Former Union Treasurer Pleads Guilty to Embezzling at Least $82,000 in Union Funds

Baltimore, Maryland – Annette Elizabeth Jones, age 45, of Port Deposit, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to bank fraud in connection with a scheme to embezzle funds from the labor union where she worked. Jones entered her guilty plea on May 7, 2019.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; District Director Mark Wheeler of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor - Management Standards; and Inspector General Kim R. Lampkins, Special Agent in Charge, Mid Atlantic Field Office, of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

According to her plea agreement, Jones is the former Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees (“AFGE”) Local Union 331, which represents approximately 760 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Perry Point, Maryland.

As detailed in her plea agreement, Jones executed two fraud schemes through which she embezzled at least $82,180.73 from the Union. First, from July 2012 through July 2015, Jones stole at least $80,944.80 in Union funds by forging her colleagues’ signatures on 335 Union checks that she wrote to herself and then cashed or deposited those checks at multiple financial institutions. Second, from January 2014 through July 2015, Jones used a Union-issued credit card to pay for $1,235.93 in personal expenses using Union funds on 20 separate occasions.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/former-union-treasurer-pleads-guilty-embezzling-least-82000-union-funds-0