Former union leader sentenced to federal prison

RALEIGH — Bladenboro’s Keith Alan Ludlum, a former union president, was sentenced Wednesday to a year and two months in federal prison, prosecutors say.

He was also ordered to pay $213,201.05 in restitution for charges of conspiracy to commit embezzlement of labor union assets, and embezzlement of labor union assets. He appeared before Chief U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle; Assistant U.S. Attorney Toby Lathan prosecuted the case.

Ludlum and Terry Slaughter were accused in 2014 of theft and misuse of funds for Local 1208, a Bladenboro chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Local 1208 encompasses North and South Carolina and has approximately 3,600 active members, a release from the Raleigh office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina says.

Ludlum was president, and Slaughter the secretary and treasurer.

Between January 2012 and March 2015, prosecutors say Ludlum embezzled $136,202.29. He received more than 20 unauthorized checks and made 420 unauthorized purchases with his union debit card.

Investigators said he used the money on vacations, hunting supplies, firearms, ATVs, child care, medical appointments, ATM withdrawals, personal car insurance, restaurants and rental cars as well as check payments to family, friends and other union members. The check payments totaled $76,998.76.

Slaughter, during the same time period, embezzled $62,315.38, the release says. The money was used for unauthorized salary and travel reimbursement, plus 161 charges to a Local 1208 debit card. He was sentenced on Feb. 26 to six months custody and three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution.