ALEXANDRIA, Va. –A former cop who was also a member of the supervisory committee at Municipal Credit Union in New York City has been banned from credit unions.
Joseph Guagliardo, who was issued the prohibition order, had in January of 2020 entered a guilty plea to a charge of embezzlement more than $400,000 in connection with his role at the credit union.
As CUToday.info reported earlier here and here, Guagliardo, as well as a state court judge—Sylvia Ash—who also served on Municipal CU’s board, were arrested on different charges by federal prosecutors that range from deleting text messages to help cover up misuse of funds, abuse of controlled substances, and, ironically, fraud related to anti-fraud security.
Guagliardo admitted to billing the credit union for bogus security services and for what was described as “outrageously overpriced online advertising” for an Italian-American non-profit that he controlled.
Trust ‘Betrayed’
“As he has now admitted, Joseph Guagliardo betrayed the trust of MCU’s members, who elected him to supervise and protect MCU, by abusing his position to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today’s plea is yet another step forward in this office’s efforts to fully investigate and prosecute those who abused positions of authority at MCU, a multibillion-dollar, non-profit, federally insured credit union, to enrich themselves and their families at the expense of its hard-working members," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement quoted by the Daily News.
According to the report, MCU paid Guagliardo’s security company, First In, $250,000 for bogus services protecting MCU ATMs. “Guagliardo falsely claimed in documents his employees were ex-law enforcement,” the Daily News reported. “In reality they had no qualifications for bogus ‘inspections’ of ATMs that were of little value, prosecutors said.”
Similarly, MCU paid Guagliardo $200,000 for advertising on what the Daily News described as the “amateurish” National Council of Columbia Associations in Civil Service website. The group is dedicated to promoting Italian-American culture.
“The website’s traffic did not warrant that payment,” Guagliardo admitted in Manhattan Federal Court, the Daily News reported.
Guagliardo, 62, faces a recommended sentence of more than two years for the scam.
Earlier, the credit union’s former CEO, Kam Wong, was sentenced to more than five years in prison for embezzling approximately $10 million. That embezzlement is unrelated to the charges against Guagliardo and Ash.