CHICAGO, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. federal agents are investigating labor leaders in the auto sector over corruption scandals such as buying pricey designer purses and a shotgun with trade union funds, the Detroit News reported Friday.
The questionable spending by some leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW), a leading American labor union representing automobile workers, included expensive designer purses and a shotgun which cost more than 2,000 U.S. dollars.
The probe details emerged three weeks after a federal grand jury indicted two former Fiat Chrysler executives, accused of conspiring in a scheme that drained more than 4.5 million U.S. dollars from union training center funds.
UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell was alleged to receive the shotgun as a birthday present in 2015. It turned out to be purchased with funds earmarked for the training of blue-collar workers.
Fiat Chrysler reportedly invested as much as 47 million U.S. dollars a year into the center to help train workers, but the lack of financial oversight appears to have bred "a culture of corruption," Peter Henning, a law professor and former federal prosecutor, was quoted as saying.
