The UAW paid roughly $218,000 in legal fees last year for former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, despite the embattled officer retiring at the end of 2017.
Federal prosecutors charged Jewell last month with one count of violating the Labor Management Relations Act for receiving more than $40,000 worth of travel, lodging and meals from people acting on behalf of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles from at least 2014 to 2016.
Jewell, who faces up to five years in prison for the felony, is scheduled for an arraignment and a plea deal hearing Tuesday afternoon in Detroit.
It's union policy to pay such legal fees for current and former officials if it involves union business, according to UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg. The payments, he said, ceased once Jewell indicated he would plead guilty.
The policies for paying such legal fees are under review, according to Rothenberg.
"We're reviewing and making policy changes throughout this process and we do have more reforms to come," he told Automotive News. "The payments stopped as soon as he said he was pleading guilty."
The payments were detailed in the union's annual filing to the U.S. Department of Labor. Jewell, according to the report, received $219,495 from the UAW in 2018, including $1,844 in salary and $217,651 for "official business" disbursements, which the UAW confirmed were legal fees.
It's unknown how much the union has paid to cover legal fees for other officials as part of the investigation, which stemmed from the misuse of jointly operated training center funds.
Jewell is the seventh person -- three from FCA US and four associated with the union -- to be charged in connection to a multiyear investigation.
Despite not being charged until last month, Jewell had been a target of federal prosecutors for some time, which could explain the attorney fees. Federal officials, as first reported by Automotive News, raided his home in late 2017.
The compensation for Jewell last year made him the fifth-highest compensated official in the UAW, according to the filing. He only trailed President Gary Jones ($260,243), Secretary-Treasurer Raymond Curry ($222,663), Vice President Terry Dittes ($235,873) and UAW Region 5 Director Vance Pearson ($222,672).
UAW delegates last year approved 31 percent salary increases for the union's international leaders, but the highest-paid officials each received tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for "official business." It's unclear what those payment entailed and whether or not they also included legal fees related to the federal investigation.
