The Department of Justice has opened a grand jury investigation into United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain amid allegations that he used his position to benefit his fiancée and retaliated against a fellow union leader who raised objections, according to internal union documents reviewed by Reuters—the latest black mark on a union already operating under a federal corruption settlement.
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The lead counsel for the court-appointed monitor overseeing the UAW informed Fain and Rich Boyer, a senior union official, last month that the DOJ had launched the probe into matters previously flagged in the monitor’s reports. The monitor’s office is led by New York attorney Neil Barofsky and issues periodic findings on the union’s internal conduct.
Fain, who is seeking a second four-year term in an election scheduled later this year, has dismissed the monitor’s findings as “bogus.” Boyer, the union official allegedly retaliated against, is one of several candidates challenging Fain in that race, raising questions about whether the timing of the allegations could shape the outcome.
A report issued last month by the monitor’s office concluded that Fain had retaliated against Boyer and improperly used his authority in ways that benefited his fiancée, though the monitor held off on recommending discipline pending further review, without disclosing the federal investigation at the time.
“We are not publishing the details of our factual findings on this issue at this time out of deference to a Grand Jury investigation DOJ has initiated into that issue,” the monitor’s lead counsel wrote in a June 18 email reviewed by Reuters, adding, “We do not intend to publicly disclose the existence of that investigation at this time.”
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The union has declined to comment on the matter, and a lawyer representing the UAW said the organization itself is not the subject of the grand jury probe. Boyer and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Fain, for his part, has gone on the offensive, accusing his rival of feeding the monitor “false allegations” and suggesting the oversight office is motivated by politics rather than facts. He has pointed to a 2024 dispute with Barofsky over the UAW executive board’s call for a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as evidence of what he described as a personal grudge.
“What the Monitor is doing is wrong, it’s unfair to the UAW and to you as members, and my lawyers are looking at any and all legal options I can pursue to make it stop,” Fain said in a statement, noting he has retained legal counsel to fight the allegations.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The investigation adds to a troubled recent history for the UAW, which has operated under federal oversight since a 2020 settlement resolved a sweeping corruption scandal. That case implicated more than a dozen union officials, several of whom pleaded guilty to embezzling millions of dollars in member dues to fund lavish liquor and cigar purchases, golf outings and luxury hotel stays. Two former UAW presidents were ultimately sentenced to prison.
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