Former Credit Union CEO Avoids Prison for Theft
Ex-vice president of accounting faces sentencing for $1.1 million embezzlement.
A former president/CEO avoided prison for her $43,000 theft over nine years at a Kansas credit union, while a former vice president of accounting at a Texas credit union will be sentenced in September for a $1.1 million embezzlement.
Although federal prosecutors were seeking a four-month prison term for Connie Marie Kent, who stole $43,544 from the formerly-named Topeka Post Office Credit Union, U.S. District Court Holly L. Teeter sentenced the 52-year-old former CEO to “time served,” and three years of supervised release on Tuesday.
While this case did not involve a large sum of money, it was a protracted crime that involved thefts against members over which Kent had a fiduciary duty to fulfill particularly for vulnerable victims, including a member who was deployed overseas defending the United States, prosecutors argued in court documents.
Federal judges are not obligated to follow prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations.
Court documents do not reveal how the embezzlement was detected or how Kent concealed her theft for nearly a decade.
Judge Teeter ordered Kent to pay restitution of $18,225 to the $8.9 million 1st Kansas Credit Union in Topeka and $25,329 to CUNA Mutual Group.
In Texas, Susanna Guajardo, 42, of Pearland, admitted she stole money over seven years from the $86.2 million Space City Credit Union in Houston by depositing worthless checks from other banks into her account and into the accounts of her family members.
The former vice president of accounting then purposely neglected to deduct the amount of the bounced checks when returned to the credit union for non-sufficient funds, federal prosecutors said.
Although the NSF checks posted on SCCU’s corporate account, Guajardo, who was responsible for reconciling it, made false entries in the credit union’s books making it appear that the general ledger was in balance when in fact it was not, according to court documents.
Guajardo pleaded guilty to one felony count of embezzlement last week in U.S. District Court in Houston.
Grace Garza, a former teller and vault supervisor at SCCU, will also be sentenced in September for her involvement in the fraud with Guajardo. Garza also pleaded guilty to one felony count of embezzlement earlier this year.