UAW V.P.'s Widow Pleads Guilty to Criminal Tax Fraud

Monica Morgan, the widow of UAW Vice President General Holiefield, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to filing false tax returns by failing to report more than $200,000 in income in 2011.

Morgan, 54, of Harrison Township, got caught up in a federal probe of a multi-million-dollar bribery scheme involving Fiat Chrysler Automobile (FCA) and the UAW.  Her plea marks the fourth conviction in the ongoing criminal probe. She's god to prison dfor more than two years under a plea agreement.

Monica Morgan (Facebook photo)

She's a photographer and motivational speaker. Holiefield, who died in 2015, is identified in court documents as someone who took bribes from an FCA executuve while bargaining contracts. 

Authorities charged that Morgan owned and operated the companies Monica Morgan Photography and Wilson’s Diversified Products based in Detroit. Her companies received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center when Holiefield was a UAW leader. The couple wed in September 2012 in Venice, Italy. 

Morgan's companies also received significant payments from Holiefield’s charity, known as the Leave the Light on Foundation.  Former FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli and former FCA Financial Analyst Jerome Durden each acknowledged using Wilson Diversified Products and the Leave the Light on Foundation to conceal payments made on behalf of FCA to Holiefield.

Under the plea agreement, the government is expected to dismiss other charges including conspiracy and fraud. She is set to be sentenced June 4 by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman.

Morgan faces up 27 months in prison and must pay the U.S. Treasury Department restitution of $190,747.

"There's no storm that God won't carry you through. No bridge that God won't help you cross," she posts Tuesday on Faceboook shortly before her court appearance.