This Federal Bureaucrat Allegedly Lied About Taking Money From His Union

An employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs who also led a public-sector union in Texas allegedly lied on a form about taking money from his union. He faces charges of making false statements and theft.

Terry Lendo, then president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1745 union, reportedly filled out a form for the Labor Department in November 2019. On that form, he claimed that no union employee had received more than $10,000 during a year-long period, and that he personally had received no money.

According to the grand jury indictment filed in May, however, Lendo knew that the AFGE union had spent more than $21,000, including payments “for his own personal benefit.”

The indictment, obtained by The Daily Signal, also alleges that Lendo “did take and carry away, with intent to steal and purloin, money from one or more bank accounts, of a value exceeding $1,000” between July 18, 2014 and July 30, 2021.

Lendo was no longer serving as president of the union in May, according to the Department of Labor. As recently as August, Lendo listed the VA as his employer when giving $150 to the AFGE’s political action committee.

The U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas had scheduled a trial for Lendo in July, but he requested more time to prepare his defense, according to court documents. Judge Alan Albright granted the delay and scheduled the trial to begin on Nov. 3.

Systemic Corruption?

“Mr. Lendo’s indictment should prompt a larger investigation into the AFGE union,” Houston Keene, director of the watchdog organization Democracy Restored, told The Daily Signal.

“If Mr. Lendo was receiving kickbacks from the union for which he previously served as president while serving at the VA, it is possibly indicative of systemic corruption,” Keene added.

“Government scrutiny of federal employee unions is long overdue,” he said. “No matter how you look at it, they are using taxpayer money and should be accountable for any improprieties.”

Government Employee Unions Like AFGE

The American Federation of Government Employees is the largest public-sector union in the federal government. It has filed a slew of lawsuits to block President Donald Trump’s reforms to the administrative state.

While public-sector unions have existed in the federal government for decades, their presence remains controversial.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who largely created the modern administrative state, opposed public-sector unions, but President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order allowing federal employees to unionize.

“The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations,” Roosevelt wrote. “The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress.”

AFGE defends itself as essential for good government but admits that it trains federal employees to “become activists.”

“AFGE provides legal representation, technical expertise, and informational services for the hundreds of thousands of federal and D.C. government workers who are our members,” the union says. “We train our members to become activists at their workplace and in their communities, help them make their voices heard in media at the local, regional, and national level, keep them up-to-date on the benefits that come with their union membership, and are the nation’s leading legislative advocate for federal and D.C. government workers.”

Neither the VA nor the AFGE responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

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