HOUSTON - Shawn Nelson, 39, of Houston and a former vice-president at Members Choice Credit Union (MCCU), has been ordered to serve more than three years in prison for embezzling approximately $340,000 from the bank, announced United States Kenneth Magidson. Nelson entered a guilty plea on June 27, 2013.
Today, U.S. District Court Judge Keith P. Ellison, who accepted the guilty plea, handed Nelson a 37-month sentence. In handing down the sentence, Judge Ellison described Nelson’s misconduct as “grievous" and further ordered him to pay restitution of $340,000 - the amount Nelson stole from MCCU over a nine-year period. Following completion of his prison term, Nelson will be on supervised release for three years.
As part of his guilty plea, Nelson admitted he was a vice-president of Lending at MCCU. From 2001 through 2010, Nelson opened loan accounts in the names of his friends and family members, without their authorization. He then withdrew money from these accounts, again without their authorization. By the time the fraud was discovered, Nelson had stolen about $340,000 from the credit union.
Nelson was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prison facility to be determined in the near future.
U.S. Secret Service investigated. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Sharad S. Khandelwal, while AUSA Kristine Rollinson is handling forfeiture matters.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
