ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 10, 1996 TAG: 9602130082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
A longtime employee in the accounting department of the National Association of Letter Carriers is being investigated by the Labor Department in the possible embezzlement of more than $3 million from the union since 1989, according to law-enforcement sources.
Both the union and the U.S. attorney's office acknowledged the investigation but declined to release either the name of the employee or details of the alleged embezzlement scheme.
``There is an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of embezzlement at the National Association of Letter Carriers,'' said Kevin A. Ohlson, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr.
Drew Von Bergen, a spokesman for the NALC, said: ``We have no comment. The matter is still being investigated.''
The employee was identified by two sources as Pauline Blaser, 52, a bookkeeper. Reached at her home in St. Mary's County, Md., Blaser declined to comment. ``I don't want to say anything,'' she said, acknowledging that she used to work for the postal union. David Handzo, a Washington lawyer who Blaser said represented her, did not return repeated telephone calls.
Shortly before Christmas, the union sent a special notice to its 318,000 members saying that it had ``recently discovered evidence indicating that a long-term employee in its Accounting Department has engaged in a pattern of theft of NALC funds.''
Sources said suspicions first were raised by officials at a Washington credit union affiliated with the AFL-CIO headquarters, which was allegedly used by the NALC employee to hide the transactions. The sources said a credit union official cautioned Vincent R. Sombrotto, the NALC's longtime president, that large amounts of money were moving in and out of the NALC account and that he might want to find out what was happening.
According to a person familiar with the case, the withdrawals in most instances involved relatively small amounts of money, $100 or $200. But in one case, $15,000 was taken, the source said.
Blaser allegedly was responsible for keeping track of the NALC employee checks. When adding up all of them before the NALC cut its check to the credit union, the source said, she allegedly added herself to the list, seeing to it that money was deposited in her personal account at the AFL-CIO credit union, when, in fact, she had not kicked in anything.
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