The executive director of SEIU California, the biggest labor union in the state, is resigning after the attorney general’s office charged her and her husband with multiple counts of tax fraud, embezzlement, perjury and failure to pay unemployment insurance taxes. The office filed its charges against Alma Hernández and her husband, Jose Moscoso, on Oct. 4 in the Sacramento County Superior Court.
Hernández, whose union represents over 700,000 workers across the state, had been in her position since 2016. She led the union’s push against recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom, with the organization donating more than $6 million to the campaign.
The investigation that led to criminal charges began in 2019 when the state’s campaign finance watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission, drew attention to an allegation that Hernandez as treasurer for a 2014 state senate campaign approved spending to her husband for services he did not provide. The money did not come from an SEIU campaign finance account.
That tip led investigators from the the Attorney General’s Office to dig into Moscosco and his company, according to court documents.
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