Former California Credit Union Accounting Manager Charged With Fraud

Stephanie Simontacchi, a former accounting manager for a California credit union and a former assistant controller for a local hotel, pleaded not guilty to bank fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion charges during a U.S. District Court hearing in San Franciso on Tuesday.

Simontacchi, 48, of Petaluma, allegedly embezzled more than $437,000 from the $6.6 billion Redwood Credit Union starting in April 2016 through April 2019, according to federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of California.

“The activity resulting in the indictment was discovered in 2019 through our own internal review and promptly reported to law enforcement. No losses were incurred by any RCU members as a result of the fraudulent activity,” Ron Felder, chief financial and risk officer for RCU, said. “We have further strengthened our systems and processes to prevent future incidents of this nature. RCU has cooperated fully in the investigation since its inception and deeply appreciates the diligent efforts of law enforcement authorities in bringing this matter to justice. Safeguarding our members’ accounts and the financial integrity of RCU will always be our top priorities.”

Before joining the Santa Rosa-based credit union, Simontacchi worked as a bookkeeper and assistant controller with Cavallo Point Lodge, a hotel near Sausalito, Calif., from December 2009 through April 2016 when she also allegedly embezzled $384,363.

An indictment returned by a federal grand jury last week charged Simontacchi with eight felony counts of embezzlement of credit union funds, seven felony counts for bank fraud and four felony counts of tax evasion for failing to pay income taxes on her ill-gotten gains.

At RCU, Simontacchi’s responsibilities included processing voided official checks (also known as cashier’s checks) and communicating with the credit union’s official check vendor regarding issues pertaining to the funding and voiding of these checks. She also had access to checks intended for and made payable to RCU that were sent to the accounting department for processing, including reimbursement checks from the official check vendor and reimbursement checks from the United States Treasury Department and the State of California.

The indictment alleged that Simontacchi embezzled some of these checks, as well as official checks that had been returned to RCU by members and were supposed to have been voided. Instead, the former credit union employee deposited these checks into her personal bank accounts. Court documents showed Simontacchi held 12 different accounts at big banks and one account at RCU, which included a checking and HELOC account.

At the Cavallo Point Lodge, Simontacchi had access to her employer’s accounting records and accounting systems and had signatory authority over bank accounts that allowed her to create and sign checks from the hotel’s bank accounts to pay the company’s bills.

The indictment alleged that Simontacchi embezzled funds from her employer by stealing accounts receivable checks that had been sent to Cavallo Point Lodge from third parties and deposited those checks into her personal bank accounts. She also allegedly embezzled accounts payable checks that were drawn from Cavallo Point Lodge’s bank accounts and made payable to third-party vendors. Instead of sending these checks to the third parties, Simontacchi allegedly deposited them in her own bank accounts, according to federal prosecutors.

She used the embezzled funds for personal expenses, including payments on her HELOC, court documents showed.

Following her court arraignment, Simontacchi was released on a $200,000 bond.

Simontacchi’s attorney did not respond to CU Times‘ request for comment.