The former vice president for employee relations at Fiat Chrysler was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider.
Alphons Iacobelli, 58, of Rochester Hills, served as the lead negotiator for, and administrator of, the collective bargaining agreements between FCA and the UAW.
Iacobelli previously pleaded guilty in January, saying he conspired with other FCA executives and employees, and with senior UAW officials, to illegally deliver over $1.5 million in prohibited payments and valuables to senior UAW officials.
He was involved in the conspiracy from 2009 through June 2015.
Iacobelli also admitted that when he conspired to make the illegal payments, he did so while acting in the interest of FCA in an effort to obtain benefits, concessions and advantages for FCA in the negotiation, implementation and administration of the collective bargaining agreements between FCA and UAW.
The illegal payments included first-class airline travel, designer clothing, furniture, jewelry, custom-made watches and paying off the mortgage of the home of a senior UAW official.
Iacobelli was the second defendant to be sentenced in the scandal.
“The Court’s sentence recognizes the serious harm done to rank and file union members who were betrayed by their UAW leadership who were bribed by Fiat Chrysler and its executives,” said U.S. Attorney Schneider. “Labor-management corruption poisons and undermines the collective bargaining process, and today’s sentence demonstrates that it will be vigorously prosecuted.”
