UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Earl D. BUSH, Defendant-Appellant

The Teamsters have been very, very good to Earl Bush. From 1987 to 1989, Bush worked both as a representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the International) and as an officer of Teamsters Local 399 (the Local). The Local paid him $100,000 in salary and the International paid him $64,000; both entities gave him generous car allowances; both paid his portion of the Social Security tax; and the International gave him a miscellaneous allowance of $10 for every day of the year. RT 209. It is true that these jobs required Bush to displace himself to such Teamsters trouble-spots as Palm Springs, Las Vegas and Honolulu, but both employers strove to ease this burden somewhat by paying Bush’s travel expenses. The Local gave him a credit card to charge food and lodging while he was away on the Local’s business. The charges Bush racked up on any given trip varied greatly: A week Bush spent in Hawaii cost the Local $2,496, while a trip to Las Vegas showed only a twenty-three dollar tab at a culinary oasis known as Bun Boy. The International, by contrast, used a per diem system: It paid Bush $130 for each day he was on the road on International business, regardless of actual…