PENSACOLA — A former steelworkers union treasurer who wrote 66 unauthorized checks to himself over three years, stealing $94,586.53 in member dues, pleaded guilty this week to eight counts of bank fraud, one count of embezzlement of labor union funds and three counts of falsification of labor union reports.
Clarence Penny, 40, of Pace, served as treasurer for the Steelworkers, AFL-CIO, Local 09 333 Chapter of the United Steelworkers International Labor Union from May 2015 to October 2023. Between January 2020 and May 2023, Penny wrote the unauthorized checks from the union’s bank account and spent the proceeds on personal expenses, according to court documents filed in the Northern District of Florida.
“This defendant violated the position of trust he occupied in his union to personally enrich himself with the dues paid by his hard-working colleagues, and he attempted to conceal his criminal conduct by falsifying financial records he was required to maintain,” said U.S. Attorney John P. Heekin. “Thanks to the excellent investigative work by our federal law enforcement partner and the aggressive prosecution by my office, this fraudster’s scheme has been dismantled and federal prison awaits him.”
Penny provided fake account balances and false statements on annual financial reports in 2020, 2021 and 2022 to conceal the ongoing theft, prosecutors said. The scheme unraveled after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
The charges carry severe potential penalties. Each of the eight bank fraud counts carries up to 30 years’ imprisonment. The embezzlement count carries up to five years’ imprisonment, and each of the three falsification counts carries up to one year imprisonment.
Assistant United States Attorneys Brooke Lindsay and Walter Narramore are prosecuting the case. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 17, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. in the United States Courthouse in Pensacola before U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers.