William Davis has found out the consequences of debit card fraud. On July 21, Davis, former president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1119, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release in connection with his theft of more than $120,000 in funds from the Montrose (Westchester County), N.Y.-based union. He also was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution plus a $100 special assessment. Davis had pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in April after being charged last October. The actions follow a joint investigation by the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General.
Davis, a resident of Wappingers Falls, N.Y., during January 2008-October 2012 headed AFGE Local 1119, which represents about 300 employees of the VA Hudson Valley Health Care System’s FDR campus in Montrose. Prosecutors had alleged that for most of that time he used a union debit card issued in the name of a deceased union member to make hundreds of unauthorized transactions that included retail purchases, money order purchases and ATM cash withdrawals. To conceal the thefts, Davis made false statements and omissions on annual financial reports to the U.S. Department of Labor. A suspicious DOL eventually launched a probe with the help of the VA.
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