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The powerful union that represents LA City Fire Department firefighters was placed in conservatorship Monday by its umbrella association, which announced in an open letter to firefighters Monday that a forensic audit had uncovered a massive misuse of union funds by the union’s leaders.
The International Association of Fire Fighters said it also voted to suspend UFLAC president Freddy Escobar and two other union leaders.
“The leadership of UFLAC has abdicated its fiduciary responsibilities and placed Local 112 in ill repute,” the letter said. “The financial malpractice by the leadership of UFLAC has dealt serious harm to the membership.”
Calls to UFLAC’s spokesperson were not immediately returned.
The IAFF letter says auditors examined union accounts between 2018 and 2024 and found Escobar had made 1,372 credit card transactions totaling $230,465.67 that had no supporting documentation.
“The auditors could not ascertain the purpose of these transactions,” the letter said, and after issuing warnings to UFLAC in 2024 Escobar spent $71,671.44, “without submitting a single receipt for any of those 339 expenditures.”
IAFF said it discovered a number of other discrepancies and unexplained expenditures that totaled more than $800,000, and said it had appointed a conservator to seize control of the union’s accounts.
“This conservatorship is necessary to restore responsible financial stewardship,” IAFF said.
The letter said the audit also found 2 former union officials had together spent more than $500,000 on union credit cards with no or partial documentation.
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