LAS VEGAS – NCUA last week filed suit to recover more than $1 million still owed on a $1.9 million real estate development loan made by Ensign CU, Henderson, Nev., adding to the legal morass related to the credit union’s 2009 failure.
The latest suit claims that developers of a condominium project called Habitat Center gave their personal guarantee on the $1.9 million loan and still owe the federal regulator – which is liquidating agent of the one-time $135 million credit union – more than $1 million after the property was sold at foreclosure last November.
The latest suit is one of a growing number of civil actions taken by NCUA to recover losses from Ensign, one of four large Nevada credit union failures. NCUA attributed the failure of Ensign, a credit union for the Mormon Church Nevada which was eventually assigned to EDS CU (now InTouch CU) of Texas, to over-reliance on real estate loans that plunged in value with the state’s plummeting economy.
NCUA expects Ensign to cost the National CU Share Insurance Fund $30 million in losses.
