by
Monica Morgan
A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Alphons Iacobelli, the former Vice President for Employee Relations for Fiat Chrysler, on charges of being part of a multi-year conspiracy that involved giving $1.2 million in cash and gifts to members and officers of the United Auto Workers. He's also charged with diverting more than $1 million from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center for his own personal use and buying extravagant items including a Ferrari 458 Spider worth more than $350,000, a pool and two limited edition Mont Blanc pens costing $37,500 each.
Also indicted was Monica Morgan, 54, of Harrison Township, the wife of the late ex-UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who died in 2015.
The indictment alleges that Iacobelli, 57, of Rochester Hills, and others acting in the interest of Fiat Chrysler, made more than $1.2 million in prohibited payments to Morgan and then-UAW Vice President Holiefield and others.
The prohibited payments and things of value included designer clothing, jewelry, furniture, and paying off the $262,219 mortgage on Holiefield's and Morgan’s residence in Harrison Township, authorities allege.
The illegal payments are alleged to have occurred between 2009 and 2014 while Iacobelli and Holiefield had primary responsibility for negotiating and administering the collective bargaining agreements between FCA and the UAW, authorities said.
GM hired Iacobelli in January 2016 as executive director of labor relations, but it's unclear if he still works there, Melissa Burden of the Detroit News reports.
The Cover-Up
Additionally, authorities in a separate document charged Jerome Durden, 61, of Rochester, with conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing, impeding, and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service. Specifically, Durden was a financial analyst in the FCA Corporate Accounting Department who served as the Controller of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center from 2008 through 2015.
The feds charged that he prepared and filed tax returns for the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center which falsely concealed millions of dollars in payments directed to General Holiefield, Alphons Iacobelli and others.
FCA said in a statement it did not know of the scheme, and when it found out, the employees were terminated, according to the Detroit News.
“FCA US and the UAW were the victims of malfeasance by certain of their respective employees that held roles at the National Training Center (NTC), an independent legal entity. These egregious acts were neither known to nor sanctioned by FCA US,” the company said in the statement. “Upon learning of possible malfeasance in June 2015, the Company investigated the matter and, as a result, Mr. Iacobelli and Mr. Durden were promptly separated from the Company upon FCA US obtaining credible evidence of wrongdoing.
"Today's indictment alleges an outrageous abuse of power and misuse of this Chrysler executive's position of trust. The diverted funds from the NTC could have and should have been used to benefit Chrysler employees," Manny Muriel, head of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations division in Detroit, said in a statement.
David Gelios, head of the Detroit FBI said: "The funds misapplied deprived working men and women of critical workforce and professional development opportunities and calls into question the integrity of contracts negotiated during the course of this criminal conspiracy."
