The NCUA described a scene in April in which examiners confronted the former CEO of Jackson Area Federal Credit Union, who initially denied, then, in front of the NCUA examiners, allegedly confessed to defrauding the credit union out of millions of dollars for spending on expensive jewelry, handbags, two Teslas, two Mercedes and a host of other luxury items.
The more telling incident came nearly two years earlier when the Mississippi credit union's corporate credit union reported to the NCUA that the JAFCU CEO had wired $378,780 to Tiffany & Co., but concealed it in the credit union records as a payment to "Raymond James."
This is what is known in the trade as a "red flag" – something that might deserve more inspection, or perhaps a proper visit from regulators.
Instead, the matter was dropped after the CEO talked with NCUA examiners and closed her personal account at the credit union. In its place, she used her husband's account, a maneuver so cunning it went unnoticed for nearly two years.
This year, the NCUA set up the April 17 meeting only after it had been contacted again by the corporate credit union about $16.2 million in transactions completed through the husband's account since the beginning of 2025.
The NCUA conserved the credit union May 6 and filed its civil fraud suit against former President/CEO Leigh Bridges and her husband, Chad Bridges, May 14. The NCUA added Tina Funez, a former branch manager, to the suit June 15.
As of April, the NCUA estimated the loss at $95 million. Its assets, originally reported as $143.2 million as of March 31, were slashed by NCUA examiners to $71.4 million.
This was not the only red flag potentially missed by the NCUA in this case. And the red flags were much like those it missed in another large case involving fraud in 2013 at the former Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union, and yet another in 2010 at St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union, both of Cleveland, Ohio. Taupa Lithuanian cost the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund about $33 million while St. Paul Croatian cost it about $170 million.
A review by CU Times found these conditions, which were identified as red flags in previous cases, were also present with JAFCU:
- Cash on deposit (NCUA account 730B) to assets was elevated compared with others. At Taupa, it was 36% to 69% from January 2004 to March 2013, compared with 8% at peers. At JAFCU it was 31% to 65% from December 2016 to December 2025, compared with 5% to 8% for all credit unions, based on NCUA data pulled from Callahan's Peer Suite.
- Investments to assets (Account NV1058) was much lower compared with others. At Taupa Lithuanian, it was an average 9% from January 2004 through March 2013, compared with 26% for its peers. At JAFCU, it was zero to 9% from December 2016 to December 2025, compared with 17% to 18% for all credit unions.
- Delays between red flags popping up and the NCUA acting on them.
At St. Paul Croatian, the NCUA Inspector General's Material Loss Review, which is designed to find out why a failure occurred, found numerous red flags in exams dating back to at least 2004, but "examiners did not take exception to many issues until after the FBI and IRS met with NCUA staff in January 2010" and told the NCUA of their suspicion of criminal activity at the credit union.
At Taupa Lithuanian, the Material Loss Review found regulators failed to act on evidence of possible wrong-doing. "Red flags, such as excessive amounts of cash on deposit, the discovery of an unaccounted for bag of coins, an overdrawn employee account for an extended period, an overdrawn line of credit at the corporate credit union, and an evasive CEO, warranted expanded examination procedures."
At JAFCU, red flags were spotted in 2024 by its corporate credit union, Corporate America Credit Union (CACU), based near Birmingham, Ala.
The NCUA submitted a statement June 4 from Lauren Howle, Corporate America's chief strategy officer, to the NCUA's civil fraud case in federal court.
Howle said CACU first raised concerns to the NCUA in June 2024 after identifying 16 transactions involving JAFCU President/CEO Leigh Bridges totaling nearly $1.8 million between May 24, 2021 and June 3, 2024 that it considered "anomalous or unusual."
In one case, CACU's records showed Leigh Bridges originated a wire transfer for $378,780 to Tiffany & Co. on April 29, 2024. The JAFCU records that were provided by the NCUA to CACU showed that "Raymond James" was the beneficiary, but CACU's records showed the wire was actually to Tiffany & Co.
Later in 2024, NCUA examiners spoke with Leigh Bridges concerning the high volume of funds going through her JAFCU share accounts. "After the conversation with NCUA examiners, Leigh Bridges closed her share accounts with JAFCU." Only in April 2026 did the NCUA figure out that Leigh Bridges instead allegedly began to run high volumes of funds through the share accounts of her husband, Chad Bridges.
In April 2026, CACU identified 162 additional transactions that occurred and "that raised concerns" from Jan. 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026.
Leigh Bridges' salary at JAFCU was about $200,000 a year; her husband made about $100,000 working for a state agency. "Based on the information available to CACU, the source of funds to support this unusually high dollar spending was questionable," it said in its statement, which the NCUA filed June 4 in its suit against the Bridges.
NCUA officials visited JAFCU for the April 17 meeting that included two members of the credit union board and two NCUA examiners.
"JAFCU, including its board of directors, and the NCUA, including NCUA examiners, did not know of the falsity of Leigh Bridges' statements until such time as she admitted to such misrepresentations on April 17, 2026, when Leigh Bridges admitted to misappropriating JAFCU funds for her own personal benefit," the NCUA said in its civil complaint.
"Leigh Bridges admitted to misappropriating JAFCU funds for her own personal benefit and to using false entries to conceal such misappropriation," NCUA said.
She was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into alleged fraudulent activities.
The Taupa Lithuanian case was also similar to JAFCU in that both involved the credit union claiming it had more money on deposit with its corporate credit union than it actually had. JAFCU's original Call Report for the period ending March 31 claimed $86.2 million; NCUA examiners found $13.7 million, showing the prior management had claimed $72.5 million in phantom assets.
In both cases regulators, according to reports, failed to check directly with the corporate credit unions to confirm the amounts.
The NCUA regulates both natural person credit unions like JAFCU and corporate credit unions. In theory, the NCUA should have easy access to both reports and the balances should match.
Yet, a check by CU Times found that natural person credit unions reported balances with corporates that from 2021 to 2025 were 2% to 34% larger than the amounts reported by the corporates in aggregate.
The December reports from credit unions were aggregated from NCUA data via Callahan's Peer Suite based on NCUA account 730B1. Corporate credit union December balances were for 5310 report account numbers A5490A to A5490I.
The smallest deviation for those five years was $429 million (+2%) in 2022 and the biggest was $10.9 billion (+34%) in 2021. Last December, credit unions reported $4.7 billion (+13%) more than what the corporates reported.
The NCUA released St. Paul Croatian's Material Loss Review about five months after it was liquidated. Taupa Lithuanian's followed eight months after liquidation.
Contact Jim DuPlessis at Jim.DuPlessis@arc-network.com.
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