In December, she pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1 million to buy real estate and pay $600,000 in credit card bills that resulted from her ongoing shopping obsession.

She raided teller cash drawers, created fake loans, made unauthorized financial transactions, posted false entries in WCFCU's accounting records and lied to NCUA examiners. She also admitted in court documents that she used shares in her 81-year-old mother's account to secure 15 loan advances that totaled $248,000.

When questioned by an NCUA examiner about the size of the secured loans, Jennings lied that the board of directors had removed the secured loan limit for one account and provided the examiner with altered copies of the board of directors meeting minutes to support her lie, according to court documents.

Additional details about how Jennings embezzled the money and concealed it were highlighted in a Dec. 22, 2015 CU Times article.

Jennings made her red flags remark during a session with a clinical psychologist, Stanton E. Samenow of Alexandria, who was asked by her defense lawyer, Thomas Woehrle of Fredericksburg, Va., to complete a psychological evaluation of his client.

Samenow diagnosed Jennings with a hoarding disorder coupled with traits of borderline personality disorder, however, she did not meet the full diagnostic criteria, according to his report filed in U.S. District Court.

As she was stealing funds from the credit union, she purchased nearly $600,000 worth of designer shoes, purses, jewelry and beauty products from QVC TV. Thousands of boxes containing all of this merchandise filled a floor at her home. She also had products shipped to her office to hide her shopping addiction from her fiancé. UPS workers called her the QVC queen.

Jennings characterized QVC as her friend.

"It'd help me if I was lonely," she told her psychologist. "Shopping relieved stress. I felt I needed to have extra. I didn't want to run out. Everything seemed like a good deal, and it'd [QVC] come on, and I'd do it again …. getting stuff made me feel better – just the process of opening a box."

Even though she acknowledged that her shopping sprees were out of control, Jennings emphasized during her therapy session that she was a very controlling person.

Over the years, her problems only deepened.

In addition to struggling to manage her anger and temper, she was absent from her job on 25% of working days and regularly complained that she was sick to her stomach, had a migraine, flu or other illness. While at home, she worked using her laptop to handle problems and took calls from employees.

"A theme throughout this lengthy evaluation was Donna's repeated questioning of herself as she dug herself deeper and deeper at the credit union," Samenow wrote in his evaluation. "She reports having asked herself, 'What have I done? How can I fix this?' She maintains that she always had the intention of 'fixing' the situation."

But Jennings was helpless when it came to stop her shopping addiction and kept stealing more and money from the credit union.

During the 18 hours of psychological sessions, Samenow noted that Jennings expressed ongoing and intense remorse for all the damage she had done and continuously thinks about how much she has ruined everybody's life and put them in positions they should not have had to deal with.

"I caused a credit union to close. Others had to take what was offered, possibly part-time employment," she told her psychologist.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye wrote in court documents that the true story behind this crime does not merely lie in the $1 million plus that Jennings embezzled, but in the incredible amount of collateral damage.

"Jennings did not just steal money from a federally insured financial institution," Asonye wrote. "She destroyed a piece of the Winchester community, ended the life of a cooperative credit union and negatively impacted its staff and volunteers."

He noted that while the NCUA was deciding the fate of the credit union, the staff was held in an emotional limbo for several months. Although WCFCU was merged into the $2 billion Apple Federal Credit Union, only three of the six full-time employees landed jobs with the Fairfax, Va.-based credit union.

At the time of the merger, WCFCU had about $12.2 million in assets and served 1,886 members.

In regard to the destruction that she caused, Jennings told her psychologist, "How can I ask these people to forgive me when I can't forgive myself?"

She vowed to make restitution a priority even if it "takes until I die."

Jennings agreed to forfeit the QVC merchandise, six real estate properties, more than $260,000 in retirement accounts, two cars and an all-terrain vehicle.

The sale of those assets is expected to fetch about $600,000, according to court documents.