In May 2018, the NCUA approved the merger of W.N.M.H. Credit Union in Winfield because of its poor financial condition. It was consolidated into the $65.3 million Panhandle Federal Credit Union in Wellington, Kan. At the end of the first quarter in 2018, W.N.M.H. Credit Union posted $1,090,641 in assets and a net income loss of $327,079, according to NCUA financial performance reports.

Even though federal prosecutors called Ricardo Franco Arceo's bank fraud "abhorrent and appalling" and sought a prison sentence of 11 months, a federal judge in New Mexico sentenced Arceo, 34, to just one day in jail on July 7 after he pleaded guilty to eight felony counts of bank fraud and one felony count of theft by a credit union employee, according to federal court documents.

From 2014 to 2017, Arceo worked as an electronic funds transfer officer at the call branch in El Paso, Texas for the $380 million White Sands Federal Credit Union in Las Cruces, N.M. His responsibilities included the processing of member requests for replacement debit cards, destroying debit cards returned as undeliverable and reviewing obituaries to investigate whether the deceased individuals were WSFCU members.

On numerous occasions, he used his access to the credit union's computer network in New Mexico to enter fraudulent orders for debit cards from at least eight WSFCU members and had the cards mailed to his home address. Arceo's decision to review death notices and subsequently target the accounts of deceased members was "particularly egregious," prosecutors said in court documents. He also acknowledged that many of the WSFCU members he stole from were elderly and were the surviving spouse of a member who passed away.

He also fraudulently obtained debit cards from a secure vault where they were held after being returned in the mail as undeliverable. Although the cards were to be destroyed, Arceo stole at least five of them from the vault and signed a log document indicating the cards had been destroyed, according to court records. He used those cards to access funds in members' accounts.

Ultimately, Arceo stole more than $33,000 from accounts of members who lived in New Mexico. Prosecutors argued in their sentencing memo that a sentence below 11 months would not reflect the seriousness of Arceo's crime, promote respect for the law, provide just punishment or adequate deterrence, or protect the public from further crimes by Arceo.

After serving one day in jail, Senior U.S District Court Judge Robert C. Brack in Las Cruces also ordered Arceo to five years of supervised release and to pay $33,800 in restitution to WSFCU.