Financial Fraud: Edward Martin Rostohar Charged With Bank Fraud And Identity Theft From Federal Credit Union

<h2>Credit Union Manager Who Allegedly Embezzled &dollar;40 Million from His Employer Faces Bank Fraud&comma; Identity Theft Charges<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>LOS ANGELES – A long-time manager at CBS Employees Federal Credit Union is in federal custody on a criminal complaint alleging he embezzled &dollar;40 million from his employer over two decades and spent the money on gambling&comma; expensive cars and watches&comma; and travel by private jet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Edward Martin Rostohar&comma; 62&comma; of Studio City&comma; has been charged with two felony counts&colon; bank fraud and aggravated identity theft&period; He was arrested on March 12 and has been ordered detained as both a flight risk and an economic danger to the community&period; Rostohar’s arraignment is scheduled for April 18&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charges against Rostohar were made in conjunction with today’s announcement by the National Credit Union Administration &lpar;NCUA&rpar;&comma; a federal agency that regulates credit unions&comma; that it has liquidated CBS Employees Federal Credit Union and discontinued its operations after determining CBS Employees was insolvent with no prospect of restoring viable operations on its own&period; University Credit Union&comma; located in Westwood&comma; immediately assumed CBS Employees’ assets&comma; loans&comma; and all member shares&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint&comma; beginning before 2000 and continuing until this month&comma; Rostohar used his position as a manager at the credit union&comma; a federally insured <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;amp&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"925">financial<&sol;a> institution&comma; to make online payments from the credit union to himself or by forging the signature of another credit union employee on checks made payable to himself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The alleged scheme was exposed beginning on March 6 when a credit union employee found a &dollar;35&comma;000 check made payable to Rostohar&comma; and the check did not include the reason for the high dollar amount&comma; according to court documents&period; The employee conducted an audit of the credit union checks issued since January 2018 and discovered &dollar;3&comma;775&comma;000 in checks made payable to Rostohar and which contained the forged signature of another employee without the employee’s knowledge or consent&period; On March 12&comma; the credit union informed Rostohar that he had been suspended from his job after an internal investigation uncovered &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;irregularities in the performance of your job duties&comma;” according to court documents&period; Later that day&comma; Rostohar’s wife called 911 and told the dispatcher that her husband had stolen money from work and was leaving the country&comma; court papers state&period; Rostohar was taken into custody and admitted that he stole money from the credit union for 20 years&comma; beginning by paying the monthly balances on his personal credit cards with funds from the credit union’s online accounts or by forging checks&comma; and later by forging his coworker’s signature on credit union checks and depositing them into his personal accounts&comma; court papers state&period; Rostohar allegedly estimated he stole &dollar;40 million from the credit union&period; An NCUA examination up to February 28 revealed a potential loss to the credit union of &dollar;40&comma;541&comma;130&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prior to his 30 years of employment at the CBS Employees credit union&comma; Rostohar was an examiner at NCUA&comma; court documents state&period; Rostohar allegedly told law enforcement that this background gave him knowledge of what NCUA examiners look for when examining credit unions and allowed him to avoid detection&comma; the affidavit states&period; Rostohar allegedly said he gambled away much of the money and spent the rest on traveling by private jet&comma; buying expensive watches&comma; and giving his wife a weekly allowance of &dollar;5&comma;000&period; He also said he purchased two cars – a Porsche and a Tesla – with money he stole from the credit union&comma; court papers state&period; Rostohar allegedly also admitted to starting a business in Reno&comma; Nevada in December 2018&comma; and he wrote tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of checks to himself to cover the business’s cost as well as to pay a &dollar;5&comma;000 monthly <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;mortgage&sol;amp&sol;" title&equals;"mortgage" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"136">mortgage<&sol;a> on a home in Reno he recently purchased&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If convicted on both charges&comma; Rostohar faces a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison and a &dollar;1 million fine on the bank fraud count and a mandatory consecutive term of two years in federal prison on the aggravated identity theft count&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime&period; Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-cdca&sol;pr&sol;credit-union-manager-who-allegedly-embezzled-40-million-his-employer-faces-bank-fraud">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Financial Fraud