Credit Union Lending Manager Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $840K

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Patricia M. Ferrick, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that PAMELA MALLORY, 42, of Enfield, waived her right to indictment and pleaded guilty today in Hartford federal court to embezzling more than $840,000 from her employer, 360 Federal Credit Union.

According to court documents and statements made in court, MALLORY was employed as the lending manager of Windsor Locks-based 360 Federal Credit Union.  In her position, MALLORY had access to loan files and authorized loans, including home equity lines of credit (“HELOCs”).  From 2009 through 2016, MALLORY opened five different HELOCs in the name of a credit union member and increased the credit limit of those HELOCs on at least 15 occasions, all without the knowledge or consent of the credit union member.  Initially, MALLORY perpetrated this scheme by opening subsequent HELOCs to pay off earlier, smaller HELOCs.  Later in the scheme, rather than opening new HELOCs, she simply increased the credit limits on two of the fraudulent HELOCs to support her spending.

In order to evade detection, MALLORY made minimum, interest-only payments on the HELOCs from her own checking account.

When 360 Federal Credit Union discovered the scheme in January 2016, the credit union member’s property, which is worth less than $150,000, supported two HELOCs, each with credit limits of $417,000, that MALLORY had fully drawn down.

In total, MALLORY stole approximately $840,378.28 from 360 Federal Credit Union and used the proceeds of the scheme to pay her own creditors.

MALLORY pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement by a credit union employee, a charge that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years.  She is scheduled to be sentenced on August 17, 2016, and is released on a $100,000 bond.

This matter is being investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Pierpont, Jr.