CLEVELAND-In an unusual move, NCUA liquidated St. Paul's Croatian FCU last week, just a week after taking over the $250-million credit union.
NCUA would only say the move came amid record keeping shortfalls and a rapid deterioration of the credit union's financial condition, even though the credit union's financial show a solid $5.4-million net for 2009 and a $1.4-million net for the first quarter of 2010 and 13% net worth.
Despite the figures, NCUA said the credit union is insolvent and has no prospects for restoring viable operations.
The failure comes a week after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against an alleged Ponzi scheme called Integrity Financial AZ, in which 30 members of St. Paul Church lost an estimated $6 million. It's not clear what connection, if any, the Ponzi scheme has to the failure of the credit union.
The credit union was chartered 67 years ago by St. Paul Croatian Church in Cleveland and serves the city's Croatian immigrant community. St. Paul's Croatian is the ninth CU failure and biggest so far this year.
