The former manager, treasurer and sole employee of Seward, Neb.'s H.B.E. Credit Union, which has been closed for nearly a year, will spend close to four years in jail for stealing a total of $635,998.56 from the credit union, authorities said.
Crystal Lankford was sentenced Monday to 45 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release, according to the FBI office in Omaha, Neb.
Lankford was also ordered to make restitution for the entire stolen amount. She pled guilty to the crime of embezzlement from a federally insured credit union back in September, the FBI said.
The FBI said between April 2006 and September 2011, Lankford wrote unauthorized checks to herself and her husband, Steve Lankford, from H.B.E. CU's operating account at Union Bank and Trust, then deposited the money into her own checking account.
In October 2011, knowing that H.B.E. CU had a next to nothing balance, she abandoned her position at the credit union, the FBI said.
According to NCUA, H.B.E. CU merged with NCUA assistance on Feb. 26, 2012.
Lankford's is the latest in a string of embezzlement cases at credit unions over the past six months.
These include a $3.4 million embezzlement at the NCUA-seized Women's Southwest Federal Credit Union, a theft of $2.1 million at United Catholic Credit Union, an $800,000 embezzlement at Enterprise Credit Union and a case involving tax fraud, embezzlement and money laundering at Borinquen Federal Credit Union.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
