Former Minnesota Credit Union Exec Sentenced To 21 Months In Embezzlement Case

Richard Allen Lange, 52, of Columbia Heights, Minnesota and the former president of First Community Credit Union also in Columbia Heights, was sentenced Thursday to 21 months in prison plus restitution of $249,000 for embezzling from the financial institution. Lange plead guilty to embezzling just $11,000 in October 2007, but is believed by the Board of the credit union to have taken at least $126,000 when it fired him in December 2004 when the issue came to light. Prosecutors believe his theft was more like $300,000. Lange's guilty plea was on one count of "embezzlement by a credit union employee" and one count of filing a false income tax return. Lange apparently took advantage of accounts within the credit union's auto fleet sales union and transferred funds to his own and his wife's accounts, according to reports. The credit union is in deep financial straights, in part due to Lange's thefts.

Read the story here, here and here.

Read the DOJ's press release at the time of Lange's guilty plea here.