ALPHONS IACOBELLI

On behalf of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), a company attorney on Monday pleaded guilty to fraud in federal court. “Your honor, we plead guilty,” FCA General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Chris Pardi told U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman during a remote video plea hearing. Several FCA and UAW officials were convicted of crimes resulting from a widespread corruption probe. His initial 5 1/2-year prison sentence was reduced to 3 years in exchange for his cooperation with investigators in January. Nearly 15 former UAW officials and spouses have been charged or convicted as part of the UAW scandal since 2017, including former UAW President Gary Jones, who was sentenced to 15 months and received early release to home confinement when the pandemic struck in 2020.

DETROIT (AP) General Motors is suing Fiat Chrysler, alleging that its crosstown rival got an unfair business advantage by bribing officials of the United Auto Workers union. The lawsuit alleges that Fiat Chrysler corrupted the bargaining process with the UAW in the 2009, 2011 and 2015 union contracts to gain advantages over General Motors. FCA was the clear sponsor of pervasive wrongdoing, paying millions of dollars in bribes to obtain concessions from the union, GM General Counsel Craig Glidden said. We are astonished by this filing, both its content and its timing, Fiat Chrysler said. In addition to Fiat Chrysler, the lawsuit names former FCA labor relations chief Alphons Iacobelli, and former FCA officials Jerome Durden and Michael Brown as defendants.