Rodrigues jury gets forfeiture question today
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
Former United Public Workers union leader Gary Rodrigues is scheduled to return to federal court at 8:30 this morning to hear arguments on how much money, if any, he and his daughter Robin Sabatini should be made to forfeit to the federal government.
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Federal prosecutors Florence Nakakuni and Lynn Panagakos are expected to claim that Rodrigues and Sabatini should forfeit $308,080. That's the amount the prosecution claims Rodrigues funneled to companies owned by Sabatini over a five-year period for consulting work that was never done or that was paid to Sabatini for "sham work."
Former United Public Workers union leader Gary Rodrigues stepped down from that position on Friday.
A jury deliberated for about a day and a half before concluding Nov. 19 that Rodrigues was guilty of all 100 criminal counts brought against him. In addition, the jury found Sabatini guilty of all 95 counts against her.
The two were found guilty of dozens of mail fraud and money laundering charges, while Rodrigues alone was found guilty of embezzling union assets and accepting kickbacks related to a union benefit plan.
After the guilty verdicts, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees International Union, UPW's parent organization, suspended Rodrigues as statewide director of the 12,000-member union. Rodrigues, 61, stepped down from that position on Friday.
Prosecutors maintained during the trial that Rodrigues negotiated contracts with medical and dental insurance providers on behalf of UPW members.
Rodrigues also had the insurance providers set aside a small percentage of the premiums paid on behalf of the members to be routed back to the union so it could hire a consultant to evaluate the medical and dental plans, the prosecutors contended.
They claimed that Rodrigues never told anyone about the consulting fee arrangement and used the money first to repay a personal loan and then to steer hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sabatini's companies.
At the hearing this morning, prosecutors are expected to argue that all of the evidence presented at trial is all that is needed to show the two should be made to forfeit the money. The evidence includes copies of the scores of checks that were sent from, or on behalf of, the insurance carriers to Sabatini's companies, according to the prosecution.
But Doron Weinberg, Rodrigues' lawyer, has already called the forfeiture claim groundless, saying there is no one specific checking or savings account that contains only the money paid to Sabatini as a union consultant. Unless the prosecution can show that specific amounts of money in bank accounts belonging to Rodrigues or Sabatini stemmed from the illegal acts they were charged with, the two cannot be made to forfeit that money, Weinberg has said.
But Nakakuni has argued that under a relatively new forfeiture law, the prosecution need only show that money was obtained illegally, and to substantiate the amount, but does not have to show that the money that Rodrigues and Sabatini currently have in their various accounts is the very same money that resulted from the mail fraud and money laundering activities.
Federal Judge David Ezra, who presided over Rodrigues' trial, will hear the forfeiture issue, and the matter will be decided by the same jury that found Rodrigues and Sabatini guilty on all counts. The forfeiture count is expected to go the jury before noon, with a verdict on the matter expected by mid-afternoon.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
