Two former leaders of a Burbank-based public sector labor group pleaded guilty Friday to federal fraud charges for using union credit cards to purchase clothes and shoes from designer labels such as Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton.
Shukimba Carlis and Sofia Herrera collectively embezzled $270,000 from AFSCME Local 2620 through a fraud scheme, which included suspending a trustee from the union who became suspicious of their activities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The local, part of the national trade union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, represents roughly 5,000 state employees who work in health care and social services.
Carlis served as the local’s president from October 2020 until September 2022. Herrera was the group’s treasurer from March 2021 until September 2022.
The defendants each entered a guilty plea Friday in L.A. federal court to single counts of wire fraud. Sentencing was set for July 24.
The women used union-issued credit cards to make non-AFSCME-related purchases between March 2021 and September 2022, officials said.
In the April 2025 indictment, prosecutors said the two women took steps to conceal the fraud including having credit card statements sent to their personal addresses and adding a verbal password to prevent the union from auditing the purchases.
Carlis and Herrera were charged with six counts of wire fraud for making purchases of designer clothes and shoes. In March 2021, Carlis spent over $3,300 in Louis Vuitton accessories and Jimmy Choo shoes in Beverly Hills. Herrera used over $2,000 of the union’s money to purchase Tory Burch clothes and accessories at the designer’s Glendale store, court papers state.