NY fraud prosecution leads to $5.4M recovery for NCUA

A fraud prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Northern District of New York has resulted in the National Credit Union Administration receiving a restitution of almost $5.4 million.

The prosecution followed the 2011 liquidation of BCT FCU, Binghamton, N.Y., with $41.3 million in assets, which was purchased by $3.2 billion-asset Visions FCU, Endicott, N.Y.

The recovery followed the seizure of bank accounts and property of Laura Conarton and her son, Scott Lonzinski, both from Pennsylvania. The two provided false documents to BCT FCU to obtain approximately $14 million in loans, which BCT was required to write off.

“An alert NCUA examiner uncovered this fraud, and diligent work by the U.S. Attorney’s office and NCUA’s Asset Management and Assistance Center made this recovery possible,” NCUA Chair Debbie Matz said. “None of BCT’s former members suffered losses on their insured shares.”

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