Racketeering trial starts for former KC-based union leaders accused of $20M theft
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal racketeering trial begins in Kansas City, Kansas alleging $20 million union theft.
- Seven people were indicted in August 2024; three have pleaded guilty.
- Government exhibits list extensive luxury travel and exorbitant salaries.
A boar hunting excursion to Italy by private jet. First-class travel to Scotland, France, England, Germany, Australia and Spain. Five-star hotel stays at more than $1,500 a night while dining at fine restaurants twice a day. Six-figure salaries for no-show jobs.
These are a handful of examples the government intends to highlight in a federal racketeering trial alleging that top International Brotherhood of Boilermakers executives schemed to steal $20 million in union funds for their personal use.
The trial, expected to last at least four weeks, gets underway on Monday in Kansas City, Kansas.
“This trial is long overdue,” said Dan Sulivan, the union’s international vice president of the Great Lakes Region. “For decades, our union has been damaged by corruption, secrecy and a failure of leadership. The rank-and-file Boilermakers deserve truth and justice.”
Former International President Newton Jones and his wife, Kateryna, former International Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden and former International Vice President Lawrence McManamon are among seven former union executives and employees indicted in August 2024 for conspiracy to commit offenses under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as other felonies.
A federal grand jury returned the indictment following an investigation by the FBI Kansas City field office and the U.S. Department of Labor. The defendants are accused of conspiring to steal millions that allegedly went toward salary and benefits for jobs they didn’t show up for, tuition, luxury international travel, meals, vacation payouts and unauthorized loans, the Justice Department said.
The trial is being held in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The union’s headquarters was in Kansas City, Kansas, for more than a century, but relocated to Kansas City in 2023.
Attorneys for Newton and Kateryna Jones declined to comment on the case. Attorneys for McManamon and Creeden did not respond to The Star’s requests for comment.
What are the charges they face?
Newton Jones, of Chapel Hill, N.C., is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy; 41 counts of embezzlement from a labor organization; one count of health care fraud conspiracy; three counts of theft in connection with health care; one count of wire fraud conspiracy; and two counts of theft from an ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) program, involving retirement benefits for ineligible individuals.
Creeden, of Kearney, Missouri, faces the same charges as Newton Jones. McManamon, of Rocky River, Ohio, is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy and six counts of embezzlement from a labor organization.
Kateryna Jones, also of Chapel Hill, is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy; nine counts of embezzlement from a labor organization; one count of health care fraud conspiracy; and one count of theft in connection with health care.
Two others who were charged pleaded guilty in March to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of embezzlement from a labor organization.
Warren Fairley — who took over for a short stint as Boilermakers president in 2023 after its executive council ousted longtime leader Jones over misuse of union funds — and Jones’ son, Cullen Jones, are scheduled for sentencing on June 30.
The racketeering conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The embezzlement count has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
Fairley was ordered to pay $221,348 restitution to the Boilermakers union, and Cullen Jones must pay $539,713.
The other defendant, Kathy Stapp, of Shawnee — the union’s former human resources director-turned International Secretary-Treasurer — pleaded guilty in December 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy.
She is scheduled to be sentenced July 7. As part of her plea agreement, the government agreed not to recommend a fine or restitution.
Private jets, limos and fine dining
The government’s exhibit list, with more than 500 items, reads like notes from the popular TV series of the 80s and 90s, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
Among the entries: “Private Jet Travel to Pheasant Hunt,” “Private Jet Use to Take Officers to Florida Meeting,” “Lawrence McManamon $11K airfare to Munich,” “Bill Creeden Vacation — Boar Hunting in Italy,” and “$6,800 trip for Shae (Jones) on Private Jet.”
Other items include “Sample of Newton and Kateryna Jones Vacations,” “Newton Jones Charges for Alcohol on Master Account,” “Newton Jones Orders for Prosecco and Cabernet,” “Gifts of Shinola Watches for Italian Hosts,” “Newton Jones Loews International Room Service June 2023,” and Creeden vacations to Iceland, the Bahamas, Alaska, Argentina and Rome.
One exhibit is called “Newton Jones Skipping Meetings on International Trips.” Other exhibits list international trip destinations, including the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Iceland, South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, England, New Zealand, Scotland, the Amalfi coast, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, France, South Africa, Sardinia, the Bahamas, Thailand and Peru.
The defendants’ exhibit list is 155 pages and describes more than 2,000 items. Those include memos, personnel files, entries referring to “donations to Ukraine,” financial statements, emails among executives, minutes from executive council meetings and copies of the union’s annual reports filed with the Labor Department.
Among the other exhibits listed are receipts for hotels, flights, limousines, steakhouses and “wives travel expense.” There’s also a reference to an email string from Boilermakers attorneys that says, “cannot give union money to Ukraine Military.”
‘The Jones Enterprise’
In a 74-page trial brief filed on Wednesday, the government laid out what it called “The Jones Enterprise,” painting a picture of Newton Jones as a man who controlled every aspect of the organization, gave high-paying jobs to family members, spent members’ money on extravagant trips, meals and alcohol and made it next to impossible for anyone outside his inner circle to attain a leadership position.
In his last full year in office, the brief says, Jones received a salary of more than $377,000 and more than $278,000 in reimbursed expenses, totaling $656,179 in compensation excluding benefits. In 2018, it says, Jones’ total compensation was more than $800,000 and his wife, son, brother, daughter and future son-in-law were on the Boilermakers union payroll, together being paid more than $750,000.
The document says Jones put in place attractive incentives so officers would retire before their terms were up. That way, it says, he could then nominate their successors instead of waiting until the elections that take place every five years. Retiring officers were often given new vehicles, received vacation payouts and payouts from four pension plans, then became consultants for the union.
In Jones’ final year as international president, the government’s brief says, Creeden received $399,924 in salary and reimbursed expenses and McManamon received $586,872. Fairley received $1,061,869, which included pension distributions upon his retirement.
Vacation payouts for some of the defendants were astronomical, the document says.
Newton, Kateryna and Cullen Jones, as well as Creeden, accumulated all of their vacation time every year, it says, despite spending several weeks on overseas trips or being away from official duties. Then they each cashed out those accumulated hours, which the trial brief says amounted to substantial sums.
Upon his retirement in July 2023, the brief says, “Creeden pocketed more than $480,000 in this manner and the Defendant Joneses took payouts of more than $200,000.”
“It is implausible that those persons with substantial income and tastes for travel and leisure each worked five days a week for 52 weeks a year for many years,” the brief says. “Indeed, Defendants Kateryna Jones and Cullen Jones did not have legitimate full-time jobs, meaning that neither was entitled to any vacation in the first instance.”
Kept leaders in his favor
According to the trial brief, Jones became union president in 2003 when his father, Charles Jones, resigned with three years left in his term. Charles Jones agreed to resign, it says, only if Newton was appointed to take his place.
Starting in 2006, Newton Jones was elected president every five years at the union’s convention, the brief says, running on what he called the “Proven Leadership Slate,” which was composed of a group he assembled.
Throughout the union’s history, it says, the top leadership has faced no real threat to their positions. The incumbents have run as a group and are elected by an open roll call vote of delegates attending the international convention.
“As a result, no incumbent international officer in the Boilermakers Union has ever lost an election to retain his office since at least 1920,” the document says, “and no incumbent has lost an election for President since 1908.”
To keep top leaders in his favor, it says, Jones “doled out outsized salaries and lavish domestic and international travel to insiders and favored employees.” He decided where the numerous union meetings would be held each year and controlled who would go, taking more than 30 — all expenses paid — to gatherings in Hawaii or Florida.
Jones also spent significant amounts on extravagant travel to international destinations in Europe and Asia for officers and employees of the Boilermakers union and his invited guests, it says.
“Defendant Jones would insist on flying his entourage first class, staying at five-star hotels at more than $1,500 per night, dining at fine restaurants twice a day, and ordering several bottles of wine worth hundreds of dollars, resulting in tabs more than $10,000 per sitting,” the brief says.
Besides owing their leadership positions to Jones, the international officers had financial incentives to support him, it says. The international vice presidents made more than $350,000 a year, along with reimbursed expenses, and also participated in four pension plans.
Though the union’s constitution specified that its representatives were to fly on the lowest commercial airfare and were limited to a single hotel room and a $75 per diem, “Jones and his various entourages flew exclusively by private jet or first class and were subject to no limit on hotel, restaurant, and other charges,” the trial brief says.
Rarely showed up at office
Jones was seldom seen at the union’s then-Kansas City, Kansas, headquarters, the document says, adding that one employee will testify that she saw him there only once in her 16-year tenure. While he was president, it says, the union bought an office for him in Chapel Hill, but he rarely used it.
“Defendant Jones assigned himself and a few other employees, including up to four members of his immediate family, to work in the Chapel Hill office,” the brief says. “Despite the accommodation of a satellite office in his hometown, Defendant Jones appeared in his Chapel Hill office only a few times a year, preferring simply to remain in his home during workdays.”
In-person union meetings rarely occurred at either the Kansas City, Kansas, headquarters or Jones’ office in Chapel Hill, the document says. Instead, Jones chose resort destinations in places like Florida and Hawaii for meetings of the officers and other staff.
“In extreme instances, Defendant Jones flew the entire Executive Council and other Boilermakers Union employees to Paris, France, and Copenhagen, Denmark, to hold meetings of the Executive Council,” the brief says.
Many of the details in the government’s case dovetail with those revealed in a 2012 Kansas City Star investigation, which found that Jones and other executives were living the good life. At that time, Jones’ salary and business expenses totaled more than $607,000, which put him above the presidents of the biggest unions in the country. The Star also reported that several of Jones’ family members and relatives of other officers were earning hefty union salaries as well.
A follow-up investigation in 2017 found that little had changed. Six-figure salaries were still common for officers and their relatives, as were fine dining, stays in posh hotels and expensive hunting retreats.
The union continued to give high-dollar vehicles as parting gifts for retired employees and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotional events and videos — all while membership continued its downward spiral and the union’s pension fund struggled to stay afloat.
Newton and Kateryna Jones
In a motion filed in March, Jones asked the court to prohibit the government “from introducing evidence, eliciting testimony, or making any reference to the age difference between Defendants Newt Jones and Kateryna Jones.”
“Testimony referencing their age difference could suggest impropriety unrelated to the charged offenses,” it says. Such evidence, it says, “invites moral judgments, bias, and improper inferences that distract from the actual issues in the case.”
According to the government’s brief, Jones and Kateryna Anatolia, a Ukrainian national 40 years his junior, were married in 2011 when she was 19. Jones used Boilermakers funds to fly to Ukraine on several occasions, the trial brief says, especially in the years before Kateryna came to the U.S. in 2015. Several of those trips began in Ukraine, continued through European capitals and lasted more than five to six weeks, it says.
Jones employed Kateryna at the Boilermakers union with the title “Special Assistant to the International President” since at least 2015, the trial brief says.
“No Boilermakers Union personnel — including the Director of Human Resources — could explain what duties Defendant Kateryna Jones performed on behalf of the union,” the document says.
“While her salary and expenses fluctuated over the years, excluding the COVID year when limited travel occurred, she received no less than $160,000 in salary and expenses in any year until her resignation in July 2023. The total salary and expenses received by Defendant Kateryna Jones from 2013 through 2023 exceeded $1.6 million.”
Jones also directed union funds to pay for him and Kateryna to travel to Italy on numerous occasions and also to other locations, including Scotland, France, England, Germany, Australia and Spain, the document says. “On many of these trips, Defendant Jones brought large and unnecessary entourages of handpicked international employees and/or family members,” it says. “Those overseas junkets featured all expenses paid and first-class airline, hotel, and restaurant accommodations, and expensive side tours.”
Calculating the exact cost of the international travel authorized by Jones and Creeden is impossible, the trial brief says.
“The funds they spent for first and business class airline tickets exceeded $1 million,” it says. “The additional costs of restaurant meals, hotels, tours, etc. in foreign places charged on the Boilermakers Union’s AMEX card by Defendants Newton and Kateryna Jones alone totaled more than $440,000. As a result, the total estimation expenditures of international travel for Defendants Newton and Kateryna Jones alone exceeded $1,200,000.”
But the exorbitant charges weren’t just for travel, the document says. Since 2013, Jones spent $168,000 in restaurants in Chapel Hill for alleged business meetings that involved only him and Kateryna, his son or another employee.
Wire fraud involving Bank of Labor
The government brief also provides details about wire fraud and other criminal charges filed against Jones and Creeden in connection with the Bank of Labor, in which the union has a majority ownership.
Jones became the bank’s board chairman when he took over as Boilermakers president in 2003, and at some point appointed Creeden to the board, the document says.
“While Defendant Newton Jones fulfilled his duties as chairman, he rarely visited the Bank’s offices, attended fewer than 60 percent of its meetings, and drank and became intoxicated during meetings and work events he did attend,” the brief says.
It says Jones “also directed the Bank to pay for enormous restaurant and drinking tabs against the better judgment of Bank management, and directed that the Bank pay for an annual or semi-annual pheasant hunt in South Dakota for guests of the union and the Bank — total cost around $400,000.”
Around 2011, the brief says, Jones fired the bank’s CEO, took over his job and named Creeden senior executive vice president, a position that didn’t previously exist. After that, the men’s annual compensation shot up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each, even though they didn’t perform any additional work with their new positions.
Jones’ and Creeden’s employment and “no-show” salaries from the bank remained a secret with the other officers and employees of the Boilermakers union, even after the federal investigation began, the document says. They also failed to disclose the six-figure salaries on the annual reports they were required to file with the Labor Department.
“In the years from 2013 to their retirement, Defendant Jones took more than $3.4 million in salary from the Bank and Defendant Creeden took more than $2.8 million,” the trial brief says.
The government also alleges that in 2021 and 2022, while serving on the board, Jones and Creeden used union funds to execute $7 million in unauthorized loans to the bank at a time it was struggling.
That action, the document says, was a violation of their legal duty of fidelity to the Boilermakers union and also a violation of the Bank of Labor’s conflict-of-interest policy.
Rank and file deserve better
The union’s current international president, Timothy Simmons, did not respond to a request for comment about the trial.
In a commentary published April 9 on the union’s website with the slogan, “Ending corruption, restoring trust,” Simmons said that after Jones’ removal, the executive council “began reviewing internal policies and procedures to make certain mistakes of the past were corrected and would not be made again.”
Then came the indictments, he said. And in less than three years, he said, the union has had to replace two international presidents, two international secretary-treasurers and two international vice presidents.
“We’ve taken important steps to bring stability, accountability and renewed focus back to this union,” he said, “but the work is far from over.”
Sulivan, who has been critical of union leadership and recently announced that he is running against Simmons at the union’s general convention in July, said in a statement to The Star that those who were indicted aren’t the only ones to blame for what the union is going through.
“What makes this trial so significant is that it is not only about the individuals who were
indicted,” he said. “It is also about the system and the culture that allowed this to ever happen.
“Newton Jones and what federal prosecutors have described as the ‘Jones Enterprise’ would not have been able to allegedly racketeer, embezzle, or misuse union resources if the people sworn to uphold their constitutional duties had taken that oath seriously.”
The Boilermakers deserve better, Sulivan said.
“This trial should be a turning point, not just for accountability for the past, but for rebuilding and restructuring our organization for the future,” he said.
“Anyone who participated in wrongdoing should be held accountable. But real justice will not end with one trial. Real justice means removing the entrenched culture that allowed this to happen in the first place.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
