Dec. 1976
Chartered as Industrial & Commercial FCU, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Name changed shortly thereafter to Polish & Slavic FCU.
Jan. 1998
NCUA issues cease and desist order to PSFCU for alleged Bank Secrecy Act violations.
March/April 1999
NCUA assumes conservatorship of PSFCU over widespread evidence of Bank Secrecy Act violations and mismanagement. The CU's 9-member board is dissolved.
July 1999
A federal court upholds conservatorship.
October 1999
NCUA appoints 17 advisory board members to oversee PSFCU.
February 2000
NCUA ends conservatorship, agreeing to pay the U.S. Treasury Dept.'s $185,000 fine to settle civil money laundering charges on behalf of PSFCU, which violated Cash Transaction Reporting provisions by sending 6,000 money transfers to Poland between 1989 and 1997 without notifying authorities.
May 2000
Member-signed petitions and pickets outside NCUA headquarters fail to budge NCUA-appointed board. CU representatives meet with Sen. Charles Schumacher, D-NY, in an attempt to gain board election authority control; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholds a lower court ruling certifying NCUA's authority in the now-terminated conservatorship; PSFCU threatens "political action" against NCUA.
December 2000
Former board member Marcin Sar fights NCUA's efforts to bring charges against him for alleged money laundering.
May 2001
Former Board members Andrew Kaminski and Andrzej Olsewski were reinstated to PSFCU's board.
December 2004
PSFCU CEO Danuta Sieminski takes administrative leave; search for new CEO begins. Members petition to recall 6 of PSFCU's 9 board members.
August 2005
N.Y. state judge orders CUNA Mutual Group to restore fidelity bond coverage to Marcin Sar; PSFCU is ordered to restore Sar to the board.
April 2006
Board Member Kaminski is suspended and his board seat declared vacant.
May 2006
President of the Republic of Poland awards Gold Cross of Merit to PSFCU's Alexander Storyski.
July 2006
PSFCU awards $300,000 in scholarships, its largest amount to date.
February 2007
CEO Alicja Malecka fired, the ouster blamed on continuing internal turmoil.
May 2007
PSFCU hires former branch manager Bogdan Chmielewski as president/CEO.
June 2007
PSFCU awards $300,000 in educational awards and scholarship. The amount joins the $100,000 the CU gave Columbia University to earlier help endow a chair in the Dept. of Polish Studies.
Sources: CUJ archives; NCUA archives; CUNA News Now archives; and others
