Admitted $40 million CU embezzler faces September sentencing

Former California credit union CEO pleads guilty to bank fraud in federal court Monday.

Edward Rostohar, 62, the former president/CEO of the $21 million CBS Employees Federal Credit Union, is scheduled to be sentenced in September after he pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

In a plea deal he signed with federal prosecutors on May 10, Rostohar admitted to stealing more than $40 million from the Studio City, Calif. credit union over two decades, one of the industry’s largest embezzlements in recent years.

The former executive also agreed to forfeit millions of dollars in assets and properties in California, Nevada and Mexico that he purchased with the stolen credit union funds.

Before 2000 and continuing through March 2019, he falsified records to make it appear that the credit union was profitable when in fact it was losing millions. Rostohar told investigators he managed to conceal his fraud because he had an insider’s knowledge as a trained accountant and as a former NCUA examiner.

 

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