Danny Iverson and Debra Timko should consider themselves lucky. Back in March 2006 a federal grand jury issued a 33-count superseding indictment against the pair, each of whom had served as president of Service Employees International Union Local 150 in Milwaukee. They faced mail and wire fraud charges in connection with a $90,000 embezzlement scheme. Recently, they’ve learned they will avoid prison. On August 23, Iverson and Timko each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to two counts of willful failure to maintain accurate union records, agreeing to make a joint $63,000 in restitution.
Following a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), federal prosecutors had charged the pair with receiving duplicate payments for expenses, receiving reimbursements for charges to a union credit card, and claiming meal expenses when they were eligible for full per-diem reimbursements. The pair admitted they had failed to verify whether payments were in line with union policy and that they had disguised the nature of expenses on U.S. Department of Labor reporting forms. Iverson had served as president of Local 150 until 2001, not long after he’d appointed Timko to vice president. The latter subsequently became president, holding the position until 2004. They may avoid prison, but their careers as union leaders are over. (OLMS, 9/21/07).