'Guilty' ex-union officials cut deal

From TradeWinds:

Thomas Kelly and Jerry Joseph have pleaded guilty to felony charges in a US prosecution of a union.

US prosecutors have cut a plea bargain to secure two witnesses in their prosecution of leaders of the American Maritime Officers (AMO) union.

The deal is potentially bad news for the present AMO leadership.

Thomas Kelly and Jerry Joseph, longtime AMO officials who left after losing a 2001 election battle against the current leadership, have each pleaded guilty in the District of South Florida court to single counts of embezzlement of union funds and mail fraud respectively.

In return for a reduced sentence, they will be rquired to testify about other union matters. The two are thought to have been among the first netted when federal investigators of the AMO began in 2000 and had been widely expected to cut a plea deal.

The AMO's president and secretary-treasury, brothers Michael McKay and Robert McKay, have been under indictment since september in the Florida court along with two co-defendants for alleged offences including racketeering, bribery of union funds, election rigging, witness tampering and mail fraud. The AMO leaders pleaded not guilty and expressed confidence at the time that they will be exonerated once the truth is known.

Prosecutors hve asked the Florida court to transfer Kelly's case to the same judge who is trying the McKays.

In 2001, Kelly and Joseph lost a tooth-and-nail election fight to unseat the incumbent McKay brothers.
After losing, both became consultants for a time to the rival Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (Meba).

The AMO has sued both Joseph and Kelly over issues relating to their defection. Last Summer, the AMO won a multi-million-dollar judgement against Joseph. It lost a similar lawsuit against Kelly. Last week, TradeWinds reported on a massive $400m lawsuit by AMO against Meba over the Interlake fleet of Bulkers, which Meba wrested from AMO in 2003 on the Great Lakes, traditionlly AMO turf.

The AMO is the largest union for ship offices in the US, organizing many companies including Maersk Line ltd, Crowley Maritime, Saltchuk Group's Interocean American shipping, Secor's Seabulk, as well as many government-owned ships.

Michael McKay's defence lawyer Neal Sonnett has not responded to an email enquiry about the case.

Meanwhile, recent talk of new or newly revamped criminal charges against AMO leadership has proved incorrect.

The substance was accurate but not new. However, mny of the details had not been reported or circulated.
(see story below).

The AMO has made no statement on the case as TradeWinds went to press.

By Bob Rust, Stamford
Published: 10 February 2006