Skip Navigation
USAO Home Page

Press Releases

FORMER VA LABOR UNION OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT

August 1, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LORRAINE T. PAYTON, age 58, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, pled guilty before U. S. District Judge Carl Barbier today to a charge that she defrauded the Veterans Health Administration employee labor unions, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten today.

According, to court documents, PAYTON pled guilty to using her position as an officer of various Veterans Health Administration labor organizations and as an employee of the Veterans Health Administration to double dip on salary and travel reimbursements and to use union member funds for her own personal benefit. The defendant faces a possible maximum penalty of twenty (20) years incarceration and a $250,000 fine.

This case was investigated by Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Emily K. Greenfield and Peter Mansfield.