Former UAW official Ashton pleads guilty, faces 3 years in prison

DETROIT -- Joe Ashton, the UAW's lead negotiator with General Motors in 2011 who later sat on GM's board, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to money laundering and wire fraud.

Ashton is the 11th person to plead guilty in the federal government's ongoing corruption probe.

Ashton is expected to receive a prison sentence of 30 to 37 months and agreed to forfeit $250,000 he collected in kickbacks, according to the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors. Sentencing was scheduled for March 3.

Ashton was charged Nov. 6 in the corruption scandal that centers on the misuse of union funds. Ashton was the vice president in charge of the UAW's GM department from 2010 to 2014. He also was on the board of the UAW and GM's jointly run training center.

After retiring from the union, he represented the UAW's retiree health care trust on the GM Board of Directors for three years before resigning in 2017 after being implicated in the corruption investigation.

“He’s guilty, like the judge said,” Jerome Ballarotto, Ashton’s attorney told reporters. “Sometimes you just find that good people just make really bad decisions, and they do bad things because [of]… a situation they find themselves in at the moment.”

Ashton asked Ballarotto to apologize to UAW members and GM.

“The UAW was the center of his professional life for half a century,” Ballarotto said.

Ashton and Ballarotto will have an explanation for Ashton’s crimes at his sentencing in March. “It’s certainly not an excuse. It’s not a defense. It’s not justification,” Ballarotto said.

Ballarotto wouldn’t share the details of Ashton’s explanation Wednesday, but he said Ashton was not ordered to commit crimes. He made “bad decisions on his own.”

If Ashton’s sentencing is longer than 30 months, Ballarotto plans to file a motion for downward variance to shorten his sentencing time.

Ashton conspired with fellow union officials Michael Grimes and Jeffrey Pietrzyk to collect bribes and kickbacks from vendors of UAW memorabilia, prosecutors said.

According to the charges against him, Ashton in 2010 persuaded a chiropractor friend in Philadelphia to loan money to a construction company owned by another friend. After the construction company stopped repaying the loan, Ashton created a scheme in which the chiropractor formed a company solely to bid on a contract for 58,000 custom-made UAW watches, and Ashton steered the $4 million order to the chiropractor in exchange for a kickback. The watches were never distributed.

Ashton told the vendor in late 2016 to halt the payments because of the corruption investigation, according to court documents.

Grimes and Pietrzyk previously pleaded guilty. GM and the UAW in their new labor contract agreed to close and sell the training center, though some joint training activities will continue with GM controlling the funding.

Last month, GM filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles accusing FCA of bribing UAW officials to give it an advantageous labor contract and attempt to weaken GM. The suit accuses FCA of corrupting UAW negotiations in both 2011 and 2015 and mentions a number of former UAW officials, but Ashton is not named.

GM, in a statement, said: “The criminal conduct Joe Ashton admitted to is outrageous. GM was not aware of his illegal activity until it was revealed by the government’s investigation, nor did we know that he continued to benefit from wrongdoing after the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust appointed him to the GM Board -- a position he resigned in December 2017.”

The UAW statement, issued Wednesday, echoed other statements made during previous guilt pleas of its former officials. 

"The crimes that Joe Ashton has pleaded guilty to are against everything we stand for as a union, demonstrate his self-interest, and signify his lack of respect for the oath he took to protect the sacred dues money of our UAW brothers and sisters," the statement said. 

"Under the leadership of acting President Rory Gamble, the UAW and our Board are focused on reviewing and tightening policies and controls and implementing new measures to restore the full faith and trust of our more than 400,000 members across the country. If we find there has been wrongdoing, we will take all available actions to hold that person accountable."

Federal prosecutors condemned Ashton for his crimes.

“Joseph Ashton abused the power of his position in the UAW to brazenly demand kickbacks from a vendor," FBI Special Agent in Charge Steven D'Antuono said in a statement. "His actions deprived union members of the honest services they expect and deserve from those who are elected to make decisions in the union's best interest. The FBI is committed to fighting such corruption."