The Department of Justice announced that Daniel J. Rush pleaded guilty in federal court this month to three felony counts: receiving an illegal payment as a union employee; honest services fraud; and conspiracy to commit structuring and money laundering.
In pleading guilty, Rush, 56, of Crescent City, Calif. (formerly of Oakland, Calif.), admitted that between 2011 and 2015 he was employed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International (UFCW International) as the Organizing Coordinator for the unofficial medical cannabis and hemp division. Rush admitted he violated the Taft-Hartley Act when he accepted compensation from employees in, or potentially in, a labor organization.
Rush also admitted he committed honest services wire fraud with the intent to deprive the UFCW of its right to his honest services and he conspired with workers’ compensation attorney Marc Terbeek, 55, of Berkeley, Calif., to launder money and to evade reporting requirements in an effort to conceal the source of the money.
Terbeek, was allegedly involved in a massive corruption case filed by the FBI’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Squad. The FBI and IRS raided Terbeek’s office in January 2015 and since then he has been cooperating with investigators. The sworn Affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Roahn Wynar attached to the criminal complaint against Daniel Rush claims the following scenario occurred.
Daniel Rush was an official with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union that had established a “Cannabis Division” to organize dispensary employees. He was also closely involved in Measure D, the process to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, and also connected to legalization’s most prominent pitchman: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
According to the allegations of paragraph 31 of the Affidavit , Tarbeek admitted to the FBI that he had been paying “kickbacks” to Rush for sending Terbeek legal work since 2004. Rush “encouraged” Terbeek to acquire a workers compensation law practice to litigate cases referred by the Insitutio Laboral de la Raza. In exchange Tarbeek gave Rush a credit card associated with Terbeek’s law firm and Terbeek paid it off routinely. Text messages confirmed this practice continued as late as February 2015. From 2010 to 2015, Rush spent $110,000 on Terbeek’s card, about $2,000 per month, for mostly personal expenses.
Also, Terbeek allegedly agreed to share legal fees with Rush derived from Terbeek’s clients seeking permits to operate dispensaries in California, Nevada, and beyond (Affidavit paragraph 34). After creation of this arrangement, Terbeek paid Rush $5000 as his “share” of the medical marijuana legal fees.
For his part in the scheme, on February 15, 2017, TerBeek was charged by information with one count of making a payment to a union employee, in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 186(a), and one count of willful violation of anti-structuring regulations, in violation of 12 U.S.C. § 1956.He pleaded guilty to both counts on February 16, 2017
Terbeek is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Gilliam on August 21, 2017, and Rush will be sentenced on October 2. . Rush is looking at the possibility of 30 years in prison as well as a $565,000 fine but is currently free on a $100,000 bond
State Bar records reflect that Terbeek remains an active unrestricted member at this time.