Consultant Charged in FBI Teamster Probe

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities on Friday arrested and charged a Washington political consultant with mail fraud, alleging that he diverted money from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to help finance the reelection campaign of the union’s president, Ron Carey.

Martin Davis, 35, a part-owner of a District of Columbia-based direct-mail firm called the November Group, was released on $100,000 bail after being charged by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York with embezzling money from the Teamsters.

Among the funding schemes alleged by prosecutors were several instances in which Davis is said to have solicited political contributions to Carey’s reelection campaign from the wife of the owner of a telemarketing company doing business with the union. He then steered union contracts to the husband’s firm and let the company overcharge the union by the amount of the campaign contributions, the prosecutors alleged.

Davis will plead innocent, according to an unnamed attorney quoted by the Associated Press. David Schertler, an attorney representing Davis, did not return phone messages left at his office late Friday, and there was no answer at his home.

The charges are part of a continuing grand jury investigation into the campaign of Carey, who ran as a “reform” candidate in a bitterly contested election in November against the son of former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa. Carey narrowly won reelection by a vote of 226,593 to 209,896.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office said “the investigation is continuing.”

The Teamsters issued a brief statement saying it “has provided full cooperation and assistance to the investigation and will continue to do so.” The Teamsters remain “committed to taking all actions that may be appropriate when the facts are known.”

Several current Teamsters officials have been called before the grand jury and asked about the campaign’s finances, according to sources close to the investigation. The chairman of the Carey campaign, an attorney and political consultant named Jere Nash, is appealing an order to testify in the case after invoking client-attorney privilege in the investigation.