A District Council 37 honcho used the treasury to buy clothes, cameras and jewelry – and to hire maids for his lavish penthouse at union headquarters, officials said yesterday.
Al Diop, former president of the 120,000-member municipal union’s second-largest local, rang up $466,945 on his corporate credit card over the past four years, DC 37 officials said.
Most of it appears to be personal charges, and Diop provided no documentation, DC 37 administrator Lee Saunders said.
Diop spent $1,200 to $1,500 a month on maid service for the sprawling penthouse atop the union’s Barclay Street offices, according to auditors who reviewed union books.
Since January 1994, the ex-president of the clerical-workers local also spent more than $162,000 on hotels here.
Diop spent $82,000 on camera and audio-visual equipment, another $22,000 on jewelry and more than $23,000 on clothing, officials said.
The details of the spending binges on DC 37 credit cards were disclosed yesterday at an internal union hearing, which was held because the local was placed in trusteeship after Diop was suspended.
Diop officially resigned, then filed his retirement papers, on Monday, Saunders said.
He’ll get a $70,000 deferred compensation package, but no severance, Saunders said.
The union is the target of a probe by the Manhattan district attorney and an internal investigation by its parent union.
Diop and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Diop spent more than $135,000 of local funds on a leased Lincoln Town Car, and took a $665-per-month car allowance on top of it, Saunders said.