A promotional products industry executive in Michigan has made headlines for his alleged role in a reported bribery scandal that federal authorities are investigating in connection with Detroit-based United Auto Workers, one of the largest unions in the United States.

The Detroit News reported this week that, as part of an ongoing years-long probe, investigators are currently looking into alleged kickbacks promo executive Jason Gordon might have paid to current UAW President Rory Gamble and retired Vice President Jimmy Settles in exchange for receiving lucrative contracts to provide union-branded promotional products.

TDN exclusive: UAW President Rory Gamble under federal investigation, the third union president ensnared in probe. W/ @robertsnellnews. https://t.co/tGu94uLRAs via @detroitnews

— Daniel Howes (@DanielHowes_TDN) January 9, 2020

One of the investigation’s more lurid details is that clandestine cash payments to UAW leaders occurred at a Detroit strip club called Bouzouki Greektown.

While Gordon, Gamble and Settles are reportedly under investigation, the allegations have not been proven, and the men have not been charged with wrongdoing. Settles, through his lawyer, declined to comment. Both Gordon and Gamble said they’re innocent of criminal activity. “My client vehemently denies all of the allegations as being untrue,” Christopher Andreoff, Gordon’s attorney, told The Detroit News.

In a statement to The Detroit News, Gamble said: “I would not have accepted the role of president if I couldn’t withstand the scrutiny. Our union has suffered enough as a result of corrupt leaders. On my watch, we cannot and will not allow financial improprieties to rob our members of their hard-earned dollars. My sole focus as president is to strengthen the union’s financial controls, oversight and accounting system – and most importantly, to restore the trust of our union members.”

The corruption investigation continues.

Gordon is president of several promotional products companies, including Southfield, MI-based Custom Promotions (asi/173237), Idea Consultants and Organization Services of Michigan. His firms have reportedly supplied everything from UAW-logoed bags and hats, to towels and jackets. Since 2013, his companies have, according to Labor Department records, taken in about $3 million from the UAW, its political action committee and councils tied to the Union.

The tally includes $54,000 from a UAW regional council that Gamble led until moving to a different position in 2018. Labor Department records also show that Custom Promotions donated more than $12,000 worth of T-shirts to the same UAW regional council in 2011. At the time, Gamble headed that particular council. According to The Detroit News, Gordon is a “recurring focus” of authorities’ UAW corruption investigation, which is being led by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department. Gordon was initially connected with the investigation in April.

In a letter to union rank and file, Gamble said that all his dealings with Gordon were legal and proper. He wrote: “I worked with Custom Promotions, a union vendor, for years while in Region 1A. They produced many excellent and well-received marketing materials for our members. In all those years of working with this vendor, they never approached me in any manner that was less than professional or questionable in any way, and I absolutely never requested or received any cash or kickback from that vendor or any other. Nor did I ever approach them in any unprofessional or questionable manner. As Jason Gordon, the owner of Custom Promotions, said in his statement through his attorney, ‘My client vehemently denies all of the allegations as being untrue.’”

An analysis of UAW spending revealed that over the last six years the union has spent more than $29 million on promotion, advertising and UAW-branded products for union rallies, conventions and factories. “The items include shirts and lanyards, [flying discs] and flash drives, pencils and ponchos, Kangol hats and key chains, as well as novelty items like bowling ball buffers,” The Detroit News reported.

So far, the federal investigation into allegations of UAW corruption has led authorities to file charges against 13 people. There have been 11 convictions. Recently, The Detroit News reported, former UAW president Joe Ashton and former aides Mike Grimes and Jeff Pietrzyk pleaded guilty for taking kickbacks connected to awarding union contracts for branded items that totaled nearly $16 million.

Ashton’s chiropractor was reportedly among the vendors, which provided backpacks, jackets, commemorative watches and more. It wasn’t immediately clear who the other vendors are. In April, Gordon, along with principals from Taylor, MI-based Impressions Specialty Advertising (asi/700504), were subpoenaed to produce documents sought by a grand jury in connection with the case.