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SALT LAKE CITY — The former treasurer of the Salt Lake City Firefighters Union has been ordered to serve 30 days in jail for stealing more than $133,000 from the organization.
Joshua Diamond, 40, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty as charged earlier this year to communications fraud, a second-degree felony; theft by deception, a second-degree felony; unlawful dealing of property by a fiduciary, a second-degree felony; and two counts of forgery, a third-degree felony.
He was booked into Salt Lake County Jail on Friday.
According to court documents, Diamond had agreed to plead guilty to the charges before they were filed in May. If he had reneged on the deal, additional charges would have been handed down.
And because Diamond paid an agreed upon $50,000 prior to the sentencing hearing, prosecutors recommended 30 days in jail for him.
Each of the second-degree felonies carried a potential maximum sentence of one to 15 years in prison, while the third-degree felonies were punishable by up to five years in prison.
As part of his sentence, Diamond has been ordered to pay $133,314 in restitution to the firefighters union.
The investigation into Diamond, of Mapleton, began in 2016 when the union president discovered discrepancies between union accounts and checks that were written from those accounts, according to charging documents. Checks dating back to 2013 showed that "Diamond had been writing checks to himself for fictitious reimbursements," and the signatures on those checks were forged, the charges state.
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Salt Lake fire union treasurer resigns amid embezzlement investigation
The treasurer of the Salt Lake City Firefighters Union has resigned amid allegations that at least $37,000 in union funds were embezzled.An audit also revealed another union savings account was drained by cash withdrawals from Diamond, according to prosecutors, and that $4,000 in donations made through the Fill the Boot campaign in 2014 were never deposited.
Diamond later admitted to forging mileage reimbursement checks to himself, even though he wouldn't have needed them because he conducted most of his business while serving as an on-duty firefighter, the charges state. Diamond allegedly told investigators he had intended to pay the money back eventually.
Diamond resigned from the firefighters union in May 2016 after allegations against him came to light.
