UPW chief goes on trial today
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
Eighteen months after they were indicted, Hawai'i United Public Workers union leader Gary Rodrigues and his daughter, Robin Haunani Rodrigues Sabatini, are scheduled to go on trial today on charges the two participated in a scheme to overcharge union members for healthcare benefits.
The 60-year-old Rodrigues remains head of the 12,000-member UPW and has denied any wrongdoing.
If convicted of the felony charges, Rodrigues faces almost certain prison time and removal as the leader of the union. The jury trial in federal Judge David Ezra's courtroom is expected to conclude before the end of the month.
The initial indictment, issued in March 2001, charges that Rodrigues negotiated agreements with Hawai'i Dental Service and the Pacific Group Medical Association under which some of the money paid by union members for monthly premiums was later used to pay consultants reviewing the health plans.
The indictment said Rodrigues instructed the healthcare companies to issue checks for consultant services to companies owned by his daughter. It also said Rodrigues never told the UPW's executive board or union members that he had included consulting fees as part of the contracts and set up his daughter and her company to primarily receive those fees.
The revised indictment issued in December charges Rodrigues and Sabatini with mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud a healthcare benefit program and money laundering.
Rodrigues alone is charged with embezzling labor-organization assets and accepting kickbacks in connection with an employee welfare benefit plan.
Federal prosecutors maintain that Rodrigues spent more than $200,000 of union members' money improperly to pay off a personal debt, to buy a new truck for himself and to hire his daughter at an inflated salary.
Rodrigues is represented by San-Francisco-based lawyer Doron Weinberg, who is expected to argue that his client did nothing illegal by hiring his daughter to serve as a consultant on union members' dental and health benefit plans.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
