Feds Charge Former Iowa CU CEO With $1.5 Million Embezzlement
Lawyer representing Janine Keim says she plans to plead not guilty to the allegations.
A lawyer representing Janine Keim, former president/CEO of Consumers Credit Union, said she plans to plead not guilty to allegations that she embezzled nearly $1.5 million from the Denison, Iowa-based financial cooperative.
A federal grand jury in Sioux City issued an indictment Tuesday charging Keim with one felony count of embezzlement by a credit union employee and one felony count for making false statements to the NCUA.
“My client will be pleading not guilty in this matter,” Robert Tiefenthaler, a Sioux City attorney who is representing Keim, said.
She is expected to appear at a court hearing via a video conference on Dec. 16.
The indictment alleged Keim embezzled $1,486,647 from May 2012 to March 2018.
To conceal her alleged crime, the former CEO filed false NCUA Call Reports in 2016 and 2017. At the end of 2016, the credit union’s Call Report indicated it had $876,524 of cash on hand and $2,176,529 on deposit at other financial institutions. And at the end of the third quarter of 2017, CCU’s Call Report said it had $949,303 cash on hand and $1,880,154 in cash on deposit at other financial institutions.
The reported financial information was not true, federal prosecutors alleged.
“This was done to conceal monies or funds taken by defendant Keim and at least one other employee from NCUA auditors and examiners,” according to the indictment.
That other employee is Brenda Jensen who pleaded guilty on Oct. 20 to embezzling nearly $1.5 million from the $5.2 million CCU.
According to court documents filed in November, Jensen agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, but it has not yet been posted on the court’s docket. Federal prosecutors also filed an “offense conduct statement” regarding Jensen, a document that details her criminal actions. But that statement has been sealed by the court and is currently unavailable to the public.
At the end of the first quarter of 2018, CCU posted a net loss of $1,465,421, according to NCUA financial performance reports.
Because of the credit union’s poor financial condition, the independent federal agency approved CCU’s consolidation with the $1 billion Cobalt Credit Union in Papillion, Neb., during the second quarter of 2018.
Cobalt kept Consumers’ sole branch in Denison open.