He allegedly began his fraudulent scheme in November 2008, three years after he was hired by the Edwardsville, Ill.-based cooperative.

The former business relationship manager created an unauthorized loan in the name of the South County Baptist Church. Court documents did not say whether Longust was a member of that church. Though the amount of the church loan was not specified in court documents, Longust allegedly used more than $76,000 from that loan to pay off his personal credit card bills.

Over the next few years, Longust's embezzlement schemes became bigger and bolder.

For example, in one instance he made loan advances from a business loan account in two transactions totaling $301,000. Those transactions brought the outstanding balance of the loan to $1.4 million.

On the second business loan account, he made loan advances totaling $212,000, which caused the outstanding balance on that account to grow to $1.6 million.

On the third business account, Longust made a loan advance of more than $129,000, which caused the outstanding balance on that loan account to reach $1.5 million.

According to court documents, Longust also allegedly took out an $875,000 loan in the name of Atlas Transportation LLC by falsifying a credit proposal to obtain the approval of Scott's chief loan officer.

Longust falsely indicated the loan would be secured by real estate worth $2 million, and he forged the signature of a bank vice president from another financial institution on a document to show Atlas Transportation maintained a cash balance account of more than $1.5 million.

And up to the day he resigned from the credit union on Dec. 8, 2014, he allegedly made a fraudulent payment of $126,000 on the South County Baptist Church loan and then made a second fraudulent payment on the church loan for $54,000. He made these phony loan payments from another business loan.

Longust faces a prison sentence of up to 240 years, a fine of up to $45 million and  up to five years of supervised release and mandatory restitution, according to prosecutors.

His sentencing hearing is set for Sept. 6.

When contacted by CU Times Thursday, Scott declined to comment on Longust's guilty plea.

Longust's criminal scheme led to a civil lawsuit  filed in April 2015 by David Butz, a former NFL star, and Eugene Schill in St. Clair County Circuit Clerk's office in Belleville. They accused the credit union of consumer fraud and negligence involving millions of dollars.

Last month, an additional 21 businesses and individuals from Illinois and Missouri also filed civil lawsuits that alleged consumer fraud and negligence.

In addition to consumer fraud, Butz, Schill and 21 other individuals and businesses made a new allegation of negligent hiring against the credit union.  

The lawsuits claimed Longust had no or insufficient background or qualifications to work as a business lender at the time of his hiring. The lawsuits also claimed the former business banker received no or insufficient training in regard to federal and Illinois regulations governing commercial lending.

"The employer, Scott Credit Union, knew or should have known that Theodore Longust had a particular unfitness for the position so as to create a danger of harm to third persons, and in particular, the plaintiffs," Belleville, Ill.-based lawyer Grey Chatham Jr. wrote. He is representing Butz, Schill and the other plaintiffs.

In response to this new allegation, Chicago-based credit union lawyers James R. Branit and Thomas Jacobson argued that Butz and Schill failed to allege any facts that Longust was unqualified or that poor training led him to commit his alleged fraud.

"This allegation is conclusory because plaintiffs provide no facts as to why Longust was not qualified to be hired or what Scott Credit Union should have known of this fact when he was hired," Branit and Jacobson wrote in court documents.