NEW YORK—The troubled $3-billion-plus Municipal Credit Union, whose former CEO has pleaded guilty to stealing millions from the CU, has been conserved by New York State Department of Financial Services.
NCUA has been appointed as conservator.
As CUToday.info reported, the Municipal Credit Union board of directors in June of 2018 voted to formally terminate CEO Kam Wong following charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that he embezzled more than $3 million from the credit union. According to prosecutors, Wong, 62, allegedly used some of the funds to buy New York State lottery tickets.
Wong, who earned more than $600,000 annually while with the credit union, pleaded guilty late last year in Manhattan federal court to one count of embezzlement from a federally insured credit union. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, prosecutors stated.
The U.S. Attorney had charged Wong with embezzling from the credit union by submitting false invoices for dental work and other expenses. Wong allegedly also "obtained numerous other payments from the credit union under suspicious or questionable circumstances" from at least 2013 through January 2018, according to U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
Wong was officially placed on leave by MCU on Feb. 22, 2018. As CUToday.info reported, Municipal CU named Mark A. Ricca as its new CEO.
At the close of Q1, 2019, the CU's net worth was 7.59%, and ROA was .39%. Municipal made $11.4 million in 2018, and 17.5 in 2017, according to Call Report data. The CU made $2.8 million in Q1 2019.