Richard Koenig, the former chairman of Central States Mortgage Corp. a bankrupt Milwaukee CUSO and ex-CEO of the $144 million Prime Financial CU of Cudahy, Wis. has been barred from the industry by the NCUA under a consent order issued Thursday.
Terms of the order were not disclosed but the disbarment stems from the March 2009 state conservatorship of Prime Financial which numbered among nearly two dozen small Wisconsin and Illinois CUs that suffered mortgage loan losses in the 2009 collapse of CSMC, one of the early CU victims of the economic recession.
CSMC had been chartered with leadership help of the Wisconsin Credit Union League, also one of the investors. However, as real estate turned sour a handful of small Milwaukee area CUs experienced large losses and had to write down their CSMC investments eventually turning to mergers with healthier CUs.
The NCUA directive said Koenig was being disbarred "without admitting or denying fault" with the action falling under a "signed order of prohibition to avoid the time and cost of administrative litigation."
Just last May the Wisconsin Office of Credit Unions lifted the conservatorship on Prime Financial after the Cudahy CU posted a $270,000 profit in the first quarter and demonstrated financial capacity to grow. .
The NCUA also said yesterday it barred Tiffany Churchill, a former employee at Maine Family FCU, Lewiston, for embezzling $15,000 and Nathan Cranney, a former employee of Deseret First FCU in Utah.
Also barred was Lisa Dodson, a former employee at Cooperative Teachers CU, Tyler Texas for stealing $70,000.
