{"id":158910,"date":"2021-01-28T09:24:37","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T14:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=158910"},"modified":"2021-01-28T10:35:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T15:35:57","slug":"former-uaw-leader-gets-jail-time-despite-prosecutors-request-against-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/01\/former-uaw-leader-gets-jail-time-despite-prosecutors-request-against-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Former UAW Leader Gets Jail Time Despite Prosecutor’s Request Against Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Edward “Nick” Robinson, once an aide to UAW Gary Jones, got one year in prison despite a prosecutor’s request for no jail time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A former United Auto Workers official from Missouri was sentenced to\u00a0one\u00a0year in prison despite federal prosecutors asking for no jail time due the cooperation he provided to investigators probing corruption within the UAW.<\/p>\n

David\u00a0Gardey, the assistant U.S. attorney responsible for public corruption case in the Eastern District of Michigan, said during a Zoom hearing that the defendant,\u00a0Edward \u201cNick\u201d Robinson, came forward on his own, offering to help federal investigators with the\u00a0investigation of the UAW.<\/p>\n

Robinson pointed federal investigators to substantial pieces of evidence that could have taken months to uncover without his assistance, according to Gardey.<\/p>\n

(Stellantis pleads guilty, agrees to $30M fine in UAW corruption probe.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Gardey told Judge Paul Borman that Robinson\u2019s cooperation led directly to charges being\u00a0filed\u00a0against two former presidents of the UAW, Dennis Williams and Gary Jones, as well another leader of the UAW, who was based outside of St. Louis. Moreover, Robinson\u2019s assistance was \u201ctruthful and sincere,\u201d Gardey added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
UAW President Rory Gamble said the union is working on “strengthening” UAW policies to prevent a repeat of the corruption recently exposed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robinson also helped investigators by agreeing to record telephone calls and by wearing a wire to help other defendants in criminal investigations, often for long periods of time, on 10 separate occasions, the defendant\u2019s lawyer noted. At one point, Robinson had to lift up his shirt\u201d to prove to his corrupt colleagues he was not wearing a wire in their meetings.<\/p>\n

During his months of cooperation, which stretched on for nearly a year and added an entirely new dimension to the federal probe, Robinson also provided the names of employees from hotels and resorts in Palm Springs and San Diego, California, as well as Missouri, Gardey said, filling\u00a0in the missing pieces of the puzzle investigators assembled\u00a0of the misconduct by\u00a0the union\u2019s top officers, including Jones and Williams.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s actions sped up the course of the investigation and helped\u00a0prosecutors put in place the settlement with the UAW that will lead to reform and greater oversight,\u00a0Gardey\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Judge Borman, however, observed that federal sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of between 30 and 37 months and Robinson had willingly participated in the conspiracy to defraud union members of dues money and political contributions for a period of nine years.<\/p>\n

Consequently, he set aside the prosecutor\u2019s request for no jail time, but he did reduce the amount of time Robinson<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robinson’s cooperation helped secure guilty pleas from former President Gary Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

will have to serve in prison to 12 months. Borman noted in practical terms Robinson will serve only about 10 months. The judge also recommended that Robinson be held at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, due to his ill health.\u00a0Robinson also doesn’t have to report to prison until August because of the spread of COVID-19 through the federal prison system.<\/p>\n

(Former UAW VP, GM director Ashton gets 30-month sentence.)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Robinson did not hold an elected office in the union but had been appointed director of the UAW\u2019s Community Action Program, or CAP, in Region 5. The CAP acts as the union\u2019s political action committee and directs cash and in-kind support to UAW-favored candidates.<\/p>\n

Region 5, before it was disbanded by the UAW, was responsible for the western portion of the United States, meaning Robinson administered the union\u2019s political spending in area reaching from the Mississippi River west.<\/p>\n

The union has said the disbanded the region because of declining membership in the area for which it was responsible. Robinson, however, will have to give back $300,000 he stole from the UAW as restitution.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
UAW President Dennis Williams also pleaded guilty due to evidence provided by Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The union declined to comment on whether the conspiracy to steal union funds had any impact on the UAW\u2019s political activity. But key races in which the diversion could have been felt included the U.S. Senate race in Missouri where incumbent Claire McCaskill, a Democrat backed by the UAW was defeated by Josh Hawley, the Republican challenger, who is now being criticized for promoting lies about the 2020 Presidential election propagated by\u00a0former President Donald Trump and white supremacists among others.<\/p>\n

The UAW said in a statement that Robinson\u2019s punishment fit the crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s sentence of former UAW member Nick Robinson is appropriate. Mr. Robinson\u2019s crimes violate everything we stand for as a union. His cooperation with the government, while noteworthy, does not excuse his blatant disregard\u00a0for the oath he took to serve the women and men he previously represented,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

(Former UAW President Williams pleads guilty.)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Rothenberg, UAW communications director, said, \u201cUAW President Rory Gamble, the UAW and our Board continue to focus on reviewing and strengthening the union\u2019s financial and ethical policies and internal controls.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former United Auto Workers official from Missouri was sentenced to\u00a0one\u00a0year in prison despite federal prosecutors asking for no jail time due the cooperation he provided to investigators probing corruption within the UAW.\u00a0Judge Paul Borman did reduce the term from the minimum guideline of 30 months, TheDetroitBureau.com reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":140811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,11,13],"tags":[],"make":[51],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,140,150,151,123,133,131,299,191,138,308,132,129,284,125,124,297,121,148,128,288,304,141],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158910"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=158910"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=158910"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=158910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}