The NCUA has received a green light from a federal court in West Virginia to pursue its cases against two former credit union employees whose bank fraud helped drive the N&W Poca Division Federal Credit Union to failure.

The case stems from the October 2008 failure of the Bluefield, W.Va., credit union that was eventually blamed on bank fraud committed by Pamela Mullins and Rebecca Poe from 2003 until 2008. 

Both women pleaded guilty to their parts in the fraud, though Poe has made a motion to have her conviction vacated.

According to an indictment against Poe, she and Mullins cooperated in a number of difference schemes to falsify deposits, loan payments and ACH withdrawals to steal money from the CU that they used to pay expenses for themselves and family members.

The total stolen, by the end, was more than $2.4 million, according to case documents.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia had stayed NCUA's civil case against the women on Dec. 1, 2010.  Their recent sentences cleared the way for the civil case to proceed.