Federck C. Petro, Embezzlement, New York 2013

Federck C. Petro, the former President of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2094, also known as the VA Hospital Workers Union, has pleaded guilty to theft of union funds in a Manhattan federal court.

Petro, 59, of Brooklyn, New York, was arrested in December 2011 in connection with the scheme. He pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels.

From February 2006 through July 2008, Petro wrote approximately 187 checks to himself from the VA Hospital Workers Union’s checking account, totaling approximately $112,477. The VA Hospital Workers Union checking account contained the monthly dues paid to the union by its members.

Petro faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Daniels on June 4, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

In a separate case, John V. McNamee, the former President/Secretary-Treasurer of the Stage and Picture Operators, AFL-CIO Exhibition Employees, Local Union 829, was sentenced yesterday in Manhattan federal court to one year and one day in prison for embezzling union funds.

McNamee, 53, of New York, New York, pled guilty in October 2012 to one count of embezzling funds of a labor organization. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood.

McNamee charged $150,000 in personal expenses on the Stage and Picture Operators Union’s corporate credit cards. He paid for the personal charges he made on the corporate credit cards by writing checks from the Stage and Picture Operators Union’s checking account to cover the credit card bills.

The Stage and Picture Operators Union checking account contained the monthly dues paid to the union by its members. McNamee has made restitution to the Stage and Picture Operators Union of $150,000, representing the amount he embezzled from it.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara praised the investigative work of the New York District of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Northeast Field Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General.

The cases are being prosecuted by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Carrie H. Cohen is in charge of the prosecutions.

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