Employees At Red Cross CU Charged In $675,000 Embezzlement

WASHINGTON – Two former employees of Clara Barton FCU were arrested yesterday after being indicted by a federal grand jury for issuing more than $675,000 in fraudulent loans from the credit union and conducting unauthorized transactions on member accounts.

Tracy Kemper, 35, a loan officer, and Tiffany Samuells, 34, a member service rep., were charged with making fraudulent loans and earning kickbacks on some of the loans before the $7 million credit union for Red Cross employees was merged into Pentagon FCU in November 2008.

Some of the loans were issued in the names of members without those members’ knowledge or consent, according to the indictment. Other loans were issued in exchange for receiving a “kickback” or portion of the loan proceeds from the loan recipients.

Kemper and Samuells generally obtained their “kickback” by withdrawing the money in cash from the loan recipient’s Clara Barton account and either before or after the withdrawal, pocketing the cash and/or making cash deposits into their Clara Barton accounts, the indictment claims. Kemper and Samuells also withdrew and transferred money from the accounts of loan recipients at Clara Barton without the knowledge or consent of the account holders. Often, those cash withdrawals and transfers occurred after the credit union had closed for business for the day.

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