MADISON, Wis. – The former CEO of Rapids Municipal CU was found dead inside his car Monday night, an apparent suicide, hours after he missed a court hearing where he was scheduled to plead guilty to embezzling $645,000 from the now-defunct credit union.
David Henke failed to appear for a plea hearing in U.S. District Court in Madison, so the judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Officers went to the 51-year-old former credit union executive’s
home at the Maples Mobile Home Park to serve the warrant and found Henke dead inside the vehicle, police said. The county coroner ruled the death a suicide Monday evening and said there would be no autopsy.
Henke was charged with depositing credit union funds into members’ dormant accounts then draining the funds from those accounts, and also converting CDs held by deceased members for his own use.
The scheme was only uncovered after the $8 million credit union, which served employees of the city of Wisconsin Rapids, Riverview Hospital, Family Heritage Nursing Home and the Wisconsin Rapids School District, was last year merged into $120 million Bull’s Eye CU.
