Fines Levied on 2 Presser Aides in Payroll Case

Teamsters international Vice President Harold Friedman was fined $35,000, given four years of probation and stripped of union offices Friday for his federal conviction in a union payroll-padding scheme.

Anthony Hughes, a local union officer and one-time FBI informant, also lost his union office and was sentenced to four years of probation and fined $30,000.

However, U.S. District Judge George White granted a motion allowing the two to keep their union offices while their appeals are pending.

Friedman and Hughes were convicted on Jan. 13 for their parts in a scheme, allegedly involving the late Teamsters President Jackie Presser, to put on the payrolls of two Cleveland locals friends and reputed organized crime members who performed no work.

Presser died in July without going on trial.

The guilty verdicts against Friedman, an international vice president, president of the Ohio Conference of Teamsters and president of two Cleveland locals, and Hughes were handed down after two days of deliberations in U.S. District Court.

Friedman was found guilty of two counts of racketeering, one count of embezzling union funds and one count of filing false forms with the Labor Department. He was acquitted on one other embezzling charge and one charge of filing false forms.

Hughes was found guilty of two counts of racketeering and one of embezzling union funds.

The government had contended that the men embezzled more than $700,000 from the locals, but the jury found them guilty on charges of embezzling $52,300.