DETROIT — Federal agents are investigating a tip alleging UAW President Rory Gamble and former Vice President Jimmy Settles accepted bribes and kickbacks from a vendor, according to The Detroit News.
Citing two sources, The News said agents are looking into whether Gamble and Settles accepted money at a Detroit strip club after awarding lucrative contracts to businessman Jason Gordon. It’s unclear where the tip came from or how far along the investigation is. No charges have been filed and both parties deny wrongdoing.
The U.S. Justice Department as policy will neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.
“President Gamble can say he never took one red cent personally from Mr. Gordon or directly solicited anything from Mr. Gordon,” UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said in a statement. “And President Gamble has never been to that establishment with Mr. Gordon. It simply is not true and never happened.”
Gamble had not been made aware he was the target of an investigation and learned about it after The News reached out for comment, Rothenberg said.
Gamble, in a Thursday afternoon letter to UAW members, issued a point-by-point denial of The News’ story, saying the “scurrilous claims” against him were false.
“In all those years of working with this vendor, they never approached me in any manner that was less than professional or questionable in any way, and I absolutely never requested or received any cash or kickback from that vendor or any other,” he wrote. “Nor did I ever approach them in any unprofessional or questionable manner.”
Gamble also defended his former charity, GIVES, saying he “never personally solicited any money directly for the charity from any vendor.”
Gordon’s lawyer, in a statement to The News, said: “My client vehemently denies all of the allegations as being untrue.”
Settles’ lawyer declined to comment to The News.
It’s not clear when the investigation began, although U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider, the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in December his office had received new tips since he started speaking publicly about the corruption probe in late November. Prosecutors have also received recent guilty pleas from former UAW-GM Vice President Joe Ashton and his aides Michael Grimes and Jeff Pietrzyk and are expecting a guilty plea from former Region 5 Director Vance Pearson when he appears before a judge on Feb. 4.
Gamble has implemented a number of reforms in recent weeks in a bid to clean up the UAW from within and avoid potential government oversight should the feds bring racketeering charges against the union. He was named president in December after former President Gary Jones stepped down after being implicated in the probe.
Shortly after taking over as interim president before accepting the role on a full-time basis, he told Automotive News he was “confident” all remaining UAW executive board members were clean.
“I would not have accepted the role of president if I couldn’t withstand the scrutiny,” Gamble said in a statement this week. “Our union has suffered enough as a result of corrupt leaders. On my watch, we cannot and will not allow financial improprieties to rob our members of their hard-earned dollars. My sole focus as President is to strengthen the union’s financial controls, oversight and accounting system — and most importantly, to restore the trust of our union members.”