OLMS bags another gov't-union embezzler

An official with a Battle Creek (MI) labor union has been sentenced to federal prison for embezzling $75,000. Brad Harper, 56, of Marshall, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist in Federal District Court in Grand Rapids. Harper, the former treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1629 in Battle Creek, also was ordered to repay $75,069.49, according to U.S. Attorney Charles Gross.

Harper pleaded guilty in August to one count of making a materially false statement on the annual report filed by the union. During his guilty plea he admitted that, between December 1999 and March 2005, while he was treasurer, he made unauthorized ATM cash withdrawals from Local 1629’s bank account and unauthorized personal charges on the local’s credit card totaling $75,069.49.

The investigation of the case was handled by the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards in Detroit.

(battlecreekenquirer.com)