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A former finance director of a Washington, D.C. credit union is appealing his recent 44-month prison sentence for a $610,000 embezzlement scheme.
Salusthian Lutamile, who also served as acting CFO for the $732 million IDB Global Federal Credit Union, filed a notice of appeal document with the DC Court of Appeals last week. A federal judge sentenced Lutamile to three years and eight months in federal prison on Sept. 16. He also was ordered to pay restitution of $76,069 and serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.
Lutamile, 53, of Hyattsville, Md, was found guilty by a jury in May of 21 counts of bank fraud, theft by a credit union employee, wire fraud and money laundering.
In 2016, he was hired as a controller for the credit union, which serves employees of the Inter-American Development Bank, a cooperative development financial institution that supports economic and social development of its Latin American and Caribbean member nations. About 33% of IDB Global's 10,639 members live overseas and 67% reside in the U.S.
As the controller, he was one of the credit union's lead auditors and, as a certified fraud investigator, he also led its fraud investigations. Lutamile was promoted to director of finance in May 2017. After the resignation of the former CFO, Lutamila began serving as the acting CFO.
In August 2018, Lutamile found out he would not be promoted to the CFO position permanently.
From Nov. 14, 2018 through Jan. 22, 2019, Lutamile stole $610,000 via seven unauthorized transfer of funds into a dormant credit union account that was linked to his investment account to buy stocks of major corporations and to fund his personal retirement account. He also used the stolen money to pay off his car and a credit card.
In addition to a dormant account Lutamile knew would enable him to conceal his theft, the transfers he made to an account with a major investment firm "idiosyncratically" did not list the name of the owner of that account, which also helped him hide his crimes, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Lutamile's fraud was discovered only a few weeks before he was scheduled to resign in April 2019. IDB Global's new CFO Marianne Quinn uncovered the embezzlement through her hard work and a stroke of luck, as prosecutors described in court documents.
"Thankfully, because of the swift action by the credit union as testified to at trial, the credit union was able to recover all but $76,069 of the money he stole," prosecutors wrote. "That amount was then covered by their (credit union's) insurance policy with Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America."
Lutamile's defense attorney acknowledged in court documents that his client made "mistakes," but he maintains that the former finance director never intended to defraud the credit union, never intended to cheat the credit union and never intended to use that money for illegal activities.
Lutamile requested a sentence of 12 months and one day.
His attorney did not specify on what grounds he was basing the appeal.
A judge has not ruled yet on whether Lutamile will be allowed to remain free on bond pending his appeal.
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