Barbara Ryan was indicted Aug. 5 in Toledo on charges that in her eight years as a local Secy.-Treasurer, she embezzled $117,734 from the union.
From 1992 through 2000, Ryan was an officer with Local 626 of the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers union (PACE), which covered employees at the BP Chemicals plant in Lima. During that time, according to Asst. U.S. Attny. Thomas Karol, she disguised financial transfers to her personal accounts as transfers between various union saving and checking accounts, and cashed checks for herself that had been intended for the union.
In addition to the union embezzlement charge, Ryan is also charged with using her position in the BP payroll dept. to make false time entries for work that she had not, in fact, performed, in violation of U.S.C. 18, Sec. 1341. Both counts of embezzlement carry the potential of $250,000 in fines and/or five years in prison. The charges, brought in the U.S. Dist. Ct. for the N. Dist. of Ohio, are the result of an investigation by the FBI and the Cleveland branch of the U.S. Ofc. of Labor-Mgmt. Standards. [U.S.A.O. N.D. OH 8/5/02, DOL OLMS]