Maryland Union Leader Convicted of Defrauding Union To Enrich Herself
Monday, August 31, 2026 - A federal jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, convicted the former president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local 2419 union, Kimberly Goodwin, 54, of Bowie, Maryland, of participating in a wire fraud conspiracy and eight counts of money laundering.
“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.”
“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.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Goodwin served as the president of the AFGE local 2419 union from January 2017 to August 2019. At the time of her service, the union represented approximately 500 federal employees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As part of the fraud scheme, under Goodwin’s authority, the union transferred approximately $1 million received from NIH from multiple employee grievance lawsuits into the local 2419 bank account. She then used her power as signatory of the union bank account – which she retained as part of her scheme to defraud the union even after her tenure as president had expired in 2019 – to transfer the money to a sham consulting company that she owned. Through a series of bank and wire transfers and cash withdrawals, she transferred approximately $1 million to her own account between 2019 and 2022 for services that were never provided by her consulting firm, or whose invoiced value far exceeded the true value of the service rendered.
As shown at trial, Goodwin also secretly instituted new rules to the local 2419 bylaws that allowed her sham consulting firm to receive illegitimate payment for claimed work on union issues such as training, contract negotiations and collective bargaining. Indeed, evidence presented at trial established that there had not even been a meeting of local 2419 since 2020, and that local 2419 ran out of money and went into receivership in 2022. Evidence also showed that, while she controlled the union’s bank account, Goodwin spent union money for personal shopping including a $7,400 massage chair and other personal expenditures.
Goodwin is the second defendant convicted in this case. Goodwin’s co-conspirator, the Secretary-Treasurer of AFGE Local 2419, Kelleigh Williams, was convicted in 2025 of wire fraud conspiracy for her part in the fraud scheme.
The Department of Labor Office of Inspector General National Capital Region Office of Investigations investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Ben Tonkin and Vincent J. Falvo of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section are prosecuting the case.
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
Source: Justice.gov
