HARRISBURG, Pa. – The former president of Greater Harrisburg Community CU pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to two misdemeanors in connection with charges that he steered $835,000 of federal funds to the now defunct community development credit union.
Carl Payne, 66, who served simultaneously as chief executive of the Harrisburg Housing Authority, pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements to authorities who were investigating the funding of the fledgling CDCU.
The credit union was chartered in 2001 but shuttered by NCUA in 2006 with losses of $264,000 for the first nine months of 2005, after eking out a $3,700 gain for 2004.
Payne resigned from the Harrisburg Housing Authority last month, saying, that he still believed that the CDCU "was a laudable attempt to improve the economic situation of public housing residents and other disadvantaged citizens of Harrisburg."
Payne was charged with creating and backdating documents to obstruct the federal grand jury's investigation into how more than $800,000 in funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were moved from the housing authority to the credit union. He was also charged with lying about receiving roughly $134,000 from the housing authority for his work with the credit union.
