NCUA Bans Three Former Credit Union Employees

Three former credit union employees were banned from ever participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution, the NCUA said Friday.

Indira Mohabir, former business loan processor, was sentenced to 18 months of home confinement by a California federal judge in January for opening nearly $3 million in lines of credit for her boyfriend. The scheme caused more than $1 million in losses at the then Western Federal Credit Union, now the $4 billion Unify Financial Credit Union based in Allen, Texas, which operates 13 branches in California.

Federal prosecutors sought a prison sentence of 57 months in prison because Mohabir refused to accept responsibility for her large fraud scheme or even acknowledge she did anything wrong. In fact, after she was fired from Unify Financial, she went to work at another bank before she was charged. She again tried to abuse her inside position to open more credit lines for Cook, according to court documents.

Through a dedicated hotline for business members, Mohabir met her boyfriend, Phillip Cook, and they quickly became involved in a romantic relationship. During their romantic discussions, interwoven with talk about how to open credit lines, Mohabir agreed to use her position to help Cook open these credit lines, prosecutors said. Last January, Cook was sentenced to six months in federal prison and 12 months of home confinement.

A hearing is scheduled in May to determine the final amount of restitution that is owed to the credit union.

Mark Colley, former president/CEO for the $32 million First Oklahoma Federal Credit Union in Tulsa, allegedly advanced due dates on multiple loans on multiple occasions to extend the time that borrowers had to make loan payments. The federal agency also alleged that Colley advanced funds from closed end loans and transferred those funds to member accounts to make payments on those same loans or other loans.

However, the NCUA did not report how many loans were involved or their monetary value, how many payment extensions were made or whether the credit union lost any money.

Colley also allegedly filed reports to the credit union’s board of directors and the NCUA that understated loan delinquency figures, which harmed the credit union and benefited Colley. The NCUA does not report in what way the former CEO benefited from what it called his personal honesty and his unfitness to serve at any insured credit union.

Colley left the credit union sometime after September 2019. He was listed as the CEO in the NCUA’s profile reports for the third quarter in 2019. He was not listed as the CEO in NCUA’s profile report for the fourth quarter of 2019.

At the end of 2019, First Oklahoma FCU posted a loss of $128,151, and at the end of 2020, it posted a loss of $305,623, according to NCUA financial performance reports. At the end of 2021, the credit union recorded a gain of $639,396.

Colley did not admit or deny any wrongdoing, the consent order shows.

Barbara Diane Nelson, a former accounting supervisor embezzled funds from the $228 million Gerber Federal Credit Union in Fremont, Mich., the NCUA said. The crime occurred between November 2011 to February 2019.

Although the federal agency reported she was sentenced in December after pleading guilty in a state court to embezzlement and using computers to commit a crime, the NCUA did not report how much she embezzled, whether she served any jail time, or whether she paid restitution.

However, according to Nelson’s attorney, Lance C. Hendrickson in Whitehall, Mich., his client embezzled $25,035, which she repaid before sentencing.

Nelson served 108 days of her 150-day jail sentence, and received early release because of the pandemic, Hendrickson said.

Nelson is now on 60-month probation.