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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (62804)	11/20/1999 9:46:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 67261

Friday November 19 6:04 PM ET Ex-Teamster Official Convicted By Maisie McAdoo NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Teamster political director William Hamilton Jr. was found guilty on all counts on Friday in a widely-watched case involving the 1996 re-election campaign of then-Teamster president Ron Carey and officials from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). A Manhattan federal court jury found Hamilton, 57, guilty on six counts of conspiracy, embezzlement of funds, mail fraud, wire fraud and perjury after less than two days of deliberation following a month-long trial. Hamilton was accused with three co-conspirators of illegally diverting $885,000 in union funds, which belong to the union's members, to finance the Carey campaign in a series of complex transactions in which Teamster money was donated to liberal political groups, Citizen Action and Project Vote, with the tacit understanding that those groups would donate funds to the Carey campaign. ''The scheme can best be described as a swap scheme, a quid pro quo, a you'll-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours,'' said prosecutor Robert Rice at the start of the trial. Carey was re-elected in 1996 but the election was later overturned and he was expelled from the powerful International Brotherhood of Teamsters for life after government investigators found the re-election committee had illegally funneled money from the union's treasury to the campaign. Prosecutors also alleged that Hamilton and his co-conspirators attempted to enlist the DNC and the campaign to re-elect President Clinton in the financing scheme. The Teamster officials proposed they would ''donate'' union money to the Democrats' campaigns and then Democrats would find donors to kick back funds to Carey. Although Terence McAuliffe, Clinton's adviser and fund-raiser, was accused of playing a role in the scheme, DNC donors never materialized and no charges have been brought against any DNC officials. Co-conspirators Jere Nash, Carey's campaign manager, Martin Davis, a Washington-based fund-raiser for Carey, and Michael Ansara, a Boston telemarketing consultant, pleaded guilty in 1997 to funneling illegal contributions to Carey's campaign. Ron Carey was first elected to the presidency of the 1.4 million member Teamsters union in 1991 as the culmination of a long campaign to rid the union of historic corruption. Hailed as a hero, he stumbled and eventually lost his position after deliberately ignoring details of campaign contributions that he should have overseen. Carey was succeeded by James Hoffa, son of the famous union leader, whom he had previously defeated for the presidency. Hamilton is to be sentenced on Feb. 29. He faces up to 30 years in prison but will more likely serve concurrent 5-year terms. dailynews.yahoo.com