The campaign funding scandal that led to Ron Carey’s ouster as president of the Teamsters Union reached a California-based fundraiser Monday.
Charles Blitz, 45, of Santa Barbara, pleaded guilty to lying to the union’s court-appointed monitor, who was probing Carey’s 1996 campaign effort.
In a federal court in New York, Blitz admitted that he had covered up a scheme that had funneled Teamsters money to Citizen Action and Project Vote to match wealthy donors’ contributions to the Carey campaign.
He faces a five-year prison term, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, in a decision released Monday, Michael Cherkasky, the union’s court-appointed elections monitor, said Tom Sever, the Teamsters’ acting president, had retaliated against union officials and staff who belong to a rival camp in the coming union election.
The monitor ordered the union to update him weekly on all personnel changes.
