ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NCUA Inspector General William A. DeSarnoannounced that retired NCUA Region I Examiner Ray Lindeman Jr.pleaded guilty to unauthorized access of a government computer.

Lindeman, who was elected president of the NCUA Chapter of theNational Treasury Employees Union in 2004, retired in 2005 and wentto work at Charter Oak Federal Credit Union. According to NCUA,Lindeman admitted using his Charter Oak computer to illegallyaccess confidential data from NCUA for the purpose of working onprojects that the credit union and its CUSO billed to other creditunions. Charter Oak FCU CEO Larry K. Hertell said Lindeman hadstopped working for the credit union a couple of months ago--hepreviously served as risk management controller--and had been thereless than a year when NCUA began its investigation, instituting agag order on the credit union employees with which the agencytalked. Hertell said the only thing the agency told him was thatLindeman had been hacking into computer systems. "They have nevertold us anything about what he did," Hertell said.

NCUA said it has fixed the vulnerability that allowed Lindemanaccess and that none of the information accessed was personalmember information or would compromise the safety and soundness ofany credit union.

Sentencing has been set for February 2007 at which time Lindemancould receive up to five years in prison. Special agents in NCUA'sOffice of the Inspector General and the FBI investigated the [email protected]