ST. LOUIS — A lawsuit the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council filed last week against Al Bond, the former chief of the union’s once-powerful ºüÀêÊÓƵ-based council, makes a bombshell accusation: Bond paid $4 million in union money to an outdoor advertising company for three electronic billboards, only one of which was ever built.
But the man who benefited from the billboard deal gets only a brief mention, despite being implicated in a contract the union’s lawsuit says cost well above the purported services, was “predicated on an illegal act†and did not show up in filings with federal regulators.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, provides some of the first details on the financial misdeeds that prompted the leadership of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters to swoop in last September and dissolve the ºüÀêÊÓƵ-Kansas City Carpenters District Council, fire Bond and put its Chicago-based council in charge.
People are also reading…
In addition to Bond, defendants named in the lawsuit are Interrail Outdoor LLC, the company that received the $4 million, and LLC, which benefited from lengthy advertising rights deals at several union sites, including across Interstate 70 from Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums in Kansas City.
Interrail and Foxpoint are tied to the same man, James H. Neumann, a fact the lawsuit mentions seemingly in passing. It says nothing else about Neumann, nor does the union’s lawsuit name Neumann as a defendant.
Neumann, who owns a house in Glendale and another in Phoenix, ran outdoor ad firms here a little over a decade ago before branching out to Chicago and later the Phoenix area, where he also got into the restaurant business.
He was accused 15 years ago of placing fewer ads than a client paid for and pocketing the difference. Media reports and court records also indicate he has lost a big sexual harassment lawsuit here and one of his companies filed for bankruptcy protection.
His latest financial trouble, though, appears to have started just a few months before Bond inked the contracts that sent millions his way.
In June 2019, Neumann’s three popular restaurants in the Phoenix area abruptly closed, with a landlord for one eventually
By January 2020, Bond had entered into a “consulting agreement†with Neumann’s Interrail Outdoor for three digital billboards in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Kansas City and Wichita, Kansas.
But Bond didn’t take the agreement to the ºüÀêÊÓƵ union’s board until a year later, in 2021. By that time, he had already paid $3 million to Interrail, according to the union lawsuit. After the board approved Bond’s motion to purchase three billboards, he sent another $1 million to Interrail. None of those expenditures appears to have been reported in the union’s filings with the Office of Labor-Management Standards, where large union expenditures are reported to federal regulators.
“The amounts paid to Interrail were well beyond the standard costs to purchase and construct digital billboards in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Kansas City, and Wichita,†the union’s lawsuit against Interrail and Bond says.
Even so, only one of the billboards — in Wichita — was built.
The allegation shares some similarities with a past lawsuit against Neumann.
In 2006, SLS International, a client of Neumann’s former AdOne Media Inc., sued him and AdOne for fraud under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. SLS, a southwest Missouri firm that designed, manufactured and installed loudspeakers before it was acquired by Dolby, was represented in the lawsuit by lawyers at what is now Husch Blackwell and Polsinelli.
SLS accused Neumann of taking its money for advertisements at a variety of sports venues and running ads in smaller arenas while pocketing the excess cash. In one instance, SLS accused Neumann of billing it $45,000 for seven dasher board advertisements at United Hockey League games and only placing one or two of the advertisements.
The sound company said other invoices Neumann sent it for professional soccer game advertisements charged SLS well beyond what the sporting venue charged, with Neumann “pocketing the difference for his own use.†It also said he failed to pay end users for advertisements he placed for SLS, and that Neumann used a series of similar-sounding but separate companies with different bank accounts to conceal the scheme.
Neumann later countersued, arguing in filings that end users had confirmed the invoices had been paid and denying the other accusations. The two companies in 2007 agreed to a confidential settlement, according to court filings.
Court records and media reports also reveal at least two lawsuits by former employees of Neumann’s companies accusing him of sexual assault. A ºüÀêÊÓƵ County in damages to a former employee who sued him and AdOne Media for sexual harassment and abuse.
The next month, Neumann’s company, AdOne Media Inc., filed for bankruptcy.
In 2018, another Neumann employee sued him, another one of his outdoor media companies and the holding company for his Phoenix restaurants, Glass Half Full LLC, alleging sexual abuse. Both cases center around abuse incidents during trips to Las Vegas.
The most recent sexual abuse lawsuit reached a settlement in early 2021, according to Maricopa County court filings.
Neumann did not respond to requests for comment, nor did a local lawyer, Michael James, who is listed as an agent for many of his Missouri companies and has represented him in some litigation.
Bond has not responded to repeated requests for comment.