HONOLULU A former high-ranking official for a dock worker labor union has admitted that he cashed his deceased fathers Social Security benefit checks and failed to pay his federal income taxes.
HONOLULU — A former high-ranking official for a dock worker labor union has admitted that he cashed his deceased father’s Social Security benefit checks and failed to pay his federal income taxes.
Former International Longshore and Warehouse Union Division Director Nathan Yuen Grit Lum pleaded guilty on Thursday in U.S. District Court to one count of aggravated identity theft and failing to file his income tax return for 2012.
Lum has agreed to pay the IRS $77,934 in back taxes and to repay the Social Security Administration $33,435.
Lum faces a mandatory two-year prison term for the identity theft and up to an additional year in custody for the tax return charge.
Lum’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July.
Lum’s father, Harris Y.S. Lum, died June 14, 2013. He was 89.
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The average ILWU dock worker makes at least $75-80 grand or higher with OT each year. So compute that with union fees and that director surely makes way beyond the average dock worker.
So inspite of all the other benefits that come from being a high ranking ILWU union leader, he was just plain greedy for more. I’ve known other union leaders who are in the same category of being greedy and abuse that position for their own personal gain. It is disgusting and they should be doing hard time labor for their crimes.