A second former officer of United Steelworkers Local 1011, representing members at ArcelorMittal’s Indiana Harbor facility, has been indicted in federal court for conspiring to embezzle union funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana said.

Charged in a superseding indictment filed on April 13 was former Local 1011 president Loren Hanson.

Previously charged in January was former financial secretary Jesse Lee Daniels.

Hanson and Daniels together embezzled approximately $40,950 as part of a conspiracy “to receive more pay” from Local 1011 “than that to which they were entitled, without obtaining authorization from members,” the superseding three-count indictment alleges.

Specifically, Hanson would instruct a secretary to prepare checks to Daniels and himself “in amounts that exceeded what they were authorized to receive”; they would then “sign checks to themselves, and to each other, in amounts that exceeded what they were authorized to receive”; and that they “would not seek authorization” from the local for those checks, the indictment alleges.

On Feb. 1 and Feb. 23, 2007, Daniels signed checks to Hanson for salary, the indictment alleges; while on May 1 and May 15, 2007, Hanson signed checks for Daniels.

The total amount embezzled by Daniels, as alleged by the indictment, $19,500; the total amount by Hanson, $21,450.

In a press statement released in January, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that “Daniels was entitled to a monthly salary of $500 for his union duties” but from “November 2005 through March 2009 he received an additional $500 per month without proper approval from the union membership or the Executive Board.”

The case was investigated by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and Office of Labor-Management Standards, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Posted 4/21/2011