On Wednesday, Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez announced that a former employee with the Electrical Workers 527 Federal Credit Union had entered a guilty plea to bank fraud. 60-year-old Susan Margaret Garza of Galveston admitted that she had issued a credit union check on September 9, 2001. She debited the amount from a member’s account without their permission. The check was made payable to her landlord’s daughter.
Garza had worked at the Electrical Workers 527 Federal Credit Union in Texas City from February of 1996 to April 24, 2013. During that time, the defendant concocted a plan to defraud the credit union by making unauthorized withdrawals from members’ accounts. The defendant also made unauthorized loans in the names of some credit union members.
Today, U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks accepted the guilty plea and subsequently set Garza’s sentencing date for October 25, 2017. Garza has been permitted to remain out on bond, until the sentencing hearing. The defendant faces maximum of 30 years in prison and a maximum $1 million fine.
