Rockford, Illinois Woman Sentenced To 17 Months In Federal Prison For Embezzling From Local Labor Union

ROCKFORD — A Rockford, Ill. woman was sentenced today to 17 months in federal prison for having embezzled over $190,000 from a local labor union. U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala sentenced Grace Rathke, 57, Rockford, to prison for embezzling monies and funds belonging to Local 32 of the Laborers International Union of North America between November 2004 and March 2009.

Rathke had been indicted on August 2, 2011, and charged with embezzling from Local 32. On January 3, 2013, she pleaded guilty to embezzlement. According to the written plea agreement, beginning in November of 2004 and continuing until March 2009 Rathke, the office manager for Local 32, embezzled over $190,000 from the union local.

Rathke was also sentenced to pay full restitution, consisting of $34,836 to Laborers’ Local 32 and $170,000 to its bonding company, Zurich American Insurance Co. Rathke was taken into custody on April 1, 2013, after having been found to have used marijuana while on release pending sentencing. After she is released from prison, she will be on supervised release for 3 years.

The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, James Vanderberg, Special Agent-In-Charge of the Chicago office of the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Fraud and Labor Racketeering Investigations, and Mary Kebisek, District Director of the Chicago office of the United States Department of Labor – Office of Labor-Management Standards.

The government has been represented by Assistants U.S. Attorney John G. McKenzie and Monica V. Mallory.