Sharon Ann Burt, secretary of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 611, was sentenced in federal court to one year in prison for embezzling $72,701 in union funds. Federal prosecutors said that Burt, 49, a resident of Fort Payne, Alabama, in the northeast part of the state, wrote checks without authorization, paid her bills with union money, and doctored bank statements delivered to her personal post office box. She was indicted last May and pleaded guilty to embezzlement and mail fraud in October. Local 611 represented employees at the Earthgrains plant in Fort Payne, which closed in 2005. (Gadsden Times, 3/14/07; Huntsville Times, 3/15/07).
Pittsburgh-Area Local Chieftain Pleads Guilty to Thefts
On June 4, Donald Ray Pierce, secretary-treasurer of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers Local 163 in Houston, was charged in 248th District Court, Harris County, Texas, with one count of credit/debit card abuse of $683 from the union. The charge follows an investigation by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On April 14, Connie Ball, former secretary-treasurer of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 531, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky to five years probation for embezzling $7,754 from the London, Ky. union. She had been charged last October and pleaded guilty in December. Ball also will have to pay $7,354 in restitution and a $100 assessment. The sentencing follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On September 29, Keith Hart, former financial secretary for Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 315G, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, to six months in a work release community corrections facility and three years probation for embezzling $13,904.69 in funds from the Mt. Vernon, Ind. union. He also will have to pay full restitution and a $100 special assessment. The sentencing follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On August 26, Connie Ball, former secretary-treasurer of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 531, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky with embezzlement of $7,554 from the London (Laurel County) union. She pleaded not guilty in September and goes to trial on November 15. The charge follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On July 6, Keith Hart, former financial secretary of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 315G, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, to one count of embezzling $13,904.69 from the Mt. Vernon, Ind. union. He had been charged in June 2009. The guilty plea follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
Keith W. Hart Jr. had the system beat - for about eight months. On June 3, Hart, ex-financial secretary for Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union Local 315G, was indicted by an Indianapolis federal grand jury for embezzling $13,904.69 from the Mount Vernon, Indiana union. Prosecutors allege that between November 1, 2006 and July 9, 2007, Hart, 31, a resident of Mount Vernon, wrote checks, made cash withdrawals and received cash from deposits without union authorization. The indictment follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
