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Former employees whose fraud caused more than $1.7 million in losses at three credit unions have been permanently barred from working at any federally insured financial institution, the NCUA announced last week.
Rita Hartman, 71, former president/CEO of the $6.5 million Muddy River Credit Union in Atchison, Kan., was sentenced in October to 63 months in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Holly L. Teeter in Kansas City also ordered Hartman to pay $778,361 in restitution.
From 2007 to January 2021, she fraudulently credited her own and family members’ Muddy River Credit Union (MRCU) accounts without depositing any funds, amounting to $381,434. She also stole $346,473 in cash and fraudulently reduced family members’ loan obligations by $116,254 when no payments were made.
Using her CEO position to make false entries in MRCU’s records, Hartman manually kept the general ledger on paper, which enabled her to conceal the embezzlement. The theft depleted MRCU’s capital and made it insolvent, forcing a 2021 merger into the $206 million Frontier Federal Credit Union in Leavenworth.
Hartman is serving her sentence in a medium-security federal prison in Pekin, Ill., according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
In a separate case, the NCUA alleged that Evelyn Bittar, former operations manager at the $13.9 million Transfiguration Parish Federal Credit Union in Brooklyn, N.Y., fraudulently prepared loan applications and transferred funds between member accounts from February 2012 to December 2022.
An internal review revealed losses exceeding $720,000. Bittar's employment ended in May 2023. The NCUA’s prohibition order did not disclose how the fraud was detected or whether restitution has been made.
In another case, Teresa Margiotta, a former senior support services specialist at the $4.3 billion Peak Credit Union in Lacey, Wash., was alleged to have issued checks from dormant member accounts, voided them and reissued them for personal use between August 2023 and February 2025.
The NCUA alleged Margiotta’s actions caused losses exceeding $230,000. Like in Bittar’s case, the prohibition order did not specify how the fraud was uncovered or whether Margiotta has made or will make restitution.
Peter Strozniak can be reached at peter.strozniak@arc-network.com.
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