On July 7, Mechelle Busse, aka Mechelle Singleton, formerly office manager of United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 568, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to three years of probation, the first six months to be in home confinement, for embezzling around $110,000 during June 2005-December 2007 from the Gulfport union. She also was ordered to make $51,169.65 in restitution and pay a $100 special assessment. Her restitution would have been higher were it not for the fact that federal prosecutors could not prove she had stolen more. Busse had pleaded guilty in February. The guilty plea and sentencing follow an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
