Abdiel Navarro, frmr administrator of the Union General de Trabajadores (UGT), was arrested, arraigned and pled not guilty on July 1 to eight counts of embezzlement and falsifying records. His bond was set at $50,000 in the U.S. Dist. Ct. for Puerto Rico. He was indicted on June 26 after an investigation by the Atlanta office of the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Office of Labor-Mgmt. Standards.
Navarro worked for UGT from April 1994 to December 1999, first as Ofc. Administrator, then as Union Administrator. During that time, according to the indictment, Navarro stole $35,700 from the UGT’s Benefit Plan, General Fund and credit cards. His alleged embezzlement took the following forms: $2,520 in unentitled vacation days from the Benefit Plan, $6,815 from the Benefit Plan in claimed withholdings from his paychecks that were not actually deducted, $11,221 in cashed checks from the Benefit Plan, $7,207 in fraudulent reimbursements from the General Fund, $3,046 in personal purchases from the UGT’s Visa credit card, and $4,942 in personal purchases from the UGT’s Office Max credit card. Allegedly, Navarro also created false documents to justify his fraudulent vacation benefits, checks and reimbursements. [U.S.A.O. P.R., DOL]