United States Attorney District of Columbia
News Release
For Immediate Release October 12, 2006	For further information contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office 202-514-6933

Son-in-Law to Former Washington Teachers Union Official Sentenced

Washington, D.C. - Michael W. Martin, the son-in-law of Gwendolyn Hemphill, the former Executive Assistant to the President of the Washington Teachers Union (WTU), has been sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by one year of home detention for his role in a conspiracy to defraud the WTU between 1997 and 2002, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Steve Willertz, District Director, Department of Labor ("DOL"), Office of Labor-Management Standards, Francis L. Turner, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and District of Columbia Inspector General Charles Willoughby announced today.

Martin, 45, of Bowie, Maryland, was sentenced this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Richard J. Leon, who also ordered that Martin serve three years of supervised release when he leaves prison and perform 200 hours of community service. The Court further ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $650,000.

In April of 2003, Martin pled guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Launder Proceeds of an Unlawful Activity and agreed to cooperate against the remaining WTU defendants. Martin acknowledged as part of his plea that Hemphill introduced former WTU President Barbara Bullock to him and they became fast friends. Martin ultimately became Bullock's personal shopper and hairstylist, and frequently accompanied her on her multi-thousand dollar shopping sprees and used the WTU American Express account to fund her personal whims. Martin ultimately became loyal to Bullock and Hemphill, in part, because they showered him with cash, trips, and fancy gifts. Hemphill approached Martin and asked that he take checks made out to him written on the WTU operating account, cash them, and to dispose of the cash at her direction. Later, Hemphill asked Martin to recruit somebody else to whom she could write checks to steal from the WTU. Martin then recruited a young protégé named Errol Alderman, who agreed to take checks written in his name, to cash the checks, and to return the cash to Martin.

Martin later agreed to funnel the cash diversions through a phony company called Expressions Unlimited at Hemphill's request. Expressions Unlimited was the name of a clothing line that Alderman had once planned to manufacture and distribute. In fact, Expressions Unlimited was a non-existent company whose sole purpose was that of a vehicle for WTU money laundering. Martin then took control of the check stock and began to accept over $480,000 in checks written to Expressions from Hemphill for performing no services. Hemphill would then give Martin specific instructions as to the distribution of the proceeds of each check, including how much he could keep, how much to distribute to Bullock, and how much to distribute to Hemphill.

Martin testified at trial implicating his mother-in-law and Bullock in the scheme. In August 2005, a jury convicted Hemphill and James O. Baxter, the former treasurer of the WTU of 23 counts of conspiracy, embezzlement, mail fraud, wire fraud, false statements, money laundering, and theft.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor, Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, District Director Willertz, Special Agent in Charge Turner, and Inspector General Willoughby commended the investigative work of FBI Special Agents Katherine L. Andrews, Julie S. Lenkart, Andrew Mark Benjamin, Don Monday, and Connie Siebert Smith; DOL Supervisory Investigator Mark Wheeler, Investigator Frank Gore, and Auditor Tyrone Ross; IRS Supervisory Special Agent Anthony Brooks and Special Agents Sarah Kull and Richard Marion; D.C. Inspector General's Office Special Agent William Redden, as well as numerous other federal and local law enforcement agents who assisted in building the case. In addition, they commended former U.S. Attorney's Office Auditors Nicholas Novak and Sandra Henderson; Paralegals Jeanie Latimore-Brown and Paula Pagano; former Supervisory Paralegal Bertina Marshall; Litigation Technology Specialists Deborah Dunn and Oliver Jean-Baptiste; Legal Assistants Teesha Tobias and Lisa Robinson; and former YOC student Jennifer West. They also commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony M. Alexis and James W. Cooper, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannie S. Rhee.