On January 17, Edward Cranston, former secretary-treasurer of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 1421, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to one count of filing a false financial report to the U.S. Department of Labor for the purpose of concealing $28,220 in funds he had stolen from the Beecher (Will County), Ill.-based union. The plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
