NCUA Bans Former CEO, Others For Embezzlement

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The former CEO of now-defunct Northampton-Carbon County FCU was barred from the credit union industry by NCUA last week for his role in a $2-million embezzlement that sunk the one-time $40-million credit union.

Michael Symons is serving a three-year prison sentence for his crimes, one of several frauds that forced NCUA to liquidate the Allentown, Penn. credit union in 2004.

Last year, self-professed 'shopaholic" Betty Jean Barachie, a former Nor-Car FCU branch manager, was sentenced to jail for stealing $1.5 million, which was used to finance her compulsive shopping. She told authorities she used the funds to buy hundreds of pairs of shoes, some 3,000 books, 58 coats, 16 chainsaws and a John Deere Tractor, most of which sat piled in her house unused with the price tags still on them.

Also banned by NCUA last week were: Cindy Hastie, former employee at State Employees CU, for stealing $210,000 form the Jacksonville, Fla., credit union; Alisa Ryan, former teller at Aegis CU, for embezzling $15,000 from the Clinton, Iowa, credit union; and David Call, former CEO of Florida Health Systems FCU, in Miami.