Former Iowa CU Employee Sentenced to Three Years for $1.4 Million Embezzlement
Former board member says CCU had a good reputation for helping members when larger financial institutions would not.
A former employee was sentenced to three years in federal prison for embezzling more than $1.4 million that led to the poor financial condition of the $5.2 million Consumers Credit Union in Denison, Iowa, forcing its merger.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand in Sioux City on Friday also ordered Brenda Jensen to pay $1,469,470 in restitution and serve two years of supervised release following her prison term.
Since Jensen was charged with an embezzlement in October 2020, federal prosecutors have kept some of the court documents, including a government exhibit, under seal from public inspection. Additionally, the plea deal Jensen made with federal prosecutors has not been listed on the federal docket.
Federal prosecutors also did not file a memo in which they make sentencing recommendations to the judge; Jensen’s attorney also did not file a memo to explain her criminal conduct.
U.S. Attorney Richard C. Timmons for the Northern District of Iowa and Jensen’s attorney, John Keith Rigg, did not respond to CU Times‘ request for comment on Monday.
Three former CCU members, including Mark Gray, a former board member, filed victim impact statements before last week’s sentencing hearing.
Gray wrote that the credit union’s 1,818 members were victimized because had the funds not been embezzled, they could have been leveraged to continue to provide members with low-interest loans and higher dividends.
“The membership and community were also hurt in the fact that we lost a local financial institution that had a good reputation of helping member[s] that the larger national financial institution would not help,” Gray wrote. “Where do those members go now for financial assistance? Even though we helped those that other institutions refused to help, we had a very low delinquency with outstanding loans.”
Other CCU members wrote they were shocked and angered by the embezzlement.
“How could this happen in a small midwestern city?” former CCU member Myran Peters wrote. “Hopefully, this incident will be put to rest in a positive manner.”
Fourteen persons, including her husband and other relatives and friends, wrote “letters of support” for Jensen.
“My wife is a good, honest and caring person and anyone who knows her would agree,” Jensen’s husband, Curtis, wrote in a letter to the judge. “Other than letting herself get drug into this situation, she had never been in trouble with the law and had never gotten so much as a speeding ticket. She is a good person that made a bad mistake. She is embarrassed and remorseful for what took place and is willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. She is my rock and has always been there for me. I know she is a good person, and I will do whatever I can to help her out of this situation.”
In May, CCU’s former president/CEO, Janine Keim, pleaded guilty to making false statements in 2016 and 2017 NCUA Call Reports to conceal the embezzlement. An indictment alleged Keim and Jensen stole the CCU funds from May 2012 to March 2018.
Keim’s plea deal, including government exhibits, also are under seal and not open for public inspection.
As of Monday, Keim’s sentencing date has not been scheduled.
CCU was merged into the $1.1 billion Cobalt Credit Union in Papillion, Neb., during the second quarter of 2018. Cobalt kept CCU’s sole branch in Denison open.