For Sandra K. Santay the Lakeside Federal Credit Union she led for 37 years eventually became the source to feed her gambling addiction. These actions led to the 2015 liquidation of the Hammond, Ind.-based financial cooperative and a two-year federal prison sentence for Santay. She was ordered to pay restitution of $491,169 after admitting to stealing the funds from the credit union through a check-kiting scheme from 2012 to 2015. She was sentenced in May 2018.

Former Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Silva was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Oct. 2019 for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a New York credit union to pay for Caribbean cruises and monthly Amazon purchases. She was ordered to pay $465,172 in restitution, which Silva stole from the $28.8 million Winthrop University Employees Federal Credit Union in Mineola, N.Y. Between March 2011 and June 2018, Silva transferred the stolen money from WUEFCU's operating accounts to accounts in her name and in the names of family members.

Merrideth Christina McMillian, a former credit union executive was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison in August 2019 for stealing more than $300,000 from a Mississippi credit union. She used her grandmother's estate to commit the theft. McMillian was ordered to pay $376,152 in restitution. The former vice president of operations for the $212 million Singing River Federal Credit Union in Moss Point took out fraudulent loans from Sept. 2015 to Sept. 2018.

Samuel Davalos Jr., a former teller for the $527 million MyPoint Credit Union in San Diego, formerly Point Loma CU, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in Nov. 2019 for embezzling $117,305 from the accounts of elderly members. From July 2017 to March 2019, Davalos used his access to member accounts to process unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts. He recruited three others to assist with his scheme by depositing checks drawn on his victims' accounts. Davalos admitted that he targeted older credit union members because he believed them less likely to notice the fraud.

Brianna Bates Gurley, a former teller for $289 million AOD Federal Credit Union in Oxford, Ala., was sentenced to one month in federal prison in Sept. 2018 for embezzling more than $80,000 over three years. In 2017, AOD officials noticed that some deposits being counted from its Oxford branch ATM did not match those with the log that listed the deposits in the ATM. Moreover, it was discovered that money was missing from the credit union. AOD officials hired an auditor who determined Gurley embezzled the funds from Jan. 2014 to July 2017. She was ordered to pay $88,432 in restitution.

Also sentenced to just one month in federal prison in July 2019 was Briege Gish, a former employee of the $652 million Notre Dame Federal Credit Union in Notre Dame, Ind., for stealing more than $45,000 in her grandmother's name. In addition to her prison sentence, Gish was sentenced to 11 months of home confinement. She was also ordered to pay $45,475 in restitution.

A second former Notre Dame FCU employee, Casey Harper, was sentenced to 18 months of probation on a theft charge in May 2019, according to Indiana state court records. He was ordered to pay restitution of $4,350. In exchange for a $1,200 kickback fee, Harper allegedly offered members a $5,000 loan, according to a local media report.

Phillip Andree Williams Jr. a former employees of the $2 billion Advia Credit Union in Parchment, Mich., was sentenced to five years' probation after pleading guilty to embezzlement in Sept. 2017. He was ordered to pay restitution of $28,975, according records available online of Michigan's third judicial circuit court for Wayne County.

A second former Advia Credit Union employee, Aisha Shuri Koehler, was sentenced for embezzlement in Nov. 2019 in a Michigan state court for the ninth judicial circuit court for Kalamazoo County. Public records for that court were not available online, and the NCUA's prohibition notice did not include information as to Koehler's position with the credit union, her sentence or how much money was allegedly stolen from the Michigan credit union.

According to the NCUA's consent order Nicole Obermeyer, a former employee of the $8.2 million EM Federal Credit Union in Mesa, Ariz., allegedly generated and cashed checks on members' accounts without authorization and used the cash for her own purposes. The NCUA did not specify what position Obermeyer held at the credit union, how much money was involved or whether she paid restitution. She did not admit or deny the NCUA's allegations.