Embezzlement can bring in lots of revenue, but the costs in the end may total a lot more. Just ask Ray Ventrone. On February 12, Ventrone, former business manager for International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 154, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to 41 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for embezzling $1.5 million in funds from the Pittsburgh union and for income tax fraud. He also was ordered to pay restitution in the sums of $2,391,183 to the union and $500,000 to Zurich Surety, plus $223,881 in back taxes to the IRS. Ventrone had pleaded guilty last September after being charged in April. The actions follow a probe by the FBI, the IRS and the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
