Three leaders of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s labor union were suspended on Monday after an audit found nearly $800,000 in misused union funds.
In a letter sent to union members, the International Association of Fire Fighters, which oversees United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, IAFF Local 12, announced that president Freddy Escobar and vice presidents Chuong Ho and Doug Coates were suspended for the massive amount of credit card spending that was not adequately documented under union guidelines.
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In Oct. 2024, IAFF was made aware of “concerns regarding alleged improper record-keeping and the use of union funds” by current treasurer Jason Powell. This prompted a review of the “questionable financial expenditures” involving certain UFLAC officers, namely Escobar, Adam Walker, the union’s secretary between 2022 and 2024, and Domingo Albarran, who was treasurer from 2018 to 2023.
“In total, over $800,000 in credit card expenditures using your dues money cannot be properly accounted for. The leadership of UFLAC has abdicated its fiduciary responsibilities and placed Local 112 in ill repute,” the IAFF letter said.
The audit found that Escobar made more than 1,950 credit card transactions that totaled $311,497.68. Of that, 1,372 did not have supporting documentation on file. There were also 157 transactions totaling $35,396.67 that were only partially supported with documentation.
“This means there is no way to determine whether $265,862.34 in dues money spent by President Escobar without documentation was for legitimate union expenditures,” the letter said.
Walker and Albarran also combined for nearly 2,500 transactions that totaled a combined $535,900.
Additionally, the audit discovered that Walker had “without authorization from the Foundation Board … transferred $83,414.24 from the UFLAC Fire Foundation’s catastrophic fund directly into his personal bank accounts.”
They alleged that he had no supporting documentation that the transfers were authorized, and that shortly after he paid off “substantial personal debts” that included mortgage and RV loan payments and casino cash ATM withdrawals.
Walker told IAFF reviewers that he used to the money to run two charity golf events for a captain who was injured off the job, and that the money was moved to repay for expenses made out of his own pocket.
“When asked by the IAFF’s reviewers to provide documentation that he had spent over $83,000.00 out of pocket for these two charitable golf events, Walker produced very few receipts and invoices and nowhere near sufficient documentation to account for all of the funds that he transferred,” the letter said.
Walker was suspended from the UFLAC’s office of secretary in late-2024.
The letter noted that both vice presidents Ho and Coates were suspended for breaching their fiduciary duties for failing to enforce the union’s policy.
Neither Escobar nor local union leaders have yet returned CBS News Los Angeles’ request for comment.
