A National Labor Relations Board employee has been accused of taking bribes in exchange for delivering more than 4,000 confidential documents to a Westchester labor consultant who purportedly sold the information to clients, primarily law firms, that had business before the NLRB.
Anett Rodrigues, 53, of Nutley, New Jersey, was arrested on Dec. 10 and charged in U.S. District Court, White Plains, with bribery and honest services fraud.
“Ms. Rodrigues has served the NLRB for over 30 years with an unblemished record,” her attorney, Charles Curlett, of Baltimore, said in an email. “We look forward to answering these charges in court.”
The NLRB enforces collective bargaining rights, supervises formation or decertification of labor unions, and mediates labor disputes.
It receives charge sheets in which employees make allegations and it collects petitions for forming or decertifying unions. The charge sheets and petitions are initially confidential nonpublic records.
The criminal complaint identifies the consultant as a co-conspirator and as the owner and operator of a consulting company. The company claimed that it offered the “fastest way to obtain NLRB information,” according to the complaint. It offered a “powerful tool” for acquiring clients, where, “in the competitive world of labor relations, staying ahead of the pack counts.”
These exact words are displayed on the website of Labor Research Partners in Port Chester.
Labor Research Partners did not respond to an email and Bert Vilato, the president and CEO, did not immediately respond to a voicemail message requesting verification.
Rodrigues was a field examiner working in the NLRB’s Newark, New Jersey office. From 2017 to this past February, she allegedly accessed documents on the NLRB computer system on cases outside of her region.
The NLRB put her on administrative leave in February, and then U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy authorized a search warrant for her iPhone and Apple iCloud account.
Investigators found text messages and voicemail recordings in which Rodrigues and the co-conspirator discussed delivery of NLRB documents, according to the complaint.
Three voicemail messages from the co-conspirator, for example, indicated that he was outside her house, on the way there or could meet with her. On the same days, financial records show the co-conspirator cashing checks he wrote to himself on the company account, for $1,000 to $1,660.
Sean Smyth, a special agent for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, interviewed Rodrigues on April 20. She admitted to regularly sending images of NLRB documents to the co-conspirator, according to complaint, but denied receiving any cash payments or compensation.
Smyth interviewed the co-conspirator on July 16. He admitted to regularly obtaining NLRB documents from Rodrigues, via text messages, the complaint state. And he admitted that he “regularly gave cash bribe payments to Rodrigues to induce her to provide the documents.”
The complaint does not say how much money Rodrigues allegedly took. It is also does not name the co-conspirator’s clients or indicate if more charges will be filed.
The criminal charges carry maximum prison terms of 15 to 30 years.
Rodrigues was released from custody on Dec. 10 on posting a $100,000 personal recognizance bond.
