Michigan Woman Sentenced For Embezzling $101K From Electrical Workers Union

From The National Legal and Policy Center on 2/5/2015:

Ann Marie Shaffer embezzled checks under the guise of processing them. She's now about to pay the price. On January 21, Shaffer, former dues clerk for International Brotherhood Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to a year in prison for embezzling $101,059.56 in funds from the Detroit-based union. She also was ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay $340,267.73 in restitution. Shaffer had pleaded guilty last August following a joint probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.

Federal prosecutors had charged that Shaffer, now 57, a resident of Livonia, Mich., engaged in theft via a check substitution scheme. After receiving dues remittance checks from employers, she would set them aside without recording them. Then, when handling an equal amount of cash, she would replace the money with the unrecorded checks. "Union officials hold a position of trust, and will be held accountable when they cheat the workers they serve," said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade.