Dormant Accounts Looted By CUEmployees

NEW ORLEANS - (04/29/05) -- Two former employees of OrleansPublic School FCU pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than$126,000, much of it from dormant accounts, between August 1999 andMarch 2001. Sherry Wilkerson, 47, the credit union's formerassistant manager, and Angela Williams, 38, who worked as anaccounting assistant, are among 24 school system employees indictedby a federal grand jury investigating corruption in the New Orleansschool system. A third credit union employee charged, 32-year-oldteller Juawanne Scott, is awaiting trial on similar charges. Thethree were also charged with stealing credit union funds by writingchecks and failing to debit their own accounts. Others indictedincluded insurance brokers accused of paying kickbacks to a schoolsystem administrator in return for contracts; two teachers and twomiddle school clerks charged with extortion; and two high schoolsecretaries charged with stealing paychecks.