Cinematographers Guild Finds Former Treasurer Alan Gitlin Guilty Of Absconding With $26,000
EXCLUSIVE: Former Cinematographers Guild secretary-treasurer Alan Gitlin has again been found guilty of misappropriating union funds. On Wednesday, a nine-member union trial board found him guilty of absconding with some $26,000 worth of hotel rewards points that rightfully belonged to the union.
An earlier trial board had found him guilty of taking $3,301 in credit card points and computer equipment. Altogether, the union says, he took nearly $30,000 that didn’t belong to him.
In a statement sent today to the guild’s board members, the union, IATSE Local 600, said the latest trial board found him “guilty of all charges,” but said the amount of penalties and restitution he’ll be ordered to pay “remain confidential.” He has 30 days to file an appeal with the guild’s national board.
After the first trial board, the union slapped Gitlin with a $7,500 fine after he refused to return the credit card points and computer equipment. The guild also filed a lawsuit against him after he bounced two checks to cover the debt, and it kicked him off its national executive board. The guild later dismissed the suit.
In an affidavit of internal union charges, Local 600 president Steven Poster and secretary-treasurer Edward Avila — who defeated Gitlin in his re-election bid last year — said that during his term of office, Gitlin had maintained personal hotel program reward accounts and “caused the points generated by Local 600’s business with the hotels to be credited to his personal hotel reward accounts, rather than be credited to reward accounts held in the name of Local 600. The points credited to his personal accounts arose out of official Local 600 business with these hotels, including but not limited to room and event charges associated with Local 600 national executive board meetings, IATSE general executive board meetings, and IATSE conventions.”
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