Legal issues and news

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The president of Veterans Administration Hospital FCU was convicted yesterday of embezzling $62,500 from the tiny one-branch credit union inside the VA to pay herself an unauthorized raise and for unreimbursed health insurance.

NEW HAVEN, Conn – Two Romanian nationals who drained tens of thousands from bank and credit union accounts with a sophisticated phishing fraud were sentenced to federal prison terms this afternoon.

TULSA, Okla. – Five men, visible on video surveillance, stole a Tulsa FCU ATM in nearby Jenks and hauled it away on a utility trailer just after midnight last night.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Eight individuals were charged this morning in a scheme orchestrated by a state prison inmate with a federal income tax fraud that deposited U.S. Treasury checks in accounts at Redstone FCU and Regions Bank, then disbursed the proceeds to conspirators from the credit union account.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA reported it is investigating what it suspects was an elaborate fraud that led to December’s failure of G.I.C. FCU, a $16 million Euclid, Ohio, credit union and is projected to cost the National CU Share Insurance Fund more than $6 million in losses.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A federal court ordered Comcast to divulge the identities of certain Internet subscribers to AllSouth FCU in its bid to discover the perpetrators of an online phishing scam targeting its members.

LAS VEGAS – A member of Lockheed FCU (now Logix FCU) was sentenced yesterday to 98 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $4.9 million restitution for making false statements to obtain a $7.5 million member business loan that eventually went sour and siphoning more than $1.3 million of the proceeds for himself.

DENVER – A former assistant branch manager at Credit Union of the Rockies was sentenced yesterday to five years in a community corrections facility and ordered to pay $275,795 restitution for stealing from the credit union’s Black Hawk branch where she worked to help finance her gambling at local casinos.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The 67-year-old former manager at Adams Municipal Employees FCU was sentenced yesterday to a day in prison and six months home confinement for stealing $160,000 from the $1 million credit union located in City Hall.

LAYTON, Utah. – A member of America First CU was charged with theft after he transferred $25,000 from his account the credit union erroneously deposited in it.

DAYTON, Ohio – A federal judge yesterday dismissed a $10 million Privacy Act suit brought against Wright-Patt CU by a family who claimed the credit union illegally shared their account information with the FBI and local police investigating allegations of PIN or VIN flipping of heavy construction equipment rentals.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – AllSouth FCU, whose members have been solicited for their account numbers over the past few weeks, filed a civil suit against the unknown perpetrators in an unusual attempt to stem the expanding phishing attacks.

OKLAHOMA CITY – An automobile dealer was sentenced yesterday to 16 months in prison for bank fraud and ordered to pay Municipal Employees CU $200,800 restitution for a scheme in which he used the same cars on his lot to collateralize loans from the credit union and another lender.

HOUSTON – The former vice president of lending at Members Choice CU was charged yesterday with creating $340,000 of loans in unwitting members’ names that he used to pay his credit card bills, his taxes, and for home improvements, among other things.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – The former executive vice president of Chaffey FCU was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison for a fraud scheme that drained almost $1.1 million from the $100 million credit union.

PITTSBURGH -- A federal grand jury indicted recently ousted Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper this afternoon for conspiracy to take public money he allegedly laundered through the Greater Pittsburgh Police FCU.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – VyStar CU has launched a new service through Identity Theft 911 that will monitor social media sites for potential identity theft of youth.

SAN ANTONIO – A man in his 60’s was arrested yesterday and charged with draining more than $200,000 from the Air Force FCU account of an 88-year-old longtime friend.

CINCINNATI – The one-time head teller at Cinco CU was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison this morning for making off with some $610,000 in bundles of $100 bills over a nine-year period.

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Three Romanian men were arrested and three more are being sought in a debit-card skimming operation that siphoned funds from more than 400 credit union and bank accounts.