Former CU Lending Executive Pleads Guilty in $2.2 Million Fraud Case
Soundra Lopez, who approved more than 100 phony loans, is set to be sentenced in April.
Nearly three weeks before jury members were to be selected for a $2.2 million auto loan fraud trial involving former credit union executive Soundra Lopez, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of bank fraud in a McAllen, Texas federal courtroom last Friday.
Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 17, according to court records.
She was the vice president of lending and branch manager for the $47 million County & Municipal Employees Credit Union (CMECU) in Edinburg, which was involuntarily liquidated by the Texas Department of Credit Unions in October 2014. By the end of 2019, federal prosecutors alleged that Lopez and five other persons ran a $2.2 million auto fraud loan scheme.
NCUA financial performance reports showed that the credit union posted a net income loss of more than $3.3 million at the end of 2014’s third quarter. CMECU was assumed by the $4.2 billion Rally Credit Union in Corpus Christi, formerly Navy Army Community Credit Union.
Just months after CMECU’s liquidation, Lopez filed a civil lawsuit against the NCUA for unpaid overtime wages. Although the NCUA denied her claims, an undisclosed settlement was reached in that case in December 2017, according to federal court filings.
By January 2019, the independent federal agency banned Lopez from participating in the affairs of any federally insured credit union for her alleged fraud.
According to the indictment and FBI investigators, Lopez conspired with two other men and three car dealership employees to submit and process loan applications that contained fake financial numbers, including altered pay stubs and income statements, regarding a borrower’s monthly income. Knowing this, she approved more than 100 loans, according to an FBI criminal complaint.
The fake loans, processed from April 2011 to January 2014, amounted to $2,286,720, the indictment showed.
Although court filings showed Lopez agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, that document was not posted on the public federal docket. Federal prosecutors did not respond to CU Times’ request for a copy of the plea agreement.