SAN ANTONIO The former president and chief loan officer at Southside CU last week pleaded guilty in a case involving loan irregularities he tried to hide.
Royce Stockton admitted in a plea agreement to falsifying the credit union’s books to hide irregularities in a member’s line of credit. The member, an Edinburg car dealer, received about $1.4 million beyond the tiny credit union's lending limits to any one member the plea agreement states.
Southside financed the dealer’s inventory. Stockton allowed the car dealer to receive immediate credit for drafts it presented after a vehicle sale. Southside credited the dealer and then forwarded the drafts to the car buyers’ financial institutions for payment.
In early 2011, though, drafts worth about $400,000 were returned to Southside as unpaid.
Stockton never reported the issues and tried to “get it collected,” his plea agreement states.
He was terminated in September 2011 for withholding information from Southside’s board, the document added. It later was discovered that numerous vehicles purportedly collateralizing the dealer's line of credit were missing.
Stockton is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 23.
