KINGWOOD — A former loan officer with WEPCO Federal Credit Union is charged with embezzling $157,950.
Bond was set at $15,000 for Nicole K. Moore, 37, of Elk Garden. She worked at the institution’s Kingwood office.
According to a criminal complaint by Kingwood Officer G.M. McNemar, the embezzlement occurred between Nov. 29, 2017, and Sept. 5 this year.
Officer McNemar said in the criminal complaint that Moore said she took the money because she was being blackmailed by an ex-boyfriend.
Moore took the money from 60 different members by doing cash advances on over 81 different loans, according to the complaint.
“In that time frame Moore completed 198 transactions on members accounts without them knowing,” the officer wrote.
Police said Moore admitted to changing people’s statements from paper to electronic, then turning off the notifications on the electronic statements, “so members would not notice a change in their principal balance.”
On Sept. 9, a credit union member called WEPCO to check her principal balance and noticed it was higher than it was when she checked previously. She told the credit union, and its compliance officer began an investigation.
The officer found 10 different cash advances on the woman’s account between Dec. 17, 2018, and Aug. 4, all completed by Moore.
On Sept. 12, the credit union president contacted Preston 911 and asked to speak to Kingwood Police. McNemar spoke to the WEPCO officials on a conference call, during which they laid out the results of their investigation and said they planned to fire Moore on Sept. 14.
Officer McNemar came to the Kingwood WEPCO branch on Sept. 14 and, after Moore was terminated, read Moore her rights and spoke with her.
“Moore was unaware of exactly how many loans she had manipulated nor how much money she had taken,” according to the complaint.
Moore is seen on video Sept. 5 at the WEPCO ATM taking money from the ex-boyfriend’s mother’s account and putting it into her personal account. Prior to using the ATM, Moore had put $1,600 into the account, according to the complaint.
Those were the last transactions she made before being terminated.
TWEET@DominionPostWV
