30. Crooked Credit Union Adviser Gets 10 Years

To celebrate the opening of a new branch in May 2014, the $2 billion Apple Federal Credit Union in Fairfax, Va., produced life-size posters of its investment advisers, including Ismail Elmas, with a caption that read, “Advice you can trust.”

By July, however, the credit union removed Elmas'poster and fired him after an audit revealed his fraud scheme that bilked millions of dollars from 20 Apple FCU members.

On March 20, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony J. Trenga in Alexandria, Va., sentenced the 50-year-old Elmas to 10 and a half years in federal prison and two years of supervised release. Trenga also ordered Elmas to pay $2.97 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in October.

In addition to working as an investment advisor at Apple, Federal prosecutors also revealed Elmas worked as a financial adviser for the $443 million Naval Research Lab FCU in Alexandria and for Raymond James Financial Services, where he also carried out his scheme, according to federal prosecutors.

The story drew 2,665 readers.

29 – tie. Bank of America Pledges $10 Million to Credit Unions

Bank of America pledged $10 million to the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. NFCDCU CEO Cathie Mahon made the announcement at the CUNA Community Credit Union and The Federation 2015 Annual Conferences in Phoenix on Sept. 23.

The money will go to the National Federation's Community Development Investment Program, which provides capital resources to member CDCUs seeking funds to increase liquidity, boost net worth, mitigate risk and introduce innovative products. The CDI Program has invested more than $100 million in CDCUs since its inception in 1982, the National Federation said.

Credit unions were surprised to hear the news; it drew 2,697 readers.

29 – tie. 7-Eleven Boots Cardtronics

Cardtronics, the nation's single largest independent ATM deployer and part owner of the popular Allpoint fee-free ATM network, announced July 7 that 7-Eleven, its largest retail client, would no longer host its ATMs past mid-2017.

Cardtronics and its partially owned subsidiary, Allpoint, established partner agreements with CU24 as well as the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association, Maryland and DC Credit Union Association and Delaware Credit Union League, along with the New Jersey Credit Union League and Illinois Credit Union League, according to the network's website.

Seven Bank, the Japanese owner of 7-Eleven Inc.'s new ATM deployer – the Los Angeles-based Financial Consulting and Trade International – reported in a release that FCTI would take over 7-Eleven, Inc.'s ATM business because both FCTI and 7-Eleven, Inc. are owned by the same Japanese firm. The existing agreement between Cardtronics and 7-Eleven remains in effect until mid-2017.

The following day, CO-OP Financial Services told member credit unions that 7-Eleven Inc.'s decision to no longer host Cardtronic's ATMs past July 2017 would affect its current arrangement with 7-Eleven Inc. to provide surcharge-free ATM locations.

“It is CO-OP's intention to establish a formal relationship with the new 7-Eleven ATM processor as soon as possible to begin the planning process to provide credit union members uninterrupted access to ATMs in these locations,” the payments CUSO wrote to client credit unions in an email dated July 8. “CO-OP will also work to continue deposit taking and shared branch access.”

When news that credit union members could lose surcharge-free access to 7-Eleven ATMs broke, 2,697 people read the story.

28. NCUA Eliminating FTE Positions in 2016 Budget

NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said during the agency's Oct. 30 Open Forum the agency would eliminate some full time staff positions in the 2016 operating budget. However, Matz also said she expected the agency's overall operating budget to increase even if the agency cuts positions, because it will have to make capital expenditures to update systems.

Matz said the agency began to update its systems five years ago, but then the downturn hit and the work had been postponed. She pointed specifically to the agency's Automated Integrated Regulatory Examination System as one that needed updating.

She was true to her word. The NCUA board on Nov. 19 approved a 2016 operating budget that included a 1.7% reduction in full-time equivalents. The 26 FTEs were all field staff positions, and reduced through attrition, will save the NCUA $4.3 million in pay, benefits and travel, Matz said.

The reduction was primarily a direct result of the NCUA modifying its state examination program to align with National Supervision Policy Manual requirements. The result will be fewer NCUA examiners in state-chartered credit unions, the regulator said.

When the FTE reduction was announced, 2,722 readers clicked on the story published on cutimes.com.

27. Credit Unions Score 11% Mortgage Market Share

Credit unions captured a record 11% of U.S. mortgage originations in the first three months of 2015, according to a report from the consumer data firm TransUnion. That represented a four percentage point increase from credit unions' previous first quarter record mortgage share of 7% in 2013, according to TransUnion.

The Chicago-based company revealed the data at its annual credit union seminar in Las Vegas on Aug. 11.

TransUnion Director of Research and Consulting for Financial Services Nidhi Verma said the firm's research revealed two important points relating to credit union mortgage data. First, credit unions saw a smaller percentage drop in mortgage lending than other lenders did when mortgage refinancing slowed, and second, credit unions rebounded more vigorously when purchase money lending picked up.

Credit unions were excited to learn the news; 2,730 of them read this story.

26. Credit Union Manager Swipes $1.9 Million From Vault

Kathryn Sue Simmerman, the former manager of the $16.3 million Shoreline FCU, admitted July 29 in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich., that she stole nearly $2 million over 13 years by taking cash from the vault and concealing it in her purse. Starting on Oct. 1, 2001, she began taking cash from the credit union's vault and then deposited some of the funds in Shoreline accounts she controlled. She spent the rest of the stolen money.

In a plea deal, Simmerman agreed to plead guilty to embezzlement and structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements. This story drew 2,762 readers.

25. Marine Charged With Fraud at Navy Federal

A former U.S. Marine was accused of allegedly stealing $138,798 from Navy Federal Credit Union accounts that belonged to his fellow Marines. An Illinois grand jury in Chicago handed down a 10-count indictment July 16 against Leonard E. Parker Jr. of Calmut City, Ill. He was charged with five counts of bank fraud, four counts of fraudulent claims and one count of fraud with identification documents.

Dontreal S. Evans also was charged with three counts of bank fraud.

When stationed with the Combat Logistics Reginment-3 in Okinawa, Japan, in 2012, Parker worked as an assistant to the company clerk in his unit. That position gave him access to a 162-person roster, which listed personal information belonging to Marines, including Social Security numbers and DOBs, according to a federal investigator's affidavit.

Parker later told a Marine friend of his that the information he had access to was “gold,” and that he was learning how to be an identity thief and transfer money from accounts.

The story attracted 2,778 readers.

24. Predatory Lender Met Compliance Standards: ICUL

Sean Hession, president/CEO of the Illinois Credit Union League, said Feb. 11 the organization did not realize Continental Finance Co. LLC., a credit card issuer partner, was engaged in illegal practices that led to the issuance of a hefty CFPB fine.

According to a consent order published Feb. 4, Continental Finance lied to consumers about the card fees and whether security deposits made for some of the cards carried FDIC insurance. The company also violated the Truth in Lending Act by requiring consumers to pay more than 25% in fees during the account's first year. As a result, the CFPB fined Continental Finance $250,000 and demanded it repay cardholders $2.67 million for its practices.

Hession defended the league's decision to launch the card with Continental Finance, saying it was a genuine attempt to help the underserved and underbanked consumers in Illinois escape financially predatory institutions. More than 2,800 credit union professionals read the story.

23. Taupa Lithuanian Felon Forfeits $1M Lotto Ticket

An Ohio business owner who won $1 million after buying lottery tickets with money he stole from the Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Cleveland Monday to more than three years in federal prison.

U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin also ordered John Struna to pay restitution of $2.3 million, which he embezzled from the failed Cleveland cooperative from 2002 to 2013. The former restaurant owner of Concord Township pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, making false statements and money laundering.

The story drew 2,818 readers.

22. Credit Union Employees Plead Guilty to Theft

A former credit union CEO in Ohio and a former teller in Michigan pleaded guilty to charges that they stole tens of thousands of dollars from their credit unions.

Jane Ann Dearth, 42, the former president/CEO of the $53 million Riverview Credit Union in Belpre, Ohio, pleaded guilty Jan. 23 in Washington County Common Pleas Court to a felony theft charge, according to The Marietta Times. From April 2011 to March 2014, Dearth wrote herself unauthorized mileage checks, submitted reimbursement requests for personal expenses, made unauthorized charges to her credit union credit card and unauthorized payments to her husband, the newspaper reported.

Alysia M. Wright, 35, a former teller for the $101 million Copoco Community Credit Union in Bay City, Mich., pleaded no contest to embezzling $91,346 Jan. 22, according to Bay County Circuit Court records.

Copoco Community President/CEO Linda L. Doan said the theft was detected in May 2014 during an audit conducted by EVP Cheryl Dietzel.

Doan confirmed local media reports that Wright carried out her theft by taking money from her cash drawer. To make it look like her money drawer was balanced, she wrote checks for the amount stolen and filed them as hold-over checks. Using checks she stole from relatives, Wright started this scheme in 2012.

More than 2,880 CU Times readers read this story.

21. Former Credit Union CEO Faces Prison Time

Wendy Wall, the former president/CEO of the defunct Pepsi Cola Federal Credit Union in Buena Park, Calif., was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison Jan. 23 after she pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud.

U.S. District Court Judge James S. Selna in Santa Ana, Calif., also ordered Wall to pay $480,273 in restitution to the NCUA. Her sentence included four years of supervised released after prison.

For more than 10 years, Wall embezzled credit union funds by opening a nominee account at Pepsi Cola that was not affiliated with a member, according to court records. She then created fictitious loans on the nominee account, drew money from these loans and transferred the funds into accounts at the cooperative in her name or her husband's names.

The story drew 2,906 readers.

20. Self-Help Credit Unions Leave CUNA

In April, the $674 million Self-Help Credit Union notified the Carolinas Credit Union League it was disaffiliating from the league and leaving CUNA. Additionally, the $593 million Self-Help Federal Credit Union said it would also cancel an associational membership with the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues and would also disaffiliate from CUNA, according to Self-Help President Randy Chambers.

Chambers cited CUNA's national policy positions as the reason.

“The bankruptcy reform effort that culminated in the bankruptcy bill in 2005,” Chambers said. “CUNA backed a bill that resulted in families having a harder time getting back on their feet after a bankruptcy and that was not our position.”

He also pointed to another bankruptcy related fight, CUNA's opposition to a 2009 proposal that would have allowed judicial modifications of mortgage principals when millions of American families faced losing their homes to foreclosure.

Finally, the association's current, ongoing, opposition to the CFPB also ran counter to Self-Help's positions.

“We all have to live within regulations and deal with their impacts, Self-Help included, and we definitely see the benefit of working with the agency to improve regulations, but the position that Congress should have the ability to approve CFPB's budget instead of it being an independent financial regulator like other financial regulatory agencies, that's not our position,” he said.

The story was read by 3,091 CU Times readers.

19. Montauk Credit Union Conserved

On Sept. 18, the New York State Department of Financial Services took possession of the $178 million Montauk Credit Union in New York City and appointed the NCUA as conservator. Montauk, one of the four New York cooperatives that serves the taxi medallion industry, posted a net income loss of $2 million at the end of the second quarter of 2015, according to NCUA financial performance reports. When news of the conservatorship broke, 3,139 readers visited CU Times.

In October, CU Times revealed as of June 30, 2015, four New York credit unions – Montauk, the $271 million LOMTO FCU, the $2.1 billion Melrose Credit Union and the $692 million Progressive Credit Union – collectively sold 1,442 member business loans totaling more than $814.5 million, according to the NCUA.

The NCUA's records did not reveal how many of the loan participations were for taxi medallion loans. However, the agency said a substantial portion of Montauk's 136 participated business loans, worth $90.5 million, involved taxi medallions.

18. Credit Union CEO Sweeps Janitors' Crimes

Karen Janoski, president/CEO of the $62 million Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union, suspected that janitors were doing more than cleaning the cooperative one recent morning.

It's a good thing she listened to her instincts.

A police investigation found that custodians Bonnie Hendzel and Mary Tumminello of Stowe, Pa., allegedly stole several items such as soft drinks, office supplies and promotional clothing. Moreover, they also took signature cards and files that contained the personal information, including names, date of births, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers, of 32 credit union members, including police officers.

Credit unions were stunned to realize their cleaning services put them at risk for data fraud, and 3,195 of them read the story.

17. Chick-fil-A Confirms Breach Investigation

Apparently many CU Times readers – and/or their members – used their debit cards at Chick-fil-A during last year's holiday break. When cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs broke the news on Jan. 1, nearly 3,300 readers wanted the details.

16. Scam Threatens 800 Million Apple Accounts

In November, a global phishing scam targeted hundreds of millions of Apple accounts. The email looked like an official Apple email and included the Apple logo and headquarters address in Culpertino, Calif. This story drew 3,372 readers.

To read the Top 15 stories of 2015, click here.