It didn’t take Joseph Capece too long to recognize that resistance would be futile. On September 4, Capece, former longtime business manager for Local 163 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was charged by federal authorities with theft of funds from the Wilkes-Barre union. A resident of Nanticoke, Pa., Capece, 60, had served for 16 years before resigning in February. That was right about the time a union internal audit discovered the missing money, the sum of which was unspecified. It took only a week to learn how much. On September 11, Capece pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania to embezzlement in the amount of $256,000. The local’s current business manager, Mike Kwashnik, declined to comment, but did note that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor is conducting an investigation. He added that the union expects to be fully reimbursed, either through restitution or insurance. (Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, 9/13/07).
