A federal jury in Kansas City, Kansas, convicted four former leaders of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers on June 5, 2026, on charges of racketeering conspiracy, embezzlement from a labor organization, wire fraud, and health care fraud [1]. The case reached trial after a grand jury indicted former union President Newton Jones, his wife Kateryna Jones, former Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden, and former Vice President Lawrence McManamon on allegations that they operated a coordinated scheme to divert union member dues for personal benefit [2][3]. All four defendants were tried together in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas before Judge Daniel Crabtree [1].
Prosecutors presented evidence that the defendants funneled union funds through no-show jobs, charged lavish international travel to union accounts, and arranged an unauthorized $7 million loan to a union-affiliated bank [1][2]. The RICO conspiracy count alleged that these acts, taken together, constituted a pattern of racketeering activity implicating the union's finances over an extended period [1][3]. Deliberations extended into at least a second day before the jury returned its verdict [3]. The jury acquitted on no counts and returned no hung counts [1].
Judge Crabtree scheduled sentencing for Sept. 1, 2026 [1]. Each RICO conviction carries a statutory maximum of 20 years' imprisonment, and the embezzlement, wire fraud, and health care fraud counts each carry additional exposure, meaning the defendants face potentially significant custodial sentences depending on how the court groups or stacks the counts at sentencing [1][2].
Defense counsel Pat McInerney represented at least one of the defendants at trial [2]. Post-trial motions and appellate challenges remain available to all four defendants as a matter of right in the Tenth Circuit, and the breadth of the RICO theory, which aggregated multiple categories of alleged misconduct into a single enterprise, is likely to generate substantive appellate briefing on sufficiency and jury-instruction grounds.
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