NCUA Bans Seven Former Credit Union Employees

Seven former credit union employees, including a CEO, supervisors and a head teller, were banned from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution for various crimes and other alleged infractions, the NCUA said Friday.

In December, a federal judge sentenced former CEO Margurite Mary Cofell to eight years in prison for embezzling more than $2.5 million that led to the liquidation of the $51 million St. Francis Campus Credit Union in Little Falls, Minn. The 62-year-old Cofell was ordered to pay $2,513,360 in restitution. Because of the former executive’s fraud, the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund incurred losses of $13,702,772, according to court documents.

Susanna Guajardo, 43, a former vice president/supervisor of accounting and Grace Garza, 49, an ex-teller/vault supervisor at the $89 million Space City Credit Union were also sentenced in December for embezzling more than $1.1 million from the Houston-based credit union. Guajardo was sentenced to two years and nine months, while Garza was sentenced to one year and nine months. They were both ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution. They stole funds by depositing worthless checks from other banks. Guajardo concealed the theft by making false entries in the credit union’s books. Garza also stole more than $100,000 from the vault, according to court documents.

In connection with her former employer Citizens Community Credit Union in Devil’s Lake, N.D., Charity Hope Erickson was sentenced by a local court judge in March 2019 for misapplication of entrusted property. The NCUA documents did not report what the “entrusted property” or its value was, or what her specific sentence was. However, because of poor management, the conserved Citizens Community, which lost nearly $8 million in 2017, was approved to merge with North Dakota’s largest credit union, the $850 million First Community Credit Union in Jamestown. The NCUA placed the $184 million Citizens Community into conservatorship in June 2017 for unspecified safety and soundness issues.

Soraya Y. Cote, a former head teller for the $1.5 billon Hanscom Federal Credit Union in Littleton, Mass., allegedly “gained improper access to funds and took them for her own use,” according to NCUA documents. She also allegedly concealed the transactions. The independent federal agency’s papers did not report the amount of funds allegedly taken or how they were spent. Cote did not admit or deny these NCUA claims.

In August 2019, Tamara Ann Dangelo, a former employee for the $21 million Pinpoint Federal Credit Union, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property, which was not connected to her job at the Milton, Pa.-based credit union. She allegedly stole funds from a social club that supported a local fire company. She was sentenced to seven years of probation and ordered to pay more than $112,000 in restitution, according to court records.

Benedict Anthony III, a former employee of the $150 million Tucson Old Pueblo Credit Union, was sentenced to probation in May 2019 after pleading guilty to facilitation to commit theft in connection to the Tucson,-Ariz.-based cooperative.