Earlier this week it was revealed that General Motors was seeking to reinstate its racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles after new evidence came to light.
GM’s newly acquired evidence allegedly provides proof that FCA used a network of foreign bank accounts to funnel bribe money to certain individuals in exchange for inside information on GM and its relations with the UAW. Among the people alleged to have received payments from FCA via offshore bank accounts was retired UAW president Ron Gettelfinger – accusations that he vehemently denied in an open letter published this week.
“I want to be unequivocally clear: I have never had control over any financial account in any foreign country, nor has any member of my family,” Gettelfinger said in the prepared statement. “Further, neither I nor any member of my family have ever received one cent from a foreign account like GM claimed. Never.”
GM claimed Gettelfinger received payments through offshore accounts that “apparently exist in Panama and Switzerland in his name and the name of a family member,” according to The Detroit News. This marked the first time Gettelfinger, who was president of the UAW from 2002 to 2010, had been named or implicated in any legal proceedings pertaining to GM’s racketeering suit against FCA.
“The harm GM has brought to my name will be never be erased in some people’s eyes,” Gettelfinger also said in the statement. “I’m sure that won’t bother top GM management or their battery of attorneys or they would have been thorough in their so called ‘investigation’ before publicly smearing me and my family. I do realize that this is bigger than me. It’s about GM attempting to cause as much harm as they can to the UAW.”
In addition to Gettelfinger, GM’s most recent complaint against FCA also accused Alphons Iacobelli of providing FCA with labor strategy information. Former vice president of the UAW’s GM department, Joe Ashton, along with former UAW President Dennis Williams, were also named in the complaint.
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Comments
Looks like GM hired some crack investigators in their futile attempt to revive the lawsuit.
Or, now the IRS is also digging into this, especially if these foreign bank accounts were never reported on tax filings.
Bribery and kickbacks is a way of life in the UAW as this type of behavior goes back for as long as the union has existed.
An honest Union Leader…….Hmmmm
What else is this guy going to say? He likely thought he got away with it and is now facing losing all his the money and potentially going to prison. Worse, he may go down in history as one of the people that killed unions.