NC couple, execs stole $20M from union for ritzy trips, meals & salaries, jury finds
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- They were convicted of embezzlement and violating the RICO Act.
- Newton Jones and Creeden led embezzling of more than $20 million over 15 years.
- Defendants and associates received millions in unauthorized salaries, loans, and spending.
A Chapel Hill couple and other top union officials were convicted Friday in federal court of using millions in members’ dues to pay for lavish trips, dinners and payouts.
The union dues were meant to provide members and their families with retirement and health benefits, but the couple and two other former Boilermakers Union executives used the money “as their personal piggy banks,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Faiza Alhambra told jurors.
The federal jury found Chapel Hill resident Newton Jones and William Creeden, of Kearney, Missouri, guilty of embezzlement and violating the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act.
Jones, 72, is the former president of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Forgers, and Helpers, based in Kansas City, Kansas. The Boilermakers Union represents about 46,000 U.S. and Canadian employees who work on boilers, pipes, and power plants and ships.
Creeden, 78, is the union’s former secretary treasurer.
Jones’ wife Kateryna Jones, 33, was also convicted of embezzlement and violating the RICO Act. A fourth defendant, former Boilermaker Union’s vice president Lawrence McManamon, 78, of Rocky River, Ohio, was found guilty of embezzlement.
McManamon faces up to five years in prison on each count, and Creeden, Newton Jones and Kateryna Jones could each face up to 20 years in prison.
A federal district court judge is scheduled to sentence them Sept. 1.
“The absolute hubris and entitlement with which these defendants stole from American workers is disgraceful,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser, who serves in the District of Kansas.
“While union members were faithfully clocking in and out of their jobs, these defendants thought they were unaccountable and were callously gallivanting on extravagant trips that spared no expense,” Kriegshauser said.
Laundry list of trips, dinners, paychecks
According to federal prosecutors, Newton Jones and Creeden led the group in embezzling over $20 million in union members’ dues over 15 years.
The men were also accused of using their executive positions with the union to obtain high-level positions at the Bank of Labor, where the union is a majority shareholder, and make $7 million in unauthorized union loans to the bank.
The bank paid each man nearly $4 million in salary and $1.4 million in retirement benefits, even though they did little work and were also being paid a full-time union salary, prosecutors said.
Nearly $2 million more in salaries and benefits were paid to others for jobs that did not require them to work, including $1.8 million paid to Kateryna Jones, documents show. She got some of the money while she was dating Newton Jones and still living in Ukraine, they said.
The Chapel Hill couple also enjoyed date night meals that totaled over $160,000 and charged shopping trips and other personal expenses to the union, prosecutors said. Over $5 million was spent on “unnecessary and lavish international travel,” including executive meetings held “for no apparent purpose in extravagant hotels” in Paris, Rome and other cities.
Prosecutors also claimed Newton Jones and Creeden:
- Stole money from the union retirement plan.
- Paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and benefits to three of Newton Jones’ relatives, and spent over $100,000 in tuition, rent and moving expenses for Newton Jones’ relatives.
- Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fraudulently claimed vacation time.
- Committed wire fraud, because they failed to disclose required payments, outside employment, and conflicts of interest.
- Committed health care fraud with Kateryna Jones by providing her with unearned benefits.
“The Boilermakers Union members were supposed to get representation out of their hard-earned money used to pay union dues,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “What they got instead is their money wasted on lavish trips and dinners, and unearned vacation payouts for the union leadership.”
Union discovery sparks power struggle
The allegations came to light in early 2023, when Jones allegedly mentioned during a union executive committee meeting that he and his wife had spent union money to travel to his second home in Ukraine, according to published reports.
A separate union investigation led to internal charges, and the union’s International Executive Council voted in June 2023 to remove Jones, who had led the union since his father retired in 2003.
But Jones refused to leave. He filed a lawsuit in the union’s name against three vice presidents who attempted to oust him and internal disciplinary charges against the executives and a fourth man who raised the allegations.
McManamon sided with Jones, and both men were convicted in the federal case of spending an unspecified amount of money on surveillance of union employees who took out the internal charges.
Jones appointed Creeden and McManamon to handle the internal charges before he suddenly retired and attempted to appoint his successor on July 31, 2023. A U.S. District Court judge affirmed the IEC’s decision to remove Jones as president in August.
Jones’ son Cullen Jones and Warren Fairley, who took over briefly after Jones’ ouster, also pleaded guilty in March to racketeering conspiracy and embezzlement from a labor organization, The Kansas City Star has reported.
Elisabeth Messenger, the director of the federal Office of Labor-Management Standards, said new reporting requirements for large unions “will go a long way in protecting the financial integrity of labor unions” in the future.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 1:42 PM with the headline "NC couple, execs stole $20M from union for ritzy trips, meals & salaries, jury finds."
