Four charged with union embezzling

By John Diedrich
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Four current or former officials including the past president of a steelworkers union in Kaukauna have been indicted in federal court on charges they embezzled from the union, according to court documents released today.

Tim Giles, Randy Sanders, Mary Schaeuble and Eugene Huss were indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday. Giles is a former president and Sanders is a former vice president, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson. Huss and Schaeuble have lower positions in the union which they maintain, he said.

The charges arise from a Department of Labor audit of Local 20 of the United Steelworkers Union, Johnson said. The union pays its officers for lost time from work when they doing union business. Johnson said investigators found the four billed the union for lost time when they actually were at work or for time when they weren't scheduled to work, in 2005 and 2006.

The amounts that were allegedly embezzled run up to a few thousand dollars But whatever the amount, the federal government is responsible to guarding the integrity of union funds., Johnson said.

An attorney for the defendants did not return a call for comment.