GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.–There have been developments related to two former credit union employees and separate thefts.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., a former labor union bookkeeper pleaded guilty to embezzlement after stealing $307,000. Stephanie Marie DeBoer was the bookkeeper and office manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 876 in Edmore.
She pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ray Kent to charges of embezzlement and theft of union funds. She faces up to five years in prison and three years on supervised release when sentenced Feb. 20.
She also will be required to pay restitution. The government says she took $307,563.
"Among other things, the Defendant wrote unauthorized checks out of the IBEW local 876 Safety Clothing fund to pay rent and make payments on personal credit card accounts including Capital One, Comenity, Victoria's Secret, AT&T, Verizon, Kay Jewelers, Sam's Club, Best Buy, and Citibank," Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler wrote in a sentencing agreement that DeBoer signed.
He said she also wrote unauthorized checks to herself from the union's general checking account and deposited funds into two accounts in her name. She endorsed the checks.
She took the money between 2012 and Sept. 14, 2015. That's when union officials confronted DeBoer about unauthorized debits from bank and credit union accounts. She allegedly claimed she was "repaying herself" after using her own money to buy safety clothing. Investigators found that she had written union checks to pay for her rent since September 2013.
DeBoer was the sole employee responsible for monthly financial reports, and the only one with online access to bank accounts and credit card statements, records showed. The credit union said she falsified financial statements, records showed.
She is detained pending sentencing by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo.
Separately, in Evendale, Ohio, a credit union employee has been arrested here after allegedly stealing nearly $34,000 over a four-month-period.
According to police in Evendale, Morgan Fuller, 21, was arrested for the alleged theft of $33,750 while working at General Electric FCU.
WXIX.com reported that in a signed affidavit, a GE fraud investigator alleged the crime was committed after the credit union noticed irregularities in some members’ accounts in September of 2017. Retraining was conducted inside the credit union, but the issue was discovered again in October.
The court documents show Fuller is suspected of thefts from three different accounts dating all the way back to July 5, WXIX.com reported.
According to the affidavit, Fuller allegedly "was removing large sums of cash from the above three accounts. She would elude detection by conducting a false deposit of the money back into the account prior to leaving for the day."
If found guilty, Fuller could face up to 18 months in prison.