Former Masons Union Official Fined For Embezzlement

SEATTLE - Former union official Edward Lutz was sentenced Friday in federal District Court to three years of probation for embezzling funds from the Plasterers and Cement Masons Local 528.

Lutz also will pay a $2,000 fine and $15,147 of restitution for double-billing the union for travel expenses and collecting reimbursements for trips he did not take, said John Heaney, district director for the federal Office of Labor Management Standards in Seattle. Lutz, formerly his union's business manager and financial secretary, will not be allowed to hold union office for 13 years.

Union officials and members took the case to the U.S. Department of Labor in May 1995, after they confronted Lutz with some suspicious financial documents and Lutz resigned, said Roger Betterman, business manager and financial secretary of Local 528.

Lutz pleaded guilty in April to a charge that he double-billed the 700-member union for $3,737 in travel expenses.