U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General Northeast Field Office 423 East 23rd Street, Building 2 New York, NY 10010-5011 (212) 951-6850
Friday, January 12, 2001
Former Union Official Sentenced For Embezzlement
Bruce T. Sackman, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Office, announced today that David Blank, former secretary-treasurer, Local 2094 of American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, (AFGE) located at the VA Medical Center, New York, NY, was sentenced by Judge Kimba M. Wood in Manhattan Federal court to 3 years probation and restitution of $192,000, relating to an embezzlement of funds from Local 2094. Blank previously had pled guilty to a three-count criminal information charging that from January 1992 to December 1994, he participated in a conspiracy to commit mail fraud. This was accomplished by embezzling Local 2094 funds, and by making false statements to, and concealing from, the United States Department of Labor, the fact that he and his co-conspirators had embezzled, misappropriated and misdirected union funds. The Information also charged Blank with subscribing to a false personal income tax return for the calendar year 1994 and possessing a firearm in a Federal facility. According to the Information, Blank issued union checks to himself and to third parties for their personal benefit. Blank also used the union's credit card to purchase personal items and services for himself, it was charged. Blank thereafter made false statements to the Department of Labor in the Annual Reports the union submitted to so as to conceal from the Department the embezzlement, misappropriation and misdirection of union funds, according to charges. Local 2094, located at the Veteran Affairs, Medical Center, was placed under trusteeship in December 1994. This was a joint investigation with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General; the Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Streeter is in charge of the prosecution of this case.