On August 24, Steven Thomas, former business manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 500 in Toledo, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to five years probation, three months home detention and 250 hours of community service for embezzling roughly $28,500 in union funds. As Union Corruption Update had indicated in prior articles, he and local recording secretary Thomas Leonard earlier this decade made unauthorized use of their union credit cards to pay for expenses during visits to various strip clubs. The LIUNA parent union removed both from office. Steven Thomas pleaded guilty in May. In addition to the sentence, the court required him to make outstanding restitution in the amount of $14,324.84. The action follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
For four years Donna LeAnn Cooper used her union credit card to enrich her bottom line. She's lucky she likely won't be doing as much time behind bars. Cooper, a former office employee with Laborers International Union of North America Local 888, pleaded guilty on July 15 in Muskogee, Oklahoma federal court to embezzling $69,000 from the Muskogee local. She is currently free on bond awaiting sentencing.
On April 7, Angela Jones, former president of Laborers International Union of North America Local 509, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to making false entries in financial records of the St. Louis union. She then was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service. Jones, 36, a resident of St. Louis, had been charged in February with covering up theft of $5,000 in local funds. The sentencing follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On February 16, Angela Jones, former president of Laborers International Union of North America Local 509, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri with one count of making false entries in union records related to her misuse of $5,000 in funds from the St. Louis union. The charge follows an investigation by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
The indictment of Melissa King may have been a formality, but members of the union from which she allegedly stole on a staggering scale are satisfied all the same. On February 17, King, former longtime benefits administrator of Laborers International Union of North America Local 147, better known as the "Sandhogs," was 
On January 22, Gary Day, former field representative for Laborers International Union of North America Local 1180, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania with embezzling $10,827.50 from the Harrisburg local. The charge follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On November 16, David Lee Tungett, former organizer for Laborers International Union of North America, Kentucky District Council, was sentenced in U.S. District Council for the Western District of Kentucky to two years probation for one count of destruction of records belonging to the Lawrenceburg, Ky. union. He also was ordered to attend a drug rehab program, and pay a $250 fine and a $25 special assessment. The sentencing follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
One would think a union office administrator who makes more than $500,000 a year wouldn't have to resort to stealing. But 
On August 18, David Lee Tungett, former organizer for Laborers International Union of North America, Kentucky District Council, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky to one count of destruction of union records. He had been charged the previous week. The actions come in the wake of the probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards. The council is located in Lawrenceburg, not far from Frankfurt.
