Freddy Escobar stopped on the sidewalk outside his old workplace stirring a green thumb and a stack of papers that said he would clear his name.
The suspended president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles said he could not enter the office where he worked since 2018. He said that the parent organization of the union had changed the locks to the building and the door code to the parking lot.
The range of the goalkeepers to deliver their evidence, including photos of recipes, to counteract accusations that he had documented many of the purchases of their credit cards. But there was no answer.
“Wow,” he said. When he turned to face the news cameras, Escobar closed his eyes for a moment. “An organization for which I would have died does not give me the opportunity to present them what the leg has looked for.”
The dramatic scene was held on Friday morning outside the union office in Historic Filipinotown, four days after the International Association. If firefighters suspended Escobar and two other union officers on financial irregularities, including “serious problems” with missing receipts.
The Iaff also placed UFLAC under curatorship, the first for any of the local fire unions about the Washington organization in Washington, DC, said a spokesman. The unprecedented movement followed Times’s reports on the Financial Audit of the IAFFF, as well as the mass payments to Escobar and other union officials.
IAff General President Edward Kelly revealed the audit findings in a letter to UFLAC members on Monday.
From July 2018 to November 2024, Escobar began 1,957 transactions on his UFLAC credit card, for a total of $ 311,498, according to the letter. More than 70% of these transactions, worth $ 230,466, did not have backup documentation.
“The auditors could not determine the purpose of these transactions,” Kelly wrote in the letter. He added that about 157 additional transactions, worth $ 35,397, were only partial backed by the required documentation.
“This means that there is no way to determine if $ 265,862.34 in the money of the quotas spent by President Escobar without documentation was for legitimate trade union expenses,” said the letter.
The audit found that two other UFLAC officials, former secretary Adam Walker and former Treasurer Domingo Albarran Jr., together had more than $ 530,000 in transactions with credit cards without receipts or partial documentation. Walker did not respond to a request for comments, and Albarran declined to comment.
In total, around $ 800,000 in credit card purchases were not properly documented, according to the letter.
Vice Presidents Chuong Ho and Doug Coates were suspended and accused of violating their fiduciary duties in “not enforcing UFLAC policy.” Neinder responded to a request for comments.
Escobar arrived at the Union office on Friday morning to talk to journalists at a press conference he had called to refute the accusations. He said he did not know he was audited and was never asked to provide his receipts.
According to the UFLAC policy, receipts are required for all credit card expenses, together with an explanation of the expense, including the names of those present and the commercial reason for the expense.
Escobar said that the records he was holding included everything Iaff said there was missing. But he also said he did not tell the totals and did not know how much money he was counting. All the receipts he was providing, he said, had already been loaded in the Union expenses system.
“Whatever they say I don’t have it, I have it,” he said.
He said that the years compiled of documentation, including more than 1,500 receipts, minutes of meetings and explanations of their expenses, included transactions for gas, food, hotels and Uber walks. He said none were personal execctions.
When asked why he spent Uber’s walks when he had a car to take home provided by the union, he said the trips were for members who did union business.
UFLAC auditors had marked the accounting problems previously for UFLAC, who in March 2024 highlighted “significant deficiencies” because the officers were not properly documenting their expenses.
Despite this warning, Escobar made 339 transactions in 2024 using his UFLAC credit card, for a total of $ 71,671, without presenting a single receipt, Kelly wrote.
Escobar said the auditors never spoke to him.
“What is a warning? It was an audit that said that we could always do better and that we always occur, we could always do better,” he said.
When asked what the bone could have improved, since he said he had all his receptions, he replied: “Probably more details … explanations, adjustment.”
He called the Iaff “do the right thing” and restore him as president. Meanwhile, he said he will work as Cowd captain at a fire station in Boyle Heights.
In a statement friday, iaff spokesperson Ryan Heffernan Said March 2024 and as a Recent aslesh, Escobar was Localy and Members or Localy and the Members or Locities to the Members or Locities to The Members or Locities to The Members or Locities to The Members or Locities to The Members or Locations to the Members or Locations to the Members or Locations to the Members or Locations to the Members or Locations to the Members or Locations to the Fiduciary Fiduciary Expenses and the Members.
“Despite this, the Forensic Audit, issued in May 2025, confirmed serious deficiencies in the reconciliation and maintenance practices of Mr. Escobar between 2018-2024,” the statement said.
Last month, an investigation of the Times found that Escobar and other senior trade unions have been filling their payment checks with extra hours while raising union stipends of five to six figures.
Escobar won around $ 540,000 in 2022, the most recent year for which the records of their city and union earnings are available. Hey that doubled his base salary of $ 184,034 with overtime payments that year, winning more than $ 424,500 of the city in salaries and benefits, as shown in payroll data.
He collected an additional stipend of $ 115,962 of the union, according to its federal taxation more recently. He informed that he worked 48 hours a week in union and relationships, while the records provide for the city for that year, picked up an extinguished or approximately 30 hours of extra time per week in fire fighting shifts, a total of approximately 78 hours of work of work.
On Friday, he played his total profits, saying “it’s much less than that,” he thought he did not provide evidence.
