delivered .the opinion of the Court.

.. Section 302 (b) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 provides: “(b) It shall be unlawful for any representative of any employees who are employed in an industry affecting commerce to receive or accept, or to agree to receive or accept, from the employer of such employees any money or other thing of value.” Under § 302 (c) of the Act: this broad prohibition is made inapplicable in five situations, one being, “with respect to money or other thing of value paid to a trust fund established by such representative, for the sole and'exclusive benefit of the employees of such employer . . .” pro- . vided that the trust fund meets certain standards specified in that subsection.1

*421The petitioner, a representative of employees in an industry affecting commerce, was convicted in the United States District Court for Puerto Rico of violating § 302 (b) of the' Act by receiving $15,000 from two of their employers.2 The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 256 F. 2d 549. Certiorari was granted because the case presents an important question as to the scope of this provision of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947. 358 U. S. 812.

The facts are substantially undisputed. In 1953 the petitioner was president of a union which represented the employees of two affiliated corporations. In that capacity he negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the employers. This agreement provided for the establishment of a welfare fund, which, it is unquestioned, met the requisite criteria of § 302 (c) (5) of the Act. It was agreed that the petitioner would be the union repre--sentative on the joint committee which was to administer *422the fund.3 After the agreement was signed, the petitioner told the employers’ representative that there was to be a union meeting that evening, and that he wanted to exhibit the welfare fund checks to the union members. Accordingly, the petitioner was given two checks for $7,500. Attached vouchers identified the checks as the employers’ contributions to the welfare fund.

Instead of subsequently depositing the checks in the existing welfare- fund bank account, however, the petitioner used them to opén an account in the name of the fund in another bank. A few days thereafter, he gave the bank a purported resolution from the union’s board of directors authorizing withdrawals from this account upon his signature alone. As soon as the employers learned what had happened, they attempted to secure performance of the agreement for joint administration of the fund. Over a period of several months, however, the petitioner used the money for his own personal purposes and, after transferring the funds to another account, for nonwelfare union purposes as well.

The Government does not maintain that embezzlement by an employee representative from an employer-financed welfare fund would violate the federal statute under which the petitioner was convicted.4 It contends, however, that *423in this case the jury could properly find that the petitioner when he accepted the two checks intended to use the funds for his personal purposes, and that he was therefore guilty not of embezzlement, but of conduct amounting to larceny, by trick. We agree that the evidence could properly support an inference that the petitioner’s purpose from the outset was to appropriate the two checks for his own usé. We cannot agree, however, that this conduct violated § 302 (b) of the Act.

Section 302 (b) is a reciprocal of § 302 (a), applicable to employers, which provides that “(a) It shall be unlawful for any employer to pay or deliver, or to agree to pay or deliver, any money or other thing of value to any representative of any of his employees who are employed in an industry affecting commerce.” The good faith of the employers in delivering the two checks to the petitioner— their intent that the money go to the welfare fund created by .the collective bargaining agreement — was not questioned throughout the trial and is not questioned here.5 The sole purpose of the delivery of the checks, therefore, was /to make a lawful payment. What the petitioner received were checks “paid to a trust fund.” The transaction, therefore, was within the precise language of § 302 (c), and thus was not a violation of § 302 (b).

This is not to say that the statute requires mutuality of guilt for the conviction of éither the employer or the representative of employees. An employer might be guilty under subsection (a) if he paid money to a repre*424sentative of employees even though the latter had no .intention of accepting. Cf. Lunsford v. United States, 200 F. 2d 237; Schneider v. United States, 192 F. 2d 498. A representative might be guilty if he coerced payments from an innocent and unwilling employer. Cf. United States v. Waldin, 149 F. Supp. 912, aff’d 253 F. 2d 551. Both would be guilty if the payment were ostensibly made for one of the lawful purposes’specified in § 302 (c) if both knew that such a purpose, was merely a sham.

The present case, however, is not an analogue to any of those situations. The checks were drawn by the employers and delivered to the petitioner as payment to a union welfare- fund. Their receipt by him,-therefore, was not a violation of the federal statute, whether his intent to misappropriate existed at the time of receipt or was formed later.

We cpnstrue a criminal statute. “It is the legislature, not the Court, which is to define a crime, and ordain its punishment.” United States v. Wiltberger, 5 Wheat. 76, 95; United States v. Halseth, 342 U. S. 277; Krichman v. United States, 256 U. S. 363. We are mindful, :'of course, that, “though penal laws are to be construed strictly, they are not to be construed so strictly as to defeat the obvious intention of the legislature.” United States v. Wiltberger, supra, at 95. As Mr. Justice Holmes put it, “Wp* agree to all the generalities about not supplying criminal laws-with what they omit, but there is no canon against using common sense in construing laws as saying, what they obviously mean.” Roschen v. Ward, 279 U. S. 337, 339.

An examination o.f the legislative history confirms that á literal construction of this-statute does no violence to common sense') .When Congress enacted § 302 its purpose was not .to assist the States in punishing criminal.conduct traditionally within their jurisdiction, but to deal with *425problems peculiar to collective bargaining. The provision was enacted as part of a comprehensive revision of federal labor policy in the light of experience acquired during the years following passage of the Wagner Act, .and was aimed at practices which Congress considered inimical to the integrity of the collective bargaining process.

Throughout the. debates in the Seventy-ninth and Eightieth Congresses there was not the slightest indication that § 302 was intended to duplicate state criminal laws.6 Those members of Congress who supported the amendment were concerned with corruption of collective bargaining through bribery of employee representa*426tives by employers,7 with extortion by employee representatives,8 and with the possible abuse by union officers of the power which they might achieve if welfare funds were left to their sole control. Congressional attention was focussed particularly upon the latter problem because of the demands which had then recently been made by a large international union for the establishment of a welfare fund to be financed by employers’ contributions and administered exclusively by union officials. See United States v. Ryan, 350 U. S. 299.

Congress believed that if welfare funds were established which did not define with specificity the benefits payable thereunder, a substantial danger existed' that such funds might be employed to perpetuate control of .union officers, for political purposes,' or even for personal gain. See 92 Cong. Rec. 4892-4894, 4899, 5181, 5345-5346; S. Rep.. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., at 52; 93 Cong; Rec. 4678, 4746-4747.' To remove these dangers, specific standards were established to assure that welfare funds would be established only for purposes which Congress' considered proper and expended-only for the purposes for which they were established. See Cox, Some Aspects of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 61 Harv. L. Rev¡ 274, 290. Continuing compliance with these standards in the *427administration of welfare funds was made explicitly enforceable in federal district courts by civil proceedings under § 302 (e).9 The legislative history is devoid of any suggestion that defalcating trustees were to be held accountable under federal law, except by way of the injunctive remedy provided in that subsection.

Without doubt the petitioner’s conduct was reprehensible and immoral. It can be assumed1 also that he offended local criminal law. But, for the reasons stated, we hold that he did not criminally violate § 302 (b) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947.

Reversed.

dissenting.

The Court sets petitioner free. In so doing, it assumes that he violated local criminal law, but holds that he did not offend § 302 (b) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947. It is admitted that the petitioner, as a representative of employees who are employed in an industry affecting commerce, accepted two checks for $7,500 each from employers. Instead of subsequently depositing these checks in the existing welfare fund bank account, withdrawals from which required the joint signatures of the petitioner and a representative of the employers, he deposited the checks in another bank. Six days thereafter he presented to the latter bank a spurious resolution authorizing withdrawals from this account upon, peti*428tioner’s signature alone. Admittedly petitioner used the money in this account for his own personal purposes. Several months thereafter the balance in the account was transferred to another account in another'bank and the funds therefrom were likewise used for nonwelfare purposes. The theory of the Court seems to be that since the employers issued the two checks in good faith, with the intent that the money go to the welfare fund of the union, the receipt of the checks was therefore for the sole purpose of completing this lawful payment. Hence, the Court reasons, “[w]hat the petitioner received were checks ‘paid to a trust fund.’ The transaction, therefore, was within the precise language of § 302 (c), and thus was not a violation of § 302 (b).” The Court further states that this conclusion would follow “whether his [petitioner’s] ■ intent to misappropriate existed at the time of receipt or was formed later.”

It is true that the employers had written on the vouchers attached to the checks, “Covering: Welfare fund for the •year 1953, in accordance with contract signed on Feb. 21, 1953.” The Court says that by these tags you shall know the nature of this fund. I think the Court has reached the wrong result by a failure to distinguish between the lawful fund set up under the collective bargaining agreement, and the spurioús fund set up by petitioner.

It is well that we review the uncontradicted evidence. The bargaining'agreement provided that each employer should establish a $15,000 welfare fund which “shall be' used to furnish and provide the workers of the Employer covered by this Agreement and the members of their direct family” with certain welfare benefits. It further provided that the fund should be administered by a'committee appointed by mutual agreement. This committee was composed of the petitioner and the representative of the employers. The evidence showed that the fund was to be identical in amount and purpose to a welfare fund *429which had been created in 1952 in a previous collective bargaining agreement. An existing bank account at the Banco de Ponce contained the balance left over from the 1952 welfare fund. In previous years the employer contributions to the welfare fund had been deposited directly by the employers into this welfare account. It was a joint account authorizing withdrawal of funds only on the joint signature- of the employer representative as well as the petitioner.

It appears, however, that after the-signing of the 1953 agreement the petitioner requested the employers to issue the checks and give them to him on the ruse that he would like to exhibit them to the union meeting which was to be held that evening. The employers issued and delivered the checks to the petitioner for deposit in the existing trust fund. The checks were made payahle, however, to the union, rather than to the welfare fund; and, as I h.ave stated, the petitioner opened up. a new bank account in the National' City Bank instead of depositing the checks in the old trust fund account. This new account was in the name of the union, and, while it.was labeled as a welfare fund, withdrawals therefrom could be made on the signature of the petitioner alone. After so establishing the account under his exclusive control, petitioner then withdrew large sums of money for his personal use.

The indictment charged petitioner with receiving the $15,000 for his own use and specifically charged “nor was such sum of money received as á payment to a trust fund.” As the Court-says, the evidence properly supports “an inference that the petitioner’s purpose from the outset was to appropriate the two checks for his own use.” The fact of the. matter is that the evidence shows that the petitioner’s action in so receiving the checks was contrary to the agreement between the parties and in no wise complied with provisions of .§ 302 (c) (5). In. the light of the circumstances, as the jury found, 'there was no payment *430to a trust fund as specifically required by the provisions of the Act.

I am sure that the Court agrees that the petitioner’s conduct came within the “broad prohibition” of § 302 (b'). The only question, therefore, is whether he may properly be exculpated by the provisions of subsection (c)(5), which is quoted in full in the margin.1 Two conclusions, *431implicitly drawn by the jury, emerge as indisputable when the evidence is compared with this subsection. In the first place, the statutory exception applies only when the money or other thing of value is “paid to a trust fund,” and it is clear that insofar as a lawful fund was in existence the checks were not “paid” to it. They were made out payable to the union. Neither the checks nor the money from them ever came near the bona fide trust fund account at the Banco de Ponce. From the moment they were received by petitioner, he had complete control over them.2

Secondly, even a casual reading of the subsection shows, as I am sure the Court itself would agree, that the spurious fund established by the petitioner in the National City Bank failed to comply with the statute in almost every respect. Since the checks were deposited in a union account and subject to the control of petitioner, the payments were not held in trust, as required by the subsection. Moreover, the fund which he created by depositing the checks was not subject to the administration of both the employees and. the employers, but was subject to the sole control of the petitioner. As .the judge instructed the jury, “a plan does not exist, lawfully exist, until it meets all those requirements” of the subsection. Since the sole purpose of the exception as set out in the Act was to permit the creation of a bona fide trust fund, it is obvious that the purposes of the Act were not complied with here because petitioner established no trust fund whatsoever. On the contrary, the checks were made *432payable to, and deposited in the name of, the union of which the petitioner was the President. His was the only authorized signature permitting withdrawals from the fund. In fact, the receipt of the checks by the petitioner as trust fund moneys was merely a sham. It does not matter what the intent of the employers was in delivering the checks since, as the Court itself says, the statute does not require mutuality of guilt.3 The petitioner, by receiving the checks from the employers and through artifice and deceit, has deprived the employees of their benefits and stands guilty under § 302 (b) of the Act.

Moreover; the legislative history shows that that was the specific intent of the Congress. I need only quote one statement of the managers of the bill in the Senate:

“[UJnless we make sure that such [trust] funds, when they are established, are really trust funds . . . for the benefit to employees specified in' the agreement, there is very grave danger that the funds will be used for the personal gain of union leaders . . . .” 93 Cong. Rec. 4678.

Furthermore, the Court itself recognizes this to be the purpose of the Congress in enacting the subsection. As the Court says:

“Congress believed that if welfare funds were established which did not define with specificity the benefits payable- thereunder, a substantial danger existed that such funds might be employed to perpetuate control of union officers,, for political purposes, or even for personal gain .... To remove these dangers, specific standards were established to assure that welfare funds would be established only for purposes which Congress considered proper, and expended only for purposes for which they were established.”

*433Unfortunately, the Court has converted the “substantial danger” into an immunity bath. Section 302 (b) is in all practical effect repealed. All that labor racketeers, or, for that matter, employers as well, need do is to negotiate an agreement containing a qualifying “welfare fund” and then make süre that the vouchers on the employer checks contain some kind of notation that the money is paid for that fund... Although the Court says, “Both would be guilty if the payment were ostensibly made for .one of the lawful purposes specified in § 302 (c) if both knew that such a purpose was merely a sham,” it is clear that the injection of this subtle and elusive mental element of duplicity is enough to make successful prosecution next to impossible.

Nor is the fact that the petitioner might be prosecuted under state law any answer to the problem. In a long line of cases coming to this Court involving industrial controversies where the State exercised authority, it has been held that the area involved had been pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor Management Relations Act. See Weber v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 348 U. S. 468 (1955). It is a strange contradiction here for the Court to force employees to go to the state courts for redress of this most important sanction of the Labor Management Relations Act. Petitioner argues, and the Court sustains him, that he can only be prosecuted for embezzlement, a felony under the laws of Puerto Rico;4 that he cannot be convicted of this misdemeanor under the Taft-Hartley law.5 The opinion today may make this common, but it does not make it sense. I would affirm.