DETROIT -- Former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who headed the most recent round of contract negotiations with FCA US, has been implicated in the widening, multimillion-dollar corruption scandal involving the union and Fiat Chrysler.
A plea deal released last week between the U.S. Attorney's Office and former FCA US labor relations chief Alphons Iacobelli does not name Jewell; however, it indirectly identifies him. It also names Jewell's charity as one of several to allegedly receive restricted funds.
Jewell, who abruptly retired at the end of last year, has not been formally named or charged with any crimes.
Attempts to reach Jewell this week were unsuccessful. An unknown individual who answered the Ohio phone number listed for Jewell's charity said he "can't help" with any questions.
A UAW spokesman declined to comment directly on the implications. An FCA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
Iacobelli, according to the plea deal, admits that he and other FCA executives and employees transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars "in prohibited payments" to tax-exempt organizations controlled by UAW officials, including Jewell's Making Our Children Smile Foundation.
The money was allegedly siphoned through the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, which is funded by the automaker and jointly operated with the union.
The plea deal also says Iacobelli authorized salary reimbursements, along with "a fraudulent 7 percent administrative fee" as a "political gift to the Vice Presidents of the UAW Chrysler Department" -- a statement that implicates Jewell.
Jewell, who began leading the department in June 2014, is one of only two union vice presidents to hold that position during the focus of the investigation, from January 2009 to July 2015.
Feds have identified Jewell's predecessor, General Holiefield, as being a key figure in the $4.5 million scandal. Holiefield, who died in March 2015, led the department from June 2006 to June 2014.
Holiefield's charity, the Leave the Light on Foundation, was another tax-exempt organization named in Iacobelli's plea deal. It previously had been identified by federal officials as a way of funneling money to union officials and Holiefield's wife, Monica Morgan, one of four charged in the case so far.
The others charged, in addition to Iacobelli, are Virdell King, a retired UAW associate director, and Jerome Durden, a former FCA financial analyst who served as treasurer of Holiefield's charity and as controller of the UAW-Chrysler training center from roughly 2008 to 2015.
All aside from Morgan have pleaded guilty as part of plea deals and await sentencing. She is scheduled for a plea hearing on Feb. 6. in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Federal officials, according to a source familiar with the investigation, conducted a search of Jewell’s home late last year.
Prosecutors contend FCA employees and executives such as Iacobelli paid union workers through the charities and other methods, including training center credit cards, to influence union business, including collective bargaining negotiations in 2011 and 2015.
The UAW, including President Dennis Williams, has adamantly denied such activities could have influenced the union's bargaining process.
"There's just no truth to the allegation that the terms of the collective bargaining agreement were compromised by Iacobelli's crimes," Williams wrote Friday in a letter to union members. Williams argued, “Iacobelli’s case is one of personal greed, plain and simple.”
Following the investigation being made public, the union made changes to its charity practices, including banning UAW-affiliated nonprofits to take donations from the UAW and the joint program centers. The UAW has not stopped allowing personal charities, however several union officials reportedly have let their state registrations expire.
The UAW announced in November that Jewell, 60, would retire and not seek re-election -- an unusual, if not unprecedented, occurrence. UAW officers younger than the mandatory retirement age of 65 typically seek re-election and step down only at the end of a term, which would have been in June for Jewell.
In August, The Detroit News reported that he received a $2,180 shotgun bought with union training center funds as a birthday present.
The UAW has said Jewell paid for the gun after finding out it was bought with the training funds.
Nancy Johnson, Jewell's top administrative assistant, reportedly instructed King to pay for the gun with a training center credit card.
Making Our Children Smile
