RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: ALEJANDRO STEPHENS: Ex-SEIU LOCAL 660 President given FOUR MONTHS in FEDERAL PRISON for his role in scheme called the "Voter Imporvement Project." Los Angeles County Federation of Labor political practices called into question

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

ALEJANDRO STEPHENS: Ex-SEIU LOCAL 660 President given FOUR MONTHS in FEDERAL PRISON for his role in scheme called the "Voter Imporvement Project." Los Angeles County Federation of Labor political practices called into question

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Image via WikipediaNote: I wanted to thank a couple of my readers (who happen to be members of the Service Employees International Union Local 660) for sending me this news item from the FBI from last week. Some how, this got past me. So, "this one week old news" is still "news" to me.

Stephens is the Ex-Prez of Local 660 and partner of 721 president Annelle Grajeda. In 2007, Stephens was paid nearly $14,000 by Local 721 "for official business" and $75,000 in "consulting fees" by the state council.

As an SEIU executive board member, he also received more than $104,000. Nice gig, dude.
Have a blast in the Pen this Fall and Winter!!

Randy Economy

FROM THE FBI:

Alejandro Stephens, 66, the former president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660 was sentenced today to four months in prison and three additional months of home confinement for his role in a scheme to defraud a non-profit organization called the Voter Improvement Project or “VIP” out of $52,000.

Alejandro Stephens: Jail time for the SEIU Local 660 Ex-PREZ

VIP was formed by the late head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, ostensibly to participate in non-partisan voter outreach, education, and registration programs.

The scheme involved VIP entering into bogus consulting agreements with Stephens and various of Stephens’ friends and family members. VIP would then pay the phony consultants for work they never did. In many instances, the alleged consultants had never even heard of VIP let alone done work for it. The phony consultants would, in turn, hand the money over to Stephens.

Pursuant to a plea agreement with the government, on September 24, 2009 Stephens pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion. The latter tax evasion charge stemmed from Stephens failure to report the $52,000 stolen from VIP on his 2004 federal income tax returns.

At sentencing, Stephens admitted for the first time that he had used the money taken from VIP for his 2004 SEIU Local 660 re-election campaign.

The Stephens prosecution resulted from a joint investigation involving the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service.

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Meet Randy Economy

You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

ALEJANDRO STEPHENS: Ex-SEIU LOCAL 660 President given FOUR MONTHS in FEDERAL PRISON for his role in scheme called the "Voter Imporvement Project." Los Angeles County Federation of Labor political practices called into question

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