NCUA bans three in March prohibition orders

The National Credit Union Administration announced that it issued three notices of prohibition in the month of March. Consequently, the following individuals are prohibited from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution:

Elizabeth Nelson Cobb, a former employee of Space Coast Credit Union, a $4 billion institution based in Melbourne, Fla., pleaded guilty to the charges of theft, fraud, and communication fraud. Cobb was sentenced to 180 days in prison.

According to Cobb’s LinkedIn page, she worked as a member service specialist at the credit union.

Linda C. Germann, a former employee of Altra Federal Credit Union, $1.4 billion institution based in Onalaska, Wis., pleaded guilty to the charge of bank theft. Germann received three years’ probation.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Western District of Wisconsin, Germann stole $14,813.19 from the credit union starting in October 2013 in order to pay off gambling debts. She used various methods including: misappropriation of stale dated cashier’s checks; the creation and reimbursement of false debit card losses; the issuance of "instant issue" automated teller machine cards (debit cards) to obtain account access; the reissuance of stale dated gift cards; and the utilization of dormant accounts and "bad address" accounts.

Norma Gold, a former employee of Olean Tile Employees Federal Credit Union of Olean, N.Y., pleaded guilty to the charge of false entries in federal credit union reports. Gold was sentenced to 30 months in prison, three years’ supervised release and was ordered to pay $179,939.21 in restitution.

NCUA liquidated the credit union in December 2012.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Western District of New York, Gold worked at the credit union from 1986 to December 2012 and for a portion of that time served as office manager, responsible for keeping accurate financial records on behalf of the credit union.

Between December 2007 and December 2012, Gold embezzled funds and made false entries in credit union’s general ledger and altered financial statements, making it appear that the account balances were larger than they actually were.

Gold’s conduct, the court noted, caused “substantial hardship” to the credit union, leading to its ultimate closure.