Former Manager & Head Teller Sentenced

Each is ordered to pay $321,497 in restitution, nearly 78% of the credit union’s assets.

Prison sentence handed down for former CU head teller.

A Cleveland federal judge who sentenced a former manager and head teller Tuesday also ordered them to each pay $321,497 in restitution, an amount that represented nearly 78% of the credit union’s assets that was liquidated because of their embezzlement.

U.S. District Court Judge John R. Adams sentenced Gwendolyn Dubose, the former manager and treasurer of $412,775 Greater Abyssinia Federal Credit Union in Cleveland, to five years and three months in federal prison. Head teller Kolade Awoyade was sentenced to five years and eight months, according to court documents. They were also sentenced to four years of supervised release following their prison sentence.

In June, Dubose pleaded guilty to making false entries in credit union records and reports, embezzlement, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and Awoyade pleaded guilty to embezzlement, bank fraud and aggravated identify theft.

Dubose’s plea agreement was not open to public inspection on the federal docket, which is unusual. Federal prosecutors did not respond to a CUTimes message for comment. There was no plea agreement posted on the federal docket for Awoyade.

From 2012 to November 2015, Dubose and Awoyade made fraudulent deposits and transfers from nine member share accounts into local bank accounts they controlled. They also made unauthorized debits from their own personal use from GAFCU’s accounts at other local banks. Dubose falsified NCUA quarterly Call Reports, posted bogus payments on loan accounts and recorded fake deposits on share accounts.

In 2012, the Cleveland credit union posted $714,939 in assets and $201,979 in equity. By September 2015, GAFCU’s assets plunged to $412,775 and just $50,019 in equity, according to NCUA financial performance reports.

In 2013, an accounting firm that conducted an audit of GAFCU’s books could not issue a professional opinion about the financial condition of the credit union because its accounts were irreconcilable, according to court documents. That audit was followed by an NCUA letter of understanding, which mandated GAFCU consolidate with another credit union.

During the due diligence process in November 2015 by GAFCU’s then merger partner, the $13.2 million Faith Community United Credit Union in Cleveland identified numerous unaccounted transactions that revealed an overstatement of GAFCU’s assets of $191,000.

Dubose and Awoyade were placed on administrative leave, and the Cleveland credit union was liquidated by the NCUA in December.