NEW HAVEN, Conn.–The former president of a credit union has been sentenced to more than a year in jail and ordered to pay additional restitution after being found guilty of embezzlement.
Tara Kewalis, 51, the former president of Skyline Financial FCU in Waterbury, Conn., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven to a total of 21 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, federal authorities said.
Kewalis was president of the credit unions from approximately September 2016 to March 2021, when her employment was terminated. She “used her position to access the credit union’s accounting system to create fraudulent accounts, make fraudulent entries, and steal $254,532 in credit union funds,” according to federal authorities and documents cited by the Hartford Courant.
Kewalis has paid $254,532 in restitution, but “may be required to pay additional restitution to reimburse expenses incurred by the credit union during the investigation and prosecution of this criminal matter,” federal authorities said in a statement.
Guilty Plea Entered
Kewalis pleaded guilty on Dec. 7, 2022, to embezzlement by a credit union officer or employee. She has been in custody since July 17, as her bond was revoked after she was found to have violated conditions of her release, authorities said in the statement.
The $39.7-million Skyline Financial CU has approximately 4,400 members.
How to Get the Daily CU News Headlines In Your Inbox Each Day, For Free!
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free in ’23! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com