June 10, 2009: Chrysler exits bankruptcy, forms alliance with Fiat SpA that is initially backed by U.S. government.
2009-14: Fiat Chrysler provides the United Auto Workers National Training Center with annual transfers between $13 million and $31 million per year. FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli controls finances, spending at the training center.
July 2009: Iacobelli and others begin transferring tens of thousands of dollars from the training center account to The Leave the Light on Foundation, UAW Vice President General Holiefield’s charity.
2009-15: More than $1.2 million in funds from the charity are used to pay Holiefield, his wife, Monica Morgan-Holiefield, and other UAW officials. Iacobelli gives Holiefield and other UAW officials credit cards in the name of the training center, paid for by FCA. Iacobelli ultimately admitted to paying more than $1.5 million to UAW officers and employees through the training center to sway union negotiations.
Feb. 2010: Former CEO of Fiat Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, gives Holiefield an expensive Italian watch, but fails to disclose the gift.
Oct. 2011: Iacobelli, FCA financial analyst Jerome Durden and others begin to transfer more than $1 million to pay for Iacobelli’s credit cards, solid gold Montblanc fountain pens, a swimming pool, outdoor kitchen and spa at Iacobelli’s Rochester Hills home, as well as more than $350,000 to buy a 2013 Ferrari 458 Spider.
Sept. 2012: Joe Ashton, then a UAW regional director in Atlantic City, is involved in an intensifying kickback scheme. Ashton conspired with top aide Jeff Pietrzyk and senior UAW officer Michael Grimes to demand bribes and kickbacks from training center contractors.
June 2014: Ashton is elected to a seat on General Motors Co.’s board of directors to represent the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust.
June 2014: Iacobelli and Durden issue a $262,219.71 training center check to pay off mortgage on Harrison Township home of Holiefield and Morgan.
June 3, 2014: UAW members vote to increase dues for the first time since 1967.
October 2014: Fiat SpA merges with Chrysler to create Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
December 2014-2018: Gary Jones, then director of the UAW’s largest geographic region, begins hosting annual regional conventions in Palm Springs, until 2018. Jones and others allegedly embezzled more than $1.5 million in union funds spent in Palm Springs.
March 9, 2015: GM CEO Mary Barra receives email from Marchionne proposing a merger.
June 9, 2015: Iacobelli retires from his position as FCA's chief labor negotiator, effective immediately, roughly one month before 2015 contract negotiations begin.
June 18, 2015: Then UAW President Dennis Williams tells GM's Mary Barra and three other executives he would support a merger between FCA and GM.
July 2015: Senior UAW leaders launch the 2015 contract negotiations with an $8,000 meal at a Detroit steakhouse, paid for by Fiat Chrysler.
Summer 2017: Unsealed federal indictments accuse Iacobelli, Morgan-Holiefield, Holiefield and Durden of a years-long conspiracy. By August, Durden pleads guilty.
Fall 2017: Federal investigators expand their corruption investigation to include Ashton and the UAW training centers funded by all three Detroit automakers.
Dec. 13, 2017: Ashton resigns from GM's board.
June 12, 2018: UAW votes to potentially lower dues, increase president’s pay.
June 14, 2018: Jones is elected president of the UAW.
July 13, 2018: Morgan-Holiefield is sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. She is the first person sentenced in the scandal.
Aug. 27, 2018: Iacobelli is sentenced to 5 ½ years in federal prison.
Nov. 8, 2018: Durden is sentenced to 15 months in federal prison along with Michael Brown, a former FCA executive, and Keith Mickens, a UAW official. Both are sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
Dec. 18, 2018: Nancy Adams-Johnson, formerly a high-ranking UAW official, receives a one-year and one-day federal prison sentence for accepting illegal payments from FCA.
Aug. 5, 2019: Former UAW vice president Norwood Jewell is sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
Aug. 9, 2019: Virdell King, a former UAW official who pocketed as much as $15,000 in bribes from FCA executives is spared a prison sentence because she and other former UAW and FCA officials continued to cooperate.
Sept. 4, 2019: Grimes pleads guilty in the federal courtroom on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering.
Sept. 12, 2019: The Detroit News reports that Jones and Williams are unnamed union officials accused in a federal criminal case of helping orchestrate a years-long conspiracy that involved embezzling member dues.
Oct. 22, 2019: Ashton's former top aide, Jeff Pietrzyk, pleads guilty to his role in a conspiracy involving Ashton and Grimes and admitted receiving kickbacks and bribes from UAW vendors.
Fall 2019: All three Detroit automakers move during 2019 UAW contract negotiations to restructure corporate-funded training centers.
November 2019: Jones steps down as UAW president, resigns union membership. Vice President Rory Gamble replaces him.
Nov. 20, 2019: GM sues FCA, stating late CEO Sergio Marchionne orchestrated a multimillion-dollar racketeering conspiracy — including bribes — that corrupted three rounds of bargaining with the UAW, financially weakened GM in bid to force merger.
Nov. 26, 2019: Vance Pearson, two days after resigning as director of the UAW's Region 5, appears in federal court in Detroit.
Dec. 4, 2019: Former UAW Vice President Ashton pleads guilty to wire fraud, money laundering.
Dec. 5, 2019: Rory Gamble is elected UAW president, vows to reform union.
Dec. 6, 2019: UAW announces plans to disband its 17-state Region 5.