Federal Judge Refuses to Dismiss Charges Against Former Melrose CU CEO Kaufman

A federal judge refused to dismiss criminal charges against former Melrose Credit Union CEO Alan Kaufman, rejecting arguments that allegations against him were legitimate business deals.

In a short ruling, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said he was rejecting the motion to dismiss charges against Kaufman and co-defendant Tony Georgiton for “substantially” the reasons the federal government made.

And he rejected Georgiton’s request to search the NCUA’s files for records of civil charges that had been filed against Kaufman. Federal prosecutors had said that the Justice Department and the NCUA conducted separate investigations, so there was no reason for such a search to be conducted.

Kaufman and Georgiton, a taxi medallion broker, were indicted in July.

Kaufman, whose family founded the credit union, was charged with accepting free housing and financing for the purchase of his personal residence from Georgiton, owner of a taxi medallion brokerage company, who also was indicted.

Kaufman also was charged with accepting gifts and trips from an unnamed media company in exchange for increased advertising with the media company.

Melrose, which made millions of dollars in loans to taxi drivers in New York City, was taken over by the NCUA last year. Many drivers who took out the loans could not repay them as the value of their taxi medallions plunged as a result of competition from ride-sharing companies.

The defendants’ attorneys argued that Kaufman and Georgiton simply were friends and business associates and that they had no criminal intent in conducting business.

Federal prosecutors responded that the indictments against the two men established that Kaufman accepted something of value from Georgiton and that he intended to be influenced in connection with credit union business.