Union 'taken to cleaners for $2m

It started with an extra union payment of $144 (£90) deducted at source from the salaries of 5,000 members of the city's teachers' union.

But what seemed at first a computer error turned this week, after FBI raids on the head of the local teachers' union, into a tale of corruption on a grand scale.

Investigators now believe that much of the $2m that vanished from the Washington Teachers' Union bank accounts was used to support the lifestyle of the union president, Barbara Bullock.

A series of raids on the home of the influential Ms Bullock, and her favourite shops, revealed a lifestyle most of her members could only dream of: $600 alligator skin shoes and a $25,000 mink coat to complement custom-made suits and coats that came to half a million dollars.

Then there was the $13,000 television set, with drinks from a $6,800 ice bucket adorned with swan heads, according to court documents.

And all of this on the backs of poorly paid teachers in the city's schools. Ms Bullock's dry cleaning bill ran to $25,000, including storage for a 300-item wardrobe that was too large to fit into her flat.

She has not been charged. She and two other executives resigned when auditors began tracing the overpayment in union fees. Meanwhile, rent, telephone bills, taxes and other expenses at the union's headquarters went unpaid.

The revelations could harm the mayor, Anthony Williams. Ms Bullock's assistant, who is also under investigation, was co-chair of Mr Williams' re-election campaign.