Joseph Bonney | Sep 15, 2011 1:07PM EDT
A former officer of an International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1233 in Newark, N.J., was charged with stealing more than $100,000 in union funds.
Gregory “Ronnie” Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Local 1233 from 2005 until May 2010, was arrested Thursday by Labor Department agents and Waterfront Commission detectives.
He was accused of authorizing $62,700 in extra paychecks to himself, taking $13,650 in improper petty cash disbursements, and spending about $25,000 in union credit and debit cards for personal expenses, including trips to Colombia and Ivory Coast.
Taylor did not enter a plea at an initial hearing. He was released on $100,000 bond.
Federal prosecutors began investigating Taylor after a routine Labor Department audit raised questions about his handling of Local 1233’s finances.
Taylor had been removed from office in 2010 after an internal union investigation triggered by the discovery that he’d failed to pay the local’s property taxes. That inquiry, which ran parallel to the federal investigation, later was broadened to include allegations of unauthorized use of union funds.
-- Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @josephbonney.
