NEW YORK—Kam Wong, the former CEO of the $2.8-billion Municipal Credit Union, has pleaded guilty to embezzling millions of dollars from the CU.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Wong admitted to using credit union funds to buy a Mercedes Benz, lease luxury cars and stay in high-end hotels.
As CUToday.info reported, the Municipal Credit Union board of directors voted to formally terminate Wong in June following charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that he embezzled more than $3 million from the credit union. According to prosecutors, Wong, 62, allegedly used some of the funds to buy New York State lottery tickets.
Wong, who earned more than $600,000 annually while with the credit union, this week pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of embezzlement from a federally insured credit union. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, prosecutors stated.
The U.S. Attorney had charged Wong with embezzling from the credit union by submitting false invoices for dental work and other expenses. Wong allegedly also "obtained numerous other payments from the credit union under suspicious or questionable circumstances" from at least 2013 through January 2018, according to U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
Wong was officially placed on leave by MCU on Feb. 22, 2018. As CUToday.info reported here, Municipal CU has since named Mark A. Ricca as its new CEO.
Berman said in a statement that Wong, “abused his position of trust as a guardian of municipal, state, and federal workers’ financial accounts to enrich himself.”