CEO Charged With Cooking the Books

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The former head of CU Group, a conglomerate of four credit unions recently released from conservatorship, was charged last week with making false reports to NCUA to pump up the credit union’s net worth and stave off the regulatory takeover. Federal prosecutors charged Mark Kasson, 38, of falsely recording that $3 million in loans had been sold to other credit unions. The charges come after NCUA ended a 14-month conservatorship and returned the credit union to its members. At the time of the conservatorship CU Group had $20 million in assets, but the assets have been whittled down to $11.5 million at the end of 2006. CU Group was originally comprised of Free State CU, Metropolitan CU, Employees CU of Puritan Bennett and Colgate-Palmolive Employees CU, until last year when Colgate-Palmolive Employees CU was shut with the local Colgate-Palmolive plant.