Carey Could Face Ouster After Panel Says He Took Part in Scheme

A government-appointed panel on Tuesday took the first step toward removing Ron Carey as president of the 1.4-million-member Teamsters union for his alleged involvement in the spreading financial scandal surrounding his reelection campaign last year.

The Independent Review Board, which has the power to remove Carey from office, released its findings just hours after he announced he would temporarily step aside as president to fight an earlier government decision disqualifying him from running in a special rerun election against rival James P. Hoffa.

The board’s action is the biggest blow so far to Carey’s beleaguered presidency, leaving the onetime champion of the Teamsters’ reform effort facing the possibility of being banned from the union to which he has dedicated his entire working life.

Federal officials recently threw out Carey’s narrow 1996 victory over Hoffa and ordered a new election after concluding that Carey’s campaign was illegally financed.

Carey also is under investigation by a federal grand jury in New York. Three top Carey campaign operatives have pleaded guilty to criminal charges that they conspired to divert money from the union’s general treasury to his campaign.

Tuesday’s events move the nation’s second-largest union closer to becoming once again a ward of the federal government, which has worked for nearly a decade to rid the Teamsters of corruption. With Carey gone and the union’s political leadership in turmoil, the government finds itself having to place monitors inside the union to oversee its day-to-day operations.

Efforts to reach Carey’s attorney, Reid Weingarten, for comment on the IRB action Tuesday were unsuccessful. Earlier in the day, before the board’s announcement, Weingarten said Carey was taking leave because he was “placing the interests of the union and the reform movement above his own. And he expects to be fully vindicated when he finally gets his day in court.”

The three-member review board, which includes former FBI director William H. Webster, accused Carey of participating in a scheme to funnel money from the union’s general treasury to his reelection campaign. The board concluded that he authorized $735,000 in Teamsters contributions last year to three outside political action groups “knowing the contributions would result in a personal benefit to you in money to pay expenses for your reelection campaign.” Carey has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the scheme.