Texas Federal Judge Sentences Former CU CEO for Fraud
Jimmy Dutchover will spend eight months in prison for funneling a $10,000 loan to a convicted political pal and failing to file a federal income tax return.
A Texas federal judge sentenced Jimmy Dutchover, former president/CEO of the $13.5 million Reeves County Teachers Credit Union in Pecos, to eight months in federal prison for using his executive position to funnel a $10,000 loan for a political pal and for failing to file a federal income tax return.
U.S District Court Judge David Counts in Pecos also ordered Dutchover on Monday to pay a $4,000 fine as well as taxes, penalties and interest to the IRS. That amount has yet to be determined. Following his prison term, the former CEO will be placed on three years of supervised release.
Dutchover failed to file a 2015 federal income tax return to report his income of $107,153 from RCTCU, $77,350 from his business and $9,197 from the state of Texas, prosecutors said.
He pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to defraud the credit union and one count for not filing an income tax return to the IRS.
In addition to his credit union position, Dutchover also was a Texas government employee who reportedly worked for longtime San Antonio lawmaker Carlos Uresti. In February, the ex-state senator was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to commit bribery in a public corruption case in Reeves County in West Texas.
He is serving this sentence concurrently with a 12-year prison term Uresti received in a fraud case last June that involved Four Winds Logistics, which turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors, according to local media reports. Uresti reportedly owned one percent of Four Winds and one of the victimized investors was Denise Cantu who lost $900,000.
During Dutchover’s sentencing hearing, federal prosecutors said the former credit union CEO conspired with Uresti to obtain the $10,000 from RCTCU by having the loan made in the name of a relative of Dutchover because Uresti was not a credit union member. Although Uresti received the $10,000, the funds were ultimately paid to Cantu, according to federal prosecutors.
Under Dutchover’s executive tenure, the IRS revoked the credit union’s federal tax-exempt status.
The federal agency automatically revokes the tax-exempt status of any non-profit organization, including state-chartered credit unions, that fails to file the required Form 990 — an annual financial return —- for three consecutive years. RCTCU’s tax-exempt status was revoked on May 15, 2015, according to the IRS.
CU Times found only one Form 990 the credit union filed for 2008, which shows Dutchover’s signature, according to the Foundation Center that publicly posts these documents.
The IRS revocation list, which is updated regularly, also posts the date that an organization’s tax exempt status has been reinstated. However, there is no such reinstatement date listed for RCTCU, according to the IRS.
RCTCU President/CEO Luz Elva Jaramillo did not return a CU Times request Tuesday for comment.
At least two other active credit unions, one in Connecticut and the other in California, also have had their tax exempt status revoked by the IRS. No reinstatement dates have been listed by the IRS.