Union Clerk Sentenced For Embezzlement

A Livonia woman was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for embezzlement of labor organization assets, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today. 

McQuade was joined in the announcement by Ian Burg, Director of the Detroit-Milwaukee District Office of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards, and James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Regional Office of the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations.

Ann Marie Shaffer, 57, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen J. Murphy.  Judge Murphy further ordered Shaffer to pay $340,267.73 in restitution to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58 in Detroit, and to serve two years of supervised release following her discharge from prison. 

Shaffer pleaded guilty to one count of theft of union funds on August 7, 2014.  As part of her plea agreement, Shaffer admitted that between September 2008 and September 2010, while employed as a dues clerk, she embezzled $101,059.56 of IBEW Local 58 funds by engaging in a check substitution scheme.  She received dues remittance checks from employers, set them aside without properly recording them, and when an equal amount of cash was received, embezzled the cash by replacing it with the unrecorded checks. 

“Union officials hold a position of trust, and will be held accountable when they cheat the workers they serve,” McQuade said

U.S. Attorney McQuade commended the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Office of Inspector General’s Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations in Detroit for conducting the investigation.