SINGING RIVER, Miss.– A former vice president at Singing River FCU who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $350,000 from the credit union was allegedly earlier also accused of possible criminal activity with another credit union.
As CUToday.info reported here, Merrideth Christina McMillian pleaded guilty to charges she "willfully misapplied, embezzled, abstracted, and purloined the sum of more than $350,000 of moneys, funds, and credits” from Singing River FCU while employed as vice president of member services.
But the Sun Herald is reporting that in 2013, a supervisory committee at Navigator Credit Union called in McMillian to question her about her handling of money taken out of an account in her grandmother’s name. At the time, McMillian denied any wrongdoing and she, her brother, and her now late grandmother wrote letters to Navigator to explain how they were spending the money from her grandmother’s account, according to the Sun Herald.
A month later, the Sun Herald reported, Navigator’s CEO allegedly reprimanded McMillian again, this time because of a “posting error” in the credit union’s database that McMillian blamed on someone in her department. McMillan was given the option to resign or face firing, and resigned, according to the report.
“McMillian, who is also owner of Dreamworks Gymnastics in Ocean Springs, had been working at Navigator for nearly 22 years at the time the allegations surfaced,” according to the report.
‘Biased Investigation’
After her resignation, McMillian filed a complaint against Navigator with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2014, arguing she was forced to leave as the result of a “biased investigation.”
“This was not true,” McMillian wrote, the Sun Herald reported. “The reason I was dismissed was due to commingling of funds, misuse of my position as a senior manager, not being joint on a business loan and the refinance of a loan for my grandmother.”
McMillian actually brought the allegations of alleged wrongdoing at Navigator Credit Union to light herself when she filed a federal lawsuit in February 2015 against Navigator and its president and CEO for alleged sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation, the Sun Herald reported. McMillian also alleged in the suit gender discrimination for unequal pay between male and female employees and retaliation at the credit union, and further alleged Navigator terminated its contract for lawn care with McMillian’s husband, a district fire chief for Jackson County Emergency Services.
That case was settled prior to going to trial.
‘Web of Fraudulent Activity’
In the case involving Singing River FCU, the allegations again included alleged wrongdoing involving money in McMillian’s grandmother’s estate.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathlyn Van Buskirk told the Sun Herald the wrongdoing at SRCU came to light after a 2018 audit and subsequent probe than uncovered a “web of fraudulent activity” involving McMillian.
“At Singing River, the theft began shortly after McMillan got a legitimate loan using her grandmother’s estate as collateral,” the Sun Herald reported. “Shortly afterward, McMillan went into the credit union database and removed her grandmother’s estate as collateral. She did the same thing with her grandmother’s estate at least five different times to borrow more money. In addition, she manipulated a customer’s account to take out to several other unsecured loans.”
Friend is Victimized
The federal prosecutor said McMillian even victimized a friend in the scheme, using her name and information from her money market account to secure another loan, this one for $47,500, the Sun Herald added, noting the fraudulent loans McMillian took out ranged from as little as $5,000 to over $60,000.
“She used the loan money to try and pay back the illegitimate loans obtained from her grandmother’s estate,” Van Buskirk was quoted as saying. “She also took out loans in her husband and father’s names without their consent.”