The former treasurer of a local union chapter of IRS and other Treasury Department employees has been charged with embezzling over $20,000 of the union’s funds.

The indictment was handed down last Wednesday against Shelia S. Brown, who worked for the IRS in Ogden, Utah. She served as treasurer of Chapter 67 of the National Treasury Employees Union from around June 2005 to April 2010. Her responsibilities included overseeing union dues and funds, balancing the chapter’s accounts, submitting and writing checks on behalf of the chapter and paying for authorized travel by local representatives.

The chapter receives federal funding and subsidies from the IRS, and the IRS also provides the chapter with free office space.

According to the indictment, Brown embezzled money from NTEU-67’s bank accounts and check and debit cards at Washington Mutual (now part of Chase Bank) and America First Credit Union. She allegedly made unauthorized cash withdrawals, issued unauthorized checks and made personal purchases with the debt cards. In 2009, she made approximately 14,155 in unauthorized personal purchases, according to prosecutors, and in 2010 approximately $6,549 in such purchases.
Brown is scheduled to appear in court early next month.  No attorney has been named for her.

The NTEU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A local newspaper, the Standard-Examiner, reported in July 2010 that Chapter 67’s members received a memo informing them that an investigation was underway in the case and a new treasurer had been appointed. “Unfortunately, chapter funds have been discovered missing,” said the memo. “The full extent of the loss is unknown, but it appears to be significant. Since discovering the loss, we have been working to secure all chapter resources. We are also doing everything in our power to recoup the losses.”