September 11, 2007: Bobby Hogan, the secretary treasurer of Chicago Local 714, has been charged by the Independent Review Board (IRB) with bringing reproach upon the union. Hogan is charged with hiring a business partner of his father, Billy Hogan. It is up to the Hoffa administration to conduct a hearing, or to pass the matter back to the IRB for a hearing.

The Hogan family has run the 9,000-member local for decades as more or less a “family business.” Billy Hogan, who was James Hoffa’s first choice for running mate in 1996, was banned from the union by the IRB in 2002 for trying to engineer a sweetheart deal between Las Vegas Local 631 and a business partially owned by his brother, Michael Hogan.

Bobby Hogan made $232,043 last year from the local and as vice president of Chicago Joint Council 25. He may soon be banned from the union and move on to other family enterprises, but the Hogan family will likely still control Local 714: James Hogan, Bobby’s uncle, is presently the president.

Bobby Hogan employed Robert Riley, a long-time close friend and business partner of Billy Hogan. The IRB charges that Bobby was well aware of the association between Riley and the banned Hogan. They were in almost daily phone contact, regularly ate together, and sometimes traveled to Pennsylvania on business.

Their business partnership is in Devon International Trading. Devon’s business includes deals with Teamster benefit funds. So Billy Hogan, who made millions of being a Teamster official, still makes money off his Teamster connections, in addition to his nonunion business holdings.