The federal government's widening UAW corruption probe has planted a bull's-eye on the union's top brass as investigators shift their focus to two emerging questions: Did labor leaders misspend union members' dues in tony Palm Springs, and were the UAW's current and former presidents in on it?

According to sources familiar with the probe, investigators are seeking to determine if union officials unlawfully blew nearly $1 million in union dues on extravagant conventions in the desert resort town, and whether UAW President Gary Jones and his predecessor, Dennis Williams, knew about the spending and personally benefited.

Specifically, the government wants to know whether autoworkers' union dues improperly paid for premium booze, extravagant meals, multiple rounds of golf and extended condo stays during 2014-16 UAW conferences in California — one of the 17 states that Jones oversaw as regional director and held his annual conferences at before becoming president.

At issue for the government is whether or not any of these Palm Springs expenses involved union business, and if they didn't, whether that amounts to theft of union assets, a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

One UAW official has already implicated Williams in the probe; Jones is also being looked at, the Free Press reported previously. Neither has been charged with a crime.

The corruption probe covers activities that occurred from 2009 to 2015 — a time that was marked by tremendous growth by the union as membership at Fiat Chrysler grew from 32,000 to 49,000. According to federal prosecutors, UAW members paid between $670 a year to $1,600 a year in dues, depending on their salary, during the years in question. That means the UAW collected more than $32.8 million a year in union dues from the rank and file at Fiat Chrysler.

The UAW adamantly denies any wrongdoing by Jones and Williams and maintains that nearly $1 million in union dues were reasonably spent at Palm Springs conferences, and that they covered expenses for more than 650 members.

Convicted ex-UAW official Nancy Johnson tells a different story. She has disclosed to the government that many Palm Springs union expenses had little, if anything, to do with union business. Moreover, she told the government that Williams was behind some of the union's extravagant travel expenditures when he was president and that UAW officials for years spent union dues on personal travel perks, according to her plea agreement and sources.

"In 2014, 2015 and 2016 in Palm Springs, California, high level UAW officials used UAW funds to pay for extravagant meals, premium liquor, multi-month stays at condominiums and multiple rounds of golf for little, if any, legitimate union-business or labor management purposes," stated Johnson's guilty plea agreement.

During those same years, Department of Labor records show that the UAW spent $954,492 in Palm Springs. This includes $857,686 for stays at the four-star Renaissance Palm Springs and $96,806 at the nearby exclusive Desert Princess golf and hotel resort, a community of 667 condos and 462 freestanding villas that all sit on a 27-hole championship golf course.

Johnson's plea agreement makes no mention of Williams or Jones by name.

The Free Press has reported that Jones, while a regional director, was witness to some of the questionable spending during 2015 conventions in California. Specifically, the paper reported that Jones was among several passengers on what prosecutors have described as a $1,600 limo ride from Palm Springs to San Diego in 2015. Also on that trip was former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who retired suddenly after his home was raided by the FBI in November 2017.

The union has objected to any suggestion that Jones, who was sworn in as UAW president in June, should have noticed problems in Palm Springs and that the so-called "limo" ride was actually a bus for 40 people. It also stresses that the UAW has been transparent with travel expenses, noting the nearly $1 million in hotel and golf resort expenses in Palm Springs were reported to the Department of Labor by the UAW, and that its expenses are audited.

Jones has declined repeated requests for comment.

“UAW expenditures on these annual training conferences — all of which are publicly reported — are entirely reasonable. Over three years, more than 650 union attendees, from all over the western half of the country, attended all-day meetings during week-long conferences. Those are the facts, which stand in contrast to unattributed allegations,” UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said in a statement.

UAW: Corruption is not widespread

The UAW also has maintained that union contracts were never tainted by the training center scandal, which prosecutors say involves FCA executives bribing UAW officials to keep them "fat, dumb and happy" so that Fiat Chrysler got a better deal at the bargaining table. The auto execs did this by siphoning millions from a training center meant for blue-collar workers, and funneling to UAW officials.

The UAW has long held that the corruption involved only a handful of bad actors looking to line their pockets.

But if Johnson's plea agreement is any indication, many UAW players benefited in the scheme, including herself as she pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from FCA officials. As part of her plea deal, and according to sources, Johnson disclosed several details to the federal government about the scheme, including:

Sometime in 2014 or 2015, Williams directed senior UAW officials to use funneled money from automakers "to pay for travel ... as well as lavish meal and other entertainment costs of senior UAW officials and their friends, family and allies."

"This directive was issued in order to reduce costs to the UAW budget from such expenditures because the UAW's budget was under pressure," Johnson's plea agreement states.

Johnson, the UAW's No. 2 negotiator with Fiat Chrysler, pleaded guilty in July to violating a federal labor law by accepting bribes from Fiat Chrysler. Prosecutors said she spent some of her her ill-gotten gains at a 2015 Palm Springs conference on $1,100 Christian Louboutin shoes, a $4,587 meal at LG's Prime Steak House and a $6,900 at the Renaissance Resort & Spa.

Johnson faces up to 18 months in prison when she is sentenced in November.

Read more:

Incoming UAW boss was aboard $1,600 bus ride cited in scandal

Embezzlement plagues union offices around U.S., records show

Before retiring from his position as UAW president, Williams maintained that UAW officials were not aware of the training center scandal until the government informed them of it. He adamantly argued that union dues were not part of the scandal, and that no contracts were ever tainted.

"To be clear, these allegedly misallocated or misused (National Training Center) funds were not UAW dues nor were they union funds. These were monies funded by Chrysler pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement," Williams wrote in a letter to union members in the wake of the scandal. "The UAW has zero tolerance for corruption or wrongdoing of this kind at any level. The current UAW leadership had absolutely no knowledge of the alleged fraudulent activities detailed by this indictment until they were brought to our attention by the government."

Williams stressed: "It is important for you to know that despite some public commentary to the contrary, the allegations in the indictment in no way call into question the collective bargaining contracts negotiated by our union during this period."

But if Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gardey’s words are any indication, the government suspects foul play at the bargaining table and a serious breach of trust by union officials.

"Besides losing some of their dues, we don't know what effect these corrupt payments had on the collective bargaining agreements for these workers,” Gardey said at the August sentencing hearing for ex-FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli.

Iacobelli was sentenced to 5½ years in prison for his role in a $4.5-million scheme that steered training money to himself and UAW officials, including the late General Holiefield, former vice president of the UAW, and Holiefield's widow. Among the perks that Iacobelli and others lavished themselves with were a Ferarri, $38,000 Mont Blanc pens, trips and house renovations.

“In a sense, your honor, this case is just like a public corruption case, with the UAW rank and file standing in for the public and with the corrupt UAW officials standing in for corrupt elected officials," Gardey continued, calling Iacobelli and other FCA executives "the greedy bribe payers in this conspiracy."

"The UAW's officials owed a duty of trust to the rank and file, and the corrupt ones breached that trust. And Mr. Iacobelli, acting in the interest of his company, sought to secure labor peace and concession and advantages at the bargaining table through corporate culture of bribery," Gardey said. "There is no question that the crime here is serious and far reaching.”

Probe snares many; investigation ongoing

Iacobelli is the highest-ranking FCA official ensnared in the probe thus far.

The other convicted are:

• Jerome Durden, a former financial analyst at Fiat Chrysler who was accused of cooking the books to hide the scheme involving the stolen training center funds. He pleaded guilty in August and is scheduled to be sentenced in January.

• Monica Morgan, Holiefield's widow, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in July for her role in the scandal. She and her husband were accused of receiving $1.2 million in stolen training funds from Iacobelli and using some of the money to build a pool and pay off their mortgage. She pleaded guilty only to a tax crime, admitting she hid $201,000 from the government.

• Virdell King, a former assistant director of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, pleaded guilty in August to misusing $40,000 in training funds meant for autoworkers. She spent it on herself, records show, for clothing, jewelry, luggage, golf equipment, concert tickets and theme park tickets. Under her plea deal, she faces up to 16 months in prison. She has not yet been sentenced.

*Michael Brown, a former Fiat Chrysler director for employee relations, pleaded guilty in May to misleading a grand jury about his knowledge of the training center scheme. Specifically, he knew that $1.5 million in training funds was being funneled to UAW officials, but he never reported it and concealed it. He faces up to 18 months in prison and awaits sentencing.

* Keith Mickens, a former UAW official who helped negotiate contracts between the UAW and FCA, pleaded guilty in March to buying designer clothes, luggage and golf equipment with money that was supposed to help autoworkers. He also admitted to helping Holiefield use stolen training money to build a pool. He faces up to 2½ years in prison and awaits sentencing.

The corruption probe is ongoing, and more charges are in the pipeline.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her @Tbaldas. Free Press reporter Phoebe Wall Howard contributed to this report..