A look into the union’s parent organisation found $800,000 in credit card purchases that were not properly recorded. On Monday, the president and two other top officers of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s labour union were fired.

According to a letter from IAFF General President Edward Kelly to UFLAC members, President Freddy Escobar and the two others were suspended because of financial problems, including “serious problems” with missing receipts. The IAFF is in charge of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City and other local firefighter unions across the country.

It was the IAFF’s job to put John Bagala in charge of the union and “restore responsible financial stewardship and guarantee the fulfilment of UFLAC’s legitimate objectives,” as Kelly wrote. Bagala is the head of Marin Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 1775, which is made up of firefighters in Marin County and a state representative for the IAFF.

“The people in charge of UFLAC have broken their duty to protect Local 112 and made the group look bad.” “The leadership of UFLAC’s bad financial decisions have done a lot of damage to the membership,” Kelly said.

The dramatic move was made after a thorough audit of UFLAC’s funds showed a number of wrongdoings. It also came after the Times wrote about the audit and the huge amounts of overtime pay given to Escobar and other union leaders.

Escobar made 1,957 purchases with his UFLAC credit card between July 2018 and November 2024, worth a total of $311,498. This was found by the audit. Over 70% of those deals, worth a total of $230,466 did not have any paperwork to back them up.

In the letter, Kelly said, “The auditors could not figure out the purpose of these transactions.” He also said that extra 157 transactions, worth $35,397, were only partly backed up by the necessary paperwork.

“This means there is no way to determine whether $265,862.34 in dues money spent by President Escobar without documentation was for legitimate union expenditures,” it said.

Escobar did not answer right away when asked for a statement. According to the report, two other people, former Secretary Adam Walker and former Treasurer Domingo Albarran Jr., used credit cards more than $530,000 without having any receipts or full records. Walker didn’t answer right away when asked for a statement, and Albarran declined to say anything.

Vice Presidents Chuong Ho and Doug Coates were also fired and accused of breaking their trust by “failing to enforce UFLAC policy.” Neither replied right away to a request for comment.

“Protecting the dues money that members contribute to their Local union is one of the highest priorities for all Local union officers,” Kelly said. “In fact, Local union officers are legally required to make sure that your dues are spent in a way that is fair to you and easy to track. This is known as a fiduciary duty.” That way you can see for yourself how your dues money is being spent.

The review started in October when Jason Powell, UFLAC’s new treasurer, told the IAFF that he thought records were not being kept properly and that union funds were being misused.

He told The Times on Monday, “It’s just unfortunate, but we will get through these hard times.” “This doesn’t show what the people who work for this great organisation are like.” “This kind of trouble will make us stronger in the long run.”

UFLAC had already had accounting problems pointed out by other inspectors. In March 2024, they said that the union’s financial practices had “significant deficiencies” because officers weren’t properly documenting their spending.

Even though Escobar was warned, he used his UFLAC credit card to make 339 purchases in 2024, totalling $71,671, without showing any receipts, Kelly wrote.

“Furthermore, the UFLAC Executive Board failed to compel President Escobar to comply with UFLAC Policy, legal requirements, or the auditors’ demands, or take action against him when he failed to comply,” he said.

He also said that Bagala will work with IAFF General Secretary-Treasurer Frank Líma and the other UFLAC board members to run the union, make sure its finances are handled correctly, and put in place safeguards for how union dues are spent.

In March, The Times said that the IAFF audit was still going on and gave more information about Walker’s suspension because he was accused of stealing $83,414 from the union’s charity for injured firemen and putting it in his own bank accounts from October 2022 to September 2024.

Walker had already told The Times that the claims were not true. The account he took money from wasn’t for the UFLAC Fire Foundation charity, he said. It was set up for two golf tournaments to raise money for a disabled former fireman. He said that all of the deposits were payments to cover the real costs he had to pay for the events.

The IAFF review, on the other hand, found that Walker paid his mortgage and RV loan and took cash out of ATMs at casinos right after moving large amounts of money from the charity’s account into his own accounts.

A Times investigation last month found that Escobar and other top union officers have been getting five- to six-figure union stipends and working extra hours for years to make their pay bigger.