It took federal investigators nearly four years to catch up to a former president/CEO who pleaded guilty Wednesday to 17 years of bank fraud that led to a loss of more than $466,000 at a Texas credit union.
Susan Margaret Garza, 60, admitted in a U.S. District Court in Galveston that she made unauthorized withdrawals from member accounts and made unauthorized loans in the name of members from February 1996 to April 2013 at the Electrical Workers 527 Federal Credit Union in Texas City.
In the credit union’s last Call Report for 2013’s first quarter, EW572 posted $622,857 in assets and a critically undercapitalized net worth of -36%. The credit union also posted a net loss of $295,221.
The NCUA announced EW572’s liquidation in May 2013. The credit union served 572 members, according to its Call Report.
A March 2017 indictment originally charged Garza with four felony counts of bank fraud, two counts of theft and misapplication and three counts of making false entries.
In the indictment, federal prosecutors said Garza used the stolen funds that benefitted her and others. She also manipulated the credit union’s records to hide the fraud from auditors and examiners.
In exchange for her guilty plea to one count of bank fraud, prosecutors dropped the other nine felony charges.
Garza of Galveston was banned by the NCUA in July 2016.
She is scheduled to be sentenced in October and faces up to 30 years in prison.
