Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Burlington, Vermont – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont announced that Leticia Russi-Shareno, 60, of Kenmore, New York, was sentenced yesterday by Chief United States District Court Judge Christina Reiss to a term of three years’ probation and ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution. Russi-Shareno previously pleaded guilty to a charge of Wire Fraud on December 10, 2024.
According to court documents, between approximately August 2019 and December 2020, Russi-Shareno served as president of Local 2076 of the American Federation of Government Employees. Local 2076 is a labor union whose members are employees of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security working in Vermont and upstate New York. As president, Russi-Shareno had check signing authority on Local 2076’s Vermont bank account and also received a debit card to make official purchases on behalf of the union.
According to court documents, during her presidency, Russi-Shareno embezzled approximately $36,000.00 from Local 2076’s coffers by using the union’s debit card to make ATM withdrawals of funds for personal expenses; using the debit card to make purchases for her personal benefit; and by falsifying paperwork to obtain duplicate reimbursements for expenses incurred on behalf of Local 2076. Russi-Shareno also cashed or deposited into her own account several checks that the national AFGE union had issued to Local 2076.
Acting United States Attorney Michael P. Drescher commended the collaborative investigatory efforts of the Boston and Buffalo Regional Office of the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Department of Homeland Security.
Russi-Shareno was represented by Mark Kaplan, Esq. The prosecutors were Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas J. Aliberti and Gregory Waples.