Kyle Batts tried to make ends meet on his union credit card. He wasn’t thinking ahead. On February 27, Batts, 38, former secretary-treasurer of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 738, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to embezzling $40,580.83 in union assets. Roughly during the period April 2003-August 2006, he used a union credit card to pay for personal expenses. The union is based in Longview, about an hour and a half east of Dallas. The guilty plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. (States News Service, 2/27/08; OLMS, 3/6/08).
Tennessee Local President Sentenced for Embezzlement
