It may have been a formality, but it was welcome news just the same. On September 6, Michael Evans and William Uggiano, respectively, former president and former treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1699, each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in the estimated combined sum of more than $50,000 from the Wilkes-Barre union. They had been charged in July. The actions follow a probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
According to prosecutors, Michael Evans, 56, and William Uggiano, 60, each a resident of Wilkes-Barre, during May 2013-May 2014 engaged in a scheme to commit fraud against the roughly 500-member union’s Vantage Trust First Credit Union account “by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.” On several occasions, the men withdrew money from the account and illegally converted the cash to their own personal use. Evans took most of the pilfered funds. Prosecutors are recommending leniency on the basis of the defendants’ admissions. A sentencing date has yet to be set.