Federal prosecutors have charged the financial secretary of the United Auto Workers Local 412, which represents salaried employees at the Stellantis Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan and Stellantis plants around Detroit with money laundering and embezzling more than $2 million dollars to help support his gambling habit.
Timothy Edmunds, 53, has been charged in a criminal Complaint with the embezzlement of union funds during a 10-year period, stretching from 2011 to 2021, according to Saima S. Mohsin, the acting U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Edmunds now faces more than 20 years and prison and fines totaling more than $500,000.
The charges followed an investigation involving the FBI, U.S. Department of Labor and agents from the IRS, who are responsible for criminal investigations, Mohsin said.
Edmunds also is charged with failing to maintain union records as required by federal law and filing false reports with the Department of Labor between 2015 and 2021.
According to federal prosecutors, between 2011 and 2021, Edmunds has served as the Financial Secretary-Treasurer of union Local 412, which represents approximately 2,600 members employed by FCA US LLC, which is owned by Stellantis N.V.
Besides the tech center in Auburn Hills, Local 412’s members also work as engineers, nurses and clerical employees at Stellantis plants throughout the Detroit area, including Sterling Stamping Plant, Mack Engine Plant, Warren Truck Assembly Plant, Warren Stamping Plant and Jefferson Assembly Plant.
Problem for UAW as vote to change UAW constitution now underway
The charges against Edmunds are a new problem for the UAW’s executive board, which already dealing with a major strike at John Deere and the fallout from a lengthy scandal, which has sent the union’s past two president — Gary Jones and Dennis Williams — to jail.
This all happened as senior officials fend off demands for sweeping changes in the union’s constitution, which would allow union members to vote on their top leaders rather than have them selected by delegates at a tightly controlled convention run by the union’s entrenched leadership.
Ballots in the referendum on “One-Man One Vote” as the question has been framed are due back in the hands court-appointed monitor, who now oversees the union’s elections and finances, are due back from UAW members by the morning of Nov. 29.
Embezzled money used for gambling
The criminal complaint claims Edmunds “systematically drained” the Local 412 accounts of about $2 million by using Local 412 debit cards for more than $142,000 in personal purchases. He also cashed Local 412 checks worth $170,000 into accounts he personally controlled and transferred $1.5 million from bone fide Local 412 accounts into accounts that he personally controlled.
Once Edmunds converted the funds to his own personal use, he used the money to gamble, purchase luxury clothing, high-end automobiles, and firearms. To conceal his theft from other UAW officers and the Local 412 members, Edmunds created false bank statements and filed false reports with the U.S. Labor Department.
Edmunds’s misconduct was exposed by the UAW, which has tightened up its internal accounting procedures under pressure from federal authorities, probing the scandal inside the union. Auditors from the UAW international union, who recently conducted an audit of Local 412, provided federal agents with information detailing the diversion of approximately $2 million in Local 412 funds by Edmunds.
Between 2018 and 2020, Edmunds used the UAW Local 412 debit card to make over $30,000 in unauthorized withdrawals at the Greektown Casino. While gambling at the Greektown Casino, records indicate that Edmunds had cash buy-ins of more than $1 million, and he put over $16 million in play while betting at the casino.
Between 2020 and the present, Edmunds registered at least 10 firearms, which ranged in price between $500 and $2,000 per firearm. In February 2016, Edmunds purchased a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT for $74,365.
In July 2020, Edmunds purchased a 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, for $96,419 and in July 2021, Edmunds purchased a 2021 Dodge Durango for $76,491. Edmunds also leased two 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limiteds in December 2020.