The duck gets tough with lying union leaders - and it's well deserved.
The man should have admitted he'd done wrong, accepted responsibility, apologised, stepped down, and faced whatever punishment was due with fortitude. I have more respect for people who make mistakes (even big ones, and even when what they've done is more than a mistake - a very bad series of decisions, taking advantage of others, stealing, being ethically and morally guilty of bad behaviour) but ADMIT what they have done, than for plaster saints who have never done wrong (according to them).
Punishment for those who accept responsibility and don't try to lie their way out of it ought to be less than for those who pretzel around. (And very often courts will show leniency to an offender who has demonstrated remorse.) People might well have had sympathy for the man had he not attempted his laughably transparent false denials.
I realise he's probably sick with the horribleness of being caught out; I don't doubt that. I am sure that's been part of the reason for his concocting further lies. But he's just doing himself no good at all by these silly statements. Everyone in the union knows his licence number???? What - do they have it tattooed on their hands as part of their union identification or something? And his SIGNATURE is on the documentation...? He's claiming a union member who had somehow got hold of and memorized his licence number, and got hold of and memorized his credit card number, also faked his signature?
It's a bit of a fanciful story. It reeks of a Schwarzenegger conspiracy movie plot. I can accept it in a film, but this is not a film.