Susan Kyle proved extraordinarily clever. But in the end, she was not clever enough. On October 29, Kyle, former treasurer of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2428, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to embezzling $490,338 in funds from the Oakland-based union, which represents employees of East Bay Regional Parks. She also pleaded guilty to concealing her thefts in union financial records. As part of her plea, she agreed to pay full restitution. Kyle had been charged on October 5. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
Kyle, now 61, served as treasurer of AFSCME Local 2428 during 1999-2014. According to prosecutors, she spent the last seven of those years ripping off the union. On numerous occasions, she instructed a third-party payroll processing company to issue unauthorized payments to herself and then concealed the thefts in union financial reports submitted to the Department of Labor. Eventually, the DOL caught on and referred the case to the Justice Department. Kyle is currently free on bond until sentencing set for February 4, 2019. She faces up to five years prison and a fine of $10,000.