On April 9, Grace Rathke, former office manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 32, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to 17 months in prison and three years of probation for embezzling more than $190,000 in funds from the Rockford-based union during November 2004-March 2009. She also was ordered to pay restitution in an amount exceeding $200,000. Rathke had been indicted in August 2011, and pled guilty this past January. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
