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News Release

PENSION AND WELFARE BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION USDL: V-59

PAINTERS OFFICIAL SENTENCED FOR EMBEZZLING WELFARE FUNDS

A Grand Rapids, Mich. court ordered the former welfare plan trustee of Local 312 of the Painters and Allied Trades Joint Apprenticeship Fund in Kalamazoo, Mich. to make restitution and sentenced him to four months of house arrest, three years of probation and 120 hours of community service.

Trustee Charles Frederick Brown pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling assets of the union local after being indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 25, 1996 for embezzling funds of the welfare fund and the union. According to the indictment, he embezzled $11,697 from the apprenticeship fund from July 1993 to April 1994 by writing 27 checks to himself from the fund. While Brown repaid the money to the fund prior to the government's investigation, the repayment did not nullify the act of embezzlement.

Brown, who was sentenced on Feb. 26 by the federal district court for the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids, also was the former business agent and the financial secretary of the union local. The apprenticeship fund was created by the union to provide training in the painting trade.

The criminal case resulted from a joint investigation by the Detroit District Office of the U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration and Office of Labor- Management Standards. The case was prosecuted by the U. S. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids.

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(U. S. v. Brown)
Criminal No. 1:96:CR:154

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