A number of promotional products firms are being targeted in a federal investigation of corruption allegations brought against the United Auto Workers (UAW), one of the largest labor unions in the United States.

Federal agents are investigating whether leaders of the UAW received kickbacks after giving contracts to business leaders to produce union-branded clothes and promotional products. Approximately 10 promotional products executives have been subpoenaed to produce documents sought by a federal grand jury, The Detroit News reported. Executives from Taylor, MI-based Impressions Specialty Advertising (asi/700504) and Southfield, MI-based Custom Promotions (asi/173237) have been named so far.

More than $29 million has been spent in the last five years on promotion, advertising and UAW-branded items distributed at union rallies, conventions and factories, according to federal filings. The items include shirts, lanyards, flash drives, pens, hats, key chains and other promotional products.

Impressions Specialty Advertising is a family business run by company president Louise Leveque. Her husband Al Leveque is a company director and their son Jason Leveque has worked as a sales manager. The UAW and its political action fund have paid Impressions more than $3.1 million since 2013, according to federal filings. In 2017 alone, Impressions sold duffle bags, T-shirts, hats, bags, portfolios and other promotional products to the UAW.

The so-called "trinkets and trash" industry is a collection of companies vying for a piece of the more than $29M spent in the last five years on promotion, advertising and UAW-branded items. https://t.co/zcbxUYu8VA

— The Detroit News (@detroitnews) April 24, 2019

Jason Gordon is president of several companies, including Custom Promotions, Idea Consultants and Organization Services of Michigan. Custom Promotions and Organization Services have received more than $2.6 million from the UAW and its political action fund since 2013, according to federal documents. In 2015, Custom Promotions sold polo shirts and jackets to UAW for the union’s bargaining committee members, according to the UAW’s annual financial filing. "As it is an ongoing investigation, we can not make comment at this time," Gordon told Counselor.

Prosecutors have not filed charges against anyone related to the promotional products deals. Federal agents are investigating whether company executives inflated the cost of UAW-branded clothes and promotional products and then shared the extra money with UAW leaders. Requests for comment from Impressions Specialty Advertising has not been answered as of this time.

Promo firms vie for contracts awarded by the UAW, from training centers jointly operated with Fiat Chrysler, GM and Ford Motor Co., as well as from the union’s political action committee. Since 2013, the training centers have spent more than $22.5 million on promotions and advertising, according to federal tax data. The UAW and its political action committee have spent more than $6.7 million on promotional products since 2013, according to Labor Department and Federal Election Commission records.

The UAW and its political action committee require three bids before awarding contracts based primarily on pricing and “timing of the product,” according to UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg. “All three joint training centers have and enforce a three-bid system as well,” Rothenberg told The Detroit News. “Those purchases are conducted independently by each of the separate joint training centers, all of which have tightened their enforcement and controls.”

In 2017, Monica Morgan-Holiefield, widow of the late UAW Vice President General Holiefield, was indicted and accused of receiving illegal payments from Fiat Chrysler executives. Prosecutors said the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center hired her company, Wilson’s Diversified Products, in 2011 to provide shirts, key chains, coffee mugs and other products. “Wilson’s Diversified Products was selected as a vendor without submitting a competitive bid or quote,” prosecutors said in the indictment. By July 2012, Fiat Chrysler executives who helped oversee the training center had approved paying her company more than $425,000, prosecutors said.