Former Bricklayer’s Union Employee Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Over $160,000 of Training Funds

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Today, LAURA ANNE ROSS, 42, from Oklahoma City, pled guilty to embezzling over $160,000 from her employer, the Bricklayer’s International Union, Local 5, an Oklahoma City labor union that represents bricklayers and trowel trade workers from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.    

Ross was indicted on September 15, 2015.  Today, she changed her plea to guilty and admitted to Chief United States District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange that between April 17, 2012 and October 28, 2013, while employed by the Union, she improperly took $160,927.34 from a Joint Apprenticeship Trust Fund account that was used to train future Union members.

At sentencing, Ross faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.   A sentencing hearing will be set by the court in approximately 90 days.

This case was investigated by the United States Department of Labor-Office of the Inspector General and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Cardenas Jarvis and Mark A. Yancey. 

Reference is made to court filings for further information.