Texas Grand Jury Indicts Former VP of Lending
Prosecutors allege the credit union executive and five others ran a $2.2 million auto fraud loan scheme.
More than five years after a Texas credit union was involuntarily liquidated, federal prosecutors are alleging that the former vice president of lending and five other persons ran a $2.2 million auto fraud loan scheme.
A federal grand jury in McAllen, Texas returned a superseding indictment on Oct. 22 charging Soundra Lopez, 52, of Weslaco, with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. She was the vice president of lending and branch manager for the $47 million County & Municipal Employees Credit Union in Edinburg, which was involuntarily liquidated by the Texas Department of Credit Unions in October 2014.
NCUA financial performance reports show that the credit union posted a net income loss of more than $3.3 million at the end of 2014’s third quarter. CMECU was assumed by the $3.1 billion Navy Army Community Credit Union in Corpus Christi.
Just months after CMECU’s liquidation, Lopez filed a civil lawsuit against the NCUA for unpaid overtime wages. An undisclosed settlement was reached in that case two years ago. In January 2019, the independent federal agency banned Lopez from participating in the affairs of any federally insured credit union for her alleged fraud.
According to the indictment and FBI investigators, Lopez allegedly conspired with others to submit and process loan applications that contained fake financial numbers regarding a borrower’s monthly income. Knowing this, she allegedly approved more than 100 loans.
The fraudulent loans, processed from April 2011 to January 2014, amounted to $2,286,720.
Jorge Garza, 46, of San Antonio and Samuel Sanchez, 55, of McAllen, were also indicted on conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The indictment alleged Sanchez charged borrowers fees to change their pay stubs and income statements to inflate their income so that their auto loans would be approved. However, it was Garza who allegedly altered the borrowers’ pay stubs and income statements and then charged Sanchez a fee for doing so.
Sanchez then provided these bogus documents to Lopez, who charged Sanchez a fee to approve the fraudulent loans applications, the indictment shows.
In June, three car dealership employees were indicted for their alleged involvement in this car loan fraud scheme.
Ronnie Joe Gomez, 44, of Pharr; David Salinas, 45, of McAllen; and Jorge Villanueva, 51 of San Antonio, have been charged with wire fraud. Via emails they allegedly submitted to the credit union, Ally Financial and Ford Credit Financing falsified proof of their customers’ income to purchase the vehicles.
All of these cases are pending in U.S. District Court in McAllen.