Tulsa Labor Union Employee Sentenced for Embezzlement

United States Attorney Trent Shores announced that Deborah Sue Hand, 51, of Glenpool, Oklahoma, was sentenced today to eight months imprisonment (five of those months are to be served on home detention), as well as a period of 36 months supervised release, for embezzling from a Tulsa labor organization where she was employed as an office manager.

According to her plea on July 23, 2018, Hand admitted to stealing $23,031.59 in payments made to the union as well as illegally spending an additional $21,776.96 on the union’s credit cards.

As office manager, Hand received monies payed to the labor organization in the form of cash, checks, or money orders and was responsible for inputting payments into the company’s system to create receipts. As part of her embezzlement scheme, Hand stole the payments and also fraudulently utilized other employees’ credit cards for her own personal expenses and purchases. 

“Ms. Hand stole money from sheet metal workers and the labor organization that represents them. These workers trusted her, and she violated that trust, stealing and spending the money for her personal benefit. Small businesses and skilled workers are the backbone for a lot of communities across this country. To those who would steal from these hard working men and women, know that the federal prosecutors in northeastern Oklahoma will hold you accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. 

Hand was also ordered to pay restitution to the labor organization in the amount of $44,808.55.  She was sentenced in United States District Court by U.S. District Judge John E. Dowdell and faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison.                

This case resulted from a joint investigation performed by the Department of Labor and United States Secret Service and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cella.