NCUA Bans Former CEO for Making Unauthorized Personal Purchases
Kelly Givens racks up more than $12,000 in merchandise on the corporate credit card.
Kelly Marie Givens, former president/CEO of FedStar Federal Credit Union in Salem, Va., was banned from ever participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution for making unauthorized personal purchases paid by the credit union, the NCUA said Wednesday.
About 16 months after FedStar was merged during the second quarter of 2021 because of its poor financial condition, Givens was arraigned in a Roanoke federal courtroom on the felony charge of misapplication of credit union funds in November 2022. She pleaded guilty to that felony in January 2023.
Although Givens was scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, the disposition of her sentence has not been posted on the federal court’s docket as of 5:30 p.m. EST.
Between 2018 and 2020 she used the FedStar credit card and its Amazon business account for personal purchases totaling more than $12,000, prosecutors said.
Givens purchased running shoes, hiking shoes, a patio umbrella, a hair removal device, tickets for sporting events, photography services, a television and an iPod, and made other personal purchases, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Givens concealed her embezzlement by providing false information to FedStar’s board of directors and the NCUA.
The NCUA administrative order and court documents did not say whether Givens has agreed to or made restitution.
The NCUA approved the credit union’s merger with the $218 million InFirst Federal Credit Union in Alexandria, Va. FedStar had $23.7 million in assets and served more than 3,500 members who were government employees and their families.
At the end of 2020, FedStar posted an income loss of $2,203,602 and a net worth of 0.65%, according to NCUA financial performance reports. By the end of the first quarter in 2021, FedStar recorded an income loss of $16,482 and a net worth of 0.71%, NCUA financial performance reports showed.