Legal issues and news

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.

SEATTLE – A leader of a Canadian group that skimmed ATM cards at Vancouver–area Starbucks and Dirty Apron cafes, then created counterfeit cards used to withdraw as much as $400,000 from Seattle ATMs, was arrested here last week and charged with bank fraud.

PHILADELPHIA – A former director of Borinquen FCU was indicted today on charges he intentionally overdrafted his accounts by more than $500,000 to purchase local real estate, contributing to the 2011 failure of the $7 million community development credit union.

JACKSON, Mich. – A former branch manager at EECU, A Community Credit union, was sentenced this afternoon to a year in jail for withdrawing $194,000 in unauthorized funds from the accounts of six elderly members, but could serve as little as 90 days after she paid full restitution right before sentencing.

BOISE, Idaho – A Las Vegas man was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges of stealing three ATMs holding more than $56,000 from local college campuses, including two owned by Idaho State University FCU.

CLEVELAND – A federal judge this morning sentenced local financier A. Eddy Zai to seven years and three months in prison for his role in the massive loan fraud that caused the 2010 collapse of St. Paul Croatian FCU.

ANCHORAGE – Prominent real estate developer Lee Baker, Jr., known locally as “The Condo King,” was sentenced yesterday to three years behind bars for a lying to Denali Alaskan FCU to obtain as much as $9.4 million in member business loans to finance a condominium development.

LONDON – A group of Islamist hackers who launched distributed denial of service attacks against U.S. banks and credit unions over the past few weeks said it has suspended the DDoS campaign after YouTube agreed to pull an objectionable video.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A state appeals court Friday upheld a lower court ruling and cleared the way for NCUA to foreclose on home loans made by Michigan’s Huron River Area CU as part of the “Millionaire University” get-rich scheme.

PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. – A teller at Baker FCU pleaded guilty last week to theft and forgery charges for stealing almost $74,000 from elderly members.

CLEVELAND – A former county commissioner and business partner of local financier A. Eddy Zai was sentenced last week to five years of supervised release and one day in prison for his part in the huge fraud case that led to the 2010 collapse of St. Paul Croatian FCU.