On January 8, Natasha Bever, former secretary-treasurer of Communications Workers of America Local 4202, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois to one year and one day in prison and three years of supervised release for embezzling funds from the Rantoul, Ill. (near Champaign-Urbana) union. She also was ordered to pay the remaining $55,759 in restitution plus a $100 special assessment. Bever had been indicted in January 2013 on one count of embezzlement in the amount of $117,378, and pleaded guilty in June to stealing $149,404. The actions follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
