(CBS DETROIT) – United Auto Workers union president Shawn Fain and other union leaders are being investigated by a federal court-appointed monitor, according to a court filing.
According to a 32-page status report filed Monday, Fain is being investigated on allegations that the union failed to cooperate with the monitor, Neil Barofsky, in providing requested documents and that Fain retaliated against the UAW secretary-treasurer for its refusal to authorize “certain expenditures of funds at the request of and/or for the benefit of those in the Office of the President.” In the report, Barofsky wrote that members of the International Executive Board (IEB) passed a motion allowing Fain to revoke orders from the secretary-treasurer following allegations of misconduct.
The report also stated that Barofksy is investigating Fain’s removal of one of the union’s vice presidents from oversight of the Stellantis Department in May 2024. The vice president alleged that Fain retaliated against him because he ” refused to engage in financial misconduct for the benefit of others. ”
In an unrelated investigation, Barofsky received allegations that a regional director was involved in possible embezzlement.
Barofsky was appointed in 2021 to investigate the union in connection with a bribery and embezzlement scandal, resulting in convictions of former UAW leaders.
The report said the union cooperated shortly afterwards Barofsky’s third report in July 2022, which concluded that UAW withheld information. However, in February 2024, he began investigating executive members, including Fain, the secretary-treasurer, and one of the union’s regional directors, after the UAW’s level of cooperation began to “erode.”
Around that time, the union submitted about 2,600 of the 116,000 requested documents. More than 80% of the submitted documents were provided days before the last report was released on June 6.
“While the Union has cooperated in making UAW employees and senior leaders available for interviews by the Monitor’s investigative team, the Union has not cooperated in producing documents relevant to the investigation in a complete and timely manner, but instead, the Monitor required them to conduct those interviews without the benefit of the full production of potentially relevant and contemporaneous documents,” Barofsky wrote in the report.
The report cited a consent decree saying the regulator has full access to the requested documents and the authority to remove “fraud, corruption, illegal conduct, dishonesty and unethical practices of the UAW and its constituent entities.”
UAW argued it could withhold documents due to privilege; However, Barofsky said this only applies to when he attends board meetings, which he does as an observer.
