Just when it seemed as if the corporate crime wave was over, the messy stock scandal involving union-owned insurer ULLICO Inc. and bankrupt telecom Global Crossing Ltd. is about to burst into the open again. At the worst, indictments will be handed down against union bosses. At the least, the reputation of the U. S. labor movement will be sullied. And the scandal could complicate the Bush Administration's efforts to cultivate friendly unions. Labor leaders are battling each other over how to handle the new imbroglio, which centers on ULLICO, parent of Union Labor Life Insurance Co. Some of the two dozen union leaders who sit on the insurer's board reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying and selling privately traded shares in ULLICO, which earned some $335 million from a $7.6 million investment in Global Crossing before its initial public offering. Started in 1997 by Gary Winnick, Global had a market cap of more than $20 billion at its 1999 peak. It filed for Chapter 11 in January, and its stock―once as high as 64―now trades for pennies.
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