Posted on 06/17/2010 9:26:24 AM PDT by dennisw
A roly-poly ripoff artist with a taste for hookers and gambling pleaded guilty Wednesday to squandering nearly $300,000 in looted union funds.
Daniel Hughes, 49, left a paper trail as wide as his waistband while spending the stolen money from 2005 to last year - using Port Authority union credit card, ATM card and checking account, prosecutors said.
The 400-pound married father of young son cavorted with prostitutes in Manhattan, the Bronx and a notorious Queens motel offering specially themed rooms and short-stay rates.
"They were $400 to $500 [per date]," Port Authority Deputy Inspector General Michael Nestor told Daily News about the union-subsidized trysts.
His stops included the "couples-friendly" Kew Motor Inn, where the Arabian Nights room featured a gold headboard and mirrored wall for his enjoyment, and the Southwestern room came with a mirrored ceiling.
At the Bowery Hotel, Hughes lounged on 400-thread-count Egyptian linens while enjoying marble bathrooms - and 24-hour room service. Suites rent for $650 a night at the upscale lower Manhattan hotel.
He also frequented the less glamorous Pelham Gardens Motel on East Gun Hill Road in the Bronx.
The disgraced ex-president of the Port Authority Field Association Local 111-S paid for the prostitutes using a union credit card and made withdrawals from the hotel ATMs with union banking cards, prosecutors said.
Hughes, who grew weepy and lost his composure in Brooklyn Federal Court, admitted spending the stolen $294,000 for his own unseemly entertainment.
"I didn't use it for union benefit," "I used it as salary."
Hughes helped launch the 250-member union nearly a decade ago and became its president in December 2002 - a job he held until resigning in January.
An investigation was launched last year after a union official noticed improprieties with the financial books maintained by Hughes, according to Nestor.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
He burned off more calories this way than doing the Jennny Craig diet. He should have deducted this for health expenses
This story is absolutely positively unbelievable! A union boss actually pled guilty to corruption charges? WOW!
Where is this thread going to go???
What part of “right-to-work” don’t they understand...
Hookers are unionized?
Look in the bright side. That is $300K that wasn’t used to elect Democrats...
He was merely trying to help the unemployment rate
He was spreadin’ da wealth!
This conjures up quite a nauseating visual. I think that the girls involved in these escapades really earned their money.
What’s more surprising is NYC would prosecute a Union Boss.
Pray for America
I wonder if he employed unionized hookers?
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