Nicole DeStefano
Introduction
Nicole DeStefano, 52, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to embezzling from the union local she managed and falsifying its federal financial reports — writing herself dozens of unauthorized checks and leaving them out of the annual filings she signed, first as treasurer and then, without telling anyone, also as president . DeStefano pleaded guilty on September 15, 2026, before United States District Judge Stephanie L. Haines to one count of embezzlement of labor union assets and one count of falsifying an annual financial report filed by a labor union .
Background Information
From 2015 through 2022, DeStefano served as secretary-treasurer of American Postal Workers Union Local 776 in Altoona — the officer responsible for maintaining all financial records, preparing annual reports, and issuing payments on behalf of the local .
The scheme surfaced in September 2022, when a member of Local 776 determined that the union’s 2021 annual financial report reflected abnormal disbursements from prior years. DeStefano had signed that report as both the treasurer and the president — without notice that she would be signing in the second role, and without permitting the oversight that signature implied .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Pleaded guilty; sentencing pending. DeStefano admitted embezzling union assets and falsifying the local’s annual financial reports; sentencing is set for January 19, 2027.
The bank records, obtained by search warrant, put numbers on what the anomalous report hinted at: between December 2019 and August 2022, DeStefano wrote approximately 42 unauthorized checks to herself from the union accounts totaling $30,411.68, alongside checks written to “cash” . An audit of the union bank accounts identified another 43 unauthorized debit transactions totaling almost $20,000 .
The falsification count came from the paper side: DeStefano omitted the disbursements to herself from the annual financial reports she filed with the Secretary of Labor for three consecutive years . In September 2022, as the discrepancies came into view, she transferred $8,500 from her own account back into the union’s and resigned her position .
Public Reaction and Consequences
Sentencing is scheduled for January 19, 2027, and the statutory frame is steep for a small local: a maximum total sentence of up to five years in prison, and a fine of the greater of $10 million or twice the gross pecuniary gain . By virtue of the felony embezzlement conviction, DeStefano will also be precluded from holding union office for a 13-year period — a bar written into federal labor law for exactly this conduct .
The case was investigated by the Blair Township Police Department and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards — the agency whose reporting requirements the falsified filings evaded — and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan J. McKenna .
Current Status
DeStefano awaits her January 19, 2027 sentencing before Judge Haines, with the two counts — embezzlement and falsification — resolved by plea and the union-membership consequences already fixed by the conviction itself . The $8,500 she returned in September 2022 was a fraction of what the checks and debits documented, and any restitution calculus now belongs to the sentencing hearing .
Impact on Their Career/Life
DeStefano spent seven years as the financial officer of a postal workers’ local and will end them with a felony record that bars her from union office until roughly 2039. The pattern she admitted — self-issued checks, cash withdrawals, reports signed in a second office she never disclosed, and a restitution transfer only once a member started asking questions — is the standard anatomy of union embezzlement cases, which is precisely why the reporting requirements she falsified exist .
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Pennsylvania — “Former Altoona Postal Workers Union Employee Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement and Falsification of Union Reports” source