COLTON—(January 22) A husband and wife who served as the former presidents of  United Industrial and Service Workers Local 101 and two of their children have been indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with embezzling $900,000 from the union’s wealth and welfare trust over eight years.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, John S. Romero, 68, the former president of United Industrial and Service Workers of America Local 101; his wife, Evelyn Romero, 66, who was the immediate successor to her husband as president of United Industrial and Service Workers Local 101; their son, John J. Romero, 50, the former secretary and treasurer of United Industrial and Service Workers Local 101; and their daughter, Danae Romero, 37, who was a union officer misappropriated the money by making monthly payments from the union account into fraudulent accounts, some of which were set up outside California.
According to a 40-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury last week, the Romero family members colluded in a scheme that involved the filing of false and fraudulent annual reports with the U.S. Department of Labor. Those documents failed to disclose more than $100,000 in United Industrial and Service Workers Local 101 revenues and disbursements, as well as the knowing and willful misuse of assets from both the operating fund and health plan of United Industrial and Service Workers Local 101  from 2006 until 2014.
Evelyn Romero’s tenure as United Industrial and Service Workers of America Local 101 president ended in June 2014.
Assistant United States Attorney Jay Robinson is prosecuting the case. According to Robinson, the union was making monthly payments for a non-existent office for the United Industrial and Service Workers union in Nevada.  The payments were in fact routed to a Nevada-based company that had been created by John S. Romero, Evelyn Romero and Danae Romero, according to Robinson.
The indictment alleges that some of the health plan’s bank accounts were held in the name of a construction company associated with the health plan’s third party administrator, through which the Romero family received payments without the knowledge or consent of the health plan’s second trustee. It is further alleged that the Romero family controlled the health plan’s reserve fund accounts and used those assets for their personal benefit.
The Romeros allegedly used the union trust funds to pay personal and union-related legal fees and judgments levied against them, including roughly $110,000 to pay for a civil lawsuit that involved John S. Romero and John J. Romero.  The defendants also arranged for health plan assets to be diverted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, through systematic payments to  a separate business entity they operated under false pretenses, fund a payroll account that had been established using the name and employer identification number of the now-defunct  United Service Workers of America labor union they had been in control of ,  pay off a car loan for a vehicle belonging to another Romero family member, and recirculating assets from the health plan’s reserve fund to its operating account to cover the insurance expenses for their own healthcare benefits that were billed to the union.
The indictment further alleges the four defendants knowingly and willfully permitting another Romero-family member who had previously been convicted of a felony narcotics violation to serve as an officer and employee of United Industrial and Service Workers Local 101.
If convicted of all of the charges in the indictment, the four defendants would face decades in federal prison.
The 40-count indictment is the result of a joint investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Labor – Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Labor Management Standards which was prompted by an anonymous call regarding some inconsistencies with the way the trust money was being handled.
Despite the reputation that John S. Romero and John J. Romero had for carrying firearms, all four defendants were arrested without incident on January 28.