DETROIT — A former official at a suburban Detroit department of the United Car Staff has pleaded responsible to fees that he embezzled much more than $2 million in union revenue.
Timothy Edmunds, 54, pleaded guilty Friday to one particular depend each of embezzling union resources and cash laundering all through a listening to in U.S. District Court docket in Detroit, federal prosecutors explained. He is the 17th defendant convicted in an ongoing prison investigation into corruption in the UAW, prosecutors explained.
From 2011 to 2021, Edmunds was secretary-treasurer of UAW Local 412, which represents about 2,600 individuals who get the job done for Stellantis, formerly recognised as Fiat Chrysler, at factories in the Detroit space.
Edmunds “systematically drained” the local’s bank accounts of about $2.2 million by working with the labor group’s credit cards for own purchases, cashing community checks and transferring dollars into his accounts, in accordance to the prison circumstance, the U.S. attorney’s place of work said.
Prosecutors reported he gambled with the funds and expended extra on guns, cars and trucks and baby-assist payments.
Right after Edmunds was billed in a November indictment, the UAW reported in a statement that its auditors uncovered his inappropriate expenditures and turned their results about to federal authorities.