Five Plead Guilty To Theft From Union Fund

Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that five individuals pleaded guilty today to theft from an employee benefit plan. James McCall (32, Orange City), Ian Chase Dove (26, Orange City), Jason Wesson (37, Deltona), Michael Giesinger (36, Deltona), and Shane Riley (31, Deland) each face a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison. The sentencing hearings are scheduled for July 16, 2014.

According to court documents, Angela Deleon worked at Advance Administration, Inc. (AAI), which was the third-party administrator of an employee benefit plan for the Ironworkers Local 808. As the third-party administrator for the Ironworkers Local 808 Annuity Fund, AAI was responsible for processing members’ payment applications, paying the Fund’s bills, and speaking with union members. Deleon’s duties at AAI included data entry and the processing of payments.

  Over a period of about fourteen months, Deleon wrote forty-six checks from the Fund, totaling over $427,000, to individuals who were not members of the Local 808 or participants in the Fund, including McCall, Dove, Wesson, Giesinger, and Riley.  All five cashed the checks provided to them by Deleon and, in most cases, split the stolen proceeds with Deleon. 

Deleon was previously sentenced to two years in federal prison for her participation in these crimes, ordered to pay $594,000 in restitution to the Ironworkers Local 808 Annuity Fund, and sentenced to a one-year term of supervision, following her incarceration. The restitution amount includes more than $427,000 that Deleon stole from the Fund, plus the amounts spent by the Fund to audit and reconstruct the records that were impacted by the scheme.

Four other individuals have been charged by indictment with conspiracy and theft from an employee benefit plan. Three of those individuals, Brandon Alfonso (28, Orange City), Marta Blackmer (70, Orange City), and Phillip Simmons (50, Orange City), are scheduled to begin trial in June 2014. Another, Jason Ferrari (33, Orange City), has not yet been arrested. If convicted, these defendants face a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison for each count.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

These cases were investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. They are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg.