On January 30, Keith Christopherson, former business manager for International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to four months of incarceration, to be followed by two years of supervised release, for embezzling funds from the St. Paul-based union. He also was ordered to pay $67,714 in restitution and a $100 assessment. Christopherson had pleaded guilty in August to one count of embezzlement after being charged in an information in July with stealing the far lower figure of $2,081. Former local financial secretary Scot McNamara also was charged in July; he pleaded guilty in December to embezzling $8,871. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
