PORTLAND, Maine–The former manager of Portland Police FCU, a former police officer himself, has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $400,000 from the credit union.
John C. Barry, 69, pleaded guilty to charges of embezzlement and making false entries in the credit union’s records and now faces up to 30 years in prison.
Barry managed the 900-member credit union that served the Portland Police Department and the Cumberland Sheriff’s Office, and between 2009 and 2013 he transferred more than $400,000 into his and family members’ accounts for their personal use, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II. To cover his tracks, Barry filed false 5300 Call Reports with NCUA.
Barry was not alone in embezzling from the former Portland Police FCU. The CU’s former CFO, William J. Murphy, 75, pleaded guilty in October to making false entries in the credit union records.
In May of this year Murphy told the FBI he had falsified records in order to keep the CU’s capital ratio from falling below 4%, saying he knew NCUA would shut it down as a result.
“At some point, the defendant told the bank’s manager that the PPDFCU’s net worth was at 4%. In an effort to increase the net worth, the manager moved money out of certain members’ accounts at the end of the month and moved the money back at the beginning of the next month,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark in a prosecution document. “The defendant knew that he was submitting false information to the NCUA in the call reports, but was doing it to keep the PPDFCU afloat. He also knew that the call reports were submitted under oath, and said: ‘we all make mistakes.'”
NCUA uncovered the fraud during a November 2013 audit.
Barry has been allowed to remain free from custody on his own recognizance.
Portland Police FCU was merged into TruChoice FCU in 2014.