NCUA Bans Former Employees of California and New York CUs

Former employees at a California credit union and two New York credit unions were banned from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution, the NCUA said Friday.

Esther A. Olson will begin her six-month sentence at a California minimum security prison in June after the former branch manager of the $4.6 Billion Educational Employees Credit Union pleaded guilty to stealing more than $60,000 from member accounts that she funneled to a man on TikTok.

She was sentenced earlier this month by U.S. District Court Judge Troy L. Nunley in Fresno, who also ordered Olson to pay $61,140 in restitution, according to federal court documents.

In a letter from Olson to Judge Nunley, Olson wrote that she met someone named Jay on TikTok who blinded her with his lies and deception. Jay told Olson that he loved her and became afraid he would abandon her if she did not keep giving him money to do his “TikTok battles.” TikTok users create short videos to compete in battles or challenges around specific themes such as comedy, lip-syncing, dance, fitness, cooking, DIY projects and pet challenges, to name a few. Viewers vote on their favorite videos to determine winners.

However, participation in TikTok battles may lead to monetization schemes, which led to Olson’s crime. In some TikTok battles, the creators ask their followers to send gifts or TikTok coins, which can be converted into cash. Olson was one of Jay’s followers.

In addition to the $61,000 she siphoned from the accounts of four EECU members from July 5 to Aug. 30, 2022, she depleted $90,000 from her 401k plan and funds from her credit union paychecks.

“Overall I gave Jay over $200,000,” Olson wrote in her letter. “I allowed myself to make a mistake that I will always regret and that I live with every single day. I made a bad choice to wrongly take money that did not belong to me, and I made illegal decisions and impacted all the victims. I pray and hope they can forgive me for what I did.”

The NCUA also banned Carlene Bartley, a former senior ETF representative at the $4.2 billion Municipal Credit Union in New York.

However, she was charged with second degree larceny on Sept. 19, 2023, about a week after Bartley was hired by MCU. The larceny charge indicated she allegedly stole more than $50,000 while she was an employee at Flushing Bank in New York, according to the Nassau County prosecutor’s office.

In February when Bartley pleaded guilty to the larceny charge, she was no longer employed at MCU. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 19 in Nassau County Court, court filings showed.

The federal agency also banned Sarah C. Conley, a former senior teller, who was convicted of stealing more than $55,000 from the $1.2 million Summit Federal Credit Union in Rochester, N.Y., in March 2022, according to the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office in Syracuse.

In November 2022, she was sentenced to five years of probation and was ordered to pay $55,685 in restitution.

Summit declined to comment when reached by CU Times on Friday.