OSHKOSH, Wis. – The former bookkeeper of a credit union here who was convicted of embezzling was sentenced by a federal court to three years in prison.
Melisa A. Beyer, 37, also was placed on three years’ supervised release and ordered to pay $800,000 in restitution to the credit union's insurance company. according to TheNorthwestern.com.
Beyer previously worked as a bookkeeper for the now-shuttered Oshkosh Central Credit Union, where she was responsible for ordering money, counting the vault cash on a weekly basis and reporting the totals. Institution regulations prohibited her from entering the vault alone to count the cash, but the rule wasn’t enforced, according to court documents, TheNorthwestern.com reported, and like other tellers, she often entered the vault unaccompanied.
Beyer admitted to authorities that between January 2007 and April 2014 she took more than $250,000 in cash from the OCCU vault and used it for her own personal expenses. She also admitted to altering cash counts on OCCU records starting in 2013 that overstated the amount of cash on hand.
TheNorthwestern.com reported that co-workers told investigators that they saw large amounts of cash, in bundles, in Beyer’s purse, while others said Beyer spent money on entertainment and gambled frequently, which appeared to be far in excess of her income. Beyer was fired in 2014.
Authorities said that while the vault ledger indicated about $2 million in cash was on hand, which was a high figure for a CU of OCCU’s size, the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions found the actual figure was $384,870.
Oshkosh Central filed suit earlier seeking authority to sell a motorboat and trailer, three vehicles and a camper the credit union contended were likely purchased with member funds. That suit was dismissed.
Oshkosh Community was eventually merged into Community First Credit Union in Appleton, Wis.