Most people would consider an $82,400 salary, plus the use of a free motor vehicle and housing, sufficient to maintain a decent lifestyle. But Stanley J. Kluss apparently isn’t like most people. As executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association during 1986-2004, he supplemented his aforementioned income and benefit package with roughly $25,000 in unauthorized expenses from the union till. On October 5, the 63-year-old Kluss received the bill: a 37-count federal indictment.
Justice Department officials allege that between October 2000 and February 2004 Kluss defrauded the Madison-based police association in several ways. First, he charged personal items to the tune of $8,879 on its credit cards, disguising them as legitimate expenses by cutting the tops and bottoms off receipts. He also inflated official travel records by nearly 50,000 miles, fraudulently obtaining about $15,000 in reimbursements this way. Finally, he made $1,440 in unauthorized cash withdrawals from ATM machines. Union auditors discovered the discrepancies, and then turned over the case to the Department of Labor. DOL subsequently referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. (Capital Times, 10/6).