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Tyrone Freeman, former president of the largest California local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was accused in August of having channeled funds to companies owned by his wife, mother-in-law, and former chief of staff Rickman Jackson (the now-former president of Michigan?s largest SEIU local), as well as spending union money on personal expenses, including hotels, golf tournaments, and an upscale cigar lounge in Beverly Hills. Freeman was removed from leadership and placed under investigation. The union announced Friday that a lifetime ban had been placed on the former president and that he would be required to pay back more than $1 million dollars of misappropriations. The decision to ban Freeman was handed down by SEIU president Andy Stern, the former mentor of Freeman, who originally appointed him to the local presidency. Freeman is now under federal investigation by the FBI. If he is exonerated by the FBI, the union has given him the option of appealing the ban and restitution order.