BostonHerald.com
Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Feds probe Massport deal with Teamsters
by Jack Sullivan

Federal investigators probing embattled Teamsters boss George W. Cashman
have subpoenaed Massport records for a sweetheart deal that allows the local
union to operate a profitable truck driver training school rent-free on the
authority's prime waterfront property in East Boston, sources said.

Investigators are eyeing whether Charlestown-based Local 25 is being given
special treatment because its president is Cashman, who is also a member of
the Massachusetts Port Authority's board of directors, according to sources.

In addition, the driving school may be violating state law by training
drivers for commercial driver's licenses who are not members of Local 25.

Sources confirmed that the authority's employees receive training at the
school, and Teamsters sources said drivers from other companies, including
utilities, regularly pay for instruction at Pier One in East Boston even
though the Teamsters are not certified as required by the Registry of Motor
Vehicles if they train drivers from outside Local 25.

Massport spokesman Jose Juves declined to comment on the subpoena or the
driving school.

``It's Massport policy not to comment concerning any requests for
information that might be received from law enforcement officials,'' he
said.

Juves said the area is under agreement to be developed as residential
property owned by the authority but he did not know the timeframe.

A spokesman for the Department of Labor's Inspector General office also
declined comment. And Cashman did not return a call for comment.

The subpoena is the second Massport has received from investigators
regarding Cashman. Last month the Herald reported investigators subpoenaed
Cashman's Massport credit card and expense records.

One high-ranking Massport official said the agency has been cooperating with
investigators. The official initially said all Massport employees receive
free training from the Teamsters driving school as part of the agreement but
later amended that to just Teamsters at Massport when informed the school is
not certified to instruct anyone who is not a member of Local 25.

One source said the rent-free deal predates Cashman's place on the board but
conceded Massport officials have been unable to locate any contract or other
records showing how long the agreement has been in place or what the terms
of the agreement are.

The head of the Teamsters driving school is Sean O'Brien, a former member of
the union's movie crew, which is the focus of the racketeering probe.
O'Brien's father is William O'Brien of Charlestown, a transportation
coordinator on the crew.

William O'Brien's name appears in an indictment in the 1994 armored car
heist in New Hampshire that ended in the execution of two guards. The
indictment stated William O'Brien's name was on the rental agreement of the
getaway car, but O'Brien was never charged.

In addition to Sean O'Brien, William O'Brien has two other sons who are
members of Local 25; one who works on the movie crew and another employed at
Massport.

At the driving school yesterday, about a half-dozen men took turns
maneuvering tractor-trailer units emblazoned with the Local 25 logo through
rows of orange cones. Nearby, a man sat in a Massport dump truck reading a
newspaper.

At one point, an instructor approached a Herald photographer and reporter
outside the fenced in area posted with Massport ``No trespassing'' signs to
inquire who they were. When asked if he was Sean O'Brien, the man asked why.
When the reporter identified himself, the man abruptly walked away.

``See you later, buddy,'' he said as he grabbed his cell phone to make a
call.

The subpoenas are the latest twist in a federal grand jury's widening
two-year-old racketeering probe of Cashman and other Local 25 members.
Sources said investigators are looking deeper into Cashman's relationships
with state officials, including $125,000 that has been tucked into each of
the last three state budgets for Local 25 to train its members.

Cashman was a confidant of former Gov. Paul Cellucci and threw his union's
support behind the then-acting governor in the 1998 gubernatorial election.
Cellucci, now US ambassador to Canada, reappointed Cashman to a seven-year
term on the Massport board.

The federal probe had initially been focusing on allegations of shakedowns
and strongarming of movie producers and studios filming in Massachusetts by
members of Local 25's movie crew. Investigators allege that the movie crew's
bosses regularly pad expense and overtime sheets, force producers to rent
members' equipment usually at a higher cost and add unneeded workers to the
crew at a minimum base pay of $2,000 a week plus expenses.

Investigators have subpoenaed scores of records from the studios, the
Massachusetts Film Office and Local 25, and dozens of witnesses have already
testified before the grand jury, according to sources. The probe has widened
into shakedowns of moving and freight companies as well.

In addition to Cashman, another target of the grand jury is ex-con and
alleged Mob associate James P. Flynn, who runs the Teamsters movie crew.
Flynn, whose South Shore home was raided by investigators last year, is
being probed for forcing filmmakers to rent equipment from his company,
Location Connection, in exchange for labor peace on the sets.

The Herald has also reported that the the plum movie crew assignments are
regularly doled out to an array of Hell's Angels, convicted killers and bank
robbers as well as new union members such as the disgraced sheriff of
Middlesex County, John McGonigle.


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