WI Union Official Gets 18 Months

An ex-union official will face 18 months in prison for stealing almost 2 million dollars from, among other sources, the local National Education Association affiliate.  He was facing up to 3.5 times that amount of time.  While Wisconsin teachers now enjoy the right to resign their union membership at any time, and the right to refrain from union membership also, still many teachers are missing money they paid for representation to their local union.  John Diedrich has the story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

A former Whitefish Bay teacher who stole more than $1.7 million from a union, his wife’s parents and a national ethnic organization has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

Arnav “Arni” Mahant also was ordered to pay $794,000 in restitution by U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller.

Mahant took money from one source and then replenished it with stolen funds from another source, federal records show. The biggest chunk of money came from his wife’s parents’ retirement accounts. Mahant took more than $1 million from those accounts. He still owes them $734,000.

Mahant used his position as treasurer in the Whitefish Bay Education Association to steal more than $550,000 but paid back part of that with money he stole from his in-laws. Mahant was ordered to pay nearly $58,000 to the union.