Another charge, plea deal in UAW-FCA scandal

A former UAW official pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in the widening, multimillion-dollar corruption scandal involving a joint training center between the union and Fiat Chrysler.Keith Mickens, 64, who oversaw operations of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Labor Relations Act as part of a plea deal with federal investigators.The release of Mickens' plea comes a day after Michael Brown, a former FCA US employee, was charged with one count of lying to a federal grand jury about the scope of the conspiracy.Brown is the seventh person charged with criminal involvement in the corruption scandal. Of those, Mickens is the fifth to plead guilty. The Detroit News reported that Brown, 60, was a director in Fiat Chrysler's employee relations department at the time of his testimony, but he has since left the company.Mickens was indicted March 13 for conspiring with Alphons Iacobelli, a former Fiat Chrysler labor executive, and late UAW Vice President General Holiefield from 2010 until 2015. Also pleading guilty to using stolen funds are Holiefield's widow, Monica Morgan; Virdell King, a retired UAW associate director; and Jerome Durden, a former FCA financial analyst. Nancy Johnson, a former top aide to ex-UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, was also charged for misusing training center funds, though she has not yet been arraigned.Facing prison termMickens faces up to two and a half years in federal prison -- shortened in the deal from an original 5-year maximum -- after admitting Thursday to spending more than $7,000 on luggage, golf equipment and unspecified items at two Best Buy locations using training center bank accounts and credit cards.Mickens was co-director of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center and was on the center's Joint Activities Board.In July 2013, Mickens secured a check for $13,500 payable to Monica Morgan Photography, according to the 28-page plea deal he signed on March 14. A few days later Morgan and Holiefield used the money to settle the remaining balance on a swimming pool at their Harrison Township home.The plea deal also says that in January 2016, FCA offered to pay Mickens $25,000 as part of a "one-time, non-precedent setting, incentivized retirement program" on the condition that he agree in writing not to disclose information of the payment to any third parties or members of the media.Mickens' sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 6.Raids on homesIn another development, federal prosecutors said Thursday that officials searched Jewell’s home in Swartz Creek on Nov. 3, 2017, as first reported by Automotive News on Jan. 31. Tax records, social security information, and other personal documents were taken from his home, according to a stipulated protective order that mentions the search warrant materials.The document mentions that Iacobelli’s and Morgan’s homes were searched as well. Jewell has not been charged with a crime. CA11499545.PDFSearch warrant disclosureCA11499545.PDF CA11499745.PDFMickens plea agreementCA11499745.PDF CA11499845.PDFMichael Brown informationCA11499845.PDF

Another charge, plea deal in UAW-FCA scandal

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