council 25 in March 2013. Prosecutors said that over the next three years he was paid nearly $190,000 in salary, bonuses, vehicle and cellphone allowances and another $64,000 in health and pension contributions despite the fact that he “did little or no work as a union organizer.” According to the release, when the Joint Council did ask him to perform his job duties, “Cullerton routinely ignored them.”
Cullerton also was reimbursed for almost $22,000 in medical claims from a union local’s Health and Welfare Fund after falsely providing information that he was a “route salesman,” according to the indictment, a claim that concealed the fact that he wasn’t eligible to participate in the fund.
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In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said Thomas E. Cullerton of Villa Park was indicted by a federal grand jury on 39 counts of embezzlement from a labor union, one count of conspiracy to embezzle from a labor union and employee benefit plans and one count of making false statements in a health care matter.
According to the release, the 49-year-old Cullerton, a member of the Teamsters before he took office, was hired as a “purported union organizer” for Teamsters Joint Council 25 in March 2013. Prosecutors said that over the next three years he was paid nearly $190,000 in salary, bonuses, vehicle and cellphone allowances and another $64,000 in health and pension contributions despite the fact that he “did little or no work as a union organizer.” According to the release, when the Joint Council did ask him to perform his job duties, “Cullerton routinely ignored them.”
Cullerton also was reimbursed for almost $22,000 in medical claims from a union local’s Health and Welfare Fund after falsely providing information that he was a “route salesman,” according to the indictment, a claim that concealed the fact that he wasn’t eligible to participate in the fund.
Click Here to read more.