Colin Rehrig insists he’s a law-abiding citizen. A federal court in Philadelphia believes otherwise. On September 27, Rehrig, former bookkeeper for United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 600, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to eight months of home confinement, plus two years of probation, for embezzling more than $30,000 from the Bethlehem, Pa.-based union. He also was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and a $100 special assessment. Rehrig had pleaded guilty in June after being charged in March.
Prosecutors had alleged that Rehrig, now 69, a resident of Mahoning Township, Pa., during September 2004-September 2008 knowingly overpaid himself by $30,483 from a union account under his control. He stated at his sentencing hearing that he did not intentionally steal, a point echoed by his attorney, Brett Riegel. “He absolutely believes he was paying himself properly based on what he understood the rate of pay to be,” said Riegel, admitting that his client should have been more careful. Rehrig, meanwhile, has paid full restitution plus interest. The guilty plea and sentencing follow a probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.