EL PASO–A former employee of a credit union here who pleaded guilty in connection with an $18-million banking fraud scheme that led to the CU’s collapse has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Hilda Simental Mendoza, 53, who said she was just trying to keep her job and support her family, was sentenced for her role in a scheme in which she and her co-defendant Maria Guadalupe Hernandez illegally sold and issued non-member share certificates by falsifying and failing to report the transactions to El Paso Federal Credit Union and other financial institutions, according to the El Paso Times.
Hernandez was a manager at El Paso Federal Credit Union and Mendoza an assistant manager. An FBI investigation led to their indictments in August 2015, three years after the credit union became insolvent and was taken over by NCUA.
“I am sorry for my choices that I made and accept full responsibility for my actions,” Mendoza said, according to the El Paso Times. “I was wrong. I was trying to keep my job to support my family. I am sorry to my family. My biggest regret is making them go through all that they had to.”
In addition to the jail term, Mendoza was ordered to pay more than $18 million in restitution and sentenced to five years of supervised release after she serves her prison term and 100 hours of community service.
Mendoza pleaded guilty to 11 counts on May 24, but did not reach an agreement with federal prosecutors on the sentencing, instead allowing the judge to set the punishment, the El Paso Times reported.
The scheme lasted from 2007 to 2012 with the women selling and issuing certificates that were paid using the principal balance of the certificates through money taken from deceased members or dormant accounts, according to court documents. The balances were paid in order for Mendoza and Hernandez to hide their sales of the certificates, documents state, the Times reported. The pair then transferred the money gained from the sales to accounts of deceased people, dormant accounts and accounts of family members, documents state.
The women then allegedly “made numerous improper payments for personal expenses and made numerous personal purchases from the money obtained from the non-member share certificates,” according to the court.