Former California labor leaders plead guilty to misusing union credit cards
Two former California labor leaders who were charged with using union credit cards to purchase luxury clothing and accessories for personal use last year pleaded guilty Friday, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
Shukimba Carlis and Sofia Herrera, who served as AFSCME Local 2620’s president and treasure, respectively, initially pled not guilty to federal wire fraud charges in June.
Last April, federal prosecutors alleged that Carlis and Herrera collectively embezzled $270,000 from AFSCME Local 2620, which represents California state workers, through a fraudulent scheme in which they used union credit cards to purchase luxury goods and then attempted to hide those purchases from the executive board.
Carlis and Herrera signed plea agreements in recent months admitting to using union funds to make personal purchases. Both changed their pleas to guilty in a California Central District courtroom on Friday morning.
AFSCME Local 2620, which represents over 5,000 state employees who work in health care and social services, is part of the national trade union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Roughly 55% of represented employees are dues-paying members as of late 2025, according to recent data from the State Controller’s Office.
A spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office declined to comment. Attorneys representing Carlis and Herrera did not return requests for comment.
Carl Miller, interim president of Local 2620, said, “The only comment we have is that the legal process has played itself out, and we’re grateful for that.” He added that the union was able to recover all the misappropriated funds.
Labor leaders hid fraud from union board
In a plea agreement, Carlis, the former president, admitted to using union funds to buy $2,453 in accessories from a Beverly Hills Louis Vuitton in March 2022. Herrera, the former union treasurer, admitted to buying $2,033.02 of clothing and accessories from Tory Burch in Glendale in May 2022 with union funds.
Carlis and Herrera used AFSCME-assigned credit cards to make personal purchases, which was prohibited by the union’s financial standards. They then arranged for those credit cards to be paid off using Local 2620’s checking account, the plea agreements stated.
Both leaders repeatedly failed to provide financial records to the union’s executive board and trustees, stating that the credit card statements were not ready to be shared with the board. Herrera claimed that she did not know how to present the record due a lack of training, and Carlis ensured that the credit card statements were not sent to the Local 2620’s office, their respective plea agreements stated.
“In executing the fraudulent scheme described above, (Carlis) abused her positions of trust,” read a plea agreement filed last month.
Carlis began serving as the union’s president in October 2020, according to the initial indictment. Herrera started serving as the treasurer the following March. The scheme began as early as March 2021 and continued until September 2022, the plea agreements reported.
Carlis was previously reprimanded by the union while serving as president for sending members thank you cards that included her name and $25 gift cards prior to a union election in which she was running for reelection. She said the money to pay for the cards stemmed from unused money in the union’s accounts, but the board had previously voted down her proposal to distribute the gift cards.
Carlis and Herrera both face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or more depending on the total amount of fraudulent funds embezzled by each. As of Friday afternoon, a sentencing date had not yet been set.
