A Chicopee man was sentenced on May 5 in federal court for embezzling $81,000 from a union representing employees of Top Flight, a wholly owned subsidiary of Callaway Golf formerly owned by Spalding. U.S. Attny. Michael J. Sullivan and Mark Letizi, Dist. Director for the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Ofc. of Labor Mgmt. Standards (OLMS) in New England, announced that Gene Malinowski was sentenced by U.S. Dist. Judge Michael A. Ponsor (Mass., Clinton) to 5 yrs. of probation, including 6 mos. in a community corrections facility and 6 mos. in home confinement. Malinowski was also ordered to pay over $17,000 in restitution to the union.
Malinowski pled guilty on Dec. 19, 2003, to a one count indictment charging him with embezzling $81,000 from the union. At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would have proven that between 2000 and 2001, Malinowski was the Bus. Agent and Secy.-Treasurer of Local 1851 of the Intl. Bhd. of Boilermakers, which represented many Top Flight employees. During that time, Malinowski and a co-conspirator stole over $80,000 from the union by issuing and cashing checks to themselves that were falsely represented to be for golf ball purchases. As part of the scheme, Malinowski and his co-conspirator stole hundreds of dozens of golf balls from Spalding, which owned Top Flight at the time. In addition, Malinowski wrote extra salary checks from the union to himself totaling over $13,000. Finally, Malinowski received payment from the union for fraudulent expenses.
The case was investigated by the OLMS Ofc. in New Haven, Conn. It was prosecuted by Asst. U.S. Attny. Kevin O’Regan, Chief of Sullivan’s Springfield Ofc. [U.S.A.O. Dist. of Mass., 5/6/04]