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Ron Carey

By Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A government prosecutor Tuesday described former Teamsters President Ron Carey as a man who lied repeatedly to investigators in order to keep his job at the helm of the nation's largest private sector union.

But a defense attorney depicted Carey as an honest reformer who was duped by political professionals set to profit at his and the union's expense.

The arguments were made as a jury of nine women and three men heard opening statements in the trial of the former Teamsters leader, who is charged with lying to investigators about the diversion of union funds to his 1996 re-election campaign.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

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Carey narrowly defeated James P. Hoffa by 16,000 votes out of 458,000 ballots cast during the mail-in election that ended December 10, 1996. After deciding that Carey had prior knowledge of the scheme, the union barred him from the rerun election, won by Hoffa, the current union president.

Carey is not charged with executing the scheme. Once discovered, it cost him his hard fought and narrow victory over challenger Hoffa, along with his job and his membership in the union that he joined as a UPS driver in 1955.

Prosecution outlines case

Assistant United States Attorney Debbie Landis told jurors that Carey falsely testified seven times to election monitors, the union's review board and a federal grand jury about the fund-raising scandal that invalidated his 1996 victory for a second term as president of the 1.4 million-member union.

The scheme, run by Carey's campaign consultants, was an illegal cash swap whereby hundreds of thousands of dollars was donated by the Teamsters to political groups, which reciprocated by arranging for wealthy individuals to contribute to Carey's coffers.

"The evidence will show he [Carey] not only let that happen, he actually approved it," Landis said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Debbie Landis

"Ron Carey was told that Teamster union money was going to be used in a way that would benefit his campaign," Landis said. "He lied to be sure he would not be implicated in a scheme to defraud the union of those funds," she said.

Four men were convicted of hatching and running the scheme: Carey campaign manager Jere Nash, political consultant Martin Davis, direct mail provider Michael Ansara and former union political director William Hamilton. Nash and Hamilton are key names on the prosecution witness list.

As polling in the fall of 1996 showed Carey's lead over Hoffa diminishing, Nash and Davis launched a direct mail campaign costing $700,000 and prompting the need for more fund raising. The government maintains that Nash and Hamilton informed Carey that the proposed donations would benefit his campaign, which Carey has denied.

Five Teamster donations totaling $885,000 were made in a two-week period in October 1996 and triggered contributions back to Carey's campaign or the consultants' firm, the November Group. The largest donation, which Carey has testified he did not recall, was $475,000 to Citizen Action, a consumer and environmental advocacy group. The union's biggest previous gift to the group had been $15,000, Landis said.

"Ron Carey approved all of those requests," the prosecutor said," "without asking a single additional question."

Carey not part of scheme, attorney says

Defense attorney Mark Hulkower told jurors that Carey is a "decent and honorable man" and that approving the illegal fund-raising scheme would have been out of character for a man who dedicated his life to the union and cleaning it up.

"Ron Carey is neither a liar or a perjurer, and however much Mr. Carey wanted to win a second term as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, he was not party to and never approved a scheme to divert money from the union," Hulkower said.

Hulkower said that Carey, elected in the union's first direct, secret ballot vote by union members in 1991, purged the union of corrupt leaders and cut perks -- the private plane, limousines, free lunches and his own salary by a third.

"Ron Carey did not put hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money back in the Teamsters' treasury to allow a couple of schemers to steal that money," Hulkower said.

Hulkower suggested the illegal fund raising was devised so Nash and Davis could pocket bigger fees for their work on the campaign, adding that Carey neither participated in the scheme nor knew about it.

"No one tells Ron Carey what's going on and the government doesn't suggest they do," Hulkower said. "Even though he had nothing to hide, he somehow lied. Figure that out," he said.

The 65-year-old Carey hopes to avoid the fate of four immediate predecessors who were convicted on corruption charges, including Jimmy Hoffa, father of James P. Hoffa, and a fifth Teamsters president who died before trial.