Verdine Day (Facebook photo)
The ex-Treasurer of the Detroit Fire Department Union (DFFA) has been charged with embezzling more than $220,000 in union funds, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday.
Verdine Day, 62, of Eastpointe, used some stolen funds for flights, hotel rooms, cruises, car insurance premiums, satellite and cable TV service, national and state parks fees and furniture, authorities alleged.
She faces charges of bank and wire fraud.
Day joined the department in 1986 as a firefighter and was elected treasurer in November 2015. She kept that post until retiring from the union and the city of Detroit in 2019.
A federal affidavit alleges that Day fraudulently obtained about $167,900 in union funds by:
- Issuing checks in her name and then changing the name of the payee in the union’s Quickbooks software.
- Cashing checks which were voided by her in Quickbooks
- Writing checks made payable to cash
Day also charged $52,143.65 with union credit cards while she was treasurer and after she retired for personal use including flights and cruises.
Specifically, the feds alleged she used a union credit card to charge $9,553 for a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2017. In 2019, she charged $8,975 for another cruise.
Also in 2019, she used the union’s credit card to pay her bar bill at a Ohio casino and a meal at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant in Cozumel, Mexico.
“Union officials are expected to serve with integrity, particularly when they are sworn to represent men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities,” said Timothy Waters, head of the Detroit FBI, in a statement. “When a union official violates their position of trust, the FBI will continue to aggressively investigate these matters to ensure individuals are held accountable for their actions.”
