WASHINGTON, D.C.  – A former Washington union official convicted for his role in “a seven-year orgy of greed” for helping to embezzle money from teachers recently lost his appeal.

James Baxter filed a motion to vacate his 2005 conviction for conspiring to with other union officials to siphon millions from the Washington Teachers Union between 1995 and 2002. Baxter, the former union treasurer, was indicted by a grand jury in 2003 along with the WTU office manager Gwendolyn Hemphill and former accountant James Goosby, according to Law 360.

The union employees worked with former WTU president Barbara Bullock to steal millions of dollars in teacher dues dollars to purchase lavish personal items and other extravagancies.

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“The alleged scheme involved charging thousands of dollars in personal items to WTU credit cards and writing checks to a shell corporation created by Hemphill’s son-in-law, among other methods, the government alleged,” Law 360 reports.

“In addition, prosecutors said Baxter wrote himself checks from a union account for supposed pension payments, and used stolen funds to purchase personal items including $19,660 in Washington Wizards basketball tickets.”

A three-judge panel for Washington D.C.’s circuit court on Friday rejected Baxter’s legal appeal to vacate his conspiracy conviction, which was based on his argument that the government had failed to provide evidence that a key trial witness suffered from bipolar disorder.

“The court also said that while Baxter’s conviction for so-called honest services fraud was called into question by a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling narrowing the statute, he had failed to show on appeal that he was not guilty for an alternative charge of stealing money or property from the union,” according to Law 360.

The panel ruled that sufficient evidence existed for a reasonable juror to find Baxter guilty of money laundering. Baxter was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His attorney declined comment on the appeals ruling.

Bullock, the mastermind behind the roughly $5 million embezzlement scheme, was released from prison in 2009 after serving only about 5 years of her original 9-year sentence, according to WUSA9 television station.

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Middle American News reported Bullock used the union’s American Express card for a “fleet of Cadillacs,” art works, jewelry, Caribbean vacations, personal entertainment in nightclubs and restaurants, home furnishings, clothing and gifts for friends.