Ex-credit union head gets 26 months in prison

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

A former credit union president whose investment in a race track turned out to be an international scam -- and cost a customer $500,000 -- was sentenced to 26 months in prison Wednesday.

Joyce Judy, 57, pleaded guilty to a single count of bank fraud in August, acknowledging she promised to make a safe investment but instead lost it all.

Judy ran the Arkansas Employees Federal Credit Union until being fired in April. She apologized to U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes, the credit union's board of directors and her co-workers, according to Arkansas Business (http://bit.ly/t8D9kK).

"I want to make it up," Judy told Judge Holmes while pleading to remain free. "I want to work and pay back this debt."

According to prosecutors, Judy in late 2009 persuaded a customer to invest in what she said was a certificate of deposit. She then pooled the client's money with $500,000 of her own and put the money toward the "Iowa Speedway." Her business partner wired the money overseas without her permission and it was gone for good, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyer Erin Cassinelli said Judy and her husband were debt-free until Judy decided to make an investment that turned out to be a scam. She and Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Whatley said Judy was a victim, too, and Whatley told Holmes that Judy had cooperated with investigations.

"But making bad decisions on her own finances is one thing. Taking someone else's money for her own benefit is another," Whatley told the judge.

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Information from: Arkansas Business, http://www.arkansasbusiness.com