"Judge" Webster: Consorting with Mobsters, Union-busters and Corporate Criminals

[Nathan Newman]

"Judge" Webster's History of Consorting with Mobsters, Union-busters and
Corporate Criminals
by Nathan Newman

See original post at
http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/000528.shtml#000528


"Judge Webster", SEC head William Pitt's appointee to the new accounting
oversight board, is about to suffer the worst fate of a "respected
Washington insider"-- actually having what such insiders do looked at
closely.

And it's not a pretty sight.

Along with the corporate board positions such as the one at U.S.
Technologies that currently has him in trouble, he also managed to get
appointment to the three-member government panel overseeing corruption in
the Teamsters.  Yet despite being paid $100,000 per year for the job, paid
out of hardworking Teamsters dues, many feel, according to today's New York
Times,  that Webster has been  doing very little to earn his money (see
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/05/business/05WEBS.html).

And he's been consorting with the worst of the old corrupt Teamster leaders
in that role.  As even conservative columnist Bob Novak noted recently (see
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20010801.shtml):

"Webster was honored May 11 at a New York Marriott Marquis Hotel dinner
hosted by one of the most unsavory of old Teamsters, George Barasch. Webster
addressed the Union Mutual Benefit Association (UMBA), which is charged in a
Garment Workers Union (UNITE) lawsuit as draining millions from Barasch's
Allied Trade Council (ATC) for his personal use. The IRB in November 1999
charged that Barasch and his family were siphoning money from benefit plans
of the ATC and the Barasch-controlled Teamsters Local 815. A lawyer in the
UNITE lawsuit was recently told by Barasch's son, Stephen: 'Judge Webster
seems to think we're OK.'"

The Labor Party-- the prototype third party supported by major unions --
condemned the board for allowing Webster to serve on the Teamsters oversight
board, since he also had corporate positions with antiunion firms. Here from
the Labor Party resolution this summer
(http://www.owcinfo.org/campaign/ILWU/Resolution.htm):

"WHEREAS the government's "Independent Review Board," established to oversee
the Teamsters Union, has a conflict of interest in that William Webster, a
former CIA and FBI director, who heads the board, also sits on the board of
directors of Anheuser-Busch, which negotiates contracts with the Teamsters.
In addition, Webster was on the board of the Pinkerton Security and
Investigations Services, notorious in labor history for its strikebreaking."

And Webster's involvement with NextWave, a telecom upstart that defaulted on
billions owed to the F.C.C., leaves many establishment leaders appalled that
he's allowed near corporate oversight (again from the NY Times):

"NextWave was a "bottom feeder," said Gerald Faulhaber, a Wharton School
professor who served as the F.C.C.'s top economist in 2000 and 2001. 'Do I
feel comfortable with my watchdog being involved with these guys? No.'"

Everyone may be claiming that Webster is a fine civil servant who just
happens to consort with mobsters, corporate felons, and union-busters.  But
let's just say we should err  on the safe side for a position entrusted with
enforcing corporate responsibility.

Fire his ass.