Sylacauga Woman Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling from Union Local

BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge last week sentenced a Sylacauga woman to three months in prison, followed by three month’s home detention for embezzling more than $23,000 from a construction trades union local based in Irondale, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey and Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, District Director Craig Neel.

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor sentenced MICHELLE R. CLIFTON, 49, on one count of embezzling union assets. The judge ordered her to pay $23,014 in restitution to the union. Clifton pleaded guilty in August. She must report to prison Feb. 15.

Clifton stole from the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, Local 78, where she worked as office manager and bookkeeper, according to court records. She carried out the theft between December 2012 and September 2013 by forging 17 checks drawn on four separate union accounts.

The Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Patton Meadows prosecuted.

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