NCUA Bans Two Former Credit Union Employees
Kyle Erisman and Patricia Martin link members’ accounts to pay off their credit card bills totaling $188,333.
The NCUA banned two former credit union employees on Friday who linked members’ accounts to pay their credit card bills.
Kyle Thomas Erisman, 26, was a former account processor for the $185 million True North Federal Credit Union in Juneau, Alaska, where he targeted member accounts with large balances and minimal or no activity. He then linked them to pay his credit card bills, according to federal court records.
From May 2017 to February 2018, he embezzled more than $106,000 from members’ accounts. Even though he was fired in July 2017 – after just three months on the job – for performance and substance abuse issues, Erisman managed to continue using members’ accounts to pay his credit cards, according to court documents.
Erisman also attempted to steal an additional $120,000 from True North, but federal prosecutors did not explain how he managed to keep stealing from the credit union for seven months after he was fired. Federal prosecutors said the credit card charges show Erisman was living beyond his means with travel, hotel rooms and other non-essential life expenses.
After he pleaded guilty to one felony count of embezzlement in September 2020, a federal court judge in Juneau sentenced the former credit union employee to 10 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $106,454. After his prison term, Erisman also must serve five years of supervised release.
A Florida state judge sentenced Patricia Pacumio Martin, 31, to two years in prison for stealing more than $81,000 from an 87-year-old member’s account while she worked at the $760 million McCoy Federal Credit Union in Orlando, Fla.
A police investigation determined that from August 2018 to September 2019, Martin linked the member’s account to pay off three credit card accounts and a lending club account. Police did not identify Martin’s title at the credit union.
In June 2020, Martin pleaded guilty to the first-degree felony charge of theft from a person 65 years or older, according to state court records.
After serving her prison sentence, Martin was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised probation. She also was ordered to pay restitution of $81,879, state court records showed.