Cheryl Vickers, a retired vice president for the $603 million Houston Police Federal Credit Union, was charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court with embezzling more than $1.2 million over 18 years by allegedly cashing unclaimed checks.
Though Vickers pleaded not guilty to one felony count of embezzlement from a federally insured credit union, her lawyer said he is working on a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
"Ms. Vickers is going to resolve this case in the courts and that will be done in early 2016," Christopher L. Tritico, a Houston-based attorney, said. "Restitution is going to be made to the financial institution."
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HPFCU announced in a letter to members that its staff had detected the embezzlement during an audit on Aug. 6, 2015 and notified its board of directors and supervisory committee. The credit union also said it was working with the FBI to investigate the embezzlement.
Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, told CU Times Friday that he had been briefed by the credit union in July about the embezzlement investigation.
Hunt said he was told by HPFCU that the embezzled funds were not stolen from any members' accounts. He also said the credit union told him it was believed the embezzled funds came from unclaimed checks that should have been forwarded to the state of Texas.
"It was my understanding that checks that had not been cashed were being reissued to her [Vickers] instead of being sent to the state's treasury department," Hunt said.
In a prepared statement released Friday, HPFCU said Vickers was in charge of accounting and information technology.
"Ms. Vickers possessed insider knowledge that helped her hide her alleged embezzlement," HPFCU said. "We believe the fact that she had extensive knowledge of the core data processing system and was a key contributor to the development of our internal controls gave her the ability to cover her tracks in our IT and accounting systems."
According to HPFCU's statement, its investigation determined approximately $1.2 million was stolen in "relatively small amounts over several years."
Hunt said this type of fraud could have happened anywhere.
"We don't have any problems with the credit union," he said. "We are one of their biggest depositors. We still have full faith in the credit union."
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
