Former Credit Union Employee Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling Nearly $2.5 Million

DES MOINES, IA – On November 15, 2016, Linda Lee Clark, 68, of Corydon, Iowa, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger to 78 months in prison for embezzlement by a credit union employee, announced United States Attorney Kevin E. VanderSchel. Clark was ordered to serve five years of supervised release following her imprisonment and to pay $2,494,809.33 in restitution.

On July 15, 2016, Clark pled guilty to a United States Attorney’s Information charging her with embezzlement by a credit union employee. Clark admitted to embezzling approximately $2,494,809 of funds from the SCICAP Credit Union in Chariton, Iowa, from the time she began working there as a bookkeeper in 1978 until she resigned in August 2015. Clark redirected account holders’ deposits into her own personal account and the accounts of her children; and initiated unauthorized withdrawals of funds from member accounts into her own personal account and the accounts of her children. Clark concealed the embezzlement by maintaining two sets of accounting records on the Credit Union’s data processing system. As a result of Clark’s embezzlement, the Credit Union became insolvent and was forced into liquidation.

This matter was investigated by the National Credit Union Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.