NCUA Bans a Former CEO, Branch Manager, Two Member Service Reps
The four former employees stole altogether more than $787,000.
A former CEO, a branch manager, and two member service representatives were banned from ever working at a federally insured financial institution, the NCUA said Friday.
Ventura County Court Judge David Hirch sentenced Tina Louis Torres, 55, of Santa Paula, Calif., in April to a year in jail for embezzling $355,522 from the $5 million Valley Agricultural Federal Credit Union in Santa Paula when she was its CEO.
From 2016 to 2019, Torres embezzled the credit union’s funds and forged documents to conceal the theft from the board of directors. She also served as the board’s treasurer, according to the credit union’s profile reports filed with the NCUA.
Between January 2021 and January 2024, Eric Stash, who was a branch manager at the $27.6 million San Juan Credit Union in Blanding, Utah, allegedly stole $294,595 from the branch vault, according to NCUA’s findings. He allegedly concealed his theft by taking cash that was delivered to the branch from a courier service and altered internal credit union records to make it appear as if the cash was in the vault, the NCUA said in its prohibition order.
After San Juan CU began investigating discrepancies of the amounts of cash in the branch vault in January, Stash allegedly admitted to the theft, signed a written confession and resigned, according to the NCUA’s prohibition order.
The federal agency did not say whether Stash agreed to make restitution to the credit union or whether his theft was reported to police.
On June 24, 2019, while working a member services representative at the $826 million AltaOne Federal Credit Union in Ridgecrest, Calif., Britnee Maree Starling was approved for a VISA credit card with a cash advance limit of $1,000.
She later allegedly accessed AFCU’s internal systems and increased the cash advance limit on the VISA credit card to $100,000 without written authorization, according to NCUA’s findings. Between June 25, 2019, and July 23, 2019, Starling allegedly requested and received cash advances and withdrawals totaling $96,950, according to the NCUA’s prohibition order.
The federal agency’s prohibition order does not say whether Starling agreed to make restitution or whether the incident was reported to law enforcement authorities.
When Arneta Davis was working as a member services representative at the $47.2 million Dow Great Western Credit Union (DGWCU) in Antioch, Calif., she allegedly committed numerous acts of fraud and embezzlement by systematically stealing tens of thousands of dollars from member accounts, according to NCUA’s prohibition order.
Specifically, Davis allegedly enrolled members in online banking and bill pay services and allegedly caused those accounts to transfer large sums to herself or her colleagues through bill pay payments, electronic funds transfers, and paper checks. In at least one instance, she allegedly conducted these transactions on a deceased member’s account.
Davis allegedly defrauded DGWCU of more than $40,000, according to NCUA’s findings.
The federal agency’s prohibition order does not say whether Davis agreed to make restitution to the credit union or whether her alleged embezzlement was reported to police.