Sharon Broadway stole from the United Catholic Credit Union for a long time, and she will spend a long time in prison for it.
The 62-year-old Toledo, Ohio woman was sentenced Jan. 17 to 10 to 240 months for embezzling $2.1 million since 1985 from the Temperance, Mich., credit union, which collapsed in the wake of the crime.
Monroe County Circuit Judge Michael A. Weipert in Monroe, Mich., also sentenced Broadway to concurrently serve 45 months to 240 months for racketeering and ordered her to pay $2.5 million in restitution to NCUA.
As manager, secretary, board member and sole employee of the $300,000 UCCU, Broadway was able to conceal her crimes for years using a complex money laundering scheme involving forged checks and multiple aliases, according to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.
Broadway used the embezzled funds for her personal use, authorities said.
But after she was taken into custody immediately after her sentencing, her lawyer, Lorin Zaner, said it’s unlikely his client will be able to make full restitution. He said Broadway had found another job but not yet started the position, reported the ToledoBlade.com.
Broadway spent some of the money on others, he told the newspaper website. “There really is nothing to show for it. She didn’t live an extravagant life,” Zaner said.
Broadway’s fraud was uncovered after a routine examination by the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation revealed that a substantial amount of certificates of deposit went un-recorded in the credit union's financial records.
OFIR closed UCCU in August and appointed NCUA as the receiver. FIR issued a prohibition order that prevents Broadway from working in the Michigan-chartered credit union industry in the future.
