A federal judge in Albany, N.Y. has sentenced a stockbroker on April 12 for stealing more than $400,000 from a union employee benefit fund. U.S. Senior District Judge Thomas McAvoy ordered Anthony DiPace, 47, to serve a prison term concurrent with his 2 ½ year sentence received in January 2004 on a separate conviction for mail fraud in Hawaii.
DiPace became investment manager for LIUNA’s Local 190 in September 1988. Between August 1993 and April 1996, prosecutors charged, he made at least 40 corporate bond trades involving the assets of the local’s benefits plan. DiPace had served as investment manager and broker, despite the apparent conflict of interest. He generated a commission for himself on each trade, in all charging the union $420,482 in unauthorized commissions.
In addition to his sentence, DiPace must provide restitution to the benefits plan of virtually all of that money. [Hawaii Adfunk, 4/12/05]