Manager’s Family Looted CDCU

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A wife and husband who were jailed for embezzling more than $1.3 million from tiny Unified Singers FCU were formally barred from the credit union industry by NCUA yesterday. Jean Pogue, former manager of the community development credit union, her husband Joseph Pogue, and their daughter Cassandra Montgomery, who ran an insurance agency out of their home–which served as the credit union’s office–were all sentenced to prison for siphoning more than $1.3 million in phony loans from the $1.5 million credit union. They took out loans under local businesses, like Providence Missionary Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church and Hadley’s Funeral Home, and under phony names like Elizabeth Taylor, Clarence Strong, Joe Long and Douglas Monroe. The tiny credit union had become well-regarded in the CDCU movement and had received significant financial aid from both the Community Development Financial Institutions Program and from NCUA. It was even cited by the Brookings Institute in a 2001 study for its performance in serving low-income communities. But because of the loan scheme, NCUA was forced to take it over and liquidate it in 2002.