SCRANTON, Penn.–A CEO who was earlier fired for drunk driving has now been charged with bank fraud, including creating fictitious members of the CU’s board.
In late 2015 Sean Jelen was fired from his role as CEO at Valor CU here, after he had allegedly been driving a credit union-owned Mercedes Benz S550—valued at more than $100,000—while intoxicated. The car had been provided to Jelen from the CU as a perk.
Following the dismissal, Jelen failed to return the car for several weeks, which led to the CU report the car to police as stolen.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Jelen, 33, allegedly committed and attempted to commit a series of fraudulent activities from July 2014 to August 2015. Many of the fraudulent activities involved forged and altered documents created by Jelen, the Attorney’s Office stated.
Jelen is charged with executing a scheme to defraud Valor of approximately $718,000, some of which went to pay for his personal credit card, his graduate tuition, his spouse’s birthday party, and a golf tournament sponsorship, authorities allege. Jelen is also accused of rigging elections held for the Valor Credit Union board of directors, whereby he elected and subsequently impersonated fictitious members of the board of directors and its supervising committee, the Attorney’s office stated.
In addition, Jelen is charged with attempting to obtain an additional $1,146,000 through fraudulent means, and with creating a forged severance contract that would be triggered by his termination.
The government has filed a plea agreement with Jelen to the alleged charges, which is subject to approval of the court. A date for his initial appearance has not been set. Valor terminated Jelen’s employment in August of 2015.
Jelen faces a maximum sentence of 60 years of imprisonment.
The $231-million Valor lost $3.5 million last year and $35,811 in Q1 2016.