KCK Boilermakers trial: ‘No-show’ bank jobs, $1.5M ‘golden parachutes’ revealed
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- McCall said Jones visited the bank about three or four times a year, Creeden infrequently.
- FDIC records showed Jones' bank pay was $498,000 and Creeden's $442,000.
- If control changed, each would have received about $1.5 million under the 2.99× pay rule.
A $400,000 pheasant hunting trip and golden parachute compensation packages were highlighted in federal court Wednesday in the racketeering conspiracy trial of former Boilermakers executives accused of scheming to steal millions in union funds.
And front-and-center on the witness stand for most of the day was the president of the union-owned Bank of Labor.
Robert McCall responded to questions — often reluctantly — about alleged dubious expenditures and the salaries of two top union officials who at the same time held high-paying jobs with the bank. The union is a majority shareholder of the bank.
Trial attorney Alexandra Swain, of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, wanted to know how former Boilermakers International President Newton Jones and ex-International Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden could possibly have had time to serve as the CEO and senior executive vice president of the bank. Both men also were on the bank’s board of directors, with Jones serving as chairman.
“How often did you see Newton Jones at the Bank of Labor office in Kansas City?” Swain asked McCall.
About three or four times a year, McCall said. Jones lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Creeden is from Kearney, Missouri.
“How often did you see Bill Creeden at the Bank of Labor office?” Swain asked.
“Infrequently,” McCall said. “Not a lot.”
Full-time pay for little work, witness says
Yet Creeden and Jones were both receiving full-time pay from the Bank of Labor, McCall testified, along with board of directors’ fees, retirement benefits and life insurance policies.
Swain showed McCall a document from the FDIC, the bank’s principal regulator, which indicated that Jones’ bank salary plus bonus totaled $498,000 a year. Creeden’s was $442,000.
Swain also produced records of Jones’ pay stubs that said he consistently worked 80 hours during every two-week pay period. She asked McCall if those hours were accurate based on the work Jones did.
“Newt did not work 80 hours for any given pay period,” McCall said.
He said the same was true for Creeden, whose pay stubs showed the same work hours as Jones. It would have been “virtually impossible,” McCall said, for the two men to work 80 hours in a pay period while also working full time for the union.
McCall said Jones and Creeden also participated in the bank’s 401K retirement plan. Swain referred to documents showing that both men reported working 2,160 hours a year at the Bank of Labor from 2013 through 2021.
“Are these number of hours accurate?” Swain asked McCall.
“No, they are not,” he said.
McCall said Jones and Creeden also were eligible for the bank’s health insurance but didn’t use it. Swain produced a document showing that the two requested that because they were each saving the bank $16,000 a year by not having to pay for their health insurance, the bank should underwrite $500,000 life insurance policies for them.
Jones’ policy cost the bank $12,000 a year, and Creeden’s cost about $19,000, the document said.
Jones and Creeden also got vacation time and sick leave, McCall said. Neither took their sick days, he said, and their unused sick time was paid out at the end of the year.
Charges faced by defendants
McCall’s testimony came on Day 13 of the criminal trial in which four ex-Boilermakers, including ousted International President Jones, face charges alleging they conspired to embezzle millions that went toward salary and benefits for no-show jobs, luxury international travel, fine dining, vacation payouts and unauthorized loans.
The trial, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, is expected to last several weeks. The union’s headquarters was in Kansas City, Kansas, for more than a century, but relocated to Kansas City in 2023.
Jones — who was removed from office by his executive council in 2023 for allegedly misusing union funds — his wife, Kateryna, Creeden and former International Vice President Lawrence McManamon are among seven former union members indicted in August 2024 for conspiracy to commit offenses under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as other felonies.
Two others who were charged in the case pleaded guilty in March to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of embezzlement from a labor organization.
Warren Fairley — who took over for a short stint as Boilermakers president in 2023 after Jones was removed — and Jones’ son, Cullen Jones, are scheduled for sentencing on June 30.
The racketeering conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The embezzlement count has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
The other defendant, Kathy Stapp, of Shawnee — the union’s former human resources director-turned International Secretary-Treasurer — pleaded guilty in December 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy. Her sentencing is scheduled for July 7.
Both Fairley and Stapp have testified at the trial as witnesses for the government.
‘World-class’ pheasant hunting destination
McCall said Wednesday that the Boilermakers organized several hunting trips to Paul Nelson Farm in South Dakota, described on its website as “a world-class destination known for remarkable hunting.” He said he went on three or four of the trips.
“And every time I traveled there, we went by private plane,” he said.
McCall said the trips were three-day events attended by 10 to 20 people, including union executives and contractors. He said the bank and union shared the expense.
Swain asked how much the trips cost.
“The last bill I recall seeing was a little north of $400,000,” McCall said.
McCall said the hunting trips included a business component to ensure they qualified as a legitimate IRS expense. Some attendees, including the late Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, gave presentations, he said.
Swain asked McCall if he also traveled internationally with the Boilermakers. He said he went to Italy with them on three occasions. Two of the trips, he said, were to explore the possibility of generating business for the Bank of Labor in Italy.
The bank did not develop any business as a result of the trips, McCall said.
$1.5 million golden parachutes
In the fall of 2022, McCall said, Jones and Creeden requested changes to their exit compensation packages. According to the proposal, if there was a change in control of the bank, the bank would be required to pay Jones and Creeden 2.99 times their base compensation plus board of directors’ fees.
So, Swain asked, if the union had stopped having majority ownership of the bank — which McCall said is now around 58% to 59% — Jones and Creeden would have each gotten a $1.5 million “golden parachute?”
“Yes,” McCall said.
The other part of the proposal, McCall said, was that if Jones and Creeden retired, they would receive an amount equal to their base salary along with a $250,000 bonus.
Swain asked McCall what he thought of the proposal.
“At the time, I thought it was pretty ‘out there,’” he said.
Swain produced a copy of the board meeting minutes from Jan. 25, 2023, which showed that the proposal was approved. She asked McCall if the board was aware at the time that Jones and Creeden were under investigation by a grand jury.
“No,” he said.
When Jones and Creeden resigned from their bank positions in the summer of 2023, McCall said, they did not end up receiving the retirement payout.
Defense attorneys push back
On cross-examination, Jones’ attorney, Dan Nelson, asked McCall whether he had any complaints about Jones’ leadership at the bank prior to the indictment. McCall said Jones showed some good leadership abilities.
Nelson asked McCall if his opinion of Jones changed after the indictment.
“It certainly colored my opinion of Newt, yes,” McCall said.
Nelson said the bank had experienced record growth under Jones’ leadership thanks to a strategy Jones had implemented that involved shifting from a community bank — Brotherhood Bank and Trust — renaming it Bank of Labor and pursuing labor markets beyond the Kansas City region.
McCall acknowledged that the bank was still following Jones’ labor strategy because it had proven to be profitable.
During his questioning, Nelson placed three large binders in front of McCall that were filled with email exchanges between Jones, McCall and others from 2012 to mid-2023. Nelson suggested that the emails showed Jones was heavily engaged in bank business while he was CEO.
Nelson mentioned the pheasant hunting trips and some international trips that McCall went on with Boilermakers leaders, saying they all had business elements. He noted that after the AFL-CIO’s Trumka attended the pheasant hunt, he later put deposits in the Bank of Labor.
Creeden’s attorney, Andino Reynal, placed an easel next to McCall on the witness stand.
Is it fair to say, Reynal asked McCall, that his ambition since he was little was to be a successful banker? McCall said yes.
Reynal wrote “ambition = banker” on the easel board. Then he grilled McCall over his role as a witness for the government.
Jones gave McCall the job as bank president, Reynal said. McCall traveled to Europe with Jones, dined with him, drank wine with him — and life was good. Was McCall concerned, Reynal asked, that he might lose his job when Jones ran into trouble?
“Not at all,” McCall said.
Then Reynal revealed that in January 2024, McCall himself had been identified by the government as a target of the federal racketeering conspiracy investigation, receiving a notification letter at his office that was delivered by an FBI agent.
McCall said he met with investigators but told no one — not even his wife — about the meeting.
Reynal then asked McCall if he could add “not going to prison” to his list of ambitions.
“You understand that if you were not going to get indicted, you had to give them something?” Reynal asked McCall.
McCall strongly denied that was the case.
Reynal then brought up the trips McCall took to Italy, asking if they furthered the business of the Bank of Labor.
“I’n not sure how,” McCall said.
Reynal showed McCall an email dated May 14, 2019, that he sent to then-bank comptroller Tristan Gudvangen regarding the Italy trips.
The email contained a long list of the business-related items they accomplished on the trips. But McCall said he didn’t write the email.
“Somebody else crafted this and asked me to send it to Tristan,” he said. “I think you need to talk to the author.”
Reynal didn’t ask whom McCall was referring to.
Instead, he asked, “So you provided an email that was less than honest?”
This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 9:10 AM.
