Lawsuit filed after CEO’s death

A wrongful termination lawsuit describes details of alleged fraud, conflicts of interest and other violations of federal regulations.

Three hours after County Educators Federal Credit Union President/CEO Glenn South died at a New York City hospital on March 30, 2017, someone allegedly deleted documents from the executive’s desktop computer in his Roselle Park, N.J., office.

When this allegation surfaced in November 2017, Layne Huttenberger, who was appointed the new CEO just three months earlier, hired a law firm to investigate. He also informed NCUA Examiner Keith Olsen about the security breach.

Judy Pinho, who was then CEFCU’s COO and previously served as South’s administrative assistant, made this accusation and alleged someone submitted forged beneficiary documents after South’s death that resulted in benefits being paid to individuals who were not legally entitled to the possible payments of millions of dollars. That led Huttenberger to hire another law firm to look into Pinho’s allegations on the morning of Friday, Dec. 1.

By that afternoon, Huttenberger was fired and Pinho was named interim CEO.

 

continue reading »