William J. Edwards, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today that an Information was filed against Michael P. Kelly, age 55, of Crestline, Ohio, charging him with one count of embezzling approximately $97,971 from the United Transportation Union (UTU), Local 586, while serving as Local 586’s Secretary-Treasurer from January 2004 through November 2006. According to the Information, members of UTU Local 586 were employed at CSX Transportation, Inc., at locations in northeast Ohio, including Crestline, where the defendant also worked during this time.

The Information alleges that Kelly mis-used his position as union officer to embezzle the funds by: (a) issuing numerous checks payable to himself, recorded as “salary and expenses” payments on union records, that he knew were either totally unauthorized or in amounts substantially beyond his authorized salary and expense reimbursements; (b) issuing or causing numerous other checks to be issued payable to him, and in one case making an automated withdrawal from an account, that he knew were totally unauthorized; and (c) in a few instances issuing checks to a family member or third party on behalf of a family member, that he knew were unauthorized. Kelly received the personal benefit of these unauthorized payments either directly by negotiating the checks personally, or indirectly by allowing family members to negotiate the checks and/or use the proceeds of the checks. To make and conceal these unauthorized expenditures, Kelly allegedly used various devices, including: (a) forging the signature of the local union president on most of the checks; (b) issuing and negotiating some checks containing only his signature as maker; (c) falsely recording the payee’s name on the local union’s disbursement control ledger for some checks; and (d) allowing family members to make and forge his name as signer on some of the checks.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John M. Siegel, following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, Cleveland, Ohio.
An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.