Michael Ross Franco, a former loan officer at My CommunityFederal Credit Union, was arrested and pled guilty this week todefrauding the cooperative out of more than $4 million in an autoloan kickback scam.

According to the U.S. Federal District Court in Midland, Texas,Franco worked as a loan officer at the $255 million My Community,also in Midland, from May 22, 2006, through Oct. 22, 2008.

During that period, he approved nearly 487 fraudulent loans fora car dealership that was named in information from the court.

Working with the general sales manager and operator of thedealership, Franco was able to approve loans without verifying loandocuments, according to the court. Some loans were also approvedbefore applications were received.

In addition to overstating or misstating a customer's income,Franco included false statements on the customer's debt-to-incomeratio, credit score and the value of the vehicle purchased,according to the district court document.

In exchange for the approved loans, Franco received more thanmore than $29,000 in kickbackpayments.

Franco pled guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He is now facing a federal prison sentence of up to30 years, a $1 million fine and restitution to My Community and upto five years of supervised release upon completion of his prisonsentence.

A comment from My Community was not immediately available.However, the credit union did release a statement to local mediasaying, “The incident occurred over [three] years ago and iscurrently being investigated by the Midland FBI and the U.S.Attorney's Office. The Credit Union was and is Federally Insuredand Bonded and continues to be a financially stronginstitution.”