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An ex-controller for Michigan's fourth largest credit union and a former Virginia credit union head teller were permanently banned from participating in any federally insured depository institution, the NCUA announced Tuesday.
Robert P. Shorkey, 49, pleaded guilty to one felony count of bank fraud in December 2021, in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
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Prosecutors said in court documents that Shorkey embezzled $135,250 from the $6 billion DFCU Financial Credit Union from February 2015 to October 2020 because he wanted to maintain his middle-class lifestyle. While he was stealing from the Detroit-based credit union, he received an annual compensation of $120,000, court records showed. He worked at DFCU for 18 years.
Although prosecutors asked a federal judge to impose a prison sentence of 15 months to 21 months, he received a six-month prison sentence in March 2022. He was released in October, according to the Bureau of Federal Prisons.
Over five years, Shorkey made 198 cash withdrawals from DFCU's general ledger account. Each cash withdrawal occurred at a DFCU branch. He directed tellers to categorize the withdrawals as marketing costs and spent the funds. To conceal his fraud, he later recharacterized the transactions on accounting records as adjustments, prosecutors said. Shorkey was fired after DFCU uncovered his theft.
His sentence also included 18 months of supervised release and to pay $135,250 in restitution.
Jorge Omar Navarro, a former head teller for the $227 million URW Community Federal Credit Union in Danville, Va., was sentenced to 12 years and three months in prison last September. He is currently being held at a federal transfer center in Oklahoma City, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, until he is assigned to a federal prison.
In 2018, Navarro embezzled more than $628,000 from the credit union and concealed his crime by using Hollywood prop money. During an investigation, police found more than 50 stacks of $100 phony bills at the branches. The fake dollars were concealed by genuine $100 bills placed at the top and bottom of each stack.
Navarro became a fugitive on Sept. 10, 2018, after he sent a rambling 690-word text message to URW Community President/CEO Cheryl Doss, apologizing for his crime. He worked at the credit union for 10 years.
On March 31, 2021, the former head teller was captured and arrested after Durham, N.C., police officers responded to a disturbance of gunshots at Navarro's apartment. Police found more than 4,000 grams of cocaine, 1,263 grams of marijuana, guns, a ballistic vest, thousands of dollars in cash, two electronic money counters and multiple identification cards with Navarro's picture and several variations of his name and dates of birth.
In December 2021, Navarro pleaded guilty to embezzlement and uttering counterfeit obligations, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to court records.
He was ordered to pay $626,600 in restitution.
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
