SCRANTON, Penn.–A lawsuit between the federal government and a credit union that stemmed from the CU’s expanded field of membership here has been settled.
Vantage Trust Federal Credit Union, which was chartered as Wilkes-Barre VA Employees Credit Union, agreed to turn over the building here that it previously occupied to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and to pay the federal government $205,000, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The agency that would become the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a license to the credit union in 1995 that allowed it to build on federally owned land next to the Wilkes-Barre Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Plains Township, Penn., according to CitizensVoice.com.
“At the time, the credit union fulfilled a federal requirement that allowed the agency to allow the credit union to use the land if at least 95 percent of the union’s membership was federal employees, former federal employees who worked for the government when they joined the union or their families,” CitizensVoice.com reported. “But that changed in 2003 when Vantage expanded its membership to include anyone living, working or worshipping” in Luzerne County, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.”
The credit union’s license expired in 2011. Discussions concerning the expired license did not yield a resolution, and in 2016, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs told Vantage to leave the building, CitizensVoice.com reported.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Saporito mediated the settlement.