KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal jury convicted four current and former leaders of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers on racketeering, embezzlement, and fraud charges, finding that they stole millions of dollars in union dues through lavish foreign travel, no-show jobs, unauthorized loans, and personal expenses charged to the union over a 15-year period.
The jury convicted Newton Jones, 72, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the former president of the Boilermakers Union, his wife Kateryna Jones, 33, his former secretary-treasurer William Creeden, 78, of Kearney, Missouri, and former vice president Lawrence McManamon, 78, of Rocky River, Ohio. Jones, Kateryna Jones, and Creeden were convicted of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in addition to embezzlement charges. All four defendants were convicted of embezzlement.
Evidence presented at trial showed that over a 15-year period the defendants embezzled more than $5 million in unnecessary luxury international travel, including executive meetings held at extravagant hotels in Paris and Rome with no apparent business purpose. Newton Jones hired his wife Kateryna Jones for a union position in which she performed little to no work, paying her nearly $1.8 million in salary over nine years — including two years when she was living in Ukraine and dating Jones. The couple also charged more than $160,000 in restaurant bills in their hometown of Chapel Hill to the union.
Jones and Creeden additionally embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and benefits for three of Jones’s family members, made unauthorized cash payments for fraudulently claimed vacation time, spent more than $100,000 on unauthorized surveillance of union employees, and made an unlawful $7 million loan from union funds to the Bank of Labor — an institution at which both Jones and Creeden held high-level positions while simultaneously drawing full-time union salaries. The two men collected nearly $4 million in salary and $1.4 million in retirement benefits from the bank, where the union is the majority shareholder.
A sentencing date was set for Sept. 1. McManamon faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count. Creeden, Newton Jones, and Kateryna Jones each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.