NEW YORK -- A once prominent labor leader and former state lawmaker accused of stealing $2.2 million from his union, the state and a Little League pleaded guilty today to federal racketeering.

Seven-term Democratic State Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, also the former president of the nation's largest municipal labor council, also admitted to making false statements on a loan application to a federally-insured financial institution.

McLaughlin, 54, of Queens, pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in cash and personal services from 1995 to 2005, and using union money to pay for personal needs, such as car payments and home improvements, officials said. He had been the president of the New York City Central Labor Council.

As part of his guilty plea in U.S. District Court to Judge Richard J. Sullivan in Manhattan, McLaughlin accepted prison time between 8 and 10 years. He remains free on bail until sentencing on Sept. 12.

The investigation and later arrest of McLaughlin were first reported by NewsChannel 4's Jonathan Dienst. If McLaughlin had been convicted on all the charges contained in an 186-page indictment, his sentence could theoretically have been 500 years in prison.

The million-member labor council is an umbrella group of unions that has supported Mayor Michael Bloomberg.