UAW official charged with helping embezzle $1.5M is 12th person caught in corruption probe

Federal prosecutors Thursday charged an official with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in a widening corruption probe. 

Officials charged Edward Robinson, a union official with ties to UAW President Gary Jones, with conspiracy to embezzle union funds and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Jones faces a sentence of up to five years on each charge.

{mosads}Robinson is accused of working with other union leaders to “embezzle, steal, and unlawfully and willfully abstract” more than $1.5 million in cash and assets for to fuel “lavish lifestyles,” prosecutors said in a new criminal filing.

Jones and former UAW President Dennis Williams have been the focus of the investigation but have yet to be charged with any crimes.

The allegations against Robinson span from 2010 through last month and include buying expensive dinners and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on hotels and private villas, according to the filing. 

Robinson is the 12th person charged in the probe, according to CNBC. Ten people, including seven with the union, have been sentenced to prison thus far.