Jury convicts former AFGE union president in $1 million embezzlement case

A federal jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, convicted Kimberly Goodwin, 54, of Bowie, Maryland, of participating in a wire fraud conspiracy and eight counts of money laundering, the Justice Department announced. Goodwin, the former president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2419, led a scheme to steal nearly $1 million from the union’s members, according to the department.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said Goodwin had been entrusted to safeguard union finances but instead betrayed the trust of “hard-working Americans” by stealing from dues-paying members for personal use. Duva credited the department’s partnership with the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General in uncovering the fraud.

U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito said Goodwin abused her position as union president to funnel members’ money to a sham consulting company for services that were never rendered. He said the conviction, along with the earlier conviction of a co-conspirator, sends a clear message that those who exploit their fiduciary responsibilities to union members for personal enrichment will be held accountable.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Goodwin served as president of Local 2419 from January 2017 to August 2019, when the union represented approximately 500 federal employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under Goodwin’s authority, the union transferred approximately $1 million received from NIH in connection with multiple employee grievance lawsuits into the local’s bank account. Goodwin then used her authority as a signatory on the account—which she retained after her presidency ended in 2019—to transfer the money to a consulting company 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 her consulting firm either never provided or invoiced at amounts far exceeding their true value.

Evidence presented at trial also showed that Goodwin secretly instituted new rules in the local’s bylaws allowing her consulting firm to receive illegitimate payments for claimed work on union matters, including training, contract negotiations and collective bargaining. Local 2419 had not held a meeting since 2020 and ran out of money before going into receivership in 2022. Evidence also showed that Goodwin used union funds for personal purchases, including a $7,400 massage chair.

Goodwin is the second defendant convicted in the case. Her co-conspirator, Local 2419 Secretary-Treasurer Kelleigh Williams, was convicted in 2025 of wire fraud conspiracy for her role in the scheme.