A union oversight board announced yesterday that a top assistant to the Teamsters president, James P. Hoffa, would be suspended for 60 days and had repaid $69,500 after the board's investigators accused him of embezzlement.þþThe assistant, Carlow Scalf, who is Mr. Hoffa's chief of staff and one of his top advisers, signed a settlement on Monday with the oversight board after its investigators found that he was improperly taking a housing allowance.þþUnder Teamsters regulations, Mr. Scalf, who was living in Michigan before Mr. Hoffa appointed him, was permitted to receive a monthly housing allowance relating to his duties in Washington, where the union is based. But investigators with the oversight board, the Independent Review Board, found that he had continued to receive his housing allowance for 34 months, from March 2001 to January 2004, even though he no longer had a principal place of residence outside of Washington.þþThe board said Mr. Scalf had agreed to a settlement and to repay the money before the board had filed formal charges against him. The settlement states that it does not constitute an admission or a denial of wrongdoing and that no charges will be brought accusing Mr. Scalf of knowingly providing inaccurate information to the union.þþExplaining why he entered into the settlement, Mr. Scalf said in a telephone interview yesterday, ÿI didn't want to fight the charges, because it would have been too expensive.ÿþþMr. Scalf, who is executive assistant to the president, said he had inadvertently failed to inform the union that he no longer maintained his home in Michigan.þþSeveral Teamster officials said it was unclear whether Mr. Scalf would be allowed to return to his job after the 60-day suspension. Bret Caldwell, the Teamsters' communications director, said, ÿPresident Hoffa is reviewing the facts of the case and will make a decision on Mr. Scalf's return once he completes his review.ÿþþThe oversight board sent its agreement to Judge Loretta Preska of Federal District Court in Manhattan for approval.þþUrging Mr. Hoffa to fire Mr. Scalf, officials with Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a caucus within the union, asserted that the suspension was far too light a penalty. Ken Paff, the group's national coordinator, noted that several Teamster officials had been expelled from the union for embezzling less than $10,000.þþIn 2001, the oversight board forced Richard Lyter, executive assistant to the union's secretary-treasurer, to resign after it found that he had taken $3,400 in unauthorized meal expenses. He was barred from future dealings with the union. þþLast April, Edwin Stier, a former prosecutor who headed the Teamsters' internal anticorruption effort, accused Mr. Scalf of working behind the scenes to shut down Mr. Stier's investigation into organized crime's influence on Teamsters in Chicago.þþMr. Scalf said yesterday that Mr. Stier's accusations were unfounded.þþ
Source: NY Times
