A federal jury in Greenbelt, Maryland convicted former AFGE Local 2419 president Kimberly Goodwin on charges including wire fraud conspiracy and multiple counts of money laundering after finding she diverted roughly $1 million in union funds to a sham consulting company she controlled, used union money for personal purchases, and left the local in financial collapse and receivership.
A federal jury found Kimberly Goodwin, 54, guilty of participating in a wire fraud conspiracy and eight counts of money laundering stemming from her time as president of Local 2419 from January 2017 to August 2019. The union represented about 500 National Institutes of Health employees while Goodwin held office, and prosecutors say the scheme stretched across several years and involved complex bank and wire transfers. Court filings and trial evidence traced nearly $1 million in grievance settlement funds into the local account and then onward into accounts tied to her consulting firm. The convictions follow an investigation by multiple Department of Labor offices and federal prosecutors who built a record of sham services and diverted payments.
Prosecutors say Goodwin retained signatory authority on the union bank account even after her presidency ended in 2019, and used that access to move union settlement money into the sham consulting company she owned. As part of the scheme, the union reportedly paid for training, contract negotiation work, and collective bargaining services that either were never performed or were billed at values far above actual work. The transfers and subsequent withdrawals took place primarily between 2019 and 2022, according to trial exhibits and testimony presented to the jury.
“Kimberly Goodwin was a union leader entrusted to safeguard finances and represent the interests of dues-paying members, but instead led a scheme to steal from them and convert the money for personal use. This was a substantial betrayal of the trust of hard-working Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division is proud to partner with the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General to uncover this fraud and prosecute those involved, including Goodwin, who led the conspiracy and held a union leadership position.”
The case included evidence that Goodwin quietly revised Local 2419 bylaws to create payment pathways favoring her firm, allowing ostensibly legitimate invoices to be processed without proper oversight. Bank records and witness accounts presented at trial showed a pattern of invoices submitted for consulting services that had little or no substantiation behind them. Investigators documented repeated transfers from the union account to the consulting business and then to personal accounts or cash withdrawals for items unrelated to union work.
Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito offered a second, blunt assessment at trial: “Kimberly Goodwin abused her position of trust as a union president to steal nearly $1 million from the very members she was elected to represent, funneling their money to a sham consulting company for services that were never rendered,” said Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. “This conviction, along with the earlier conviction of her co-conspirator, sends a clear message that those who exploit their fiduciary responsibility to union members for personal enrichment will be held accountable.”
Beyond the transfers themselves, prosecutors introduced evidence of personal spending tied to union funds while Goodwin controlled the account, including the purchase of a $7,400 massage chair and various other personal expenses. The evidence also showed Local 2419 had not held regular membership meetings since 2020, and that by 2022 the local had effectively run out of money and was placed into receivership. The jury heard testimony and documents intended to show how governance breakdowns enabled the fraud to continue unchecked for years.
Goodwin is the second defendant convicted in this matter; her co-conspirator, the local’s secretary-treasurer Kelleigh Williams, was convicted in 2025 of wire fraud conspiracy for her role in the scheme. The Department of Labor Office of Inspector General National Capital Region Office of Investigations, together with the Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards, conducted the investigative work that fed into the federal prosecution. Trial Attorneys Ben Tonkin and Vincent J. Falvo of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section handled the federal prosecution.
The verdict closes one chapter of a case that exposed internal control failures and alleged intentional misuse of member funds, and it underscores the federal focus on public-sector union corruption when it involves employee dues and settlement money. Sentencing and any post-trial motions will follow the court’s schedule, while the agencies involved emphasize recovering assets and restoring accountability where possible. The outcome serves as a factual record of how officials say the scheme operated and the legal consequences that flowed from it.
