GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.–How one credit union manager went from stealing $2,000 to pay a credit card debt to eventually stealing more than $2 million over a period of years is chronicled in a new story by MLive/Muskegon Chronicle.
That manager pleaded guilty on Aug. 17.
Drawing on statements made during court proceedings, as well as other documents and interviews, MLive/Muskegon Chronicle lets Kathryn Sue Simmerman tell her story of how, beginning in 1998, she began embezzling from Shoreline FCU in Norton Shores, Mich.
Simmerman began as assistant manager and by 2006 was CEO. Until she was caught in February of 2015, Simmerman used the stolen money to pay for expensive trips with her family, school expenses for her two sons, vacation time shares in Florida and Branson, Mo., leases of mid-priced cars and SUVs, big deposits into her husband's and sons' accounts at the credit union, daily dinners out with her family – paid for by her, in cash – and other perks of a well-to-do lifestyle, MLive/Muskegon Chronicle reported.
"I panicked because I had bills to pay, and I didn't want my husband to know I had them," Simmerman said of when she first began her crimes, according to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. "I had every intention of paying it back. Then I kept taking more to pay the bills that we had."
When a judge asked Simmerman how she could spend that much money, she responded by listing numerous big ticket items, including vehicles and time shares. "I paid cash everywhere we went," MLive/Muskegon Chronicle quoted her as saying. “I guess I acted like a big shot.”
Judge Robert Holmes Bell has scheduled sentencing for Nov. 30. He continued Simmerman’s personal recognizance bond, leaving her free until sentencing.
The complete story can be found here.