A credit union employee alerted police that a Texas publicofficial allegedly stole more than $35,000 to pay off ablackmailing dominatrix mistress.

Gregory Lueb, 56, a former Harris County first assistanttreasurer was charged with felony theft last week, according toHarris County prosecutors in Houston. He appeared in court onTuesday and did not enter a plea.

In September 2017, Rhonda White, a collections manager for the$162 million Harris County Federal Credit Union in Houston,reported a suspected credit card fraud scheme to the Harris CountySheriff's office, which launched an investigation.

Lueb, a credit union member, opened a credit card account withHCFCU in September 2016.

White reported to police that online payments were made toLueb's account, but that all of those payments were ultimatelyreturned without the credit union receiving any payment toward hisaccount.

White described the pattern of online payments — that were laterreturned — and cash advances while the account was still creditedwith the online payment amount, which allowed Lueb to obtain cashadvances of more than $35,000, according to a police investigator'sreport.

By December 2016, HCFCU closed Lueb's account with a balance of$42,183, which included interest and fees.

When Lueb was interviewed by police in early April, he said thathe needed help with a situation involving a woman named MistressCindy who he met through a bondage, discipline and sadomasochismwebsite.

According to police, Lueb said he had a relationship with Cindy.She began demanding money from him or else she would tell hiswife.

Lueb told police that the blackmail was what led him to open theHCFCU credit card account from which he made the cash withdrawals.He also said Mistress Cindy would tell him when a payment had beenmade so that he could take another cash advance against the creditaccount in order to wire the funds as she directed, according tothe police report.

Police said they confirmed Lueb's blackmail claims afterreviewing text messages between him and Mistress Cindy who demandedthat Lueb send her money.

Police obtained bank account information used to make thereturned online payments but determined that Lueb was not theaccount holder for any of the payment accounts. Police interviewedtwo persons from out of state whose bank accounts were used to makethe returned online payments to Lueb's credit account, but theydenied knowing him or giving him authorization to use their fundsto pay his credit card.

Bank records show that on more than eight occasions an onlinepayment was made to Lueb's credit account. Once the payment wasreceived, the corresponding amount of credit would be madeavailable for use on the account.

After the additional credit was made available, a cashwithdrawal was made. And after the withdrawals were made, thepayments to the account were reserved, according to police.

Lueb's trial is set for May.