The "Alleged" Embezzlement of the Sandhogs Union!! My two cents!

So, once again I saw a brief take on Madoff this morning. Apparently investigators will be meeting with some of the victims this morning. While these folks have surely suffered and it (scandal) definitely merits coverage, I am wondering why a "one woman" "alleged" embezzlement operation has yet to make the news.


So far I have only been able to catch press releases and clips off of the Internet, mostly by the NY Times. The Sandhogs Union is one of the most prominent unions in the world. The History Channel actually ran a special on them. These men risk their lives every day for us. These men ARE the backbone of this country. They are the modern builders of our time. They entrusted their funds to Melissa G. King aka Melissa King Kaplan of "King Care' or variations of that name. It took her 6-7 years to loot the Sandhogs of over 40 Million Dollars!!! A travesty that has yet to make the news.



If you didn't catch the Sandhogs special on the History Channel, perhaps you may have caught the installation at Grand Central some years back.


To understand just how important there work is you have to actually see them in action but, would it be enough to know the following: ** (straight from their site)**


"We sank the caissons that formed the foundations for the Brooklyn Bridge. We dug the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, and the Battery and Mid-Town tunnels – imagine how much harder it would be to get in and around New York without them. We built the subways that transport four million people a day. We built the sewer tunnels that rid this city of its waste and the steam tunnels that still provide so much of its power. Finally, we built all the water tunnels that bring the city’s water – a billion and a half gallons a day - to New York from many miles away. That’s right, New York City ran out of adequate drinking water more than a hundred years ago. Without the tunnels built by sandhogs New York would have ceased to exist around the time of the American Civil War." **


These men are incredible!!



For more background:



Courtesy of Wikipedia:



Sandhog is the slang term given to urban miners, construction workers who work underground on a variety of excavation projects.[1] Generally these projects involve tunneling, caisson excavation, road building, or some other type of underground construction or mining projects. The miners work with a variety of equipment from TBM (tunnel boring machines) to blasting a path for the project they are building. The term is a US-American colloquialism.



Starting with their first job in 1872, the Brooklyn Bridge, the "hogs" have built a large part of the City of New York -- the subways and sewers, Water Tunnels #1 & #2 as well as the currently under construction Water Tunnel #3, the Lincoln, Holland, Queens-Midtown, and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels to name a few, as well as the foundations for most of the bridges and many of the skyscrapers in the city. Since their work is mostly done below street level, in an unseen world of rock, sand, and earth, recognition of their achievements has been limited. Many of these workers are Irish or Irish American and West Indian.



Sandhogs are diverse in backgrounds, interests, and personalities, but are generally united in their work. Sandhogging is somewhat of a tradition and is passed down through generationsof families; since mining projects span decades, it is not uncommon to find multi-generations of families working together on the same job.[2]



In the October 1997 issue of Esquire magazine, a series of photographs by David Allee, with a text accompanyment by Thomas Kelly, documents the life and work of the Sandhog. In 2006 at Grand Central Terminal in New York City there was a large-scale photo and video installation about the sandhogs, The Sandhog Project, created by artist Gina LeVay.



Thomas Kelly's 1997 novel about Sandhogs,"Payback", was reissued in 2008 as "Sandhogs" by Soft Skull Press.[3]

On September 7, 2008, The History Channel began a series on the Sandhogs.[4]



So, now that you have a bit more background you can see why I am completely baffled as to the complete hush of the media on this.



Why does Melissa G. King get to be veiled for "allegedly" looting this union? (I have to keep saying "alleged") At the height of her alleged embezzlement there were large scale purchases from Neiman Marcus, American Express, Equestrian Ventures and so on. This may effect, according the the NY Times, up to 1000 member's retirement plans. This is one of the oldest and most talked about unions and yet there is a complete code of silence surrounding the arrest of Melissa G. King and the Indictment. Sure you may say "well they are only allegations at this point" and I get that. Still, with the evidence presented so far, I don't see why the public should not be kept in the loop.



This women was married multiple times, she also appears to have allegedly trampled all over her last ex-husband in an effort to milk him of an inheritance left to him and the list goes on. Of course we won't simply judge her on failed relationships however, another fund that she managed, The "United Probation Officers Association", was audited and investigators were baffled as to why the Association kept her on. They have since, apparently, discontinued her contract with them. I wonder if she is now being investigaged for any findings with that union.



Years back a bankruptcy judge apparently referred her file for investigation (her personal charge-offs were mingled with business funds/business charge-offs" and for some reason the Feds only got around to investigating her in 2009. What is wrong with this picture? How could this have slipped through the cracks?



Anyone have any input?? I'm stumped!!