Former Teamsters Chief Indicted

Former Teamsters President Ron Carey was indicted Thursday, charged with lying related to investigations into fund-raising activities for his 1996 union re-election bid, news agencies reported.

The seven-count indictment accused him of lying about his knowledge of an illegal scheme to use union members' money to fund his campaign, Reuters said.

Labor laws prohibit spending union money to aid individual candidates in union elections, Bloomberg noted.

Federal prosecutors, the Associated Press reported, said Carey had made false statements to an election officer, an investigator and a review board, and had committed perjury before a grand jury.

If convicted, Carey could be sentenced to five years in prison for each count.

He was elected to head the union in 1991 as a reform candidate, and was narrowly re-elected in 1996. But a court-appointed monitor overturned those election results amid evidence of illegal contributions.

In a new election in 1998, James P. Hoffa won the union presidency.

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