CU Accountant Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
Melisa A. Beyer is sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution.
When authorities were trying to find out why so much money was missing from a credit union vault, investigators learned several employees recalled seeing large amounts of bundled cash in the purse of an accountant.
Apparently, no one said anything about it and for seven years, Melisa A. Beyer stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the vault at the $28.2 million Oshkosh Central Credit Union in Wisconsin.
Beyer was sentenced last week to three years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge William C. Griesbach in Green Bay ordered the former credit union employee to pay $800,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release.
Concerns about the financial viability of OCCU and the revelation that large amounts of money was missing from its vault, Wisconsin regulators approved the merger of the Oshkosh-based credit union with the $2.8 billion Community One Credit Union in Neenah, Wis. in July 2014. A few months earlier, the Wisconsin’s Department of Financial Institutions launched its investigation, which led to the termination of the credit union’s longtime president/CEO Mark Patchak and Beyer. Patchak has not been charged with any crime.
According to court documents, OCCU protocol required Beyer and a witness to count the vault’s cash on a weekly basis and prepare a written report of their findings. Protocol also prohibited tellers from accessing the vault alone. These requirements were not enforced. Beyer often counted the vault cash alone. Several tellers also regularly entered the vault alone.
Investigators also noted in court documents that employees notices that Beyer spent money on entertainment, including gambling on a regular basis, which appeared to exceed her income.
An audit of Beyer’s OCCU statements revealed that between January 2007 and April 2014, unexplained deposits of more than $250,000 were recorded. Many of these were cash deposits that ranged from $100 to $1,500, investigators said in court documents.
Beyer was not indicted for embezzlement until February 2017.
The NCUA banned Beyer from participating in the affairs of any federally insured credit union in September 2016.