Credit Union CEO Sentenced in Embezzlement Plea Deal

Anne Schaal, the former president/CEO of the $1.9 million, 492-member Aurora Firefighters Credit Union, will spend 30 days in jail for embezzling more than $36,000 from the Aurora, Ill.-based institution.

Schaal was also sentenced to 150 days in electronically-monitored home detention and three years on probation for the criminal activity that took place between January 2006 and November 2011, according the Kane County Attorney’s office in St. Charles, Ill.

As part of a plea deal with the Kane County prosecutors, the 67-year-old Schaal pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft on Feb. 14 in Kane County Court.

A gambling addiction led Schaal to steal from the credit union as well as lose more than $580,000 that belonged to her and her husband, according to The Daily Herald, a Chicago suburban newspaper. In court documents, according to the newspaper, Schaal acknowledged that she became addicted to gambling.

The former CEO also was ordered to pay more than $4,000 in fines, to undergo a psychological evaluation and to have no contact with the credit union, according to the Kane County State’s Attorney office and local media reports.

Schaal was arrested September 2012 on theft and misuse of credit card charges. At that time, she denied the charges and was scheduled to stand trial in March.

The Aurora Firefighters CU also filed a civil lawsuit against Schaal, claiming she stole the money and posted “phantom payments” to the credit union’s ledger, according to The Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper.

The lawsuit was dismissed in September 2013 after the credit union and Schaal agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

Though Schaal made a payment to the credit union to settle its claims for damages, a lawyer representing Aurora Firefighters CU declined to say how much Schaal has paid, The Daily Herald reported.

Ex-Merrill banker pleads guilty to embezzlement

A former investment banker for Merrill Merchants Bank and People's United Bank pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of embezzling nearly $3 million and evading income taxes.
U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty said in a press release that an investigation found Lynn Bowden, 62, of Bucksport had transferred around $2,990,000 to her personal accounts through 108 deposits and transfers of customer funds.
Investigators said the embezzlement took place between April 2005 and September 2012. Bowden began working for Merrill Merchants Bank in 2004. She continued to work with Merrill through its acquisition by the Chittenden Corp. in 2007 and its acquisition in 2008 by People's United Bank. Prosecutors said the bank discovered Bowden's illicit transfers in October 2012 and fired her shortly thereafter. At the time, she managed more than 200 trust and investment management accounts. Investigators charged her with evading around $750,000 in federal income tax between 2007 to 2011.
She faces a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to twice the amount taken on the embezzlement charge. She faces up to five years and a $250,000 fine on the tax evasion charge.

Former Anchor Bank executive indicted on federal fraud charges

A former long-time executive with Anchor Bank was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury for allegedly lying in order to defraud an Anchor subsidiary involved in a Texas industrial park development.

David Weimert, 63, of Madison, who was a senior vice-president in lending administration at Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin and president of Investment Directions Inc., an Anchor BanCorp subsidiary, allegedly devised and took part in a scheme to defraud IDI, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Madison.

The grand jury indicted Weimert on six counts of wire fraud, which each carry up to 30 years in prison.

Weimert worked at Anchor from 1991 to 2009. Anchor spokeswoman Jennifer Ranville said that Anchor has cooperated with law enforcement on the matter and will continue to do so.

According to the U.S. Attorney, the indictment alleges that between December 2008 and March 2009, Weimert made material misrepresentations and omissions in order to get an ownership interest in Chandler Creek, a joint venture partnership formed to develop an industrial park in Round Rock, Texas, and to get a 4 percent commission fee as part of the sale of Chandler Creek.

According to the indictment, Weimert falsely told his superiors that the Burke Group, a commercial real estate developer in Costa Mesa, Calif., would buy IDI's share of Chandler Creek, contingent on Weimert purchasing a minority interest of Chandler Creek as part of the deal. In fact, it was Weimert who wanted the minority interest for himself, and not the Burke Group, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that as a result of Weimert's actions, IDI's board of directors accepted the Burke Group's offer to buy Chandler Creek. Weimert received a 4.785 percent ownership interest as part of the deal and a 4 percent commission fee, which totaled $311,680, according to the indictment.

Credit union embezzlement threatens family's home in Virginia

A single father, raising two children, could be losing his home because of something he didn't do.


The problem began when a man committed suicide. In a note left behind, he admitted to stealing nearly $10 million from a faith-based credit union.
Christopher Tate is not only raising his own two children, he's helping other kids in his neighborhood, many of whom have a parent behind bars.
Now, he's the one who finds himself in a bind.
"I was shocked. I would never have guessed this would happen," he says.
Tate got a letter telling him he has to find a new place to live. And the clock is ticking.
Turns out his landlord was John Dupree, Jr., manager of the Shiloh Federal Credit Union, a faith-based credit union that had been connected to Alexandria's Shiloh Baptist Church.
The National Credit Union Administration is going after dupree's estate to get the money back.
Last April, the night before he was to meet with federal authorities, Dupree died.
The NCUA lawsuit says this note was found on his computer: "By the time you read this I will have taken my life. I have been stealing money from Shiloh Credit Union for several years now. The guilt is overwhelming and I am too big a coward to face those that I have stolen from. I regret my actions, but it is far too late for forgiveness..."
Tate is not the only victim. The credit union has been shut down, but there were hundreds of members.
The feds are still untangling the homes, cars, and other assets the former manager owned

Spirikaitis Pleads Guilty in Cleveland

Alex R. Spirikaitis pleaded guilty Monday in U.S District Court to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud at the failed Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union.

The 51-year-old former president/CEO could be sentenced to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine for his role in the $15 million embezzlement, one of the largest in credit union history. Spirikaitis did not make a statement in court regarding the plea.

His sentencing hearing will be held May 9.

Also Monday, former Bookkeeper Vytas Apanavicius pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit embezzlement and also faces a May 9 sentencing hearing.

Apanavicius owned VPA Accounting Inc., through which he provided bookkeeping and accounting services from 1995 through 2013. He is accused of stealing nearly a million dollars from Taupa Lithuanian, with help from Spirikaitis.

Spirikaitis admitted to personally embezzling about $4.2 million from Taupa Lithuanian between 2001 and 2013. With those stolen funds, he built a $1.6 million home in an affluent Cleveland suburb, paid for a stadium luxury suite at Cleveland Browns games and bought nine vehicles.

Spirikaitis also inexplicitly used embezzled credit union funds to amass an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition that he stored at the cooperative’s office in Cleveland.

Sometime after Spirikaitis was hired at the cooperative’s president/CEO in 1995, he began to conspire with three former employees and members to embezzle millions and managed to conceal that theft from auditors, the board of directors and members.

For years, the six individuals wrote checks against their credit union accounts with the understanding that Spirikaitis would not require them to make personal deposits to cover overdrafts. Additionally, Spirikaitis did not make personal deposits to cover overdrafts in his own accounts.

Instead, the former CEO transferred funds from Taupa Lithuanian internal accounts to cover the overdrafts. In many cases, these overdrafts amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spirikaitis initially concealed the embezzlement scheme by simply taping over Taupa’s financial statements with false information, which he provided to auditors. Court documents also show he later used a software program to manipulate and print financial statements.

Federal prosecutors also unveiled that Spirikaitis provided Taupa’s correspondent bank, Corporate One Federal Credit Union in Columbus, Ohio, with an incorrect zip code for Taupa’s auditors, which caused the original account statements from the correspondent bank to be mailed to a post office box in Cleveland that Spirikaitis controlled, allowing him to alter the statements.

Two other individuals, former teller Michael Ruksenas and credit union member John Struna, have each been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit embezzlement.

Three more people are expected to face charges in the coming days or weeks. Those individuals have been identified in court documents only by their initials.

A.B. was a full-time employee at Taupa Lithuanian CU from 1991 to 2004 and worked part-time at the credit union from 2004 to July 2013, according to court documents. Two other individuals, G.C. and P.B. were members and provided IT services to the cooperative from a company they jointly owned, show court documents.

The NCUA and the Ohio Department of Commerce took possession of Taupa Lithuanian and placed it into receivership due to its insolvency last July.

Seven Falls co-defendant receives sentence reduction in North Carolina

A former bank president convicted of signing off on millions of dollars in illegal loans to support the floundering Seven Falls development received a six-month reprieve in his four-year prison sentence Monday.

In May 2012, George Gordon "Buddy" Greenwood was ordered to serve four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to embezzlement by a bank officer and money laundering charges in June 2011. Senior Judge Henry M. Herlong granted a request from prosecutors to shave six months off his term in exchange for his help with the case in U.S. District Court in Asheville.

In a motion filed Dec. 12, Greenwood's attorney Jason Ferguson argued that a six-month reduction was not a fair reward for his client's cooperation. Greenwood's "cooperation may have resulted in other defendants choosing to plead guilty rather than risk trial and may have resulted in strategic decisions in the case of Keith Vinson," according to the motion.

Vinson, the developer behind Seven Falls, was convicted after a jury trial in October. Four of his co-defendants, Avery Ted "Buck" Cashion III, Raymond "Ray" Chapman, George Gabler and Andrew Hager, reached plea deals with federal prosecutors in the days leading up to the trial.

"Though defendant (Greenwood) is himself financially destitute, his cooperation has provided the victims in this case multiple, lucrative sources of the millions of dollars of additional restitution outstanding in this case," according to the motion.

Ferguson said that in two meetings with federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents, Greenwood "provided verbal information and assisted the government with document review and comprehension in an effort to assist in constructing theories of the case, and presentation of the evidence to laypeople who don't regularly review these financial documents."

Ferguson also argued that despite his client's assistance to the government, Greenwood has "endured exceedingly more harsh conditions while in prison based solely on his decision to cooperate."

He said Greenwood was placed in a minimum security facility in Edgefield, S.C., on June 28, 2012. On Aug. 1, 2012, he was "transported through a number of transition facilities following his restitution proceedings in Asheville." On Aug. 29, 2012, he returned to Edgefield, where he stayed until March 13, 2012.

Following that date, Ferguson said his client was transferred in and out of five other facilities in Georgia and North Carolina "because of his decision to cooperate with the government."

The constant transfers made him subject to strip searches and body cavity searches "on countless occasions," Ferguson said.

In a final plea before the court to extend a greater reduction in Greenwood's sentence, Ferguson argued that his client's punishment is nearly the same of other co-defendants who came to plea deals with attorneys much later in the game.

Aaron Ollis, who served as a real estate appraiser for 25 years in Western North Carolina, and Thomas "Ted" Durham Jr., a former president of Pisgah Community Bank, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government in September.

Real estate investors and private money lenders Cashion, of Lake Lure, and Chapman, of Brevard, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Ollis, Durham, Cashion and Chapman face up to five years in prison, $250,000 in fines and no more than three years of supervised release for the charge.

In March, co-defendant Andrew Quinn Hager pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge, according to court records.

In the end the judge agreed to a six-month reduction. Greenwood is also ordered to repay nearly $9.3 million in restitution in the case.

Supreme Judicial Court sends staged robbery case back to Worcester court in Massachusetts

The state's highest court has ordered that a local couple whose bank embezzlement convictions were overturned in 2012 by the state Appeals Court be returned to Worcester Superior Court for resentencing on the lesser offense of larceny by embezzlement.

George Labadie and his wife, Susan Carcieri, were found guilty in 2010 of staging an Aug. 27, 2002, robbery at the Wyman-Gordon Federal Credit Union on Grafton Street, where Mrs. Carcieri worked as an assistant manager, and making off with $210,000 in stolen cash.

A Worcester Superior Court jury convicted both husband and wife of embezzlement from a bank by a bank employee. Mr. Labadie was found guilty as a joint venturer.

He was also convicted of attempted counterfeiting and possession of counterfeiting tools based on items recovered by police in a search of the couple's home at 521 Grafton St. two days after the reported robbery.

Finding that state courts lack jurisdiction over the crime of embezzlement from a federal credit union, the Appeals Court reversed both bank embezzlement convictions in 2012.

Mr. Labadie was sentenced in 2010 to 10 to 12 years in state prison on the bank embezzlement charge, and to a concurrent term of 9 to 10 years for possession of counterfeiting tools. He was placed on probation for 10 years, to begin upon his release, on the attempted counterfeiting charge.

The Appeals Court ruling did not affect the sentences on the counterfeiting charges.

Mrs. Carcieri was sentenced to 4 to 7 years' imprisonment, but the sentence was later stayed pending appeal.

Both sides sought further appellate review by the state Supreme Judicial Court, which issued an 11-page ruling Wednesday.

The SJC found that because a federal credit union is not a bank, as defined by state law, Mr. Labadie and Ms. Carcieri were entitled to judgments of acquittal on the bank embezzlement charges. The court vacated those convictions.

It went on to find, however, that larceny by embezzlement is a "lesser included offense" of bank embezzlement, and that state prosecutors were not barred from bringing larceny by embezzlement charges against a federal credit union employee.

"Because the jury's verdicts demonstrate that they found the defendants guilty of all the required elements of larceny by embezzlement, we remand for entry of convictions of this lesser included offense and for resentencing," the SJC wrote.

Larceny is punishable by a state prison sentence of up to 5 years.

In its 2012 ruling, the Appeals Court found that the crime of embezzlement from a federal credit union was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts, but that a prosecution for the lesser included offense of larceny by embezzlement was not precluded in the state courts. The court said double jeopardy would not prevent a retrial of Mr. Labadie and his wife on the lesser charge and sent the case back to Worcester Superior Court.

The case then went to the SJC after both sides sought further appellate review.

The Appeals Court noted in its ruling that Ms. Carcieri called 911 on the morning in question to report that an unknown man had forced his way into the credit union behind her and compelled her to open the safe. Various circumstances, including the fact that Ms. Carcieri was only loosely bound when police officers arrived, made them suspicious of her account, according to the court.

The suspicions were heightened two days later, the Appeals Court noted, when police found bundles of cash in the same denominations that had been stolen from the credit union in the couple's home. Some of the bundles were still wrapped in distinctive bands from the Federal Reserve Bank, according to the Appeals Court ruling.

The SJC decision was written by Judge Ralph D. Gants. Assistant District Attorney Donna-Marie Haran represented the office of District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. on appeal. Ms. Carcieri was represented on appeal by lawyer Paul C. Brennan and Mr. Labadie by lawyer Patricia A. DeJuneas
A 62-year-old city woman is scheduled to be resentenced next month for her role in the theft of more than $200,000 from the Grafton Street credit union where she worked.

Susan Carcieri and her husband, George Labadie, were found guilty in 2010 of staging an Aug. 27, 2002, robbery at the Wyman-Gordon Federal Credit Union on Grafton Street, where Ms. Carcieri worked as an assistant manager, and stealing $210,000.

A Worcester Superior Court jury convicted both the husband and wife of embezzlement from a bank by a bank employee. Mr. Labadie was found guilty as a joint venturer.

He was also convicted of attempted counterfeiting and possession of counterfeiting tools based on items that were recovered by police during a search of the couple's home at 521 Grafton St. two days after the reported robbery.

The state Appeals Court reversed both bank embezzlement convictions in 2012, finding that state courts lacked jurisdiction over the crime of embezzlement from a credit union.

Mr. Labadie was sentenced in 2010 to 10 to 12 years in state prison on the bank embezzlement charge, and to a concurrent prison term of 9 to 10 years for possessing counterfeiting tools. He was placed on probation for 10 years, to begin upon his release, on the attempted counterfeiting charge.

Ms. Carcieri was sentenced to 4 to 7 years' imprisonment, but the sentence was later stayed by Judge Peter W. Agnes Jr., pending appeal. Judge Agnes has since been appointed to the Appeals Court.

Ms. Carcieri and Mr. Labadie were ordered to a pay a total of $210,000 in restitution.

The Appeals Court ruling did not affect the sentences imposed on Mr. Labadie on the counterfeiting charges. The appellate court found that the crime of embezzlement from a federal credit union was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts, but that a prosecution for the lesser included offense of larceny by embezzlement was not barred in the state courts. The Appeals Court said double jeopardy would not preclude a retrial of Mr. Labadie and his wife on the lesser charge and sent the case back to Worcester Superior Court.

The defense and prosecution both sought further appellate review of the Appeals Court decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court. In an 11-page ruling issued Feb. 5, the SJC vacated the bank embezzlement charges and ordered that Ms. Carcieri and Mr. Labadie be returned to Worcester Superior Court for resentencing on the lesser offense of larceny by embezzlement.

The state's highest court found that larceny by embezzlement is a "lesser included offense" of bank embezzlement, and that state prosecutors were not prohibited from bringing larceny by embezzlement charges against a federal credit union employee.

"Because the jury's verdicts demonstrate that they found the defendants guilty of all the required elements of larceny by embezzlement, we remand for entry of convictions of this lesser included offense and for resentencing," the SJC wrote.

Larceny by embezzlement is punishable by a state prison sentence of up to five years.

Judge Janet Kenton-Walker set a March 25 date Monday for Ms. Carcieri's resentencing at the request of Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey T. Travers and defense lawyer Leonard J. Staples.

A date has not been set for her husband's resentencing.

#Accountant Sentenced in $800K Credit Union #Embezzlement

A former accounting assistant at the $104 million Pinal County Federal Credit Union in Casa Grande, Ariz. was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to repay part of the almost $800,000 she confessed to stealing. The U.S. District Court of Arizona ordered Jennelle Rena Curtis to pay $555,571 in restitution and $200 in court assessment fees.

As part of a plea agreement, Curtis pleaded guilty to a two -count criminal information charging her with embezzlement. A criminal information is often filed when a suspect cooperates with prosecutors, intends to plead guilty or provides information that leads to additional arrests.

In her June 2, 2013 plea agreement, Curtis said she issued about 100 PCFCU checks totaling at least $780,697 for her personal use from 2008 to 2011, including two checks totaling about $226,400 that were deposited into a bank account belonging to her mother, Janet Long.

Curtis was ordered to pay $555,571 to Cumis Insurance Society, Inc., which covers PCFCU,

and to self-surrender by July 7, 2014 to the Bureau of Prisons or U.S. Marshal’s Office, the sentencing document said.

The court documents do not explain what happened with the additional $225,000 mentioned in her 2013 plea agreement.

When Curtis was arrested last year, local media reported that she had worked a decade at the credit union and was a mother of four young children whose 23-year-old husband was shot and killed at a truck stop in March.

According to an Aug. 1, 2012 article in the Phoenix New Times, her parents, Howard and Janet Long, claimed that about $200,000 of the money Curtis took from the credit union was rightfully theirs because Janet Long had given her daughter about $200,000 from a 401K account and asked her to put it into a different account.

Authorities with U.S. Assistant Attorney’s Office would not say whether additional charges are pending or if an investigation is continuing.

After her release from prison, Curtis will be on supervised probation for a period of five years.

Her plea agreement called for the prosecutor to recommend a sentence of between 24 and 30 months in prison, but did not preclude the defendant from seeking a shorter sentence.

Stevens Point, Wisconsin woman faces embezzlement charges in ATM thefts

A Stevens Point woman is facing embezzlement charges in connection with two thefts from ATMS.

Prosecutors say 27 year old Kristen Deadwyler stole $16,000 from the ATMs she was supposed to be filling while she worked at U.S. Bank. According to the complaint, police say Deadwyler admitted to taking the money in March and April last year. Police say she told detectives the money was going to pay off payday loans.

Deadwyler made an initial appearance to six felony counts of theft from a financial institution on Monday. She remains free on a signature bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 24.

3 friends indicted for $87,000 bank fraud in Indiana

According to federal court documents, 24-year-old Courtney Crusoe found an easy way to get money to her friends.

Crusoe was employed at a Wells Fargo bank in Fort Wayne, according to federal court documents.

While she worked there as a personal banker, she added two other people secretly to the bank accounts of Wells Fargo customers, allowing them access to those accounts.

Crusoe, Deandre Banks, 23; and Marcel Banks, 26, are all named in a five-count federal indictment accusing them of bank fraud and other charges.

A federal grand jury meeting in Fort Wayne handed down the indictment last week, but the case was not unsealed until Tuesday.

From July to August of last year, according to court documents, Crusoe and Banks took $87,000 from the Wells Fargo bank through the scheme.

Crusoe is charged with bank fraud, bank embezzlement and money laundering. Both Deandre Banks and Marcel Banks are charged with bank fraud and money laundering.

Either as secondary account owners, or through Crusoe herself, the three ended up with withdrawals or cashiers’ checks from different accounts. That money was then deposited into a Chase Bank account owned by Deandre Banks and the money was then withdrawn and transferred to another account owned by Marcel Banks, according to court documents.

According to court documents, the federal government seeks the return of the $87,000 or any property bought with it.