Bradenton woman stole over $100K from local postal union, prosecutors say
The person trusted to safeguard a Bradenton postal workers union’s money for more than a decade could spend years in prison after prosecutors said she siphoned more than $100,000 for herself.
Prosecutors say Kathleen Rita Kaplan, 53, exploited her role as secretary treasurer of the American Postal Workers Union’s Bradenton local by funneling union money into her own accounts through forged checks and unauthorized Zelle transfers.
According to court records, Kaplan pleaded no contest Sept. 15 to two first-degree felonies: grand theft and fraudulent use of personal identification information. Circuit Judge Matt Whyte accepted the plea and set her sentencing for Nov. 24. The records show the plea resolved a case that initially included more than 100 felony counts when it was filed last year.
An attorney representing Kaplan did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
Kaplan spent about 15 years overseeing the finances of the union’s Bradenton chapter — a long tenure that investigators say allowed her to divert funds for more than four years, until a lost re-election bid triggered an audit that exposed the fraud.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office began investigating in June 2023 after newly elected union leaders raised concerns about missing money, according to an arrest report. Detectives said the leaders checked the union’s Bank of America account and found only about $5,000, a discovery that contradicted Kaplan’s recent report to members claiming the union’s finances totaled about $178,000.
The finding prompted detectives to subpoena bank records spanning 2019 through 2023, which showed a paper trail of unauthorized transactions, the arrest report says. The records included both the union’s account at Bank of America and Kaplan’s personal account at Wells Fargo.
Investigators documented $40,959.05 moved through 53 Zelle transfers to Kaplan’s account, even though the union had been told not to use Zelle for official business, the report says. They also said they identified $68,051.68 in losses from 144 forged checks Kaplan wrote to herself. The checks were deposited through mobile banking or in person at Wells Fargo branches in Manatee County, according to the report.
Altogether, investigators said the forged checks and Zelle transfers drained at least $109,010.73 from the union’s accounts, according to the arrest report.
Detectives wrote in the arrest report that “as treasurer of the union, she would be aware that she was not owed any of the funds that she transferred to her own account.” They added that while Kaplan was authorized to access the union’s bank information as treasurer, she misused it more than 100 times during what they described as a “long-running scheme to defraud.”
Kaplan was arrested in January 2024 on felony charges that included one count of scheme to defraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal identification and 144 counts of uttering forged checks, according to court records.
Prosecutors later dropped most of those counts and pursued two first-degree felonies instead: grand theft of more than $100,000 and fraudulent use of personal identification information. Those are the charges Kaplan pleaded no contest to last month.
Under Florida law, each of the first-degree felony charges carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
