Bradenton postal union treasurer gets prison after stealing $100K, records show
A judge sentenced the former treasurer of a Bradenton postal workers union to more than a year in prison after prosecutors said she siphoned more than $100,000 from the organization .
Circuit Judge Matt Whyte sentenced 53-year-old Kathleen Rita Kaplan to 366 days in prison with credit for time served, followed by two years of community control with GPS monitoring and nearly 27 years of probation, according to court records.
Kaplan previously pleaded no contest Sept. 15 to two first-degree felonies: grand theft of more than $100000 and fraudulent use of personal identification information, court records show.
As part of the sentence, Whyte barred Kaplan from handling money for others or holding elected office, records show.
In a statement to the Bradenton Herald, Kaplan’s attorney Justin Duran said she “took full accountability for her actions” and described the sentence as a negotiated resolution that considered her more than 25 years with the Postal Service, restitution paid before sentencing and other factors.
“Her focus is on rehabilitation and repayment to the victims in full,” Duran said.
Bradenton woman sentenced in fraud case
Kaplan served for about 15 years as secretary-treasurer of the American Postal Workers Union’s Bradenton local, a tenure investigators say allowed her to divert union funds for more than four years before the scheme came to light.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office launched its investigation in June 2023 after newly elected union leaders raised concerns about missing money, according to an arrest report. Detectives said those leaders reviewed the union’s Bank of America account and found only about $5,000, a balance that contradicted Kaplan’s recent report to members claiming the union’s finances totaled about $178,000.
The discovery prompted detectives to subpoena bank records spanning March 2019 through April 2023, which showed a detailed paper trail of unauthorized transactions, the arrest report says. Records included both the union’s Bank of America account and Kaplan’s personal account at Wells Fargo.
Investigators documented nearly $41,000 moved through 53 Zelle transfers from the union account to Kaplan’s personal account, even though the union had been told not to use Zelle for official business, the arrest report says. They also identified more than $68,000 in losses from 144 forged checks Kaplan wrote to herself and deposited either through mobile banking or at Wells Fargo branches in Manatee County.
Treasurer stole over $100,000, prosecutors say
Altogether, investigators said the Zelle transfers and forged checks drained at least $109,000 from the union’s accounts.
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 had authorization to access the union’s bank information during the normal course of her duties, she misused that access 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 first-degree felony carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
