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Both men were arrested two weeks ago by federal agents in connection with a $350,000 embezzlement scheme.
Dressel was an advisor to, and DeBouter the director of, the local’s Joint Apprentice Training Fund when Dressel gave his then-girlfriend several sources of income with the Local 164 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Paramus and the JATF, an indictment returned by a grand jury in Newark says.
In 2008, it says, Dressel created the “Captive Lunch Program,” requiring the Apprentice Fund to use his girlfriend’s catering services to supply lunches to about 40 apprentice trainees for four days a week.
The gig paid $60,000 a year.
At the same time, he hired her as a member of his office staff at $1,000 per week, plus 50% fringe benefits for health, pension and annuity funds, the federal indictment alleges.
After eight months, her pay was boosted to $86,000.
In exchange, Kathleen Dressel provided no substantial benefit to the local, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.
- YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The rumors began after influential union leader Richard “Buzzy” Dressel resigned from the board of trustees of both Bergen Community College and the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation, and this morning federal agents arrested him in connection with a $350,000 embezzlement scheme. READ MORE….
The indictment also charges that in March 2010, Dressel and DeBouter went to the JATF’s Executive Board and demanded repayment to the union of $108,196, representing what the defendants claimed the union mistakenly paid for Mrs. Dressel’s salaries from March 2008 through February 2010.
The two were married in June 2010.
Dressel, 63, of Montvale, officially resigned from the board of trustees of both Bergen Community College last month, followed nearly two weeks later by his resignation as vice-chairman of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation.
He also stepped down from the board of the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, a government agency that regulates money paid by casinos to Atlantic City. Dressel, who once served on the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority Board, also nearly ran for the chairmanship of the Bergen County Democratic Committee.
Both Dressel and DeBouter, 55, of Oakland, officially entered not-guilty pleas in U.S. District Court earlier today.
Negotiations toward possible plea bargains could follow between their lawyers and Assistant U.S. Attorney V. Grady O’Malley, senior litigation counsel, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark, who presented the case to the grand jury and is handling the prosecution.
Fishman credited special agents of the Department of Labor, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, and of the Office of Employee Benefit Security Act (EBSA), with making the case.
PHOTO ABOVE: Richard ‘Buzzy’ Dressel (COURTESY: NJPoliticker.com)
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