Copyright 2003 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.  
The New York Post
March 30, 2003, Sunday
SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 018

LENGTH: 384 words

HEADLINE: MONEY MAN FOR 'MOB-TAINTED' UNION QUITS

BYLINE: AL GUART

BODY:
The treasurer of a major city construction union with a history of mob infiltration has resigned after auditors recently found "questionable expenses" in the union's books, The Post has learned.

Daniel Kearney, secretary treasurer of the 15,000-member Mason Tenders District Council (MTDC), left the union two weeks ago.

"In the course of filing year-end reports [for 2002], some questionable expenses were found. The union has been made whole," said Richard Weiss, a spokesman for Local 79, one of the locals under the Mason Tenders' umbrella.

MTDC officials declined to reveal details of the auditors' findings or put a monetary value on the "questionable" expenses.

But a union source told The Post that Kearney had recently paid Local 79 about $50,000.

The Mason Tenders, whose members remove debris, demolish buildings, erect scaffolds and mix mortar, was taken over by the feds in 1995 in a bid to stamp out decades of mob infiltration. Ten locals were merged at the time.

A series of investigations resulted in 25 union officials and several alleged Genovese and Luchese mobsters being indicted for looting up to $60 million in members' health, pension and annuity funds. The charges led to numerous convictions.

Kearney was part of a reform slate at the Mason Tenders, put in place after the feds took over. The last FBI monitor withdrew from the union in February of last year.

Douglas Gow, a retired FBI agent now serving as the Washington-based inspector general for the Laborers International Union of North America, which oversees the Mason Tenders, confirmed he had initiated an internal investigation into the books compiled by Kearney.

"I have an auditor in there right now going over all that," he said

Gow said he had not ruled out referring the matter to the police.

Kearney, 56, also recently resigned his post as a city councilman in Long Beach, L.I., where he has lived in a luxury home with his wife, Yvonne Santana, since 1991.

He did not return calls seeking comment.

One of the unions merged into the Mason Tenders has a violent history. In 1997, a Local 95 official was found slumped over the wheel of his union-leased Buick with a single bullet wound to the head.

In another case, another Local 95 official vanished and is presumed dead.