* This has to be one of the stranger press releases I’ve ever received from the US Attorney’s office. Apparently, they busted Bill Dugan on a misdemeanor charge for soliciting a $900 animal feeder for his Maryland buffalo farm from an employer. Dugan, you probably know, was president of Local 150 of the Operating Engineers for many years.

Dugan’s farm was raided a couple of years ago by the feds, who carted off a bunch of documents. He retired soon after. Here’s the announcement, made by three bigtime crime fighters, the US Attorney, the top dog in Chicago’s FBI and the “Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago.” OK, two bigtime crime fighters and one other guy…

The retired leader of a regional labor union local was charged today with violating federal labor law by allegedly demanding and accepting livestock feeders from a company that employed the union local’s workers for his buffalo farm in Maryland. The defendant, William E. Dugan, was charged in a single-count criminal information filed in U.S. District Court, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Dugan, 76, of Hancock, Md., and formerly of Mt. Prospect, was president and business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, headquartered in Countryside. The 23,000-member local represents workers in construction and a variety of other industries in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa.

Dugan will be ordered to appear for arraignment on the misdemeanor charge, which is violation of the U.S. Labor-Management Relations Act, at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the charges, in April 2005, Dugan demanded and accepted concrete buffalo feeders valued at more than $900 from Company A, whose workers were represented by Local 150.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick King. Other Labor Department branches that participated in the investigation are the Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Office of Labor Management Standards.

The labor law violation carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. If convicted, the Court would determine a reasonable sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

Dugan was a wealthy man, so it was stupid and arrogant to be doing something like “buffaloing” an employer into buying some cheap concrete feeders. But that this long federal investigation has resulted in such a minor charge makes one wonder why they bothered.

*** UPDATE *** From Crain’s…

In a statement, Joseph Duffy, the attorney for William Dugan, the retired president and business manager of Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, said Mr. Dugan has “acknowledged receiving a thing of value from a contractor worth less than $1,000, specifically concrete piping,” and will plead to misdemeanor charges in the matter as part of a deal with federal prosecutors. […]

Sources close to the matter said further charges are likely in the case. But the one charge alone of violating federal labor law carries a potential penalty of up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

So, he agrees to take the misdemeanor but more charges may be likely?