Ex-teachers’ union chiefs headed to prison in $2.6M fraud case

The former leaders of a Florida teachers’ union are heading to prison and must repay $2.6 million they stole during their tenure, a federal judge ordered Monday.

Teresa Brady, 70, and Ruby George, 82, pleaded guilty last year to defrauding Duval Teachers United in Jacksonville by “selling back” vacation time they had not accrued, the Florida Times-Union reported.

Brady was sentenced to 27 months in prison. George, who uses a wheelchair, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, followed by six months of home confinement.

The two led the roughly 5,000-member union for more than two decades, with Brady serving as president and George as executive vice president. Federal authorities raided the union’s offices in 2023, uncovering a fraud scheme that resulted in charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. The pair gave false information to auditors in an effort to conceal the theft.

Prosecutors described Brady as a “corrupt union boss” and George as her “chief lieutenant,” the Times-Union reported. Brady has repaid about $1.3 million, but U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard ordered the full amount repaid, citing accountability “for a decade of stealing.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Coolican said the pair “stole at will – treating DTU’s treasury like their own piggy bank.”

“While holding positions of great influence and trust, despite having loving friends and families, and despite wanting for nothing, Teresa Brady and Ruby George stole,” Coolican wrote in a sentencing memo. “They stole for years. They stole millions. They covered it up and would not have stopped if they had not been caught. They need to be punished.”

The fraud comes at a time of increasing calls to “abolish teachers’ unions,” for reasons including misuse of funds and throwing support and donations almost exclusively behind left-wing candidates.

“It’s time to dismantle the power-hungry teachers unions,” Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow with Americans for Fair Treatment, told The Lion. “These union boss criminals screech for more money and then use it to line their own pockets. They don’t care about the kids. They care about themselves.

“The best way to hold power-hungry union bosses accountable in the long-run is to starve the beast from the inside,” he added. “The best teachers need to opt out of these socialist organizations and join alternatives like the Teacher Freedom Alliance. Conservative teachers need to stop funding their enemies through union dues.”