A former office manager who embezzled nearly $180,000 from a New York credit union was sentenced last week to two and a half years in prison by a federal judge in Buffalo last week.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara also ordered Norma Gold, 57, of Eldred, Pa., to pay $179,939 in restitution.

Between December 2007 and December 2012, the former officer manager of the $778,129 Olean Tile Employees Federal Credit Union in Olean, N.Y., 

concealed her theft by altering the true balances of the credit union's accounts maintained by outside banks, which held the vast majority of the OTEFCU's funds.

What's more, Gold also attempted to hide her fraud by getting her son to impersonate an auditor who called and told NCUA examiners that he had performed an audit and verified the credit union's accounts, according to court documents. The NCUA determined that the auditor died several months earlier.

Gold was a 26-year employee of the credit union.

In December 2012, the NCUA determined OTEFCU was insolvent and closed it. The manufacturing plant, which housed the credit union's office, also ceased operations at that time.