A federal appeals court Thursday upheld the six and half-year prison sentence of a former credit union CEO who embezzled nearly $2 million from a Michigan credit union.

Kathryn Sue Simmerman, the former manager of the $17.3 million Shoreline Federal Credit Union, was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Holmes Bell in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Jan. 4, 2016. He also ordered her to pay $1.9 million in restitution.

Bell gave Simmerman only one year less than what prosecutors requested based on federal sentencing guidelines. She pleaded guilty in July 2015 to embezzlement and structuring transactions to evade reporting the credit union's financials that nearly destroyed the Norton Shores, Mich.-based cooperative.

Just three days after the former CEO was sentenced, she filed an appeal based on whether the district court's sentence was in error because of its assessed enhancements. Set by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, enhancements are facts and circumstances that a judge can use to increase a defendant's prison sentence.

In Simmerman's case, the enhancements were the use of sophisticated means to carry out and conceal the embezzlement, jeopardizing the soundness of a financial institution and abuse of a position of trust.

“Because the (Michigan) district court did not clearly err when it assessed the sentencing enhancements, we affirm the district court's decision,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio, wrote in its ruling.

In its 11-page ruling, the Appeals Court said that the amount of money Simmerman embezzled represented 86% of the earnings that Shoreline FCU accumulated over its entire 62-year history.

“The (Michigan) district court noted that Shoreline was lucky that there were not any large demands on Shoreline before it recovered on its fidelity bond since Shoreline likely would not be able to meet the demand given Simmerman's embezzlement,” the Appeals Court wrote. “This was not a clearly erroneous conclusion given the amount of money that Simmerman embezzled compared to the size of the credit union.”

Shoreline FCU posted a net worth of 8.52% at the end of 2016, down from 13.05% at the end of 2012, according to NCUA financial performance reports. The credit union's ROAA was -0.24% in December 2016, compared to -0.02% in December 2012.

Instant Insights /

Appeals Court Upholds Sentence of Former Michigan CU CEO

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