Ghost Story

The two indictments spelled out numerous counts that added up to a double whammy last week. Whammy No. 1, from a grand jury in Cleveland, slapped racketeering charges on Jackie Presser, the big (350-lbs.) but hard-to-hit president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Whammy No. 2, from a grand jury in Washington, charged an FBI agent with lying to protect Presser, who is said to have been a federal snitch since 1972.

The agent, Robert Friedrick, is accused of falsely stating that the FBI had authorized Presser to commit the crimes he is now charged with: embezzling union money as salaries for people holding no-show "ghost" jobs in Cleveland's Teamster Local 507. While the indictment of an FBI man was an embarrassment to the agency, the action against Presser had no immediate effect on him or his union.

Indeed, when Presser, 59, returned from Las Vegas to Cleveland for arraignment on Saturday, he interrupted a honeymoon that began with his fifth marriage on May 4 (to ex-Local 507 Secretary Cindy Jarabek, 38). He was anticipating near certain re-election to a five-year term as president by the Teamsters International convention that opens in Las Vegas on Monday. Presser is the fourth of the past five Teamster chiefs to be indicted either while in office or shortly thereafter.

The specific charge against Presser is that as secretary-treasurer of Local 507, he colluded with two other officers--President Harold Friedman and Recording Secretary Anthony Hughes, both also indicted--to embezzle some $700,000 in union funds, allegedly to pay the salaries of three phony employees, including his uncle. Although conviction could bring Presser up to 51 years, imprisonment, he dismissed that possibility. "For five years the Federal Government has attempted to build a case against me but has succeeded in building nothing more than a house of cards," he said. Agent Friedrick had been supervisor of the FBI's organized-crime strike force in Cleveland. His statements in part led the Justice Department to suspend an attempt to indict Presser last summer and stirred speculation about interference from the White House. (Presser has been one of Ronald Reagan's few labor supporters.) Cases were dropped against two men who had earlier been convicted of participating in the ghost-employee scheme. Friedrick, who is accused of covering up a meeting with Presser and his associates to stymie the original investigation, could face up to 25 years, imprisonment.