Official tried to disband union to derail embezzlement probe Secretary-treasurer sought to decertify struggling union rather than fess up to thefts

A former official with a small Snohomish County union has been sentenced to five months in prison for stealing $83,000 from union coffers.

A former official with a small Snohomish County union has been sentenced to five months in prison for stealing $83,000 from union coffers. Photo: U.S. District Court, Seattle Photo: U.S. District Court, Seattle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Official tried to disband union to derail embezzlement probe 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A former official with a small Snohomish County union has been sentenced to five months in prison for stealing $83,000 from union coffers.

Caught stealing while serving as secretary-treasurer, Pascale McAtee went so far as to try to have her union, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers Local 161, decertified to block the investigation. McAtee, 58, failed to break the union, which represents private shuttle drivers in Snohomish County, but wrecked morale there.

“Pascale McAtee broke the trust of her union and fellow members, stole $82,903.66, and did her best to destroy LU 161 rather than face the consequences,” Assistant U.S. Attorney André Peñalver said in court papers, requesting that U.S. District Judge James Robart impose a 10-month term.

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McAtee, of Lynnwood, joined the union in 2004 when she began driving for a workplace shuttle service. She was elected secretary-treasurer of the union in 2010, and started stealing not long afterward.

Pleading guilty to federal embezzlement charges in in April, McAtee admitted to writing checks to herself from 2011 to 2015. The funds McAtee raided had been filed by member dues -- $47 a month collected from the union’s 90 members.

Found out in 2015, McAtee spread rumors that the union lost the money and, eventually, that she was being targeted by federal investigators because she is an immigrant, Peñalver said in court papers. She sought to dissolve the union in the summer of 2016.

Robart sentenced McAtee Tuesday morning at the U.S. District Court in Seattle. She had not been jailed.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.