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The scandal involving executives from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and United Auto Workers officials continues to grow.
The latest indictment on Friday names retired UAW Associate Director Virdell King, and alleges that former Fiat-Chrysler executives Jerome Durden, Alphons Iacobelli and others bribed her and other UAW officials involved in contract talks to keep them "fat, dumb and happy," and make sure they took "company-friendly positions."
Contracts for tens of thousands of employees were negotiated and ratified in 2011 and 2015. The latest allegations raise concerns whether UAW officials had workers' best interest in mind during the talks. The company has insisted the bribes had no impact on the contract talks.
Alphons Iacobelli, who was indicted last month, is a central player in the scandal.
He was the Fiat-Chrysler vice president of labor relations and senior official responsible for contracts and resolving grievances and disputes arising from those agreements. General Holiefield, who died in 2015, was the UAW vice president, whose primary responsibility was negotiating contracts with Chrysler. And Virdell King was also responsible for negotiating contracts with the company.
The indictment alleges that Iacobelli, Fiat-Chrysler financial analyst Jerome Durden and other company officials used hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for gifts and expenses to King, Holiefield and other unnamed UAW officials.
The money came from bank accounts and credit cards from the UAW-Chrysler Training Center that was set up to educate, train and retrain employees. Company and UAW officials were on the board and Iacobelli and Durden controlled the funds.
Some of things of value the company paid for included designer clothing and shoes, travel, luggage, jewelry and electronics.
In December 2012, Holiefield told King that the company executive Iacobelli had no problem with them making personal purchases with credit cards from the national training center "if we see something that we want."
From 2012 to 2013, Holiefield made $200,000 in personal purchases on his UAW-Chrysler Training Center credit card, the indictment alleges.
In 2012, King made a credit card purchase for more than $1,000 in designer clothing. She also bought more than $1,000 in designer clothing for Monica Morgan, Holiefield's wife at the direction of Holiefield, the indictment alleges.
In July, Morgan, 54, of Harrison Township, along with Iacobelli, were indicted.
A federal grand jury alleged that Iacobelli was part of a multi-year conspiracy that involved giving 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 eac
The previous indictment alleges that Iacobelli, 57, of Rochester Hills, and others acting in the interest of Fiat Chrysler, made prohibited payments to Holiefield and Morgan for things of value including designer clothing, jewelry, furniture, and paying off the $262,219 mortgage on Holiefield's and Morgan’s residence in Harrison Township.
