Ex-officer for L.A. firefighters union faces internal inquiry over charity finances

A former top officer of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s labor union has been removed from his post and faces an internal investigation over allegations that he engaged in financial improprieties involving the union’s charity for injured firefighters, including using $5,000 for personal expenses.

The International Assn. of Fire Fighters late last year suspended Adam Walker from the influential office of secretary of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City and accused him of improperly depositing more than $75,000 of the charity’s funds into his personal accounts from December 2022 to January 2024, internal IAFF records reviewed by The Times show.

Walker told The Times that the allegations are false. He said the account he drew from was not for the charity, the UFLAC Fire Foundation, but was set up for two golf tournaments to raise money for a disabled former firefighter. All of the deposits were reimbursements for his legitimate out-of-pocket expenses for the tournaments, Walker said.

“Not one penny of the money was foundation money,” he added. He said he understood that the deposits “look bad” but were a reflection of his “poor bookkeeping” and not any wrongdoing.

Walker, who remains on the job as a firefighter, said he provided the IAFF with receipts for all his expenses. The Times asked him for copies of receipts, especially for the larger expenses, and he sent screenshots of them that totaled a little more than $17,000.

The Washington D.C.-based IAFF is the parent organization of UFLAC and other local firefighter unions across the country. It has also suspended Walker from his positions as chairman and director of the foundation, according to the records and a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly. The UFLAC website says the foundation aids injured firefighters and their families, provides scholarships and is helping firefighters who lost their homes in the January fires.

A spokesperson for the IAFF said in a statement, “We take allegations of financial misconduct within the UFLAC Fire Foundation very seriously. ... The IAFF has initiated an independent forensic audit to thoroughly investigate the situation, and we will take appropriate actions as necessary.”

The person with knowledge of the investigation said the IAFF is also examining UFLAC’s finances, including the use of union credit cards by officers. Once the IAFF completes its review, he said, it will determine whether to place UFLAC under a trusteeship, which could result in the removal of officers.

UFLAC President Freddy Escobar, who is also president of the foundation, declined to be interviewed or to answer a series of written questions from The Times, including about the IAFF review of the local union’s finances.

In an email, Escobar said, “I have no comment on the allegations against Adam Walker because they are just that — allegations. This matter is currently under review and everyone is owed due process.”

UFLAC is a political force in the city, as elected officials value its endorsements and financial contributions, although it backed the losing candidate in the last two open mayoral elections.

Disclosure of the allegations against Walker, which were filed by the IAFF late last year, comes as Escobar and other UFLAC leaders have criticized Mayor Karen Bass for firing LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley last month. Bass has said Crowley failed to adequately prepare for the Jan. 7 fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and killed 12 people.

Crowley’s firing followed Times investigations into her decisions to not keep 1,000 firefighters on duty in the hours before the blaze broke out and to not pre-deploy to the Palisades any of the dozens of extra fire engines that were available, despite warnings of life-threatening fire weather. Escobar and other UFLAC officers failed Tuesday to persuade the City Council to reinstate Crowley, with only two of 15 council members voting for reinstatement.

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The IAFF has accused Walker of embezzlement, larceny, breach of fiduciary duty and other wrongdoing, which are administrative allegations within the union and not criminal charges, the IAFF records show.

A union hearing on the accusations is pending, with a board of IAFF officers set to decide whether to subject Walker to a union trial. If he is convicted of the internal charges, he could be permanently barred from union membership and ordered to make restitution to the foundation, according to the person close to the investigation.

The amount of money Walker is accused of improperly withdrawing or otherwise misusing represents a sizable portion of the UFLAC Fire Foundation’s assets, which totaled about $287,000 in the fiscal year 2022-23, the most recent period for which its federal tax filings are available.

The allegations against Walker were spelled out in two letters sent to him by the IAFF in November and December, signed by the association’s general president, Edward Kelly, who did not respond to an interview request.

In the letters, Walker is accused of withdrawing the more than $75,000 from the foundation’s catastrophic fund and placing it in his accounts without authorization from the foundation’s board of directors. The $5,000 he is accused of using for personal expenses was deposited in his account in January 2024, according to the letters, which do not specifically describe the expenses.

Walker told The Times that he intended to use the $5,000 as a down payment to a golf course for a third tournament, which organizers later decided not to stage. He said he didn’t use any of it for personal expenses.

Among the expenses Walker allegedly incurred without the foundation board’s authorization were $2,400 in Target and Visa gift cards “for staff, members, and individuals who support Local 112 and its membership,” the IAFF alleged in the letters, referring to UFLAC as Local 112. The IAFF letters allege that Walker did not provide proof of who received the gift cards.

Altogether, the IAFF accused Walker of using the foundation’s credit card to make 57 purchases at numerous retailers, including 7-Eleven, Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods, “without submitting any itemized receipts or invoices to the foundation,” the December letter asserted. The November letter stated that he “failed to provide receipts for many of these purchases to establish that they were for legitimate foundation or other business purposes.”

Walker is also accused of using the credit card to buy tires for his personal vehicle and not reimbursing the foundation until after he was questioned more than four months later about the purchase, the letters stated.

In addition, the IAFF alleged that Walker used the foundation credit card to buy nearly $1,300 in gasoline in a dozen separate transactions “without any receipts or explanation of the purpose of the purchase.”

Walker said all of the gift cards and other purchases were for legitimate foundation purposes. He used the foundation credit card instead of his personal one to buy the tires by mistake, he said, and purchased the gas because he was driving his personal car on foundation business.