Lake County businessman recharged for embezzlement of $2.3 million from Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union in Cleveland

A federal grand jury has recharged a Lake County businessman, John Struna, in the embezzlement of $2.3 million from Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union of Cleveland.

The seven-count indictment charges Struna with seven counts of bank fraud, making false statements and money laundering. The indictment replaces a one-count, $2.5 million information filed against Struna in January.

Credit union CEO Alex Spirikaitis, former teller Michael Ruksenas and Vytas Apanavicius, a Mentor accountant, have been convicted of similar charges of defrauding the Taupa credit union, according to a news release from the office of Steven Dettelbach, U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

“This defendant is charged as part of a group that used others' hard earned savings as a personal piggy bank,” Dettelbach said in the release. “Mr. Struna’s greed has caught up with him with this indictment.”

The National Credit Union Administration and the Ohio Department of Commerce placed Taupa into receivership last year, due to its insolvency. The credit union had about 1,150 members and assets of approximately $24 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.