The Municipal Credit Union serves state and federal employees as well as health care workers in the NYC area. When the towers collapsed on 9/11, the computers that linked to the NYCE (New York Cash Exchange) system went down as well. Instead of shutting down their ATM access, MCU decided to keep going, as a service to their members. Unfortunately, some people took advantage of that, ripping off the MCU to the tune of $15 million.
Now, the people that ignored offers to make restitution, including loans with deferred payments are being arrested. The worst case mentioned in the article follows:
One man, an employee of the Housing Authority, never had an end-of-the-month balance that exceeded $130, prosecutors said. "Nevertheless, he made 53 A.T.M. withdrawals ranging from $20 to $300 each, and charged 101 Visa purchases using his M.C.U. A.T.M. card between September 19th and October 22nd," according to Mr. Morgenthau's press release.
It continued: "The purchases were at stores including Foot Locker, Jimmy Jazz, Joy Joy Jewelry, Bronx BBQ, Hot Booz Liquor and the 216th Street motel."
Mr. Morgenthau said word of the glitch allowing the withdrawals was probably spread among friends in the various unions.
The man's account balance was a negative $10,378 by the end of October, prosecutors said.
Even though the credit union's computers were cut off from the New York Cash Exchange until early November, both organizations were able to keep track of how much money was withdrawn and from which accounts, officials said.
"There were a lot of ways to trace it," Mr. Siciliano said.
And so they did.
