Former UAW Boss Joe Ashton pled guilty to a $4 million kickback scheme last week and may get up to three years in prison.
Another former United Auto Workers union executive has pled guilty to corruption—this time for accepting kickbacks on a lucrative watch deal.
Now, Joe Ashton is facing 30-37 months behind bars, reports the Detroit Free Press.
A retired powerful union boss and onetime General Motors board member pleaded guilty Wednesday to corruption, admitting he rigged a $4 million contract for 58,000 custom-made UAW watches and pocketed $250,000 in kickbacks along the way.
Retired UAW Vice President Joseph Ashton admitted before a federal judge that he crafted the watch deal knowing it was wrong, and secretly betrayed the trust of the autoworkers he was supposed to look out for.
According to court records, Ashton drafted the watch contract, steered it to his contractor friend — his personal chiropractor — and demanded a $250,000 kickback in exchange. For the vendor, it was a lucrative opportunity, prosecutors said: The watches cost less than $2.3 million to make, but the contract was for $3.97 million.
For more on the UAW’s Corruption Scandal, click here.
