CU Times turned its popular “Inside the PRO Studio” webcast into a credit union “true crime” session this month, using real fraud cases to spotlight persistent vulnerabilities across the movement.
Host and CU Times Editor-in-Chief Michael Ogden told PRO members the newsroom’s crime and fraud coverage is “as sexy as credit union news gets,” but stressed the goal is education, not sensationalism. “The truth is the truth,” he said, noting former defendants have asked the publication to take stories down when they struggle to find jobs after serving time.
Senior Reporter Peter Strozniak, who has covered hundreds of embezzlement and fraud cases, walked viewers through his methodical approach: reading indictments line by line, digging into detailed criminal complaints, and calling accused executives for comment even before charges are filed. “These are allegations,” he said. “We’re not the judges.”
Executive Editor Natasha Chilingerian said CU Times focuses on cases that reveal broader lessons: long-running internal embezzlements, multimillion-dollar schemes, bizarre ATM thefts involving forklifts, and elaborate member scams such as the Navy Federal parking lot scheme. “Half of it is a great story,” she said, “and half is to help credit unions know what to look for.”
Strozniak said the same red flags recur: weak supervisory committees, poor segregation of duties, overreliance on one trusted employee or vendor, and boards that ignore examiner warnings. In an era of fewer NCUA examiners and declining federal white-collar prosecutions, he and Chilingerian urged leaders to embrace a simple mantra: trust, but verify.
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